On New Year’s Eve I met a few friends for drinks after work. The racist asshole was there. And she decided to voice her political opinion. Now, I’m all for letting people have their opinions as long as I don’t have to listen to them. The problem with America is that people think freedom of speech means that they not only have the right to speak, but the right to be heard – and that whatever they are saying is important and should not be challenged.
Then don’t say it in front of me.
Within the space of ten minutes, I heard that Barack Obama took his oath of office on the Quran because he is a radical Muslim, and that he refused to place his hand over his heart while the National Anthem played.
And she said she wouldn’t vote for him because he was a goddamned nigger. She leaned over and whispered the last two words into my ear. Oh. My. God. Or should I say Allah?
I was so angry that all I could do was sputter. I told her that it was not true, asked her where the hell she came up with it and then told her not to vote for him if she didn’t want to, but if racism was her reason she should keep it to herself. What I should have asked is why she had to lean over and whisper that word if there is nothing wrong with it. Unfortunately I didn’t think of that in time and I left shortly after that. We’ve had that particular argument before and her only defense was that she used the word ‘nigger’ because she was raised that way. I’m sorry her parents did her such a disservice.
Part of my Capricorn Goat complex is that I am a very fair-minded person. When I hear something like that, I literally see red. It makes me so angry that I can’t even form a coherent argument and usually resort to something like, “That’s just STUPID! SERIOUSLY!” Then I stamp my feet and glare. It is essentially what I’m doing now.
Tonight I received the “Obama is a radical Muslim” email again, for about the zillionth time. My head actually spun 360 degrees on my shoulders. Before I go any further I should point out that I have no intention of voting for Barack Obama. I don’t agree with him on anything. But fair is fair and enough is enough.
Obama is a Christian. Maybe he’s not a “good” Christian, maybe he’s a horrible sinner, but he says he is a Christian. I don’t care if he’s an atheist. His religion doesn’t matter. But while you’re busy accusing him of being a Muslim, why don’t you explain to me what happened to religious freedom in this country? Why don’t you tell me exactly how this country was founded and why the First Amendment (the freedom of religion part, not the freedom of speech part) is so important?
As for not putting his hand over his heart while the Star-Spangled Banner was playing, please explain to me how that became a sign of his political/religious agenda rather than a simple breach of etiquette? I don’t always put my hand over my heart when I hear the National Anthem at a sporting event. Some men don’t remove their caps. Actually, I need to make a confession here. When I’m sitting at home watching something on television and I hear the National Anthem, I never put my hand over my heart. I don’t even bother to stand up. Should I retain my right to vote?
Check out snopes.com. Obama is number one in popular searches. That’s just the first place I looked to debunk this crap. I’m sure it’s all over the internet. All it takes is five minutes, a keyboard, a tiny amount of effort and one small spurt of brain power.
I drove behind a truck on the way home tonight. On the back window, there was a confederate flag decal that said: Heritage. Not Hate.
Oh dear. Just for the fun of it, I looked up ‘heritage’ in my trusty 1957 Webster’s dictionary. 1. Property that is or can be inherited. 2. A) Something handed down from one’s ancestors or the past, as a characteristic, a culture, tradition, etc B) the rights, burdens or status resulting from being born in a certain time or place.
Hmm. A confederate flag decal isn’t property to be inherited – unless the family is really, really poor. So that’s not it. Something handed down from the past … a characteristic, a culture, tradition, etc. Something like … I don’t know … an attitude? Like, um, racism? I’m just guessing here. I could be wrong.
Being southern is not a heritage.
Being American is.
I am in no way a supporter of Senator Obama’s plans and opinions. As he is one of the senators from my state I would say – being totally fair – he really does need more experience. We don’t even know if he’s done us any good yet, he was elected senator and we turned around and he’s running for President.
That said, I would do backflips and roll around laughing my fucking ass off if he got elected if only because of the conniption-fits that would send morons like your “whisperer” into.
I don’t know if that would be worth gritting my teeth over through the next 4-8 years while he was figuring out what the hell he was doing. But I might trade that just to see the look on her face, and the faces of people like her.
You have an excellent point. It would be tremendous fun to watch the crazies lose their minds if he were elected
If ever I run into this situation again, my new strategy is going to be to announce my support for his campaign and watch her (or whoever) flip out. Why didn’t I think of this sooner?!?!?!?!
Oh don’t you hate it when you think of the perfect come-back line and you’re 24 hours too late?!
We’re following your elections with great interest over this side of the pond, by the way ;o)
Penelope, if I think of a great come-back I try to remember it in case the situation happens again. The Obama thing will come up again and I will be ready for it. My dad would do that. He’d think of a great line and file it away … and it seemed like he always had the perfect retort.
Oh the burden of being white.
Unless College kids do what they never do (vote in November), Barack Obama will not be president this time around. There are too many people like your “friend” who could not bring themselves to vote for a black man.
Many people walk the walk, but in the privacy of a voting booth, the fear comes out, the hugeness of the implications becomes apparent, and the ideals go down the tubes. This is documented in polls that show a black candidate’s margin much greater before an election than the results show… Hell, it showed in New Hampshire.
One thing I dispise is racists thinking that just because you are friendly and white, that you must share their views. I hate it that when alone with other white people, they think they can spout the most hate-filled bullshit ever and it’s okay.
