Old White Men

This is not how I saw the future when I was a child. I really thought we would have flying cars by now. The Jetson’s was set in 2062, we should have the basic infrastructure for cloud cities by now.

But instead, humanity decided to go in a different direction.

Today, in 2021, we remain stuck in our societal past. We are so trapped by the allure of superiority that we can’t work on building a new world. Maybe, if we hadn’t been so busy hating each other, we might have built nice things, but instead humans became so good at hating each other that they found ways to hate themselves.

This fall, those of us in Pennsylvania will vote on three ballot questions. The agreed upon answers will be incorporated into the state’s legislation and policies. Everyone has their right to an opinion, but just in case you can’t form one on your own, political groups are happy to tell you how to think.

We are divided in many ways, but the arbitrary barriers created by the labels of “Democrat” and “Republican” are the most insidious, slowly mutating the bearers into base creatures of reaction. There are many things which make us unique, yet political labels ignore all of that.

I was always a Republican, and I thank Donald Trump for showing me the cultist trappings of politics. I have friends who are Democrats, and a few of my wives have been Democrats; I don’t know why I thought they were different. Lately within the Democrat Party there has been a schism between “Democrats,” “Liberals,” and “Progressives.” They are tearing themselves apart because they are NOT a monolith. Unfortunately, they refuse to split into different parties, so knowing how someone is registered tells you little about the person. So should being a Republican, but they are supposed to be more monolithic.

I am conservative. I am also Caucasian, over sixty, a veteran, bisexual, a musician, a science nerd, and a writer. That is far too complicated for some people. People who find that too complicated prefer to fix on one attribute, then experience pain when I am not one hundred percent that way. Tough. It is not my responsibility to foster the intellectual growth of bigots. But they think it is their responsibility to help me “grow” into seeing things their way. Pity turns to disgust. I sincerely don’t want to see the world through the lenses of bigotry.

Back to our ballot questions. One of them is:

QUESTION 3: The third question on your 2021 PA Primary ballot asks whether the state constitution should specifically prohibit the denial of equal rights based on race or ethnicity.This amendment offers additional protection against laws or policies that would deny Communities of Color their legal rights. It codifies the progress many Pennsylvanians have fought for for so long.

The Pennsylvania Democratic party recommends a “Yes” vote on this questions. Members of the party disagree and are rallying to support a “No” vote. Those “in the know” about discrimination believe that white people will use the amendment to bring suits claiming they were discriminated against. I thought we passed legislation on what it will do now, not how it might be interpreted in the future; if we could I would be voting for flying cars.

I question anyone who claims to be “in the know” about anything. Having spent a little time in the intelligence community, I know how easy it is to falsify credentials, and making false claims about one’s knowledge appears to be a national pastime. I have had many friends who understood one concept better than I, but ignore the opportunity to understand other concepts.

One Democrat who is so entrenched in her belief she is superior to others that she lobbies against her own party’s position had a fascinating exchange with me the other day, defending her defense of Racism. I have never been so disgusted in my life. Here was a woman who claimed to be an activist against racism actually promoting the continued practice of racism. Was she afraid of losing her job?

It wasn’t too painful, watching her give all the excuses Republicans give to vote against equality, I knew she wasn’t unique. It was when she went hyperbolic, expecting me to bask in the glow of her authority. As she continued arguing against equality now because it might be misused in the future, her remarks started to show her true colors. When she got to the point of dismissing me as an “old white dude” I had read all of her racist, sexist, and ageist misconceptions I could handle.

“Real Racism,” which she claimed to be against. is negatively judging people by their race (white). “Real ageism” is negatively judging people by their age (old). “Real sexism” is negatively judging people by their sex (dude). But those definitions exist only in the real world. In the world of paranoid activism, any insult is justified by right of superiority. There is abosulutely nothing preventing this activist from utilizing the tools she claims to be fighting against. Kind of like when a young vegan woman spent an evening explaining the evils of killing animals, in her leather boots and coat. You don’t have to live it to be an activist, you just have to put people down because they don’t agree with you. I wonder if she considers herself a “free thinker.”

