Enjoying racism in a solipsistic way.
I am really sick of racism. It really shouldn’t exist at this point, every war has been fought, and there isn’t any reason why a person born after 1975 should be subject to racism. Everything anyone could teach you about how one race is different from another is wrong. Sure, there are truths to stereotypes now and again, but the whole thing is incorrect because if religion has taught us anything, it is that over-arching truths do not exist.
I mean, racism should be over at this point.
But whenever an event in this country flares up in the news, it’s tied back to racial preconceptions. The whole immigrant debate isn’t just about people from South of the border, there are millions of Asian and Indian people who are screwed by the same system as Mexicans and El Salvadorians. But the minute people waved Mexican flags at rallies it became about Mexicans, and the venom started to flow out of everyone.
The Mormon leader Jeffs from Utah, is of a religious sect that only their people uphold. But invariably, it comes back to white people being so repressed about having sex, and in order to have sex with 15 year old girls, they create a religion. Puritanism at it’s best, even if they have COLD (Latter Day) warping their minds.
There are parts of me that lean towards racism in moments. Whether it’s in my hotel, as I pass next to a worker and he asks: “How are you my friend,” and I answer, “tired and with a headache,” only to have him answer, “Fine, Fine.” Maybe it’s the black guy who never shows up on time. Maybe it’s the white boss who says every criticism with a smile to not offend.
You see these tropes, and it’s hard not to revert to basic societal setups. It’s easier to dismiss the whole instead of the shortcomings of one individual.
The upside of working in a multi-ethnic town like LA is that you don’t work within your race. I had never worked with El Salvo’s or Guatemalan or Brazilians or Laotians before. And I had barely worked with black people as well. As soon as you get to know them, you know that the whole face of racist thoughts is only a visual sense, and easily rendered worthless.
There was a young black girl who used to work at my hotel, and all things being, she was our best cashier in terms of performance. She knew the system, she could handle stress, and she remembered the VIP’s and frequent guests. Occasionally she would let an Ebonic type phrase slip out, yet we stood by her because it wasn’t about the grammar slips, she was as good as we could get. Yet she got fired because she was warned, disciplined, suspended, and then terminated because she kept cursing around customers. The easy point would be to say she was fired because she was “too ghetto” slash “too ethnic.” It’s not incorrect to say she was fired because she acted “too black” but the real reason was she was immature. It was her youth, and inexperience that cost her the job, and while other factors may have played to her dismissal, it was immaturity above all, a lack of growth to know when and where. That's a distinction I would not have made when I was 15, or 19 (her age) and it was a downside for both.
Outside of work, it’s a different thing and it falls back to the sight instinct. Part of comes from the mindset one takes when they go out to a public forum (the whole Shakespeare Life’s a stage thing), where people are in their private persona and life. The difference of the work mindset (where you know the people and not the ethnicity) vs. the public (where that black guy may be a gangster and so on) always plays terribly to the unknown, and while it can be the same in a one race town –where it’s age, or clothing style, or general persona-vibe- the difference is the book’s cover. In a flare up of fear, anger, or intimidation, that’s where we as humans go.
It is in these public areas when racism can sprout from roots. They are seeded in all Americans, it merely takes hate to let the flowers bloom. Flareup’s don’t happen at work don’t happen just because of race nowadays. They may have in the 50’s and 60’s, but not now. But when a group of Abercrombies meet a group of Izzle’s and someone bumps shoulders, the fight is going down more out of racial tension than property. We let ourselves be fueled by it in the bad moments.
And you know what. We as men HATE this. I don’t like reverting to racism. I think less of myself when I admit it, and I judge people less for saying statements out loud when they have spite behind them.
Because if there is a fight between black and white guys, (or any group vs. another, and in most cases, it’s the most feverous of the two squaring off) the rest of the group is trying to stop the fight, not add to it. And in most situations, the equality levels out at the end. Maybe it’s the male test to qualify manhood vs. another, but when done is done, most underlying hatreds are gone because we find out the similar truth beneath. Maybe that’s in the best sense, but as soon as real dialogue is opened, people realize they are one of the same, and we are not the real enemy.
Men hate racism. We hate doing this because we know it’s all impulse and not reality. Through competition we know there isn’t much difference. We trust our teammates in sports because they are with us in the trenches.
And when it comes down to a skirmish we hate when someone crosses the line.
As soon as someone says: Nigger, Spick, Charlie, Whitey, etc, it’s the “go get your shine box” moment. You can’t turn away, the gauntlet has been thrown, and we know we shouldn’t, but it’s a matter of facing torment from friends or facing a new foe of little consequence.
We men hate when it comes to this.
+++
But women LOVE racism.
They can’t wait to hold it against men. They can’t wait to hold onto that moment when a black guy in a Caddy cuts us off and we yell “Fucking Nigger” or we get approached at a stop sign or Home Depot by day laborers and make a blithe comment about Beaners or Spicks. Or for us to blame “Whitey” or “Charlie” for having the high positions.