Young people today are blanketed from this stuff often. They live in a much more homogenous world than even I did. Every T.V. show makes it a point to have people of all races and both genders, and any sexual orientation. Remember “I’m Okay, You’re Okay”? That’s all of the media right now (except maybe the anonymous internet where people feel they can be as racist as they really are). It gives them a false sense that racism has gone away; that it is a thing from the past and not “now”.
Racism isn’t gone, it’s just underground because you can lose your job for saying things anymore, and so people just bottle up the stuff they were “raised” to say and only spout it at home. Just randomly “listen in” on a teen chat room some day. I guarantee there will be at leat one “I HATE (insert racial epithet here) within 15 minutes.
In a way, I feel like racism is more dangerous now than ever because people are denying it. We use the term “race card” when a minority questions racial feelings. We make racism something that wouldn’t be a problem if “they” would just “let it go”. Are things better than in the 60s? Hell yeah. Are we living in an equal society. Come on…
Here’s the modern American hierarchy as I see it…
Rich white men
Rich white women
Rich men of color
Rich women of color
Middle class white men
Middle class white women
Middle class men of color
Middle class women of color
Poor whites
Poor people of color
Poor Blacks and Hispanics
I hope that formatting works.
You knew I’d go off about this, didn’t you?
I always go off about this. I think I’m obsessed.
Finally, after all that. I still think that the rich white guy from the south still offers up the best chance for real change.
In response to Cowboy, you’re right that we don’t live in an equal society. But the problem is that very few people actually want “equality.” I’m going to use Affirmative Action as an example, because I worked for the Feds briefly and witnessed this in action. When you’re hiring a minority (black, hispanic, female, whatever… just not a white male) BECAUSE they are a minority, and because you have to meet your quota, you’re not giving them equal treatment. You’re giving them preferential treatment. You are, in fact, discriminating against the majority.
As long as we have “solutions” to racial equality like this in place, there will ALWAYS be the angry majority who feels slighted.
For someone raised in the South, I’m proud to be able to say that I’m not racist. I hate everyone equally.
Affirmative action was designed to be a temproary program.
Give the underrepresented jobs that they would not normally get, even if there are better qualified whites for a while to get them up in to the middle class, then allow that trend to carry itself out as their families and children by the merits of their better education start getting the benefits that a middle class white fafmily gets.
I think in a lot of cases it worked pretty well.
This is a common misconception of opponents to affirmative action (which is, for all intents and purposes dead, by the way). Whites feel threatened by the thought that they might work hard to achieve and then be passed over for someone else because of race
OH DEAR!!! Who has that been happening to for 200 years?
I don’t want to have a fight, but I disagree with you wholeheartedly.
Oh, I’ve gotten that “Obama is a radical Muslim” email from my numb-skull Christian friend. And the frightening thing is I have heard and seen it repeated as the gospel truth. People are so fucking dumb to take something they happen to hear as the verbatim truth. Can’t people check facts for themselves.
And that “American hierarchy” is not quite right, Cowboy, at least in say, wages. You do know that a black man makes more than a white woman for equal work? Where’s my equality!
Annie,
Sorry. My misogynistic nature, I guess. I was raised that way.
Kidding.
I think I was less talking about earning potential, and more about the hierarchy of worth that is pounded into our skulls from birth.
Have you seen the video of the little black girls having a choice between the black and white dolls and always choosing the white doll, and always identifying it as the “good” doll? That kind of thing.
Yes, Cowboy, I knew you’d go off about this
The difference between us is probably that in person, you would go off about it just the same as you did here. I called her on it but I didn’t pursue it. I think I should have. People like me who stand by and say nothing are big contributors to the problem.
I’m not going to get into the affirmative action thing because I kind of see both sides of it. I see how it was good … and I see how it didn’t work the way we thought it would. However, the idea that it’s okay to pass over whites for jobs because we’ve done it to blacks for 200 years is also wrong. That’s a tit for tat mentality that won’t fix the problem, either. In a perfect world, everyone would be hired based solely on qualifications. We aren’t there yet.
Sorry. My misogynistic nature, I guess. I was raised that way.
This made me laugh out loud. Thanks for that
Annie, this is why I want to win the lottery and buy an island … I will pay everyone equal wages to bring me pineapples and turn my beach umbrella to keep the sun out of my face.
Stuck, you hate some people slightly less than others. I know it’s true because you don’t hate me … you just dislike me intensely
Cap: I may have given it to her, but I have SOME tact. I know by now that people with those kind of attitudes rarely change them, and if I had to work with her on a daily basis, I might just remove myself from the situation. Ususlly, I only really go off on 1). my friends and family, or 2). complete strangers. I don’t want the awkward silence at work any more than anyone else does. I think people like your coworker that just say idiotic things like that are a dying breed (thank God).
Also, I used the tit for tat thing because it was good word play, not because I think that white people “deserve it” or anything. I don’t think it’s like that at all. More, I think it’s just one way for this country to make up for a lot of wrongs that were done to one particular race.
Don’t even get me started on what I think this country owes Native Americans.
If we start giving Native Americans anything, I think we should get our beads and shiny trinkets back. It’s only fair.
Oh geeze… I grew up with that sort of racist thinking and it pains me.
These comments have kept me very entertained for the past few minutes. Nice to see something other than hate on the internet today–even better, nothing is directed at me personally. Heh.
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