Contemporary Racism is BS (mostly) -A Penn and Teller Tribute

By Kas · Nov 5, 2009 · 760 · 15
  1. I think I must be one of the most egalitarian people alive. There is a definite limit to “tolerance”, a soaring plateau of elevated consciousness to which one can only ascend by not caring. Yep, that’s right. I just don’t care. I’m incapable. And you really can’t get any more tolerant than that. I’m pretty sure some kind of mental illness is to blame, but if so, I’m a tough “nut” to crack. Several psychologists have tried, to no avail. Apparently, I am, for the most part, a reasonably happy and healthy person. Yay for me.

    But is it “normal” to not care one iota what people do, say, think or look like? Surely not. After all, racism is rampant, or so they tell me. And, evidently, I’m a racist, because I don’t give flying, excrement-filled doughnut about you, at least in terms of what you look like, where you come from, how you live, where you live, what you do with your time, who or what you sleep with, and so on. I’d like you to be happy and healthy. . . but apart from that? Meh.

    The one guiding principle in my life—the only rule I would enforce if I were a god—is “do no harm”. As long as you don’t harm other people in any tangible way, I couldn’t possibly care any less what you do. Strangely enough, most people tend to agree with me. Or rather, they agree with the surface idealism. Only two people who actually understood what the heck I was talking about have ever agreed with me.

    You see, I wouldn’t mind living in a community of necrophiliacs. Actually, I would I find it utterly fascinating. After all, they wouldn’t be bothering me. . . and I don’t believe the cadavers would be in any fit state to object. I happen to think that anything unusual is inherently interesting, and life just doesn’t get any more unusual than living in a town full of corpse lovers.

    So, hopefully you can see what an utterly loathsome creature I truly am. Real peace. . . real tolerance. . . these are disturbing concepts indeed, if you bother to think about them and don’t share my strange affliction of the mind.

    Now, the point. . . (and you’ve probably guessed it) I have occasionally found myself accused of racism—always, without fail, due to the fact that I am not the most “racially sensitive” person in the world. In other words, because I don’t treat other races very much different from my own, I’m a bad guy. I’m a racist. It’s a strange world we live in. I always thought that to treat other races any differently would be the very definition of racism. I still think so.

    I was watching an episode of survivor a while back (don’t ask me why). A guy got into an argument with a black girl and called her “ghetto trash”. Yikes. Well, the black guy on his tribe was so enraged that he campaigned to have Mr. Racist voted off immediately—and, inevitably, he got his wish. When I heard the phrase, “Ghetto trash,” I had a racist thought. Yes, I had an instinctive racist reaction, according to dictionary definition, for the first time in my life. I thought, “Oohh, faux pas, what a dumbass,” knowing that the black guy would react exactly as he did.

    Words cannot express how much that upset me. I suddenly realized that I have now come to expect black people to overreact and play the race card at every opportunity.

    Anticipation of this is, ironically, what saves me from being called a racist. Yes. . . the only way I can avoid the dreaded label is to actually BE a racist. Walk on eggshells. Treat them like children. That way, I’m not a racist, at least in the public perception. But then I’m a racist on the inside.

    Well, to hell with that. I’m sorry, people. . . I refuse to play along.

    I’m pretty well convinced it is our current fixation on racism that keeps this BS alive. The only racists I’ve met in person are those who coddle members of another race. As far as I can tell, the evil racism we’ve heard so much about is virtually nonexistent. Maybe it’s just ‘cause I live in Canada. The most racist thing I’ve ever heard would be one of my buddies ranting about the “damn pakis” answering the phone at X company. He’s hearing impaired, can’t understand their accents, and therefore can’t get any customer service. Yeah, he’s such an a-hole for being frustrated. Let’s chase him into the windmill and burn him.

    Folks. . . Racism is BS.

    I’m going back to my roots, the core tenants of my unholy faith (Peace): I don’t care who you are. I’ll treat you the same as everyone else—with as much respect as I can manage without giving myself an ulcer.

    I’m telling you, the only way to defeat this beast is to simply not care. It’s like the monster in the closet. When you hear that creepy rattling and the doors start to creak and shiver and your heart starts pounding and your bladder lets go. . . just say, “You’re not real, you’re not real, you’re not real, you’re not real!” Make the sign of the cross if it gives you comfort. Wear a crystal pendant enchanted by your psychic aunt. Whatever works for you. Just don’t give in!