Those of us who DO think freely do not tell other people how to think. We give advice, offer our opinions, but rarely use labels such as “right” and “wrong.” Thinking is never wrong, as long as it is actual thinking and not simply parroting someone else. People who disagree with me often provide another way of looking at the same issue. On occasion I change my position. That could not happen if I labeled their thoughts as “wrong” from the beginning. Nothing is to be learned from a person held in derision.

Being called an “Old White Dude” by an Old White Woman doesn’t hurt me. In fact, I am considering changing the name of this blog to “Thoughts from an Old White Dude.” Being told to vote for racism by a racist doesn’t draw me towards their point of view.

So if you are in Pennsylvania, please vote “Yes” on question #3. We can’t legislate love but at least we can legislate against hate. Just like any legislation we have no control over how it is used in the future, it is designed to eliminate suffering now. Unless hate is what pays your bills, in which case it is in your best interests to vote “No.”

Calming Down

Officer Potter’s pistol with trigger safety highlighted, and her taser

As you probably know, Kim Potter, a police officer in Minnesota with twenty six years of experience, fatally shot Daunte Wright, a young black man. Everyone looks at the case differently, assuming the guilt or innocence of the participants. I appear to be troubled by an element that has not been raised. One human being was killed by another. There has been a lot of talk about Racism and Training and The Role of the Police, but the simplest of facts has been dismissed.

If you had not noticed, I am White (Caucasian), although I am somewhat the chameleon. I have been identified as Black on line (and in person as well, difficult to explain), as well as other races. I have been identified as a member of just about every religion out there; the truth is I am a Christian, raised to question. I identify as Zen Baptist when asked.

The general consensus is that I am not qualified to speak about this issue. My black friends say it’s because I am White, my White friends say it’s because I am a “lefty.” I am still a human being, so yes, I have an opinion. One of US was killed.

When I first heard Kim Potter’s defense of “mistook pistol for taser” I did not believe it at all. The defense has been used a couple of times in the past few years, I am not aware it has ever been successful. After I saw the video, I changed my mind. She genuinely thought she was holding a taser, warning other officers to stay clear. When she pulled the trigger, she shouted “Taser taser taser” in accordance with her training. It was not until she attempted to holster her “taser” that she realized she had been holding a firearm the entire time. Her surprise and shock appeared genuine.

I cannot explain how this happened by accident. Having used both devices, I am aware of how different they feel in the hand, as well as how different they sound when the trigger is pulled. Looking down the sights of each is a similar view, you don’t see the bright yellow sides of the taser, but the locations they are holstered on the body are radically different from each other, you don’t draw a taser with your right hand.

First issue: Why is lethal force the default response? Shouldn’t the taser be the device on the right hip?

The only conceivable defense is panic. No one wants to admit an officer with twenty six years on the force can panic, but other than an “I killed him because he was Black” plea not much more is believable. What about Daunte Wright threatened officer Potter? The conclusion reached after accepting panic is that police officers have an ingrained fear of Black men. Why else would they only panic when confronted by Black men? You can argue the numbers any way you wish, but when twelve percent of the population are the target twenty four percent of the time, Black men are targets twice as often as demographics suggest they would be.

Second issue: Why are police afraid of Black men?

This is going to be difficult to address in the real world. Fear is universally considered a trait of weakness, and being a police officer is built on strength. In order to repair this issue it needs to be acknowledged by men who are afraid to admit fear. They see any weakness as an admission of failure. They never admit failure.

I don’t know how to work with that, and judging from the results no one else does either. I know that in my life I have feared imminent death, but not on a daily basis all my adult life. Yet here we are, two groups of humans fearing the other is out to kill them.

Third issue: Can we move from mutual fear to mutual respect?

Fear is by its very nature irrational. Working with fear towards a rational decision may appear to be impossible until you look at yourself. Didn’t you used to be afraid of something? How did you make peace? I realize many of you may never make peace with some of your fears, but we all have something we are no longer afraid of. It can be done. It must be done.

That whole “you have nothing to say because you’re white” thing is so similar to “you have nothing to say because you’re black” that I copied and pasted it changing a single word. Tensions are high, we’re dealing with human beings who are afraid to interact with others because they fear for their lives. This is a horrible place and time to be alive for all of us. Calming down is the answer, telling others to calm down is not. The only way to change others is to change yourself first, lead by example.

Fourth issue: Why can’t we all just get along?

