I see your truuuuue colors shiiining through... (A post about racism)

I see your truuuue colors, and that's why I love you I sometimes wish you never had a thought in your head again.

Sorry for butchering your song, Ms. Lauper. But when it comes to true colors of certain Americans shining through this (and the 2008) election season, one only has to look to Twitter to find out how people really feel:

In case you were hopeful that Obama winning a second term was some kind of indication that racism doesn't really exist anymore, check out Twitter. The amount of hate speech, referring to the president as a "[n***er]," a "monkey," calling for violence and for the south to "rise again" was depressing—and eye-opening. Here is incontrovertible proof (as if we needed it) that racism isn't just some imaginary talking point invented by liberals, but an actual problem. What's sadder is that many of these Tweeters seem to be in high school, who don't have the flimsy excuse of being raised in "another time." If you believe the children are our future, then our future is fucked.

WARNING: Jezebel's post refers to several uses of the "N" word and other racist slurs directed towards our President by those in the Twittersphere. It literally made me sick to read one, much less the hundreds that I'm sure actually exist. Read at your own risk... and at the perils of your own sense of sanity.



I honestly thought my own friends and people with whom I communicate online were a bit better, a bit more tolerant. Obviously, some random Joe Schmoe who has a public platform from which he can spit out whatever fecal matter enters his tiny brain could air his thoughts to everyone, but I thought my friends -- and, by association, my friends' friends -- were somehow above all that.

Allow me to introduce K, who not only blew that theory out of the water, she completely obliterated it in the process.

(Ellen, by the way, is a friend of mine and has graciously allowed me to post this thread from her Facebook page. :))



It just goes on from here. Whoops, guess my bullshit meter is running on empty. I blame the Jezebel article. :P

This goes to show that, if anyone were ever to become complacent about select Americans' stances on racism, women's rights, equality, or other social topics, think again. There is constantly work to be done, and it can only improve with what we instill not only in ourselves, but in our children and our children's children.

For what it's worth, I'm completely serious when I say that one should have pride in their heritage. But as far as pride in a race as privileged as white, and the difference between that and Black pride, think of it this way: I'm fortunate to be able to trace my heritage back several generation, and probably further back if I tried.

For those who arrived here as slaves -- mere chattel, free (as opposed to hired) hands, torn from families both while in their native countries and while here in America -- the furthest back they can go is when they arrived here, and no further. There were no records kept about from where they came, who their families were, what their given names were. Just... they were here, and that's all. So they can't have Zimbabwean, Botswanian, Ethiopian, Kenyan, or other specific "prides". Instead, they have what they are: Black pride.

The difference lies in heritage ("Irish pride") versus supremacy ("white pride").

And let's face it. "White pride" is all around us, and tells of way more harm than good. It pervades our everyday lives, has a huge voice in our social and fiscal policies, and shapes how we all (even subconsciously) think about a neighborhood, group of people, and so forth. This "pride" stems specifically from one race's supremacy over another, and can be traced back to Neo-Nazis, KKK members, skinheads, and other white supremacists. There is no "nice" beginning to such pride.

To think that some don't understand the difference -- or who do but blatantly ignore it or try to say that this "pride" has some humanitarian root -- is disgusting. Even worse, when someone states that the problem with the world is that whites are the minority... I mean, if that doesn't make you a blatant racist, I don't know what does.

(Oh, and even better, K's eventual retort to my pointing out her racist and ignorant thoughts? " I know for a fact you wouldn't like to meet me in person." Good to know that your ideologies are based on violence. Sure explains a lot.)