Today is the day set aside to honor Martin Luther King Jr. I still remember when it was announced that Mr. King would be thus honored. I heard a lot of really ignorant things said then and every year I hear them again. Some people think that we have moved away from that kind of thing or have made huge steps in doing so. These people, I am afraid, are deluding themselves. I hear as much hate speech now as I ever did, all you have to do is listen. It hasn't gone away, it's just gotten less bold.
I hear it in the workplace, on the street, in stores, anywhere that people talk. Open your ears and you'll hear it too and it's important that you do hear it because ignoring it or thinking that it doesn't exist is an extremely dangerous thing. Just today I heard, in several places from people that thought they were free from intruding ears, people say things like how wrong it was that "the blacks have a holiday" and how having a day for MLK Jr. "makes the niggers cocky" and "It's not like he fucking did anything important" and how this was just one step in "the niggers taking over." From there it was a short trip for several of these groups going to their other obvious favorite targets of hatred including:
Hispanics, "They're everywhere like fucking roaches" despite the fact that whites remain the majority in this country.
Gays, "We should be allowed to fucking kill them" and "I don't want my kids to see that shit, it's wrong" though apparently subjecting these same kids to rampant bigotry everyday is fine.
Muslims, "They're all a bunch of terrorists" and "We should bomb the entire middle east back to the stone age."
And so on. You get the point I'm sure.
This is the 21st century and this kind of thing is still going strong. I don't know whether to be furious or to curl into a ball and weep. How does this kind of thing still exist? How does a level of pure willful ignorance so enormous manage to keep going? These people are insanely hate filled for the most idiotic reasons and for some reason they are exceedingly proud of their own race/whatever. Here's the thing kids, if you're proud of your race, what you're really proud of is the fact that your parents were smart enough to figure out how to fuck. Congratulations, your mother and father are as smart as dung beetles. Woohoo.
How does a person hate another person because the skin they are wrapped in is a different color or because they have sex with people that the other person isn't attracted to or because they come from a place outside the imaginary line that someone drew around the landmass they live on? When I ask the bigots for clarification they get flustered and either backpedal away from their own bigotry or get defensive and spout even more stupid things that make zero sense.
When a man has this dream in his heart:
"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers."
How can that man and his dream be so hated? How can there still be so much bigotry? How is it that it still exists at all? How can one look at another and hate them for reasons that don't even begin to make sense? I have a dream too. My dream is that one day not too very far in the future, our children or our children's children will look back on this time and be ashamed. Ashamed that their parents or their grandparents had so much ignorance in them. Ashamed that we were unwilling and unable to find joy in our differences and instead found hate.
My dream ends in the same place that Mr. King's does:
"And when this happens, When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" 
3 comments:
It takes a long damn time. A long damn time. And it pisses me off. Even now, it's "okay" somehow to elbow another white guy after someone turns around and mutter something about "niggers." Fuck you, asshole, that's my friend.
And somehow even people who don't think it's okay to discriminate based on skin color think it's okay to discriminate on someone for their sexual preference? Come on, give me a break.
I grew up in a small southern town. My school was basically split down the middle, white and black, with a smattering of other ethnicities mixed in here and there. I remember when the Rodney King fiasco happened, and all the rioting was raging everywhere. They posted armed cops all over my school. There wasn't a single fight. We were all friends, and we were all angry. I was very proud of the community I belonged to that day.
Flash forward to today. I live in a larger city, with the relative anonymity and insulation against human contact that entails. People seem to think that gives them permission to act like assholes. I can't believe the shit I hear sometimes. This is a city. There are three very good schools within a stone's throw. This place is supposed to be enlightened.
I have an uncle who's extremely racist. He frequently starts stories with the phrase "I know Billy hates this word, but..." Fuck you. If you have the presence of mind to preface your story that way, then you've got the presence of mind not to say it.
I know my kids are going to encounter this shit one day. They haven't yet, but it's going to happen. There's still too much of it in the world for them not to. I have a friend who is Chinese. I have a friend who is Indian. I have a number of black friends. One of my best friends is gay. When it inevitably comes up, I figure I'll tell them to think about whoever, and really search their heart, and tell me if they really think there's anything wrong with that person. I hope they understand... people are people.
There's too many people worth hating for personal reasons to start generalizing based on stupid criteria.
I know more than a few people that will rail against one kind of bigotry and then turn around and display another kind and completely fail to see it even if you explain it to them. It makes my head hurt in new and interesting ways.
My personal favorite are the dumbasses who say something to the effect of "Why do the blacks have their own history month? There isn't a white history month."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't every month white history month?
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