I have refused to believe that this question has been ignored just because it was asked by Rodney King almost thirty years ago. Now I’m not so sure. There is plenty of evil out there, it is easy to believe dark forces and conspiracies divide us. There is also plenty of good. Life is in balance, when viewed from far enough away. But we’re right on top of it. Everything feels personal.

It is personal, we just don’t realize how personal. We are all human beings. We may have different features, but this isn’t about white people, or black people, or police officers. This is about human beings. One of us was killed. When we can respond to these issues in unity as human beings the solutions will be obvious.

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What would Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Do?

We continue to see violent protests against the murder of George Floyd. Our (I’m white too) response has been to bring up Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, as viewed from a couple of angles.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr said “In the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard.” I see this as an explanation, and if you wish justification, of riots. My white friends spoke about Dr. King in peaceful terms, equating him to Ghandi. That’s the MLK they want to remember. In his thirty nine years on Earth, he was imprisoned thirty times. I have been imprisoned, but I’m a white guy. Imagine MLK in a backwoods jail.

Some people said this quote is an explanation of riots but not a justification for them. The same people accused me of Justifying violence when I explained it to them. Same words.

An explanation comes from President Lyndon Baines Johnson. “What did you expect? I don’t know why we’re so surprised. When you put your foot on a man’s neck and hold him down for three hundred years, and then you let him up, what’s he going to do? He’s going to knock your block off.”

A justification comes from President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”

Comprehending White Privilege is not “White Guilt.” It is an evolved state in which blame is not placed. Being aware of white privilege just helps me avoid using it. Hell no, I use it all the time, but not across racial lines. A friend shared this list, about what white people can do safely and black people can not.

I can go jogging (#AmaudArbery).
I can relax in the comfort of my own home (#BothamSean and #AtatianaJefferson).
I can ask for help after being in a car crash (#JonathanFerrell and #RenishaMcBride).
I can have a cellphone (#StephonClark).
I can leave a party to get to safety (#JordanEdwards).
I can play loud music (#JordanDavis).
I can sell CD’s (#AltonSterling).
I can sleep (#AiyanaJones)
I can walk from the corner store (#MikeBrown).
I can play cops and robbers (#TamirRice).
I can go to church (#Charleston9).
I can walk home with Skittles (#TrayvonMartin).
I can hold a hair brush while leaving my own bachelor party (#SeanBell).
I can party on New Years (#OscarGrant).
I can get a traffic ticket (#SandraBland).
I can lawfully carry a weapon (#PhilandoCastile).
I can break down on a public road with car problems (#CoreyJones).
I can shop at Walmart (#JohnCrawford) .
I can have a disabled vehicle (#TerrenceCrutcher).
I can read a book in my own car (#KeithScott).
I can be a 10yr old walking with our grandfather (#CliffordGlover).
I can decorate for a party (#ClaudeReese).
I can ask a cop a question (#RandyEvans).
I can cash a check in peace (#YvonneSmallwood).
I can take out my wallet (#AmadouDiallo).
I can run (#WalterScott).
I can breathe (#EricGarner).
I can live (#FreddieGray).
I can ask someone to put a leash on their dog when it is required in the public park we are in (#ChristianCooper).
I CAN BE ARRESTED WITHOUT THE FEAR OF BEING MURDERED. (#GeorgeFloyd)

I know the last is true, I have been arrested, and was comfortable with the belief that justice would prevail. If I had been black, last year when the police responded because I was having a psychotic break and had firearms at home, I would not be writing this. Rather than a mental hospital I would have gone to the morgue. I had no fear as I opened the door and came out with my hands up, lasers bouncing off the walls.

Back to Dr. King. Had he not been assassinated, I believe he would have continued pursuing non violent change. His successes would have brought us to a place of understanding, unlike today. Does it feel like it is worse than in the sixties? It does to me, but I recognize one reason is because we are (more) integrated. It hits closer when your neighbors are being discriminated against. Angry Black men are in our offices, not off in a ghetto.

As I said in the last blog, there is no magic switch which will end racial tensions. It is painstaking daily work, often one step forward two steps back. It hurts. I absolutely hate it when my friends cling to their lack of compassion for “outsiders.” Because that is where racism originates. A fear of people who are different. Children of different races play together until an adult tells them to stop.