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  1. Irish87
    THANK YOU, Kas! You're giving me hope here.

    I've always found it strange that we honor groups of people for a few days, a week or maybe even a month, and then continue living our lives, ignoring them completely. Think of Earth Day, for example. For twenty-four hours some of us devote our lives to helping Mother Nature by NOT buying gas, and then the next day, when Earth Day is over, we fill up our SUV's.

    What bothers me the most about all of this racist garbage (and I do agree that it is BS) is that I cannot be proud of who I am. For the most part, obviously, I am Irish and for twenty-four hours once a year I am able to celebrate it thoroughly. I go to my church and I sit there with my family, praying and reading from the bible. While I'm not religious or particularly fond of Jesus, I must admit it is a proper way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Unfortunately, I am informed by my friends that the real Irish celebrate it by getting drunk and passing out in the streets. So I try to celebrate my German heritage, to which I am informed I am a Nazi or a skinhead.

    So I can't honor my Irish heritage the way I want because I'm not doing it the American way and if I learn how to speak German I am immediately considered icky by my non-German friends. You know, cause we all knew Hitler. We hung out with him in the Eagles Nest, often times sharing our recipes for strudel and mustard gas.

    So I agree with you, Kas. I always have, actually. Well, alright not necessarily with you, but with the idea of indifference. The only time I ever questioned it was after reading Elie Wiesel's novels. The opposite of love is not hate, but rather indifference... or something like that. So while indifference may cause a holocaust with a few German nuts, I'm fairly certain I won't be burning down any churches or sending the Jews to the ovens. Granted, if I go to any Oktoberfest festivals I am immediately labeled as someone who might.

    Nice blog entry, by the way. Gives me a bit of hope for the future. Not much, but some.
    Irish87, Nov 5, 2009
  2. DragonGrim
    Great blog! Wasn’t boring at all. More of an essay actually, and a good one. Read my blog I’m posting kinda in reply. Though it is more of a look at racial politics in general and not aimed at you directly.
    DragonGrim, Nov 5, 2009
  3. jonathan hernandez13
    I cannot disagree more with anything that you or the commentators have said.

    Racism is very real, it is not BS, nor is it a matter of political correctness.

    If you deny that racism exists in the present, as it probably has for most of human history, then you are either intellectually dishonest or willfully or otherwise ignorant.

    I want to mention that I think its ironic that most of the people who think racism is BS are often white males, because most colored people and women have either experienced discrimination firsthand or know someone close who has (go tell a Jew to forget the holocaust, tell them to just get over it or move on or stop bringing up something that happened in the past). Stop living with white guilt, you have nothing to feel guilty about, but you obviously do.

    And we cant lie to ourselves and say that we havent heard and told racsts or sexist jokes, because when I see you in the bathroom or locker room...yup, we say them all the time and look over our shoulder to make sure that there are no niggers around before you tell the most disgusting nigger joke you can think of.

    You dont do that because its PC to check before making what could be considered a very offensive joke or obligatory comment, you do it because you cant do so without feeling a little guilty. You actaully want to blame the colored people for taking offense to that? That's called blaming the victim.

    Now I can admit that racist jokes are funny, and that I say them, and I can laugh at hispanic jokes and have Black friends that laugh at black jokes. But we dont laugh because we "think its true" or any of that crap. We are actually laughing because to us the idea that anyone stuid and ignorant enough to think of such jokes are pure human trash and probably too cowardly to tell the jokes in the face of a minority.

    If you think that racism doesnt exist, conduct and experiment. Darken your skin, like the author of the book "Black like me" did, walk down the street of a predominantly white neighborhood, and see if people treat you differently. And by the way, even if you say they dont, you still cant prove racism doesnt exist, because there's a wealth of data that shows otherwise.

    You guys have made a categorical error, you equate believing something strongly with knowing something for certain. You feel racism is BS and therefore conclude that it is...wrong. You need to be corrected on that, so look up the history of the southern states for the last fifty years, especially the pictures of black people at civil rights riots being mauled by police dogs, and ask yourself if those werent racially motivated.

