I feel a little strange. I feel strange because the world is forcing me to see color more than I want too. I want to be one of those people who dont see the lines or disparity - BUT unfortunately the people in power are making that nearly impossible.
Over the past few weeks I've seen quite a few things that made me think Dave Chappelle was right; everytime those politicians speak and say words like "Minority", they really just wanna say Nigga. Im seeing a chain of events thats occurring to further downplay the importance of the darker skinned american throughout history. It started out with the boy king movie NOT being played during black history month; something that used to be played every black history month. "Oh no we dont need to play that, they dont really wanna watch that anyway. Lets just put on another re-run of the Waynes Brothers. They like to laugh".
We went from that to it not being neccessary to apologize for slavery. With a response to our request that was basically a mockery of their request. Saying something to the affect of "We cant just go around apologizing for everything everybody did throughout history. And besides, I wasnt even alive back then". The bad part about it was that the general public went on a rampage about the topic in an ad on the AJC in which many people showed their true colors. Racism is pumping through the veins of many red blooded americans. I know a lot of people are going to say "You just now figuring that out?!?" but its different to know it some where deep in your mind versus hearing several people say it out of their mouths. I had a real Mario Winans moment - I dont wanna know. Suspecting it and seeing the monster face to face is a huge difference. BUT... We keep moving. Right after all of that we see a proposal for a month to celebrate the confederacy and its "integral" part in US history breeze through the powers that be without opposition. ????? Im speachless after that one..... but there is still more.
This Don Imus fella calls the Lady Rutgers basketball team "Nappy Headed Hos" and its another uproar. The station he works for loses two of its major advertisers during his show, one being Proctor and Gamble and the other escapes me right now, and Imus gets a mere 2 weeks suspension. Now normally, I could care less about what people say but then I had an "A time to kill moment". I asked myself "What if Imus was black and he referred to the Lady Tennessee Vols as 'Stringy Haired Hos' AND loss two main advertisers?!? What would have been his punishment then? I'll tell you. He would have been fired. I dont care how long he's been there. I dont care about his community service. I dont care about his past history. He would have been outta there that day. No debate on CNN. No meeting with the team. You wanna know how I know it's a double standard?!? Look at the Tim Hardaway situation. Tim Hardaway says he doesnt like homosexual people after being asked his opinion and he loses everything that even resembles a job; all endorsements - everything. Still not convinced?!? Look at the guy commentating the at that Florida Gator college football game when that fight broke out. He makes a statement something to the effect of "Thats what Im talking about. You bring that mess in the swamp and you get stomped".
Yeah.... Gone.
Anybody who even remotely tarnishes the image of the company is gone withouth question. There's no apologizing and getting your job back. There's no 2 week suspension. You are jobless.
The latest thing was the Corretta Scott King issue. Now while I think the legislator may have made a slightly extreme analogy by saying it was like calling Corretta Scott King a "nappy headed nigger" when they rejected her photo from being hung in the capital, she was who she was and she did what she did and if she was not a "nappy headed nigger", we probably wouldn't be having this conversation. BUT maybe Im wrong.... Maybe she WAS just another black lady, married to just another black man, who doesnt have his own national holiday, and maybe she didnt have 4 presidents at her funeral making speeches about her like the knew her personally when they probably didnt.
Truth be told, I dont wanna see any of this. I wanna feel like our world is perfect; like we have already gotten past all of this stupidity. But our ignorance as human beings make it impossible for ignorance to be bliss.
2 comments:
I feel what you are saying. You got a little deep on me! But I guess others dont see the world as we do!
well lil' brother, i hate to tell you this but the world ain't perfect. And whether we like it or not, we will ALWAYS see color and more importantly, so will "they".
The problem is that we can't see color and not let it affect our opinion or our first impression of the person behind that skin color. That's called a "stereotype" and we all have them. Me, you, Imus, Coretta Scott King, George W., Bill Clinton, Walter, Phyllis, Tasha, Mindy, John, Ryan, Jill, George Komer, Joe Johnson, Tyron Lue, Chauncey Billups, Rasheed Wallace, Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash and anybody else you can think of.
Get rid of that innate prejudice and we might make some progress.
ps.s - you asked for this.
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