They say they are twins

 

Don’t tell them to stop.

 

 

Lives Matter

It really is horrible when someone has to remind you their life matters.

In 2013, following the acquittal of George Zimmerman for hunting down and murdering Trevon Martin, a group called Black Lives Matter (BLM) was established. The next year it was a battle cry among protestors after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York city.

Brown’s death was when other people started replying “All Lives Matter.” Michael was not an innocent, but Eric Garner was.

The difficulty, of course, has always been the language. Americans like clear binary choices, if Black lives matter then other lives do not. The idea of a non-zero sum game is the last to occur.

There is no way a person with even average intelligence could deny that as a race, Black people have had a hard time in America. They arrived as slaves and although their plight has improved, the average Black person is less well off than the average White person. This is changing, ever so slowly. I am somewhat unique, working on projects that will not be completed in my lifetime; when discrimination has been going on for centuries, many can’t understand why it continues.

Systemic changes require generations. Yes, allowing thirty years per generation indicates over five generations have passed since the emancipation proclamation, I would say it took a good three of those before the idea that slavery is wrong sunk in. I submit that the beginning of “equality” was in 1964. We are two generation in and it is not as bad as it was, but there is still distance to be traveled.

Protestors don’t think that way. They make demands for things they want now. As we learned over and over again, you cannot legislate morality. There is no switch to flip that will change everyone’s minds. Our grandchildren need to see us doing things to believe them to be normal, so they can emulate them when they are adults.

Having spent a good part of my life in Law Enforcement, I have a good idea about what Police officers think. Again, I don’t speak for all Police Officers, there are over a half million of them, with different backgrounds. To suggest there are no racist officers is as naive as suggesting all police officers are racists. It is a difficult job, in which one is constantly evaluating threat values. Not everyone is cut out for it, and it appeals to people who are not cut out for it. Take your impression of the perfect officer and probably twenty percent meet it. How well do you do your job? The fringe of corrupt officers is small, but they make the news.

Realistically, if as young people like to say “All Cops are Bastards,” the streets would be littered with dead black men. In reality, it is likely that racist officers kill a black man once every month. One is too many, but it is not happening every day every where. Due to our systemic racism, black folks feel intimidated by Police. We all know how bullies respond to people who are intimidated, they intimidate more. Some officers take advantage of that, not all racism ends in death. One bad officer can contaminate an entire squad; you don’t know who is behind the flashing lights. As illustrated by the recent murder in Minneapolis, one officer committed the murder, three others did not stop him. My thoughts are they did not believe the officer was killing Mr. Floyd, and lacked the integrity to stop mere brutalization. Personally, I believe they are all accomplices and should be charged as such. They failed to prevent a crime.

Black lives matter. Blue lives matter. They should not be mutually exclusive, and I don’t believe the majority of people on each side of the issue believe them to be. It would be better if both slogans ended with the word “too.”

As the COVID19 quarantine progresses, a number of edgy white people started complaining quarantine was oppressive. American White people, you have no clue as to the definition of “oppressed.” Oppression can be as innocuous as watching media that does not include your race. When I look at a magazine rack, there are few Black people on the covers. Television is starting to exploit that, there are several black centered sit-coms presently, the most effective showing Blacks and Whites interacting. The best I have seen is the comedy “The Neighbors,”  which is something of a reversal of “All in the Family,” with less vitriol. The heart of America is starting to laugh at themselves through seeing the plight of a white family in a Black neighborhood, and realizing they used to be like that.

Oppression is having a realistic fear of interacting with the police. White Privilege is being able to call the police because a Black man asks you to put a leash on your dog, claiming he is threatening you; all the while expecting the police are as racist as you are. Oppression is a police officer killing a black man while three others look on; not fearing reprisal. White Privilege is the ability to walk into the state building heavily armed, threatening to kill the governor, while police stand idle as protestors scream in their faces. A Black man doing the same would be shot at the door.

Oppression is complaining that a Black man protesting that oppression is critiqued because he isn’t doing it the right way. Particularly when you protested the war in Vietnam. Protests are supposed to make you uncomfortable. Doctor Martin Luther King once said “Riots are the voice of the oppressed,” yet when Black people protest they are met with derision, tear gas, and gunfire. It is simple to disrupt a peaceful protest with tear gas, escalating the event into a riot.