    You may say that that was in the past, but there are many people alive today (on both sides) who participated. People do not just stop hating overnight because black people are all of a sudden, I dunno, allowed to drink at the same water fountain as a white. Some hate is very deeply entrenched and takes years to shake off. One way of doing that is by acknowledging that it did and does still exist. By denying that you are shielding the racists from criticism and giving them a free pass.

    Shame on you.

    In closing I would like to say that the whole issue of there not being a way of celebrating white pride is a red herring and a lie sir. Anyone can be proud of being Irish, and anyone can admire Irish culture. Thats why Hispanics like me and user Marcelo can and do study celtic mythology and I often refer to myself as a celtophile.

    Its not like at my old college an official school holiday was Octoberfest, started by a German-American, designed to celebrate German culture and customs.

    Its not like there are Italian and Portuguese American clubs in my neigborhood - oh wait no, there are. White people are allowed to be proud, stop crying wolf while pointing fingers at the minorities for everything wrong in your life.

    Denial of racism is almost as bad as denying the holocaust.
    jonathan hernandez13, Nov 12, 2009
  4. Kas
    Jonathan, you're entitled to your opinion, and I encourage anyone to comment however they choose to here. I don't feel it would be productive for me to debate the point with you, though. Thank you for posting, in any case. I value all input. I will say that I've never really understood most race jokes, so I don't tell them, and can't relate to that, unfortunately.

    DragonGrim and Irish, thank you for your warm comments.:) I'm glad the piece was meaningful to you.

    I've been meaning to read your blog, Dragongrim, but I haven't had the time to fully delve into it yet. I'll let you know when I do.
    Kas, Nov 12, 2009
  5. ojduffelworth
    Racism is obviously alive and well in America at least – isn’t that obvious – after all much of the country celebrated the election of a new president purely because of the colour of his skin!
    ojduffelworth, Nov 14, 2009
  6. Kas
    Agreed. It's a minor form of racism, though, and mostly owed to the fact that people don't want to be branded as racist. And that is partly due to the American media obsession, constantly telling people that that the country is overrun by racist a-holes. So people become racist in order to avoid the label. The cat chases its tail. The only way not to be a racist, IMO, is to disregard the matter entirely, to be indifferent. Stop that stupid cat before it kills itself.
    Kas, Nov 14, 2009
  7. Kas
    Jonathan, I know I said I wouldn't debate the point with you, but after rereading your comment, I found something that wasn't a straw man. This, I think, might go somewhere interesting.

    Richard Dawkins is a world-renowned scientist and author, famous for his stance against religion. Many right wing talkshow hosts have been known to invite him onto their show, just so they can tear him a new one. Regardless of how the conversation goes, Dawkins only smiles, because he has already won. He has succeeded in spreading his message and selling more books. What his critics fail to realise is that to criticise is to popularise.

    Are there real racists out there who truly hate? Of course there are some. They are beneath contempt, beneath notice or recognition, lower than maggots and unworthy of the contents of my colon.

    You say I give them a shield, and shame on me. I say, shame on you for feeding the trolls.:rolleyes: How do you get rid of a troll on an unmoderated forum? How do you ensure they stay?

    I see the true racists as a politcal faction. A political faction grows directly in proportion to the amount of attention they receive. Give them no nourishment, and they shrivel up and die.

    Look at the current media coverage of "black face." A very few people are fighting for the right to go black face. Others think the "art" is racist no matter how you slice it, and therefore it should die. I find both sides equally annoying, but that is beside the point. Given the media coverage on this, I can guarantee you that many, many, many more people will take up "black face," just because it has become a cause to fight for. Had it not been covered, it would have continued to die as it has been dying for many years. Now we'll see a minor resurgence. That is the result of your criticism--revival, continuation, expansion.

    To my way of thinking, it doesn't matter what is idealistically right or wrong. What matters is the ultimate result of our actions, our responses, our words. If the result of your positive intent is a negative, then your intention is irrelevant.

    I believe we both have the same intentions. But my concern is and always will be for positive results, and not for merely being seen to do/say/think a positive.
    Kas, Nov 15, 2009
  8. jonathan hernandez13
    "Racism is obviously alive and well in America at least – isn’t that obvious – after all much of the country celebrated the election of a new president purely because of the colour of his skin!" - ojduffelworth

    That comment was some kind of clever quip, but I'm struggling to see what it is exactly that you're trying to say. Racism is real, yes, and it is obviously not just confined to one nation, that is the US, because hate has no national boundaries.

