I was going to write a giddy little post about the new Blatino Ultimate Spider-Man, but then this happened: Doug Lamborn used the term “tar baby” in reference to being associated with the President of the United States. Oh, I’m not sure if you noticed, but our current President is black.
The five of you who read this blog haven’t heard me rant about racism enough, so here is another one. What. The. F***! “Tar baby”??? Anyone who is old enough to even know that term to use it should know that under NO circumstances should it be used. It makes me wonder if Lamborn still eats a Coon Chicken and uses Darkie Toothpaste.
“Oh, but I love that down home taste of Coon’s, and ‘Darkie’ toothpaste gives me that Jigaboo shine!”
Even 50 Cent chimed in to scold the Representative. 50 Cent! In what world do we live where I’m on the same side as one of my least favourite people in the world? There is absolutely no excuse for Lamborn’s choice of words. He may have apologised directly to Obama, but that doesn’t refute the fact that Lamborn is a part of the new type of racist: the “I’m-Not-Racist-But” racist.
Back in the day, there were two types of racists: the fools, and the educated fools. Fools were easy to find. They are the xenophobic types of racists who simply hate everything about everyone who isn’t them, and as soon as someone of another ethnicity does something they don’t like or understand, they’ll say, “You see? I told you them [insert pejorative term] are no good! There is no basis or logic for their hate. It’s just there. If you try to speak to them about their bias, you’ll soundly refute their arguments, but they’ll just recoil and lunge at you with a “F*** YOU, [insert pejorative term]-LOVER!” and then go back to their minimum wage fry-cook job and/or half-drunk whiskey or OE bottle. You can find them blaming other races for their economic situations. If you see them at rallies, chances are they misspelled their protest signs. Common chants of the fools:
“I can’t git past the 4th grade because the Jews control the school system!”
“The white man is holding me down, man! Ah’s bin condishinned to act the way I do…now pass me that crack pipe.”
“Ah woulda got that top janitor job, but they gave it to some n***er! I ain’t taking no orders from no porch monkey!”
Fools are usually influenced by educated fools. Educated fools were slightly more insidious. These people are the ones who have enough means and command of language to attempt to justify their bigotry with contrived data. They write books like The Bell Curve. Educated fools pick apart the holy text to justify African slavery. They make pseudo-scientific parallels between black people and apes and primates to convince the public that brown people are less than human. They convince fools that the President was born outside of the country, ignoring the fact that HIS MOTHER WAS AMERICAN. Educated fools write long dissertations stating that blacks don’t have the mental capacity for leadership, and not enough dexterity to operate such a complicated device as an aircraft. They even lie to get their points across. Let’s not forget, it was a very brilliant, but satanically evil educated fool who wooed an entire nation going along with the slaughter of millions of people based on their religion, ethnicities, and sexual orientations, and he nearly took over the world. Of course, for all the evidence they show, it always falls flat before walls of truth. Daniel Hale Williams, Norbert Rillieux, Tuskegee Airmen, and Jesse Owens come to mind as primary walls.
The problem is that Educated fools seems to forget or ignore the fact that the reason all the brown and yellow and red people find themselves in their predicaments is because a bunch of educated fools with guns ravaged their homeland in search of riches and resources, and when they finished plundering, they “gave” the land back. It’s the equivalent of me coming to your house, taking all your cool stuff, ripping apart your furniture and burning whatever I couldn’t carry, then coming to you and saying, “G-d, you’re such a slob! You can’t even clean your house!” Educated fools are nonetheless dangerous.
I think what’s even more dangerous than the educated fool is the “I’m-Not-Racist-But” racist. These people don’t know they’re racist, but they will start a sentence with “I’m not racist, but…”, and then the most vile, bigoted vitriol shall spew like Old Faithful. They say, “But I can’t be racist! I have a(n) [insert ethnic group here] friend!” “I’m-Not-Racist-But” racists dress up in blackface for Halloween and think it’s funny. They draw offensive monkey cartoons about prominent black people, then claim, “I didn’t know!” They erect giant anti-abortion billboards with cute little black girls on them in predominantly black neighbourhoods. They forward grotesque, sexist, racially insensitive e-mails to their friends and colleagues. They make Obama/Witch Doctor signs at Tea Party Rallies, not realising the history of that depiction. “I’m-Not-Racist-But” racists GO to Tea Party rallies, not realising that (1) their “grassroots” movement was started by an establishment politician, and (2) the original Tea Party Patriots whom they wish to emulate were protesting taxation WITHOUT representation. Their representatives are usually AT the rallies with them!
The cure to “I’m-Not-Racist-But” racists is education*. These relics of the bygone establishment racist America keep arising because “I’m-Not-Racist-But” racists hear a term and don’t fully understand it, but use it anyway. I’m not politically correct at all, but I know where the line is, and I don’t cross it. Why? Because I studied my history. Americans seem to think that not mentioning something will make it go away. The fire is still there. It’s still hot. Unless you deal with it head-on, it will not go away. Studying the past is not the same as dwelling on it. Memory of what you studied helps you make better decisions in the present and future. Ignoring it just lets the fire get worse and spread, and people who studied for all the wrong reasons will manipulate the fire for their own personal gain. I know what I should and should not say in the way of taste, and I know what I should only leave the member of a specific group to say. Learn your history, and these little gaffs will subside, and you can see the absurdity of your narrow views. Of course, since it seems there will be major cuts to our already underfunded schools, it is doubtful this resurfacing of old insult will subside any time soon. Can we just agree to not use the simian/primate/black people comparisons anymore? It would be a start.
*I am going off the thought that “I’m-Not-Racist-But” racists actually know not what they do. If they know what they do and are just stoking long smouldering embers, then they are actually educated fools, and really a bunch of insidious a**holes.
No comments:
Post a Comment