Tuesday, November 07, 2006

racism pisses me off.

I was on a Myspace-like website and I noticed a girl had posted this in her blog:
You pass me on the street and sneer in my direction.
You call me "Whiteboy," "Cracker," "Honkey," "Whitey," "Caveman" and that's OK.
But when I call you, Nigger, Towelhead, Sand-Nigger, Camel Jockey, Beaner, Gook, or Chink you call me a racist.
You say that whites commit a lot of violence against you, so why are the ghettos the most dangerous places to live?
You have the United Negro College FundYou have Martin Luther King Day (Remember, he was NOT an American President and neither was Bobby Kennedy who was assisinated later that same year but there is no RFK Day!!)
You have Black History Month
You have Caesar Chavez Day.
You have Ma'uled
Al-Nabi
You have the NAACP
You have BET
If we had WET (White Entertainment Television) we'd be racists.
If we had a White Pride Day you would call us racists.
If we had white history month, we'd be racists.
If we had an organization for only whites to "advance" our lives, we'd be racists.
If we had a college fund that only gave white students scholarships, you know we'd be racists.
There are over 60 openly proclaimed Black Colleges in the US, yet if there were "White colleges" that would be a racist college.
In the Million Man March, you believed that you were marching for your race and rights.
If we marched for our race and rights, you would call us racists.
You are proud to be black, brown, yellow and orange, and you're not afraid to announce it.
But when we announce our white pride, you call us racists.
You rob us, carjack us, and shoot at us. But, when a white police officer shoots a black gang member or beats up a black drug-dealer running from the law and posing a threat to society, you call him a racist. And why is it when a black police officer shoots a white gang member or beats up a white drug-dealer running from the law and posing a threat to society, you call him a great crime fighter.
I am proud to be white! But, you call me a racist
Why is it that only whites can be racists?

For some reason, it made me furious to read that. I posted back:
White people were never lynched because of the colour of their skin.
White people were never forced into slavery because of the colour of their skin.
White people were never barred from using a restaurant, swimming pool, public transportation, water fountain because of the colour of their skin.
Robert F. Kennedy didn't do as much for civil rights as Martin Luther King.
It is a fact that black people are less likely to be able to afford college than white people.
The majority of serial killers are white.
The man who started the war in Iraq is white.
"White entertainment" isn't really watched on TV. Most of what we watch is "Black entertainment", stolen by white people and made their own. What is "white entertainment"?
We don't march for our rights because we were born with them.
We don't have a White History Month because white people as a race haven't gone through the kind of horror that black have.
There are a couple good points, but most of this sounds a little Aryan

Do you think I overreacted? Cuz I was really mad.

6 comments:

a said...

oh my god, whoever posted that is some kind of retard, and it's kind of funny because everything he/she said was racist.
i agree with you in every way and i was totally mad, who actually is that ignorant that they would write something as arrogant and 'oh poor me' as that?? as that person never had a history lesson?
man, that is funny.who is stupid enough to post something like that on MYSPACE, a public place where people actually do go and read what you have to say? that just baffles me.

Sarah said...

damn, that is harsh. and to respong to where i live, i'd answer that, but i'm very iffy when it comes to giving out personel info on the internet. i'm on eastern time, if that helps, haha

Anonymous said...

ahhhh
see, this type of thing pisses me off.
I like to live my life how Morgan Freeman lives his life:
"white people suck, black people suck, but who really gives a damn? Just be yourself and be free"
BASICALLY my hero.
racism is such a dirty and inappropriate issue that rarely has a good reason for being brought up, so why do people constantly do it?
because they're shallow and insecure and don't know better.
and life is unfair.
and that is the end of my speech.
muchas gracias.

Anonymous said...

great response. And good for you for speaking up in the first place. Half of the problem is complacency and refusal to acknowledge this history and those differences. Overreact? Hardly.

joanna said...