    It is a false statement that much of the country celebrated "the election of a new president purely because of the colour of his skin!"

    1)Some people celebrate every time a new President is elected because they enjoy the democratic process and not having dictators in office.

    2)Some people were so dissatisfied with the last president that they would have gladly welcomed a Parrot as President.

    3)The color of his skin was obviously not the sole reason for celebrating his election, although it is a sign of improvement because many people would often jokingly say that there would never be a black president in their lifetimes.

    And obviously, his skin color is not necessarily a cause for celebration, considering that at least two white supremacists attempted to assassinate him before he even took office. Yes, racism is very real my friend.

    @Kas

    Thank you for the quasi-backhanded compliment Kas. I would like to think that there was at least one good point in my diatribe and as few Straw Mans as possible, if any. However, I shall leave that alone in the good spirit of debate.

    Troll: In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room or blog, with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional response[1] or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.

    In this case, I believe that the Troll/Racist comparison is a very poor analogy. Firstly, no matter how much you ignore a racist, racism will not go away. And even if we ignore the fact that the two have completely different intentions and motivations, racists do not derive power from attention.

    Certain hate groups like the Aryan Brotherhood have begun to fund their organization through organized crime much like the mafia. The AB would certainly not mind it if more people ignore them, they welcome it, the less people know about their activities the better.

    They do not need popular support, and cannot get it. They can certainly use propaganda to popularize their position, but by its very nature white supremacy is so morally repugnant that it will only appeal to the minority of any given population. They do not need to be popular, if they acquire enough power they can have members infiltrate other orgnaziations and wreak more havoc on the infrastructure within a system than they could from without.

    Black face is a silly topic that relates to the topic of racism, but just because black face is a silly topic does not mean that racism is a silly topic. That would be a false syllogism. It is an art form, but a condescending art form, just think of how silly it actually is. Why paint a white model with black paint when there are already black models? Do not confuse the trivial issue (black face) with the serious underlying issue (racist conceits).

    Also, criticism of racism does not lead to things like Black Face, I could easily argue that a few Capitalistic cosmopolitan fashion elites came up with the idea, and would have done so regardless of how much water we throw on the fire because some people who ignore it are soaking up the water with their ignorance.

    But we dont need to analyze the present to study the black face phenomenon, if it is true that by giving marked attention to it that it will lead to its popularity, lets go back in time before the civil rights movement and race consciousness. Was Black Face less common back then? Of course not. Not only was it much more popular then, but it was done without criticism and lead to stereotyping, type-casting, and other things that most people with common sense would consider defamatory in nature if not highly offensive.

    Your solution is to ignore the new black face phenomenon, fine, as will I. For different reasons of course. You see, I am not worried for a second that it will get out of hand and return us to the days of Minstrel shows and racists cartoons, and that is because people who think as I do are watching the media like a hawk for developing trends and attitudes. Again, Black Face itself is a form of art, and defended by the constitution, but is is culturally backwards, inherently offensive, and indicative of racist notions. If anyone cannot see that they have yet to have their consciousness raised.

    If the media is attempting to elicit an emotional response from you through their brazen portrayal of these painted models, it naturally elicits from rational people the contrary response. Instead of behaving emotionally we raise an eyebrow and laugh internally at the stupidity of the players involved, but that is an issue completely removed from racism itself even if it is closely related.

    I agree that what is idealistically right is less important that what is pragmatically correct. Pragmatically we can analyze bigoted ideas and notions, we have a model in Nazi Germany of what bigotry combined with scapegoating can accomplish in just one lifetime. Ultimately, if we ignore the racists and fail to acknowledge their actions, and if we fail as a species to address them, we give them the license to commit future atrocities and genocides. And we would become a poorer species for it, and shame on us for allowing such to happen when we have already seen it happen before while doing nothing.

    The results of my actions are not negative, they are useful in identifying the bigots and those that are completely ignorant of how they can manifest themselves. It is useful in identifying the collective enemy of humankind, it allows us to shine a spotlight on them and smoke them out of their hiding holes. If we were to wholly ignore the Skinheads for example, and fail to make note of crimes that were racially provoked or motivated, then we fail to identify if it becomes a trend statistically.