Recently, a friend of my partner posted the image below with the caption “Which knee offends you the most?” Responses included several who missed the point and said “Both.” Colin Kaepernick was protesting oppression, George Floyd was dying from oppression. One person stood out, making racist comments; as it turned out, he owned a restaurant. I contacted the restaurant and spoke with his daughter, who gave the “We’re not racists, we employ several Black people” line. This is the generational issue I spoke of earlier. She had grown up admiring her father, she couldn’t see the racism. I advised her that he happened to distinguish himself in front of a group of activists, endangering the business that supported the family; if he cared about his family he wouldn’t stand out as a racist when his profile showed his business. I do not wish to damage his business further by naming it.

I am well aware of my privilege. More so since making friends with people who are oppressed. Once you become aware, you can no longer pretend it doesn’t exist. I have no fear when I see a police car, and have called for police assistance without fear. I can conduct my life without fear of people working to deny my place in society. When something happens, I look for the cause rather than assume someone was trying to get at me because of my race. When I had firearms, I had no fear of displaying them and being accused of violent intent.

We are on the cusp of true equality, those opposed stand out as abnormal by white people, and as evidence of all white people still being racist by people of color. This may be the toughest part of the battle, extinguishing the remnants of racism. I believe my grandchildren will live in a world without race issues, but I don’t expect it within my lifetime.

 

Rabies

In looking for an analogy for today’s topic, Rabies appears appropriate. Rabies is exceptionally rare, between 2003 and 2013 thirty four cases were diagnosed in the United States, and although three cases are listed as “survived,” I suspect the diagnosis in those cases, as there is no cure. Even though the rate of human infection is .00001 percent of the population, every pet is required to be vaccinated against Rabies, because the issue is not prevalence, it is mortality. I have been vaccinated against rabies after contact with rabid animals (twice) and as you can see I did not contract the disease. Had the virus taken hold in my system I would not be here, thankfully the vaccine regimen is much more simple than it was in my childhood; a series of four injections intramuscularly (deltoid) and one dose of Human Rabies Immune Globulin near the site of exposure rather than fourteen injections in the abdomen (a friend from Cuba had fourteen injections into his lungs).

My topic today is another “R” word, “Racism,” as expressed by a rag tag mob calling themselves “White Supremacists,” as well as a large number of people who consider anything with a scent of racism the work of White Supremacists, NAZIs, or the KKK.

This weekend has seen a couple of events staged by White Supremacists. An event in Charlottesville Virginia drew hundreds of them from all over the country, and thousands of counter protestors. There is no question as to which side is larger, for some reason the counter protestors express fear, giving the minuscule number of White Supremacists the power of intimidation. There have been counter protests in cities across the nation, proving to everyone the racists are outnumbered. In the analogy of Rabies, racism is skin redness, identifying as a Racist of any stripe is viral infection. It is rare but deadly. The victim is the soul.

There have been three fatalities reported, a woman struck by a car and two police officers in a helicopter that crashed. The wounded number far more, as any display of hate creates more hate. The kettle of hate is overflowing, as the present first lady echoes the last in saying “Our country encourages freedom of speech, but let’s communicate without hate in our hearts. No good comes from violence” more hateful hearts were busy accusing her of plagiarism than accepting the message of peace. The word “racist” is losing any meaning, as it is thrown around so freely to include “anyone who doesn’t agree with me.” There were actual racists in Charlottesville, free to express their “pride” under the cover of a population that has been called racist for the crime of being white in the South. In fact, slavery and racism are more likely to be encountered in the North, where foriegn nationals  are commonly “kept” as housekeepers and treated as sub-human. Human trafficking is a fact in every state, and every country in the world; it is not limited to people of color.

Addressing the 1968 race riots in Baltimore Maryland, President Lyndon Baines Johnson, who had signed the civil rights act into law just four years earlier, said “What did you expect? I don’t know why we’re so surprised. When you put your foot on a man’s neck and hold him down for three hundred years, and then you let him up, what’s he going to do? He’s going to knock your block off.” Blow-back from centuries of racism should be expected, and tensions do not disappear overnight. Racism is a human trait, tied to the evolutionary tool of Xenophobia. Human. I am as different from you as you are from me.

