When I was in high school, I knew a guy who was horribly, obnoxiously racist. I asked him about the reasons for his hatred one day. "A couple of black guys jumped me one time and beat the shit out of me. I've never forgotten it." It was a dumb reason to give. Besides the fact that this guy thought the two gentlemen who beat his ass were representatives of the entire African-American community, he also didn't seem to have a problem forgetting the numerous lily-white gentlemen who had beat his ass over the years. Trust me. There were way more of them. The kid was an asshole. His whole "mean black people beat me up" story was nothing more than a convenient excuse to keep using the word "ni**er" and to keep being awful to his black classmates.
If the subject of race makes you uncomfortable or you think that it shouldn't be discussed at all, do us both a favor and stop reading. I can also do without the following argument:
"Gee, Todd, white people aren't the only ones who are racist!"
REALLY? I had no idea! Look, I realize that douchebaggery knows no color, but I'm a white dude in America that thinks racism is dumb, so this is being written from the perspective of a white dude in America who thinks racism is dumb. If you want to gripe about "reverse racism" or complain about "that time a black guy looked at me funny," start your own damn blog and write away. This one is mine.
I mentioned that I'm white. I'm not proud of this fact. I'm not ashamed of it either. It's not like I had a choice in the matter. I'm indifferent. Accomplishment makes me proud. If I make it to the end of this piece with no misspellings or grammatical errors, I'll be the proudest white man you ever saw. I, however, have zero problem with African-Americans proclaiming, as James Brown once said, "I'm black and I'm proud." You need a self-esteem boost when you live in a country that once characterized your whole race as "property" and "less than human" as a matter of law. I also want to punch dumb white people in the face when they talk about blacks "getting over" slavery. I have actually seen a grown man dressed as a confederate soldier for a Civil War reenactment complain that, "Blacks need to get over slavery." If the irony of that escapes you, stop reading this. Might I suggest "Family Circus?"
If you think racism doesn't exist anymore, spend a day with me. If I were to write a post every time I heard someone say "ni**er" I'd be accused of spamming. I wish I were making this up. When I hear that hateful, fucked-up word, it's almost always in the context of someone complaining about our President (I also hear it a lot in hip-hop, but if rappers want to use the word as a "fuck you" to Whitey, who am I tell them no?) . They give me a conspiratorial look, usually accompanied by a elbow in my side as they assume I must share their hatred and disgust because we share the same skin tone and tell me what they "really" think about President Obama.
Is everyone who dislikes the President a racist? No. That would be a stupid argument to make. That does not mean, however, that everyone who dislikes the President is automatically NOT a racist. Everyone who disagrees with the Presidents policies is not dumb, either, although there is that element as well. It's VERY simple to tell who is who by their words.
"I think Obama is a bad president and I disagree with his policies." - Not Racist
"I think Obama is a bad president and I disagree with his policies because he's like Hitler and he wants to take my guns and send me to a FEMA camp and he's a Muslim who is going to make 'Merica into a Communist country and he's going to give himself a third term because Presidents who hate 'Merica can just do that." - Dumb
"I think Obama is a bad president and I disagree with his policies and somebody needs to shoot that ni**ger." - Racist
If you think I'm making that last one up, you are surrounded by awesome people with normal human feelings or you're just not paying attention, because since President Obama was elected I've heard it A LOT. Ironically, from a lot of those "patriots" who used to tell me that I was un-American if I simply disagreed with President Bush during wartime. Well guess what, we still have troops in Afghanistan and Obama is our President so, you tell me what the difference is. You tell me why it's okay to insult this President's wife and make threats against his children. You tell me why the very same people who, up until the election of our first black president, would have proudly said, whether Republican or Democrat, "that you respect our Commander in Chief" but now think it's perfectly acceptable to advocate the assassination of that Commander in Chief. Conservatives and Tea Baggers can scream "race has nothing to do with it" til they're red, white, and blue in the face but, there is only one major difference between this president and all the others and that thing is the color of his skin. And that skin color has caused a large portion of the population to lose their goddamn minds. It's like some weird plot twist. America, a historically racist country, elects a black man as president and uses the black president as an excuse to be even more openly racist. I shudder to think what those people will do if we elect a woman.