    I don't think that we have the same intentions at all, perhaps ultimately we would like to see an avoidance of conflicts (which race supremacists actively seek on all manner of scales). However, by ignoring a problem it does not always disappear.

    By ignoring a cancerous tumor, for example, we give ourselves a death sentence.

    When I make note of how the anti-illegal demonstrators use a softened form of hate speech, many critics of what is considered a liberal position roll their eyes and say that it's not a big deal. And yet, for some reason, we are beginning to see a rise in violent crimes against Hispanics in certain parts of the United States, particularly in the southwestern states, where immigration both legal and illegal is significant.

    http://www.civilrights.org/publications/hatecrimes/hispanics.html

    http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2008/12/13/2008-12-13_a_rally_cry_for_latino_immigrant_killed_.html

    http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2008-11/2008-11-25-voa1.cfm?moddate=2008-11-25

    If more people had paid attention to the demonstrators, who are butchering their freedom of speech and demonstration rights and turning it into a xenophobic witch hunt, perhaps fewer of these hate crimes would have occurred.

    If you are truly a rational person who can critically analyze a situation without any kind of bias, emotional or otherwise, I invite you to investiagte the reports. I challenge you to ask yourself if racism is just BS, just a political bargaining chip, or if it is an epidemic of human society that needs to beaddressed and dealt with. And ask yourself if the best way to deal with this problem is by shrugging our shoulders, ignoring it, and telling minorities to "get over it".

    "no one ever expects the Spanish Inquisition"     - Monty Python
    jonathan hernandez13, Nov 15, 2009
  9. Kas
    (Had to shorten some of your quotes due to character limit of 10k)
    Here, I think we are talking of two different things. Extremist groups are a different can of worms. I agree that they all need to be stopped, whether they be killers of abortion doctors, religious zealots, anti-religion haters, homophobes who gather to assault gays, or whatever. Any members of such groups deserve prison at the very least, and I agree that they should not be ignored. On the other hand, this is police business and/or a matter of national security first and foremost. These groups are often used symbolically to manipulate the masses, generating fear when most people have little reason to fear. You could probably call the Aryan Brotherhood a terrorist group (not that I know anything about them--not being an agent of law enforcement, I pay little attention to extremists).

    So, while the relevant authorities certainly should be concerned and aware, and most importantly, should take action against these people, it would only further the agenda of said extremists to "terrorise" the public at large with constant media reports that make it seem as if the Aryan Brotherhood is in your backyard. Besides, it makes people paranoid, resulting in fingers being pointed where they should not be.
    I wholeheartedly agree. The best that they can hope to accomplish, I think--indeed, probably their only real goal--would be to terrorise minorities through the ever-attentive and diligent media, who so kindly accomodate them.
    Yes, but trivial issues are the most common, and when I wrote this blog, I was speaking of the common forms of racism, not the very real, very dangerous, extreme variation that appeals only to a miniscule minority of the questionably sane.

    I also realise that non-violent, yet still repugnant "racial conceits" do exist. Those are the people I suggest we ignore, as their twisted views do relatively little harm until we amplify their voices for them, spreading their message far and wide to all the far corners of the earth. You can liken this to the media coverage of terrorism. Without media coverage, few would be terrified, and there would be little to no point to killing yourself in the name of a cause, or killing blacks to terrify blacks. As it stands, all terrorist groups of any stripe know that if they can execute a crime of sufficient magnitude, their deeds will be broadcast all over the globe, causing millions to shake in their boots. It is a very enticing reward we grant--an ironclad promise of payout on delivery that few extremists can resist.