They want to hear everything bad so they can secretly funnel stereotypes into truisms for their life, and to hold it against the men they know.
They want men to act the bad part so they don’t have to.
Sadly, any semi-attractive girl is going to be hit on by a man of every ethnic group in her life. It’s a male thing to look for a port in a storm, but on both sides, the romantic opening is still fueled from the visual impulse. Whether it goes further or ends there, 99% of the time, people go back to thier respective home world of incubated identity.
Most women don’t ever work in the lower class jobs that most men start in. While judgmental assholes like Trent Lott will be replaced in 20 years by honest men of all creeds and race who worked and befriended men of every race, will this be the same for women? While I am not trying to be blanketing in statements, I am hard pressed to think of work scenarios where women work with men/women who can’t speak English, who are just trying to get by. Do average women work construction, farming, or basic service jobs anymore? I hate to be general, but the only women I see doing the shit jobs are immigrants. American born women who work the low ranking jobs are Hostesses, Waitresses, retail associates, etc. and in all cases the more they play up their female charms, the more they succeed. I am not even remotely saying that women are incapable of leadership, equal pay, or equivalent standing; I am just asking one to look at the gorge between the low man vs. low woman. If a girls gotta to eat in town like LA, are they going to Bevery Hills or Torrance.
Women don’t get the same experience, they never suffer in the trenches, especially since most of the low posts are filled with Hispanic 30 something’s. They never get the immersion, and so they coast on the premonitions.
They can’t wait to judge because they are women. And while they will hold back on judgment on Wisteria Lane, they have nothing but bar experience when it comes to looking at men and women. It's not a lack of intelligence I hear from women, it's innocent ignorance.
++++
And yet for men, it will not come to a point about our likeness, but a flashpoint about our women. Divisiveness comes in from in the feminine, and when one transgresses that’s when it gets hairy, and the chests pop out.
We still see each other at their worst when it comes to the women of our races, because it’s about protecting the pride of oneself and a narrowing of the field. Sure it’s something to do about love, but tis more about someone outside having a chance with “OUR” women.
Man to man we get through it. We see the similarity.
Man to woman: all we see is the incomplete bridge in between, our love of our women/race fuel it, and we keep pressing.
We want to fuel it, and all that is left is the other sex, and they are worse off than we are. Just wanting to push the buttons and go on surface readings.
We are so close, but held back from the true view of all sides.
The more we all are human and decent, the better it will get.
Don’t know it, try to believe it.
I mean, racism should be over at this point.
But whenever an event in this country flares up in the news, it’s tied back to racial preconceptions. The whole immigrant debate isn’t just about people from South of the border, there are millions of Asian and Indian people who are screwed by the same system as Mexicans and El Salvadorians. But the minute people waved Mexican flags at rallies it became about Mexicans, and the venom started to flow out of everyone.
The Mormon leader Jeffs from Utah, is of a religious sect that only their people uphold. But invariably, it comes back to white people being so repressed about having sex, and in order to have sex with 15 year old girls, they create a religion. Puritanism at it’s best, even if they have COLD (Latter Day) warping their minds.
There are parts of me that lean towards racism in moments. Whether it’s in my hotel, as I pass next to a worker and he asks: “How are you my friend,” and I answer, “tired and with a headache,” only to have him answer, “Fine, Fine.” Maybe it’s the black guy who never shows up on time. Maybe it’s the white boss who says every criticism with a smile to not offend.
You see these tropes, and it’s hard not to revert to basic societal setups. It’s easier to dismiss the whole instead of the shortcomings of one individual.
The upside of working in a multi-ethnic town like LA is that you don’t work within your race. I had never worked with El Salvo’s or Guatemalan or Brazilians or Laotians before. And I had barely worked with black people as well. As soon as you get to know them, you know that the whole face of racist thoughts is only a visual sense, and easily rendered worthless.
There was a young black girl who used to work at my hotel, and all things being, she was our best cashier in terms of performance. She knew the system, she could handle stress, and she remembered the VIP’s and frequent guests. Occasionally she would let an Ebonic type phrase slip out, yet we stood by her because it wasn’t about the grammar slips, she was as good as we could get. Yet she got fired because she was warned, disciplined, suspended, and then terminated because she kept cursing around customers. The easy point would be to say she was fired because she was “too ghetto” slash “too ethnic.” It’s not incorrect to say she was fired because she acted “too black” but the real reason was she was immature. It was her youth, and inexperience that cost her the job, and while other factors may have played to her dismissal, it was immaturity above all, a lack of growth to know when and where. That's a distinction I would not have made when I was 15, or 19 (her age) and it was a downside for both.