President Trump was criticized for saying there are many hate groups, Lady Gaga was criticized for trying to turn down the hate. The criticisms of both echoed hate rather than a desire to end hate. A shouting match has never ended in a peaceful resolution, no one has ever calmed down after being told to. This is what disturbs me. I feel we were closer to calming racial tensions in the 70s than we are now. Civility in social interactions is as likely to be seen as a Dodo delivering the morning paper.

It is as natural for people of color to distrust whites as it is for whites to distrust people of color. Neither side is “right.” Fighting creates wounds, which memorialize the pain, keeping the distrust alive. Both sides need to stop, and overwhelmingly they have. Pockets of hate, be they NAZI, KKK, BLM, or Antifa, are only pockets and do not represent society as a whole. Saying they do insults the people who are not part of those gangs, and ends meaningful conversation with them.

We have arrived at a time when words are weapons. Choose yours wisely and help stop the hate. Uhura said that in her century we will learn not to fear words.

 

To do so, we need not only to know who we are, but take satisfaction in who we are. To accomplish that, we need to extend the same courtesy to everyone else. It starts with me. Now it’s your turn.

Bigotry

I’ve noticed an increase in the use of the word “bigot” lately. I prefer this word to the misapplied term “racist” or the suffix “phobe.” It tends to be accurate in its application.

“Bigot” is defined by the OED as “A person who is intolerant towards those holding different opinions,” and “Bigotry” as “Intolerance towards those who hold different opinions from oneself.” Are these words not perfect for today’s society? “Racist” has been applied in situations that have nothing to do with “Race,” or even a twisted definition of “Race.” “Homophobe,””Islamaphobe,” and “Transphobe” rarely describe a phobia.

For instance, what would you call California’s recent decision to restrict official travel to states with LGBT laws they disagree with? It is clearly intolerant toward entire states due to differing opinions of the governments of those states. We created a United States rather than a single state to allow freedoms and differing laws. California has decided to ban travel to certain states, but still allows travel to China and other countries with active aggressive anti-gay laws. Like a death penalty for being gay rather than no protection from discrimination. I believe the design promotes tolerance, however the California decision is analogous to covering ones eyes and ears. Do not misunderstand, I certainly have no opposition to various sexualities, but denying commerce and communication is wrong on too many levels to count. California has forfeited the ability to be ambassadors of tolerance in perhaps the most ironic fashion.

I had a friend, we attended school together. We reconnected on Facebook a few years ago, and worked on a couple of charitable events together. She, like many of my friends, is a Democrat. Following the election she went non-linear, to the point I had to “un-friend” her on Facebook. I explained why to her privately, explaining there was no place in my life for her “smiling bigotry,” as she would post absolutely hateful things prefaced with excuses. We ran across each other after the shooting in Alexandria of Congressman Scalise. We have mutual friends, so we end up in the same conversations. Still as bigoted as ever, she continued to spew hate, and when she saw I was there attacked me because I had “called her a bigot.” Well, I guess I was right. She’s still smiling as she tells people that not enough Republicans were killed.

Collins Idehen, under the pseudonym Mr. Colion Noir, hosts a webcast for the NRA. He also writes about gun rights and responsibilities. In the aftermath of the Philando Castile verdict, he touched on bigotry, in this case comparing racism and gun control. “However, there is also a problem with some people in this country dismissing racism wholesale when it isn’t overt racial slurs or crosses burning on front lawns. Covert racism is a real thing and is very dangerous. Covert racism works the same way anti-gunners use coded language to push gun control. They say common sense gun measures, but we know what they really mean. We gun advocates spend our time trying to prove to the people that they don’t just want background checks they want to ban guns. The problem is, they don’t come right out and say,”give me all your guns” so no one believes us, but we know the effects are incredibly real. That’s what covert racism is and does.” What he calls covert racism (and anti-gunners) is best defined as bigotry. A decision on how to proceed based on the objects (Blacks, Guns) rather than the situation.

