Racism Is Obsolete
01– The title of this feature is strictly about language. It is the R word that is obsolete. The modest proposal here is to replace it with a series of acronyms. ABR is anti black racism. AWR is anti white racism. AHR is anti hispanic racism. And so on and so forth. This will not affect the overall concept of racism, but might add a touch of clarity to discussions.
02– Talk about ABR is the national pastime. People LOVE to talk about ABR, usually in a very loud voice. The only problem is, very few are listening.
03– If you don’t like me, then I don’t like you. I don’t care what your reasons are. I don’t how many protected categories are involved, be they race, religion, language spoken, sexual life history, intelligence, food preferences, musical taste, hair color, national origin, political opinions, favorite sports team, criminal background, degree of recovery, clothing choice, halitosis, or anything else.
04– Am I a AB/AW racist? It depends of who is doing the judging.
05– This feature partially a reaction to A Complete Guide to ‘Hipster Racism’. Here is a sample: “Modern racism lives in entrenched de facto inequalities, in coded language about “work ethic” and “states’ rights,” in silent negative spaces like absence and invisibility, and in Newt Gingrich’s hair.” So “work ethic” is a coded ABR insult. How interesting.
06– Many people don’t think AWR exists. This might be a function of ABR/AWR manifesting in different ways.
07– Chamblee54 has posted on The N Word before.
08– I am not a policeman. I do not drive a taxi. I do not carry a purse, and therefore cannot hold it tighter. Look somewhere else to get your revenge.
09– I never thought that having a half white man elected POTUS would end ABR/AWR. There is going to be resistance. There are going to be people looking for revenge. I thought that ABR/AWR was going to get worse.
10– There is a difference between not liking “black music” and ABR.
11– The race card = black privilege.
12– The most obnoxious form of privilege in America is christian privilege.
13- We will have ABR/AWR in America as long as people find it to their advantage to promote it.
14- A lot of the old cliches apply to ABR/AWR. What goes around comes around. To every action, there is an equal but opposite reaction. Two wrongs don’t make a right. If you can’t say anything nice about a person, don’t say anything at all. When you point a finger, three fingers point back at you. He who excuses himself accuses himself. We are all G-d’s children.
15- There is a difference between having respect for a person and not using forbidden words.
16- A visit to Google city was made for the phrase “racism is obsolete”. The first usuable result was on yahoo, Will racism ever be obsolete? This was at the bottom of the page: Discover Questions in Other – Cultures & Groups Why do black men LOVE drinking gatorade before going to the beach? is it to be cool for us ladies? Why do people waste time worrying what black people do? Why do people take me so serious sometime,don’t you know im a blockhead?
17- A well meaning Christian website presents The Pollution of Racism: What White People Can Do About Racism. There were other people talking, in the Google results, about what white people can do about racism. You seldom hear anyone talking about what black people can do about racism.
18- There was a comment about Joseph Kony that should be repeated here. “(It) is not about justice. It is about having a big emotional experience that validates privilege.” This applies to much of the overheated rhetoric about ABR/AWR.
19- When talking about ABR/AWR, it is very common to be a hypocrite. This feature is included.
20- Someone started Racismobsoleteweaponofwar’s Blog. This person only wrote three posts. Someone in England has a blog, Obsolete. Dyspeptic, incredulous leftist fashion blogging from someone somewhere. || “Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means of going backwards.” — Aldous Huxley || “I take a particularly strong pride in the fact that we have never pushed our commercial interests in our newspapers.” — Rupert Murdoch
21- If you want to see a society without ABR/AWR, worry about yourself. Don’t point fingers at what other people are doing. Worry about what you are doing. It all starts with you.
22- Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
The N Word
The good thing about not having a big audience is the freedom to discuss touchy subjects. I can say more or less anything I want, and since very few are reading, there is no problem.
With that in mind, I approach the subject for today’s lesson…the “N word”. It doesn’t get much touchier. We all know what that word is. It has six letters, rhymes with trigger, and makes the brains of some people turn into jello. It is a derogatory phrase for people of African origin.
I try to avoid using this term. There are four main reasons for this. If I ever get paid for doing this I will come up with a top ten list.
1- The “N word” hurts people’s feelings. I have known many fine Black people, and my life is much richer as a result. I do not want to say anything that will hurt these people. As for the not so fine Black People that I have known, they are G-d’s children, just like me. My fellow human beings do not deserve to be insulted just for who they are.
2- Being heard saying the “N word” can cause all sorts of problems. This can include physical retribution, loss of employment, lawsuits, and having to listen to enough loud angry words to make you wish you had never learned how to talk.
3- It is not a fair fight. There is no equivalent phrase for a Black Person to say to a white person. I do not wish to give that power to another group of people… to turn me into a mass of incoherent rage, just for hearing a six letter word.
The closest thing to this is “Cracker”, which I only recently found out was an insult. This is odd, because when I was a boy, we had a minor league baseball team called the Atlanta Crackers.
4- The use of the “N word” demeans the user. When you say an insulting word about another human being, you make yourself look bad. When you hate someone, you hurt yourself worse than the person you hate. And frankly, a lot of these people are not worth it.
This feature was originally posted at my original blog, and copied three years ago. I wrote in first person shamelessly. Pictures are from The Library of Congress
Since I originally posted this, a Kansas/Kenya man, with dark skin, has been elected President. The playing field is having a fruit basket turnover. No one is really certain what is what anymore, except things are different. Or maybe they are the same. It is 2012.
I would like to further comment on is the reality of black people using the “N word”. It is a word that degrades the person who uses it. For a person of color, it degrades them as the object, as well as the speaker. I cannot help but wonder why a person would want to do that to them self, their family and their community. I realize that, as a white person, this is none of my business.
It is like smoking cigarettes. Yes, it is legal, and you have the right to pull toxic chemicals into your body. But why on earth would you want to?
3 comments