You know, I don't get it. Why do people always have to pull the race card? Everything isn't always about racism! Whenever a story hits the front page and there are two people who oppose each other and they happen to be of different races someone always screams: Racism!!! And then everyone jumps on the bandwagon and all of a sudden the issue is forgotten because the racism trump card has taken over. It's stupid. I think racism could die if we'd just let it die.
Some people can't let go of their roots. Look at the Mormons. Almost two hundred years ago the Mormons got persecuted pretty badly. People yelled at them, spit on them, beat them, imprisoned them, stole their lands and their homes, and killed them. That's pretty horrible. However, you'll notice I said "them". I'm a Mormon, but I said them because it never happened to me! I have not ever experienced any real persecution and not very many Mormons alive today have experienced it. And yet we all still have this persecution complex that we can't seem to let go. Oh, everyone treats us so bad because we're Mormons!! No they don't! They may make fun of us and not agree with us and I've heard the occasional derogatory comment, but so what? I think I don't need to worry about that.
The same goes for racism. Yes, our history is full of racism. Just about every ethnicity was the target of hate crimes at one time or another in this country. They've been despised, rejected, mistreated, and subjected to every inhumane crime imaginable. But you know what? That doesn't happen very often anymore. Very rarely do we hear about this sort of hate crime occurring and when it does there is a great showing of public outrage. As a society we don't tolerate racism anymore. That period is over and done with, hopefully forever. Yes, acts of racism will occur. You'll never get rid of all the ignorant jerks out there, but as a whole I think we're doing pretty good. So I think people need to get off their high horse and quit pointing the finger at everyone who disagrees with something someone of another race says.
I am a white man. I've always been a white man. I don't know what it's like to be Asian or Black. I'd give it a shot for awhile if I could, but I can't. I'll try and explain how I feel about this situation. I have to be extremely careful in public with anything I say. I've been accused of a lot things because of a flippant comment every now and then. I don't mean anything by it, but I've seen a tiny phrase taken and manipulated so that it looks like I'm some horrible racist or chauvinist. I'm not, but people are very quick to believe I am because I'm a white man. This is getting out of hand. Pretty soon I won't be able to speak or look at someone of another ethnicity without being called a racist. Let me give a few examples:
Rep. Joe Wilson shouted out during President Obama's speech "You lie!" Now that was wrong. It was stupid, irritating, discourteous, and bad-mannered. You don't shout out during anyone's speech. That's just rude. You do not shout at the president of the United States. I do not believe, however, that this was racially motivated. If you haven't noticed, we've been having these outbursts all over the country in town hall meetings when this subject has come up. I'd like to say that this is ridiculous. Shouting and interrupting never gets anything resolved. It was an embarrassment to our democratic system. This was just one more out of place outburst by some idiot and that should be an end to it. It wasn't racist.
I've heard from a number of sources that the opposition to President Obama's healthcare reform is racially motivated. Once again, that's not true. Usually the simplest explanation is correct one. People are opposed to the president's healthcare plan because they don't like the president's healthcare plan! That's all there is to it, so instead of talking about how racist everyone is maybe we should look at this healthcare plan and see why everyone hates it. We elected the man! If we didn't want a black president we wouldn't have elected a black president! I don't believe we'd let racism blind us to the issue at hand after just ignoring racism and electing him.
There have been a number of protests throughout the country. In those protests President Obama has been portrayed negatively. A few examples are his portrayal as Hitler and as a witch doctor. Oh, people were quick to shout racism on those. Guess what? Every president has been caricatured and protested and ridiculed! People will always do that to anyone! It's not because of his race! President Obama isn't the first to be depicted as Hitler and he certainly won't be the last. President Bush was often portrayed as a monkey. I bet the racemongers would have jumped on that pretty quick if President Bush had been black. They would have been shouting racist from coast to coast. Let's look at our own history and see that clever, angry artists (and sometimes not so clever ones) will take any aspect, especially physical aspects, and make a president look like a fool. It's not racism.
Now, let me show how a few things have been created which are ok for the minority, but if the majority tried it they would be impaled with a barrage of criticsm:
Black Entertainment Television-can you see a White Entertainment Television being created? The outrage would be in the news for months.
Black Entertainment News
Chocolate News-Hey! Let's make fun of white people! This show was recently cancelled and people are saying it's because the nation isn't ready for black people to comment on the news while having a black president. Are you serious? Maybe the show was offensive or maybe it just plain sucked.
Miss Black America Pageant-Ok, so white people are excluded. That sounds pretty racist to me. There's no Miss White America Pageant. Again, it would be shut down immediately.
In Living Color-a tv show. I watched quite a few episodes and they loved to make fun of white people. Jim Carrey was on the cast and seemed to be quite the outsider although he did a pretty good job of playing the pathetic white man.
The Resolution to Apologize for Slavery-Get over it! No living person was a slave. No living person was a slave owner. They've all died and may they rest in peace or in Hell as they deserve. I had nothing to do with it. I'm not apologizing for anything. And look at it this way. Africa is in shambles. AIDS is rampant. I recently heard a statistic that 70% of the people on the continent are HIV positive. That may be high, but still, it's crazy. Social order is existant in only a handful of countries. Civil war and tribal wars rage unchecked and genocide is a constant goal of many military groups. It's horrible what happened to your ancestors, but you are lucky that they were dragged over to this country because you live in the land of opportunity. That may sound harsh, but it's true. So seriously, get over the slavery thing.
Black Planet the "largest black community online"-Really? Is that necessary? Way to make me feel like I don't belong. That only hurts my feelings a little bit.
Do you see what I'm getting at? If anything these organizations and communities are keeping racism on the front of our minds, which in turn is keeping racism alive because they are screaming out that they are different because of the color of their skin. I think as a country we should let racism die. I'm tired of being told I don't understand because I'm white. I'm tired of being afraid to speak or disagree with another ethnicity for fear of being called a racist. Let it go. If someone actually does something racist then let's call them out and deal with it, but stop yelling racist every two minutes.
