race does not necessarily exclude people from just about anything, in our society. this is to say, regardless of race, a person can become just about anything they want to become. it's true we have not had a non-white president in the usa but we have heard names like powell and cisneros very near to that seat of power.
if you are poor, you are barred from mingling with the rich man. no houses in beverly hills until you ARE the rich man. no finely tailored suits until you are the rich man. no mercedes benz, no plasma color tv, no wolfgang puck, no courtside seats, no luxury vacations, until you are the rich man. you may serve the rich man, you may take an occasional handout from the rich man, but you cannot walk in his shoes period.
it's a shame that racism exists but if i may make myself as clear as possible one last time on this subject, i'm far more concerned with the neocons right now than the neo-nazis. both dangerous, both offensive, but one represents a significantly greater threat than the other.
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
wizzers
what is it with these wizened wizzers who must step into a stall in order to urinate in public, men's restrooms? what's wrong with them? are they afraid someone may see their junk and ridicule it for a lack of length or girth? do they really have such severe stagefright they cannot make it happen when others are in the same room and if so, isn't this something one just resolves themself to overcome? what the hell do these people do at outdoor, amphitheatre-style concerts? wait for a stall?!
i went into a stall today just to get some tp w/ which to blow my nose. the lid was up indicating the bastard who had pissed all over the commode and failed to flush was clearly a large and considerate fellow. (i could tell more about the magnanimous fuck, too. the bright, acetone yellow urine suggested a high vitamin intake or severe diabetes, which may explain why he's angry at half of the whole world to the point of pissing all over everything like an infant on a saltpeter iv drip.)
most men's rooms have a two-to-one ratio urinals to stalls, making it considerably easier to step up to a wall and leak as nature intended, (no aiming necessary.) most also have little walls to shield these shrinking violets from the prying eyes of their peers, (no pun intended.) it's not like dodger stadium where a wide trough awaits the piss of countless, beer-guzzling baseball fans but one must hang their dodger dog out in fairly public view in order to relieve themselves.
of all the prejudice and discrimination in our society, why does it all seem to be based on natural things beyond one's control? in other words, since a guy can't change the color of his skin or the shape of his eyes, shouldn't we just accept these things and move on to more important assholes? stall-pissers commit a sin so hideous and offensive, i can hardly bear to think about it. (jerks.)
first, they seek to separate themselves from the masses of man. let's face it, most of us are quite willing and able to step up to the urinal and let flow a relieving golden shower. so what's so wrong or special about these sob's they have to hide in a little partitioned section to piss? it's just a leak. everybody does it. they must have to go or else they wouldn't have shown up in the men's room to begin with.
theirs is a sin of proactivity. when they slip past the urinals and go to the stall to close themselves in, they aggressively portray themselves as some super-refined creatures of modesty. as if men were meant to be modest or demure. let's face some facts, we think with our penises and our penis is all we ever think about. no one's asking these sissies to run about with their member flapping in the wind in public view. just take a piss like a man. at the urinal, where it's quick and convenient.
second, they shoot their stream farther through the air creating greater splash and increasing the odds of poor aim or a diverted stream. vasodephrins can do only so much for maintaining the integrity of a stream of piss-if a guy's a bad aim, (or if he's drunk,) he's a bad aim. piss should go in the receptacle. i don't like to clean it up and i don't fancy making whomever's chore it is any less appealing, (as if that's possible.) in fact, i hate looking at a messy pisser's byproducts when i am merely trying to acquire some paper to clear my nasal cavity. bastards.
the rest of us use the stalls for far more important business. that business requires a level of cleanliness that cannot be overstated. in contrast to home practices, most of us have a veritable ritual of cleaning and grooming to conduct before we enter into said business in a public rest room. focus and concentration are key to that business and a sterile enviroment is integral to focus and concentration. pee at the urinal, loser!
just as everyone should "freeze out," (a term my girlfriend enjoys using,) a known domestic abuser, stall-pissers should get a cold stare from anyone in the men's room after ambling into their hovel and not turning around. if there's no flush, they should get kicked in the groin. (hard.) if we, as a class of citizenry cannot band together around a basic truth such as the fact these creeps are a threat to every pisser everywhere, we might as well rid ourselves of the sacred invention urinal and return our rest rooms to the partitioned vacuums of camraderie ladies' rooms are.
if you must wiz in private, please, do so sitting down. it just seems appropriate.
i went into a stall today just to get some tp w/ which to blow my nose. the lid was up indicating the bastard who had pissed all over the commode and failed to flush was clearly a large and considerate fellow. (i could tell more about the magnanimous fuck, too. the bright, acetone yellow urine suggested a high vitamin intake or severe diabetes, which may explain why he's angry at half of the whole world to the point of pissing all over everything like an infant on a saltpeter iv drip.)