Another example of bigotry comes from a group that prides itself on inclusion. In fact they’ve appropriated the month of June as “Pride Month.” Three gay people who were also proud of their religious beliefs were not tolerated, and excluded from the “Dyke March” in Chicago for carrying a rainbow flag that also contained the Star of David. This time the bigotry is so strong it has overridden self preservation. Convinced by the “progressive” narrative that Judaism is equal to Zionism, and that Zionism is racist towards Arabs, they found the Star of David offensive. Never mind that the majority of Arab culture is Islamic, under which any deviation from heterosexuality is punishable by death, they found it unacceptable to not include Arabs, so they excluded Jews. Maybe the whole “No Hate” program has them thirsting for their natural drive to hate. I can’t really call this an example of bigotry, because I am not as quick to judge the parade organizers as they are to judge Jews, maybe they’re only jerks, and while most bigots are jerks, being a jerk on its own is not bigotry. Antisemitism often hides as pro-Palestinian or anti-Zionism, and each of those groups are bigots.

Bigotry is simply a negative prejudice, often played out as innocence or jokes. When I moved North, after living in Texas and California, I was shocked at the racism. Yes, there was racism in both previous states, but it was overt. You knew where you stood. In the North, it is covert, small bigoted actions which are less identifiable. Guess again folks, just because you’re smiling and claiming to care, you are still causing pain, and pain is easy to remember for most folks. The victims may not be able to identify the event, but they are aware of the pain, your shock when they respond just makes you appear even more false. Political Correctness is not a disguise for bigotry, it is a showcase.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turning a blind eye

 

It’s that time again.

Today we will look at the “You don’t see what you don’t want to see” side of Rockman’s message. A couple of examples have stood out recently.

I will start with Donald Sterling, the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team. Donald made some comments that were considered racist in a telephone call with his mistress (it is alright to openly cheat on your spouse). A recording of this private call mysteriously made its way into the media, and everyone was outraged. He was fined $2.5 million dollars, and banned from contact with the franchise he owns. Wow, they really don’t put up with racism in the NBA, do they?

Well, yes they do. They just don’t put up with headlines about racism in the NBA. Sterling’s racist comments were less of an open secret than they were common knowledge. The man is eighty one years old, he didn’t start feeling this way yesterday. His comments were not even racially motivated. He did not want his mistress hanging out with Magic Johnson, who has been drooling over owning the Clippers for a decade. Because Magic is black, the conversation veered into comments about blacks, but Sterling has said and done much worse things in the past. They just did not make headlines. Because no one had wanted him to sell the team before (at a sizable profit).

The NBA did not see the racist in their midst because they did not want to see the racist. They saw the color green.

Following the shootings in Sandy Hook, a number of gun control measures were introduced. It is far easier to blame the tool than blame the person using it. For some reason Sandy Hook was different enough to raise the issue of mental healthcare reforms, Adam Lanza was clearly troubled and poorly serviced by the mental healthcare community. The idea of forced mental health treatment is something we really don’t want to consider. It is easy to say the crazy person should be locked up, but what if we know the crazy person? We have sympathy for them, just like Adam Lanza’s mother did. We should be able to see just how well that worked out for her, but we still insist, despite all the data indicating otherwise, all we need to do is ban guns.

We do not see the problem because we do not want to see the problem, we just want to do something, believing it will make us feel better. In some ways I wish they could ban the guns and then accept responsibility for every murder that takes place afterward.

Recently the story of human trafficking in Nigeria has made the news again. It has been portrayed in this case as a terrorist group kidnapping young girls from schools because they believe education for women is an insult to Islam. The President of Nigeria, the sadly named Goodluck Jonathan, initially refused to acknowledge the kidnappings, then his wife, the inappropriately named Patience Jonathan, held a meeting with the mothers of the girls. Since the mothers were terrified of being identified, they sent a representative, who was arrested for not being a mother of a kidnapped child. No patience in Nigeria.

The story, after languishing in the world press for weeks, has hit the American media, and now President Obama has promised aid, saying “Time is of the essence.” Time may be of the essence for the few (over two hundred this week) girls kidnapped in this story. But this story is not about education for women, or Islam, or terrorists, or Al Qaeda. These girls were kidnapped by a wanna be warlord, who is financing his criminal activities by trafficking in the only resource he can obtain. These kidnappings did not begin last month, and they will not end with the return of these (now permanently scarred) girls. As long as there is a thriving market for children, children will be kidnapped for resale.

