Well, after reading a post over at Gdad's blog cranialhyperossification.blogspot.com I've decided to go on a little rant about all things racist/sexist/intolerant.
I for one, don't consider myself racist, or at least not "too" racist because everyone really IS a little bit racist according to Avenue Q, but there are some things that just irk me.
1. African-Americans calling themselves "Niggas"
When the hell did this become so darn appropriate? The term is "Nigger" Oh my, yes I just typed it, I must be racist. This word...commonly known as the "N" word, is a real word and has a real meaning just as any other word of course, it means by the way, in short, "Dirty Person" which then came to be known as anyone who was simply dark skinned, it has been used by multiple authors in non-derogatory forms referring to much more than just blacks but has almost always been taken (as of recently) as offensive.
My question to this whole subject here on rant number one, is that...if it's so damned offensive, why do you continue to say it, or "change" it, so that it's somehow appropriate for you, the fact is they're not changing it at all, "dirty people", are dirty people no matter how light or dark their skin and no matter how you might pronounce it, it's still the same word. Ever heard of the term "white trash"? It's not like intelligent people go around embracing that term saying "Ooh yeah, I'm white trash." then why in the world are african-americans allowing the "Ooh yeah, what's up my nigga." continue? Talk about your double-standards...
2. Equal Rights, specifically Gays/Lesbians and people with different preferences, be it sexual or otherwise.
Why oh why has it come to this? Why is it that America is now turning back into what we left so long ago to come here in 1492? Is history really doomed to repeat itself, or are people going to wake up to the fact that we left to "worship how we wished" only to end up where we once were, where people with certain socially acceptable beliefs (the majority) now controls the lives of people who think differently, act differently, do differently (the minority). No man has the right to tell any other how to live their life or how/who to love. Bans on gay marriage, overturning in the fight for equal rights for all, and not just hardcore a.k.a (Insane/Fanatical) Christians and others with similar beliefs.
I'd go on and on on this subject but I believe that's better left unsaid. By the way, no I am not gay though I believe they should every right to love (AND be married, recognized by law) just as much as the rest of us.
3. Illegals...
Alright, back to this subject, and yes I know it involves more than just Mexicans though that is the main source so that will be the main topic, if you think about it it's logical, not racist, so don't even go there though if I were racist towards any group of people, I believe it would have to be Mexicans, I'll admit that right now.
As you may or may not know, I am originally from Texas, I moved to Indiana just before third grade and have stayed ever since (except while in college). I know that illegal immigration is a real problem, and I don't think giving them the opportunity to have a "get out of jail free" card or a driver's license a very good idea, let alone giving them the same rights as we have, but without all the responsibilities of being a citizen who is not leaching off of our society in general (taxpayers) seeing as how they are most often paid under the table or given false information in order to work.
Every so often I go back to my home state of Texas, a place which I still feel is my home. My grandparents who lived in Odessa lived in a very nice neighborhood, until something started to happen there in the town. Crime rates skyrocketed, the demand for cheap housing went through the roof and there were more apartment complexes than you could shake a stick at going up all over the town. The building of all these new apartment complexes was not caused by an increase overall in development but a need to cheaply house Mexicans (illegals or not, I'm not stupid enough to think all of them swam across the rio of course). Now, there are always two types of people to any society, the good and the bad, and I'll be as "black and white" about this as I want in those terms but still here is a definition according to yours truly.
The Good: Upstanding members of the community, helpful or at the very least law-abiding. (This includes some illegals! People who came here because of the american dream and not because of the american government giving them everything they could ever need.)
The Bad: People who have chosen to be indigents (not the victims of circumstance), people who don't work and expect things handed to them simply because they can get away with it.
Every time I go back to Texas, my heart sinks, I see apartment complexes with small children running wild as if in some Mad Max film. I see a 3-7 year old child on a stairway crying after having fallen down it, with no one of a proper age to take care for them. I see the toys of children strewn about the "lawn" of an apartment complex, litter everywhere. I see 8-10 people living in a one room apartment wonder how healthy that can actually be for them and those around them.
In a world like that, can you now see why the crime rate would rise as well? Illegal immigration will be the downfall of the southern states...it has already come to Indianapolis in force and there is now a "black side of Indy" a "spanish side of Indy" and all the affluent white people live on the outskirts of Indianapolis in places like Caramel and Fishers. Compare this situation to your own, do you see anything similar?
Sorry I haven't really followed an outline on this, subject, body, conclusion and all, but there's not much more to say than that for anyone to realize how I feel.
Again, I'm sorry if I came off as racist in this post, but I'm merely intolerant of stupidity and well...I'm intolerant of intolerance, so sue me.
In the words of Austin Powers, "I for one choose love baby, yeah."
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2 comments:
None of these issues have easy answers. However, I can say that the "us vs. them" mentality does underlie or influence many of these issues.
In the instance of reclaiming an offensive word, the idea is that if the majority uses a pejorative, and the word has power, one tactic the targets can use is to claim the word as their own so it loses its power. That doesn't give the majority speakers a pass on using it, though. It's still kind of an "us vs. them" thing.
Also, re: "white trash." I don't know if I'm imagining it, but it has always seemed that the connotation is something like, "They're terrible people, but at least they're white."
Of course, I was an English major in college, so I do tend to read too much into words.
Good post. Keep asking the questions. Someday, we'll all get to the answers.
Ah, think maybe I should've used "trailer trash" and thrown in the words "rusted out" or "negligent" in there for clarification hehe.
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