    Bigots also shout all the louder, the more attention we give them. Consistently ignore a bigot, and he feels less important. I have had personal experience with this and I can attest to the effectiveness of my claim. For some time, I wore a fancy jacket that someone had bought for me as a gift. It drew the attention of many a homophobe. I've been shouted at on the street, called a "****ing homo," been barked at, even had someone spit at my feet. I don't even acknowledge their existance any more. I take the stance of supreme arrogance.:p "Worm. . . you are beneath my notice. Slighter hither now. Off you go." And so they do. When the man spit at my feet, I did not even look down. I met him a second time and then a third, and on both occasions, he ignored me, just as I did him.
    Criticism of black face does lead to more black face, though. People don't like to be told they can't do something, and like teenagers, they rebel.
    Things are very different now. Today, most people have evolved beyond racism, and yet these egalitarian types are made to feel guilty by those who invoke images from the past to aid them in their own selfish agendas (politicians, reporters, talk show hosts, whatever). Talking about racism won't directly create more racists. It will, however, encourage the attention-seekers who thrive on your low opinion of them. Those attitudes can die if you ignore them, because most of those people, like the guys who call me a "fag," are just looking for a fight. They quickly grow bored when you stop biting the bait. Keep biting, and they will continue to antagonise others until the day they die.
    Well said.
    I would never suggest that we ignore extremists, or anything that looks to be building up to extremist action, but when a man spits at my feet, I will most certainly ignore him, and not reward his stupid, ignorant, backwards, antagonistic antics in any way whatsoever.
    I agree that to repeat history would be (and is) a terrible failing of the human race.
    But, oh! how they love that spotlight!
    Yeah, a lot of people share your view. That's why some people glare at me and even--surprise!--spit at my feet when I shave my head. If I trade my fancy coat for a shaved head, I get almost equal aggression, from very different people. Paranoia and PC attitudes have lead them into merely different discrimination, not lesser, so I can't even have the (lack of) hair syle I desire without drawing fire. Now, that is stupid. Wouldn't you agree? I think a person should be able to do as he pleases with his own hair, and not automatically be lumped in with the criminally insane for doing so.
    I would like to have racism and all manner of unfair discrimination gone from the world. I think you feel the same.
    I'm sorry, but I can't resist. Please don't take this the wrong way, but (!) . . . my CT friend says exactly the same thing when he talks about the illuminati and their plans to simultaneously eradicate and enslave the human race.;)
    Can you not see how the constant reporting on this issue has lead to those attitudes? Most people wouldn't even be aware of illegals, wouldn't give them any thought, if they weren't constantly told, "The country is being overrun! Illegal hispanics are taking your jobs from you!" The media will always propogate racism by never ceasing, never failing to bring up the matter in a thousand different ways. Not a day goes by where you don't here something about race, and so long as that continues, I suspect American attitudes will never change entirely, because the thoughts are simply not permitted to leave your minds. Where I live, (small town, Canada) race isn't such a big deal, but gay people are. Our media reports more on gay people.

    I will check out those links you provided and offer more thoughts later. This is getting interesting.:D
    Kas, Nov 15, 2009
  10. jonathan hernandez13
    Had to split up my response into two halfs at least because of the length, srew you forum:mad:

    Part I
    jonathan hernandez13, Nov 16, 2009
  11. jonathan hernandez13
    Part II (I dont know why the hell I decided to break it up like this, or why I just didnt shorten your quotes like you did for mine. The logistics of this debate will become astronomical soon:eek:

    [I]
    jonathan hernandez13, Nov 16, 2009
  12. jonathan hernandez13
    Part III



    Please do, while you're at it research the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Black Like Me, and the autobiographies of either Martin Luther King or Malcolm X. You'll find that not only have racist notions been rampant throughout American history until the present but those notions played a role in politics right up until the present with topics like affirmative action.
    jonathan hernandez13, Nov 16, 2009
  13. Kas
    After all this, I think I finally have to admit that Americans have a kind of crazy I don't get. The only (possibly) near-equivalent crazy I'm familiar with--the only kind I observe where I live--is homophobia. Homophobes here are loud and proud, agressive and confrontational. They don't whisper in secret and construct devious plots to plant a guy within the government. They haven't the wit.

    I don't even know what the Aryan Brotherhood is, but if we have one (or some equivalent) in Canada, it would be like 10 harley riders in Toronto or something. If they tried to put on some kind of hate demonstration, it would be hilarious. They'd probably be chased away by a bunch of guys dressed as nuns, equipped with oversized bibles. Seriously. Stranger things have been known to happen in Toronto.

    Let me share a little story that may help illustrate the ever-apologetic, "I'm sorry!" typical Canadian's racial concerns.