most men's rooms have a two-to-one ratio urinals to stalls, making it considerably easier to step up to a wall and leak as nature intended, (no aiming necessary.) most also have little walls to shield these shrinking violets from the prying eyes of their peers, (no pun intended.) it's not like dodger stadium where a wide trough awaits the piss of countless, beer-guzzling baseball fans but one must hang their dodger dog out in fairly public view in order to relieve themselves.
of all the prejudice and discrimination in our society, why does it all seem to be based on natural things beyond one's control? in other words, since a guy can't change the color of his skin or the shape of his eyes, shouldn't we just accept these things and move on to more important assholes? stall-pissers commit a sin so hideous and offensive, i can hardly bear to think about it. (jerks.)
first, they seek to separate themselves from the masses of man. let's face it, most of us are quite willing and able to step up to the urinal and let flow a relieving golden shower. so what's so wrong or special about these sob's they have to hide in a little partitioned section to piss? it's just a leak. everybody does it. they must have to go or else they wouldn't have shown up in the men's room to begin with.
theirs is a sin of proactivity. when they slip past the urinals and go to the stall to close themselves in, they aggressively portray themselves as some super-refined creatures of modesty. as if men were meant to be modest or demure. let's face some facts, we think with our penises and our penis is all we ever think about. no one's asking these sissies to run about with their member flapping in the wind in public view. just take a piss like a man. at the urinal, where it's quick and convenient.
second, they shoot their stream farther through the air creating greater splash and increasing the odds of poor aim or a diverted stream. vasodephrins can do only so much for maintaining the integrity of a stream of piss-if a guy's a bad aim, (or if he's drunk,) he's a bad aim. piss should go in the receptacle. i don't like to clean it up and i don't fancy making whomever's chore it is any less appealing, (as if that's possible.) in fact, i hate looking at a messy pisser's byproducts when i am merely trying to acquire some paper to clear my nasal cavity. bastards.
the rest of us use the stalls for far more important business. that business requires a level of cleanliness that cannot be overstated. in contrast to home practices, most of us have a veritable ritual of cleaning and grooming to conduct before we enter into said business in a public rest room. focus and concentration are key to that business and a sterile enviroment is integral to focus and concentration. pee at the urinal, loser!
just as everyone should "freeze out," (a term my girlfriend enjoys using,) a known domestic abuser, stall-pissers should get a cold stare from anyone in the men's room after ambling into their hovel and not turning around. if there's no flush, they should get kicked in the groin. (hard.) if we, as a class of citizenry cannot band together around a basic truth such as the fact these creeps are a threat to every pisser everywhere, we might as well rid ourselves of the sacred invention urinal and return our rest rooms to the partitioned vacuums of camraderie ladies' rooms are.
if you must wiz in private, please, do so sitting down. it just seems appropriate.
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
race II?
perhaps i was not as clear in my last entry as i would have preferred to be. the point i intended to make was that economy is primary. this is to say it comes before any of the other things mentioned and it weighs heavier. i don't mean to suggest how much heavier, only that in my estimation it plays the greatest role. it was not my intention to suggest that economy is at the root of all the byropoducts of racism. rather, i think racism divides and has, at times, been the cause of distraction from certain truths which have everything to do with economy.
when the bush's left kennebunkport for the capitol and the sons established themselves in florida and texas, and the talking heads talk talk talk about it being a political strategy, then they pour money into campaigns to win governorships, (and let's face it, in texas the money bought an election for an average ivy league student at best, by all accounts, from maine, over a popular incumbent,) then they win elections creating a presidential dynasty of wealth and power and favors, and the policies of that president afflicts poor people daily in the prisons of the united states, in the alleys behind the hospitals which won't treat them, in their manual labor jobs they get to in 1980s jalopies w/ "w '04," stickers on them, (so fucking fooled,) and they hate labor unions because money was spent to get them to think that way, and despite the fact president's have not affected roe v wade in some 40 years, they vote based on the candidates stance on this issue because money was spent to make them think this way, (they're programmed, man, money was spent to make them think this way,) they buy into supply side economics because money was spent to make them think this way, they tolerate republican presidents w/ their own agenda to make their name in history, (blah, blah, blah,) by invading some piece of crap little country somewhere which could never come close to standing up to our military might, thereby spending billions of dollars and turning what was a thriving economy into the crap economy of the world complete with sagging currency and trade deficits because money was spent to make them think it was the rightthing to do, (though in reality, for every one of those who lose money based on this economy, there is someone who wins and the president and his cronies likely know every one of those people,) they tolerate corruption at the highest levels of business because the ill-gotten money always ends up in their coffers anyway, (thanx ken lay you dirty fucking pig,) they are distracted by celebrity steroid scandals while wildernesses protected by the american people for decades are opened up for drilling which is sure to line the pockets of some rich texas oil baron or another who has got to be friends w/ our average ivy league student because money was spent to make them look away, (look away, look away, look away.) they don't seem to mind a guy who needed the credential of having served his country on his resume to be eligible for the highest seat of power so he chose a crap-ball, outdated airplane to learn to fly, (knowing it would not be involved in a certain "conflict,") and got favors for favors to serve in alabama instead of his other home texas and even skipped duties relative to that cushy assignment, but they do mind the other guy getting an extra-marital bj because money was spent to make them think that way. (they think it is a moral question but where is the morality in all this cronyism and cheating of the little guy?)