We do not see the human trafficking problem because we do not want to see the human trafficking problem. We do not want to think about what happens to these children. We would rather talk about other issues, like misguided attempts to prohibit women from education, and Al Qaeda, and terrorists, than thugs stealing human beings for profit.

We choose what we want to see, turning a blind eye to the actual problems, and in doing so, sustain those problems.

 

 

 

 

 

Racism

Warning. This post contains words that some may find offensive.

The word “racist” gets used a lot. More than it used to be. I use it to display when actual racism is taking place, hoping that someone might notice what the word actually means. The job gets more difficult as language becomes meaningless.

Merriam Webster defines racism as “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race”. That’s the way I interpret the word. A racist would be someone who has that belief.

Recently, and by that I mean over the last decade or so, a new definition has come to light. Check out this definition from the “Urban Dictionary”: “If you’re a white man, this is what you are. It doesn’t even matter if your wife is black and you have an adopted child from India, or how many black friends you have, somehow you’re going to end up being a racist according to how the media portrays the white man as “racist whities”. All of this is funny because the white man is the one that is stereotyped as being racist, which is hypocrisy at its best. It’s racist to assume that white men are racists( emphasis mine). If you don’t get offended by racial insults, then you’re apparently racist too, but an actual racist would get offended by it. When you hear a certain word too much (I’m sure we’ve all heard “cracka” hundreds of times thanks to standup comedy) then you become desensitized to it.” This appears to be the new standard.

In the early 90s Spike Lee said “Black people can’t be racist, only white people are racists”. That has slowly turned into “White people are only racists” as in “All white people are racists”. As suggested by both the Merriam Webster and Urban Dictionary definitions, such a statement would in itself be racist.

The new definition of racism is that it requires prejudice and power, so “racism” is institutional. By that definition, individuals couldn’t be racists, but never mind, this wasn’t ever going to make sense. Just because I’m white doesn’t mean I have any power. To assume such would be racist.

The real truth is that like any other insult, the actual word is meaningless. Which is sad, because real racism does exist, and there’s no way to identify it.

Think about profanities. Wouldn’t any father be a “Motherfucker“? Unless you take the time to think that the phrase initially referred to Oedipus. Other curses have developed into similar non-insulting meanings.

I was recently taken to task by a person who felt insulted by my use of the word “racist” in the blog titled “vegetarians”. She felt that I had misapplied the meaning. I thought that being Korean was a race, and that attacking Koreans for their cultural practices was racism. I was surprised, because I was under the impression that the word is so often misused and overused that no one took it as an insult anymore. You can read the conversation on that thread. She was certain that no animal rights person could be a racist. That’s the kind of blanket statement that could be interpreted as racist in some applications.

One of what I would call the benefits of the Obama administration is the dilution of the word “racist”. After calling everyone who didn’t vote for Obama a racist, and then calling all Republicans racists, they had called enough people racists that were most definitely not racists, the word meant next to nothing. That is not necessary a good thing, it would be nice for words to have meanings so we could communicate, but losing an insult might be a step in the right direction. Most recently the democratic chairwoman in Louisiana, a woman who most probably has actually encountered racism in her lifetime, made the following statement.

So racism is about disagreeing with one policy of one man. That seems to be about as far from racism as you could get, if the word wasn’t just a reworking of “Cracker”. It’s just an insult, a sound without meaning other than “I don’t like you”. The card has been played so many times that it is the only thing transparent in this administration.

We’ve done the same thing with other words, “Retarded” used to mean “Slowed”, so that “Mentally Retarded” was a clinical term. Calling someone retarded as an insult became so common that people who were actually retarded became insulted. Sorry, but that’s genuinely funny. The term will be changed in the ICD-11, and has been changed in official usage, but in ten or twenty years that word will be used as an insult as well. “Homophobe”, a term I’ve never felt portrayed its meaning properly, has become so politicized and overused that it has lost meaning, which was “anti-homosexual” and not actually “afraid of homosexuals”. We’re getting there with “terrorist”.

I prefer that words carry meanings, otherwise communication becomes more and more difficult, but insults fall into a category of undefined exclamations, like “ouch”. They should be regarded as having just as much meaning.

You’ll know if I intended to insult you. I use the word “Wanker“, because I like the way it sounds. And because it really annoys one particular wanker.