    I used to work at a grocery store. One day, I was chatting with a cashier and a fellow courtesy clerk about some political issue I can't even recall now. I said, "It's a black and white issue," meaning, it's clear-cut, right or wrong, blah, blah, blah and etc. What else could it possibly mean? I certainly didn't know. . . until my two friends turned Nervous Nellie on me. You can probably guess what happened--black guy present. Suddenly, I grew horns and had my way with a cantelope, right there on the till. Or so you might have thought, if the looks of increasing discomfort directed at me were any indication.

    I think my friends were being racist in that moment, simply because they were able to misinterpret my words. When it comes to racism here, at least as far as blacks and most other minorities are concerned, that's pretty much the only kind there is. The imagined kind. We hear reports about the odd cop in a big city like Toronto being accused of racial bias, and then we get paranoid about it.

    Some Canadians have a problem with natives, but I think it's very different from what goes on in the states. The situation seems to be unique, so I've left it out of my blog up to this point. If you're interested in hearing about that, I could try to explain it. Even with the obvious discrimination against natives, though, there aren't any hate groups that I'm aware of. Canadians just don't take things that far. It seems utterly insane, to me. Alien. Bizzare.

    As for people spitting at my feet, Teapot only knows. It's happened twice in about four years. I notice when I went through my goth phase, nobody seemed to care about that at all. I never got so much as a single comment all year long. If you look like a total weirdo, it's all good, but if you look gay or nazi, watch out!

    And as for where I get my news. . . I don't usually watch American news, because, from what I've seen, it's all horribly biased one way or another and equally annoying. I do sometimes watch some American talk shows, like Real Time with Bill Maher, (my favourite) or the Tonight Show, Daily show, Letterman, etc. It seems they're always commenting on matters of race, pulling up some media footage they want to criticise. That's also annoying, to me, probably because I don't "get" your brand of crazy. If I want real American news, I find something to read--usually newspapers. I've only seen crap and comedy on TV, though maybe you can suggest something worthwhile. Whenever I've heard racism mentioned in American media, it's always petty and trivial, like the black face issue.

    When I started this blog, I was writing from a Canadian perspective. I can see that I'm out of my element, discussing American issues. You make it sound like your country is a hell-hole to be avoided at all costs. Surely things aren't really that bad?

    It may interest you to know that virtually every doctor in my town is from Africa or India. It's the only job field completely dominated by minorities. The majority of janitors and minimum-wage-earners, etc. are caucasian. The kind of prejudice you have in the states would be ridiculous here. I can't see anyone saying, "Death to doctors!":p
    Kas, Nov 16, 2009
  14. jonathan hernandez13


    AND at last you find the courage to make your final absurd straw man attack! The kind of prejudice we have hear exists in your neck of the woods too, the majority of which appears to be along the northen border of our country. It may be that it is less severe in your country, and that may be the case. But, that was not the title of your blog after all.

    You made an absurd claim and you've been corrected on it. And rather than admit that you were wrong your default fence-sitting defense is that Americans are the ones who are screwed up. If you would like to start a blog on THAT topic, you can be sure that I may opine to make a comment or two, and a score of corrections by extension.

    FIN
    jonathan hernandez13, Nov 16, 2009
  15. afrodite7
    WARNING: i am a black person ,think of that and what i have to say from my perspective.
    ---

    -racism is convenient really.example....africa has abundant resources and thats why africa is screwed; everyone wants some.
    -racism exists very well today and anyone who does not know this is in fact at a certain level of insanity.surely you can't deny something right in front of you?it makes no sense unless you're mad.that kind of indifference is nothealthy,ut affects one's persception
    -you see,racism is xenophobia;fear of what's different.come on,koreans and japanese don't love each other and the irish and british people don't always cuddle,and nigerians and the people of ghana ,there is no love!
    -thats xenophobia.racism occurs when the irish guy meets the nigerian guy and of course calls him a nigger and fears him taking his job,his women,and everything he worked for.and all the poor guy did was be there.he wasn't even worried about the irish dude either.
    -phobia is an irrational fear and racism is an irrational fear.

    -the world is racist ,and you know what that ,means?
    it means the world is full of ignorance and cowardice.
    and the racist fear isn't always a fear of the color,its fear of culture because that comes
    with race too.its fear of competition and the belief that this different person is an unknown threat,you know the devil you don't know..
    afrodite7, Nov 2, 2010
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