ambientlight

Put a black man in your white house.
He's not there to steal your jewelry... he just wants your vote!
(Mad TV)

I am dismayed today... by the ugly turn our presidential campaign has taken. It seems that racism has reared it's ugly head. I was taken aback, when the Clinton Camp played the race card on a number of occaisions, but this new round of attacks on Sen. Obama and is wife has gotten truly disgusting! I was really hoping the ol' US of A, had finally evolved beyond that low-life willfull ignorance. Sadly... I'm wrong.

Like Dr. King, I too had a dream. And for some time, it seemed we may actually come to realize that dream. But now... it's seems we're actually de-evolving and our nation's psyche is spiraling into the abyss. I guess this should come to no surprise... this is the same nation that twice installed our ethically and evolutionarily challenged administration into the white house.

I have always been active in civl rights (as well as human and animal rights). I think I may have a particular motivation... my parents were KKK and indeed my step-father, was a captain in the Michigan Klan State Militia. I had heard th "N-word" all through my childhood... but I really had no idea to what (or actually to whom), this word refered to. With the venom my parents spat out that word... I figured it refered to some inhuman monster, that lived in the sewers and came up in the dead of night, to drag children away and eat them. When asked what the word meant, their vague answers served to confirm my fears. It never occured to me that his word actually refered to fellow human beings!

That is, until I was six and brought home my very first real best-friend. His name was Ajax... damn cool dude! He was a person of color, but somehow I didn't think of him as different... I just thought he had a really great tan. So, I had talked him up and my parents said I should bring him home for dinner. So I did... and boy, did the fit hit the shan. Suffice it to say... that the scene turned ugly and I learned what that word meant. There's more to that story, but...

Fortunately, Ajax's parents understood my predicament and I was allowed to hang at his house (secretly, of course). They educated me in black history and the nature of racism... and I was so embarrased, that I seemed to have the most unevolved parents on the planet. Since then, I vowed never to give in to that insipid ignorance and challenge it wherever I found it.

I enjoy a very muticultural circle of friends and because of this I had come to think that maybe we were indeed, solving the problem. And I have indeed, challenged racism wherever I have found it. I was even part of a number of civil rights organizations... but got dismayed when these organizations plummeted into corporate-style greed. Sigh! We're all human and as such, subject to the corruptions of money and power I guess.


Fast-forward to my current job. I run a photo center in a local drug store. We have a few white folk... and a number of asians and hispanics of varying backgrounds (no black people). I was surprised (shocked actually), when racism reared it's ugly head here. One white dude there uttered racial epiphets as easily as most people breath. We had constant arguments... I got rather agro actually. I went to the manager (who is of pure Aztec descent), who advised me to let it go. Fuck that! I went to corporate and had him sanctioned. He was written up and made to attend a "racial sensitivity" seminar. This is also the same dude who acted uh... "inappropriately" with women... I instituted similar actions.

But...
The thing of it is... that while I controlled his behavior, he never really got the point. And even further, I have learned that racism seems to be ingrained in almost everyone there. Everytime a black person comes into the store, you hear on the loudspeaker "security walk the floor!" He or she, could be dressed proffessionally and the call still gets made. The irony is... that almost all of the shoplifters we've nailed, have been white-trash! Yet... whenever a person of color comes into the store, the whole store goes into a fucking tizzy... (oh my god, there's a negro in the store!). This is true of the hispanics and asians as well as the afformentioned honky. Oddly, the only one's who don't seem infected by this disease are three of us white folk and one asian dude.

Then there's this new dude... a squat, pathetic wretch with more issues than National Geographic. My first clue was when he said he hated Oprah Winfrey. How can you hate Oprah Winfrey? I'm not into her talk-shows and all the hype, but damn... you gotta admire that woman for what she has accomplished with her life, given her humble beginings and all the good she does for others. But here's this dude... stamping his feet, eyes blazing... describing all the violent things he'd like to do her. Ho...kay...

Last week he and I were talking about Barak Obama... he said he was voting for McPain. I suggested that if he go online and compare their voting records and actual accomplishments he might have a different view. He simply said... "I don't care... no way I'm voting for a fucking n****r! I resisted the urge to deck him.


I am thankful for the friends I have in my life. I am thankful for the friends I have here at SG. I am greatful that I can find refuge from the idiocy, in these friends.

But otherwise...
I think I'm giving up. Ignorance knows no reason. Ignorance doesn't want enlightenment. Hatred feeds on itself, perpetuating itself... loving itself. A closed mind cannot learn.


It's pointless to argue with a clam.