carved angel

[tv|ego trip's race-o-rama: in race we lust - vh1]

gah, why does race have to be such a big deal?? i've been watching the above show, and it's kind of depressing. and when i first saw a picture of dad's girlfriend, the first thing i thought was, "wow, she's really cute! how did dad manage to end up with someone that good-looking?" which was then followed by, "ya know, i hope no one gives them any trouble." i do think they'll be okay. it seems like most racist people just keep it to themselves nowadays. mostly.

just watching these shows and the depictions of different races on tv throughout time, though, makes me wince. it's a difficult line to walk, in some ways. on the one hand, it would be nice if people could see beyond color and stereotypes. on the other, if everyone were "colorless" they'd miss out on their history and heritage. and while you have your crazy kkk racists, you have your liberal apologists, which can be embarrassing, too. let's face it, most white people have no idea what it's like to be black. or of any other race for that matter. so to claim something like that just sounds ignorant. also, in my case, my family is -- with the exception of my nana's grandmother -- completely european. english, danish, and polish-jewish. and we didn't arrive in this country til the 20th century, none of us in the south. so i doubt we owned slaves. but, as sohei will point out, white people are the cause of a lot of problems, in a lot of places, throughout history. we're evil, he says. so i'm sure there are some atrocities lingering in my family's past. i don't like when people use generalities, but i can't get all defensive and offended when another race feels disenfranchised due to something my race did. i am not my race, and there's more to me than that. but that goes for everyone. i just think it's funny when left-leaning people get all bent out of shape when a black person makes fun of or accuses them of something. because they're "more enlightened" somehow. i will repeat that i think generalizing is pretty much crap. still, you see that so much these days. "i'm pissed that you're calling me racist, or prejudiced, because i never did anything to you." that's an understandable sentiment. but it's completely possible that you did something to this person indirectly. like getting into college, getting a job, or even getting a much sought-after house or apartment, in their place. because you're white. no, it wasn't your choice. and you can't help that you were born white. but in this society, whether you want to admit it or not, being white gives you a definite advantage. i know that pisses a lot of people off. there are a lot of people that insist that there's no more racism in the good ol' u.s. of a. sorry, but that's a damn lie. and if it upsets you that much to hear, and you're in such denial, then you're a little disconnected from reality, maybe.

i saw this a lot in the aftermath of katrina. people would insist that it wasn't a race issue. bull. shit. no, the hurricane didn't choose to "attack" poor black people. (by the way, if you're one of the people that chose to refute my statement with that, in any number of arguments i had after the disaster, you're an idiot.) but our government chose to ignore them.

"What I'm hearing which is sort of scary is that they all want to stay in Texas. Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (chuckle) – this is working very well for them." –Former First Lady Barbara Bush, on the hurricane evacuees at the Astrodome in Houston, Sept. 5, 2005

"You simply get chills every time you see these poor individuals...many of these people, almost all of them that we see are so poor and they are so black, and this is going to raise lots of questions for people who are watching this story unfold." –CNN's Wolf Blitzer, on New Orleans' hurricane evacuees, Sept. 1, 2005

(i was chatting with juchan on aim when i saw him say this, firsthand, and i remember juchan saying, "wtf?? is he going to get fired for that?" no, he just said something stupid. and if you could get fired for that, bush wouldn't be president anymore.)

"We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did." –Rep. Richard Baker (R-LA) to lobbyists, as quoted in the Wall Street Journal

"But I really didn't hear that at all today. People came up to me all day long and said 'God bless your son,' people of different races and it was very, very moving and touching, and they felt like when he flew over that it made all the difference in their lives, so I just don't hear that." –Former First Lady Barbara Bush to CNN's Larry King, after King asked her how she felt when people said that her son "doesn't care" about race, Sept. 5, 2005

"A young [black] man walks through chest deep floodwater after looting a grocery store in New Orleans..."
"Two [white] residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store after Hurricane Katrina came through the area in New Orleans..." –captions at Yahoo News, Aug. 30, 2005

we, as a country, won't be able to eradicate racism until we're willing to admit that it's a problem. until then, we'll keep walking around with our eyes shut, fingers in our ears, getting pissed off when someone dares to point out how unfair the status quo is. and nothing will ever change because "there's no problem."