keenan, i totally agree. although, most of what that obnoxious myspace girl posted was totally racist, some of it was a bit true. i go to a school that's REALLY diverse and even though there are a lot of "bad" white kids, the number of "bad" black kids is endless. they fill out most of the drop out rate, they're always the ones you see in sweep and keep and detention, they're always the ones that never turn in their homework, and a lot of them are the ones who are in gangs and things like that. almost none of them even try to get into college, but then again, a lot of them are poor. i mean, i'm a strong believer in the whole "life is what you make of it" thing but still, even if you do work hard and make good grades, money is still a big deal. if your parents and your parent's parents and your paren't parent's parents were all poor, it's just a never ending cycle. i don't know. i've never really been put in a black person's shoes, so i can't really talk. racism is just such a tender subject. i have some black friends who are totally awesome but on the other hand, a lot of black kids pick on me for raising my hand in class and getting good grades and then they call me "cracker" and "goody goody white girl" and that's just not cool. yes, i think being called cracker is racist but we still haven't gone through what black people have gone through, not even close. if my people were enslaved for 400 years or whatever, i'd be pretty pissed off too, but still, sometimes it's no excuse to go around calling other people derogatory racists terms. it also kind of bothers me how black people call each other the n word when it's just so horrible. i mean, can you even imagine what their ancestors went through? i wish they'd ask their grandparents how they felt when somebody would call them the n word all those years ago. i just don't think it's cool, at all.

i don't know. it's really confusing to me. racism is just horrible though. i wish their we weren't all so divided. people are just people, when you look past all the other stuff.

Anonymous said...

The thing is this:
"Black" (whatever... Entertainment, College Funds, etc), in this context, does not refer to all people with dark skin in the world. It is an alternative way of saying "African American" which is a specific culture and ethnicity - it does not refer to all "dark skinned" people in the world - Australian Aboriginal, Maori, Pacific Islander, Sri Lankan do not come under the banner of "black" (not in this case anyway).

The way "white pride" is used, however has historically and is currently meant to refer to all those of European descent - be they American or not - and has ALWAYS been used as a claim to superiority - not an attempt to reclaim an identity historically maligned and oppressed. If someone says Black Pride to me I think African American. If someone says White Pride, I think White people, the world over. And there is no point to racial identification like this. I am a white Australian, and I have very little to celebrate (when it comes to my colour) in meeting a white Greenlander or a white South African or a white North American. It's not like I have anything more in common with them due to my whiteness than I do with a Indiginous Greenlander, or a black South African or a black North American. We are of different cultural and national backgrounds regardless of our skin. There is no such THING as race among humans - we are all part of the Human Race, biologically - our differences are cultural.

For example: I'm a skinny motherfucker. If we decided, somewhere in history, to ignore skin colour and focus instead on weight, I would be grouped now with all the skinnies (of all races) and we would be pitted against the fats (of all races). Even if we were all Australian, the skinnies and the fats would fight and bicker. Which, I mean, wouldn't this be a dumb way of looking at ourselves? Based purely on appearance regardless of culture?

Now, that said: If things like Black College funds were abolished what would happen? Honestly (what with the known history of African Americans) we can all admit that there would be substantially less black people in colleges. Less black people in the workforce. Less black people with a voice and an opportunity to dream beyond the ghetto. And, thus: more poverty, more violence, more drugs, more resentment, increasing divide.

This might be what some people want. It is not what I want. I want a day where we don't have to discuss this sort of shit. I don't think theres any risk anytime soon of a lack of white people in colleges, in the workforce. So why exactly would we set up a fund (beyond the many that exist generally for people (including "whites"))?

For every Martin Luther King day theres a Presidents Day (none of them black, yet [GO OBAMA]), Thanksgiving (yay white settlers), Confederates Day (pretty close to a white day, I would say), and fucking Lee-Jackson day for god's sake. And others.

Oh, dude, I could write for ever.

Basically: humans are shit, in general. And this person is making us better exactly how?

You're white. You're American. You're obviously wealthy enough to have a computer and a connection to the internet. With those things alone you're doing pretty well. If you need to turn to racial identity and try to RECLAIM YOUR SKIN to make your life feel valid in some way and can't feel proud for anything else in your life you obviously are a fairly sad type of person.

A final example to illustrate my fairly passe point:

SAMPLE DIALOGUE IN A WORLD WHERE THE CONCEPT OF WHITE PRIDE DOESN'T EXIST:
White Person: Yeah, I really like classical music - Henryk Gorecki is my favourite but I also like Phillip Glass.
Black Person: Oh, yeah, great. I like that stuff too. Steve Reich as well.
White Person: Yeah, he's cool.

SAMPLE DIALOGUE IN A WORLD WHERE THE CONCEPT OF BLACK PRIDE DOESN'T EXIST:

Black Person: Brother, John Coltrane was the shit. I'm really into Mos Def right now too.
White Person: Of course you are, nigger. All you coons are into that monkey music. Now get back into my cotton field before I lynch your ass. I got a Justin Timberlake concert to get to.


OK, goodbye.