Ok ok, so I've been lazy. Obama won. Yes, I'm very happy since I called this shit right after the 2004 Democratic National Convention. I have taunted and teased just about every republican I know.
But I wonder...are we really past the race issue?
So we are like the last country in the industrialized world to elect a minority candidate to it's highest office. That's not odd, this country is controlled by old, white men. They don't typically like outsiders in their club.
The real question is have the rank and file US citizens actually gotten past race? I would think "yes", but tonight while I was playing poker with friends, two things were passed around that made me wonder. First was a cell phone picture of Obama standing in front of the Capital and morphing into a monkey. The second was a joke that was text messaged around the table claiming the White House Rose Garden now has to be replaced with a watermelon patch.
Now I don't live in the deep south. I don't hang out with people who are generally carefree with racism or bigotry. But this shit is real, it's local and it's not gone.
So...are we really past it?
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Are we really past it?
Posted by Unknown at 10:34 PM
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 Comments:
Come on, just because America elected their first African-American President you thought racism was over in the good old boy U.S.of freakin' A?
Phil, old friend, do you have a lot to learn.
Plus, it doesn't matter where you live, dude. I live in NYC and I battle racism every damn day. I have learned to pick my battles.
Stupid is stupid, Phil - no matter how you slice it, it still comes out the same. Sometimes people don't even know they're scared. Talk to them - they might surprise you.
Dude, us normal people might be past it but the media sure isn't ready to let it go. Yesterday morning I opened up cnn.com and the big headline was something to the effect of America's First Black President.
The irony is, The US was the LAST G8 country to elect either a woman or person of color as their National Leader. Forget G8...they are one of the last countries in the industrialized world. I think it's great, I do, but they're still a day late and a few billion short
Slade - I know it's not gone, but I guess I was under the impression that most of it stayed down south with the true hillbillies. I just looked at one of the guys and said "racist motherfucker"
Cherry - I wish I could play guitar and shut off the world!
IML - it'll stop being news when people stop talking about it.
Sandi - yeah, for all our progressive shit, for all that "bring me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free" claims, this place is no better than anywhere else.
Someone at work showed me a text message similar to what you're talking about. I said "Wow... I didn't know you were a racist!"
When he tried to play it down, I said "Ya know, I'm from the south, but it took moving to South Dakota to run into real rednecks."
You gotta do like we did. Call them on it.
To be honest, I think that as long as having a black president elected is a big deal, racism is not over.
If it were no biggy, if everyone were as unamazed by it as if they have a white president elected, then there would clearly be no racism going on...
It's depressing how stupid people are.
Post a Comment