Outside of work, it’s a different thing and it falls back to the sight instinct. Part of comes from the mindset one takes when they go out to a public forum (the whole Shakespeare Life’s a stage thing), where people are in their private persona and life. The difference of the work mindset (where you know the people and not the ethnicity) vs. the public (where that black guy may be a gangster and so on) always plays terribly to the unknown, and while it can be the same in a one race town –where it’s age, or clothing style, or general persona-vibe- the difference is the book’s cover. In a flare up of fear, anger, or intimidation, that’s where we as humans go.
It is in these public areas when racism can sprout from roots. They are seeded in all Americans, it merely takes hate to let the flowers bloom. Flareup’s don’t happen at work don’t happen just because of race nowadays. They may have in the 50’s and 60’s, but not now. But when a group of Abercrombies meet a group of Izzle’s and someone bumps shoulders, the fight is going down more out of racial tension than property. We let ourselves be fueled by it in the bad moments.
And you know what. We as men HATE this. I don’t like reverting to racism. I think less of myself when I admit it, and I judge people less for saying statements out loud when they have spite behind them.
Because if there is a fight between black and white guys, (or any group vs. another, and in most cases, it’s the most feverous of the two squaring off) the rest of the group is trying to stop the fight, not add to it. And in most situations, the equality levels out at the end. Maybe it’s the male test to qualify manhood vs. another, but when done is done, most underlying hatreds are gone because we find out the similar truth beneath. Maybe that’s in the best sense, but as soon as real dialogue is opened, people realize they are one of the same, and we are not the real enemy.
Men hate racism. We hate doing this because we know it’s all impulse and not reality. Through competition we know there isn’t much difference. We trust our teammates in sports because they are with us in the trenches.
And when it comes down to a skirmish we hate when someone crosses the line.
As soon as someone says: Nigger, Spick, Charlie, Whitey, etc, it’s the “go get your shine box” moment. You can’t turn away, the gauntlet has been thrown, and we know we shouldn’t, but it’s a matter of facing torment from friends or facing a new foe of little consequence.
We men hate when it comes to this.
+++
But women LOVE racism.
They can’t wait to hold it against men. They can’t wait to hold onto that moment when a black guy in a Caddy cuts us off and we yell “Fucking Nigger” or we get approached at a stop sign or Home Depot by day laborers and make a blithe comment about Beaners or Spicks. Or for us to blame “Whitey” or “Charlie” for having the high positions.
They want to hear everything bad so they can secretly funnel stereotypes into truisms for their life, and to hold it against the men they know.
They want men to act the bad part so they don’t have to.
Sadly, any semi-attractive girl is going to be hit on by a man of every ethnic group in her life. It’s a male thing to look for a port in a storm, but on both sides, the romantic opening is still fueled from the visual impulse. Whether it goes further or ends there, 99% of the time, people go back to thier respective home world of incubated identity.
Most women don’t ever work in the lower class jobs that most men start in. While judgmental assholes like Trent Lott will be replaced in 20 years by honest men of all creeds and race who worked and befriended men of every race, will this be the same for women? While I am not trying to be blanketing in statements, I am hard pressed to think of work scenarios where women work with men/women who can’t speak English, who are just trying to get by. Do average women work construction, farming, or basic service jobs anymore? I hate to be general, but the only women I see doing the shit jobs are immigrants. American born women who work the low ranking jobs are Hostesses, Waitresses, retail associates, etc. and in all cases the more they play up their female charms, the more they succeed. I am not even remotely saying that women are incapable of leadership, equal pay, or equivalent standing; I am just asking one to look at the gorge between the low man vs. low woman. If a girls gotta to eat in town like LA, are they going to Bevery Hills or Torrance.
Women don’t get the same experience, they never suffer in the trenches, especially since most of the low posts are filled with Hispanic 30 something’s. They never get the immersion, and so they coast on the premonitions.
They can’t wait to judge because they are women. And while they will hold back on judgment on Wisteria Lane, they have nothing but bar experience when it comes to looking at men and women. It's not a lack of intelligence I hear from women, it's innocent ignorance.
++++
And yet for men, it will not come to a point about our likeness, but a flashpoint about our women. Divisiveness comes in from in the feminine, and when one transgresses that’s when it gets hairy, and the chests pop out.
We still see each other at their worst when it comes to the women of our races, because it’s about protecting the pride of oneself and a narrowing of the field. Sure it’s something to do about love, but tis more about someone outside having a chance with “OUR” women.
Man to man we get through it. We see the similarity.
Man to woman: all we see is the incomplete bridge in between, our love of our women/race fuel it, and we keep pressing.
We want to fuel it, and all that is left is the other sex, and they are worse off than we are. Just wanting to push the buttons and go on surface readings.
We are so close, but held back from the true view of all sides.
The more we all are human and decent, the better it will get.
Don’t know it, try to believe it.
posted by Indiana at
10:05 AM
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