race divides and while i have felt the subtle look or occasional gesture based against my long man-hair or my slightly slanted eyes or my skin color which was not du jour for the spot, it has never, ever affected me in the way these other things do. i have never sat in a high level corporate meeting listening to a guy talk about a strategy for how we can continue to get money out of people without providing a great deal of value for said cash without noticing the subjective morality business-people have adopted. but our society, and i do not mean you and me personally or individually, but by and large in our society, we, (and i think it is important to state it that way so we stay angry and keep pushing for something better,) are more concerned with some group of dumbass white supremacists of the week on maury or local news coverage of yet another gang shooting or jerry and his merry band of lowest common denominators or cops and all the poor people on that show, of various skin tones, we tune in in droves to watch in order to feel better about our pathetic lives. this is where i'm coming from. it aint about the skin color, it's about certain people oppressing others with their money. it's about plush, favor-for-favor, repulican-gotten fcc appointments to open the door for clear channel and rupert murdoch cause if you can control the airwaves you can control the people because money will change the way they think. i know, i saw the money spent to make them think that way.
i've mellowed with age and i recognize that the key people in the middle, the decent americans who are somewhat fooled but still somewhat open to reason do not listen to anger. they tune out and disappear. so i've toned it down over the years because i am interested in making a difference. but trust, i liken it to our ability to understand the murderer and the child molestor and yes, even the crooked self-serving politician, because we have a measure of that man inside us, (be it ever so minimal for me and i hope for you,) but trust, i also still have a measure of that seething warlock of a bitch-ass-mother-fucker who is pissed to the gills about all this shit i've been talking about. fuck the g ride i want the machines that are making 'em.
remember joycelyn elders, clinton's failed appointee to be the surgeon general who did not condemn masturbation as a tool of satan? i saw her once on late night tv being interviewed by tom snyder. (i can't remember if i made a phone call last night but i remember this.) he asked her what the #1 health danger in the world was and she answered, (in heartfelt david byrne style,) same as it ever was; ignorance. not aids. not cholera, scarlet fever, polio, hepatitis, the plague, (black or otherwise,) the common cold or any other malady you and i expected to come out of her mouth. this super-intelligent godsend of a woman said; "ignorance," (and just about that softly.) undoubtedly, she's right.
this is why people in america today think the following words are dirty: liberal, communism, left-wing, labor union, gun control, (like some jackass who couldn't pass 10th grade english should be toting an ak-47,) affirmative action, ralph nader, cuba, free speech, etc. these people, too, they are the nicest of people. they work hard like us. they cook and clean and raise families and give gifts at xmas time-they're the freakin' salt of the earth, but they're fooled and it starts at the top.
it's fucking god's fault. i mean, it can't be the fault of an imaginary creature but it starts right there. until more of this ignorance falls away from us, we're going to be influenced by the money they spend to influence us. last week i was confronted by a friend who believes in ghosts. ghosts?! geezus h fucking christ!?! ghosts? (*winces and scratches head*) and they believe in god but they believe in all kinds of different ideas surrounding him, (doctrines and attributes and names. . .) some believe he's a woman. for some there are many gods, all without so much as an ounce of proof. you can hardly get someone to believe there's a guy on tv pulling a train by a piercing through his nose but imaginary, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient creature who created our world and our kind and lives in heaven with streets of gold and has a son who died in order to redeem our sin nature, blah-blah-blahhh? duhhhh, yep. (oh, and did i mention he's a god of love who knew how it all would turn out beforehand, including the hellfire and brimstone and gnashing of teeth part for the relative masses, but created it anyway? spiffy, huh?)
in my 20s i wanted to rage against the machine. i was mad my mother overdosed on heroin, that she was 14 when she had me and i never met my biological father. i was pissed at a lot of things i discovered. thankfully, i've arrived at a point where i recognize the impotence of mine rage. i accept those circumstances that formerly gave me visions in red. it is as it is. going forward i can make of my life whatever i want. the thing is, i have a choice. i could continue to be mad. and i don't regret having been mad, it served a purpose. but that time has passed. so now i choose acceptance of the truth and to go forward. i have a daughter. i am going to make this world better for her. i am.
and to at least a degree, this is how i have come to view race. i would we all just agreed to move past this angry stage of racism and sat down to a meal of enchiladas and collared greens and hummous and schnitzel and all the other foods of the peoples of the world. i wish we could just choose it. now.
i think it is important too, for me to mention that i love my country. i am not a patriot as such-i am opposed to nationalism. still, i recognize the good that has come from this country. i love our constitution and the bill of rights. i know we are a good people, despite the ignorance that sometimes obscures our actions.
race, belief systems, diversionary tactics all. we need to continue to fight the good fight and educate the good people of the united states so their political representatives are more representative of their/our values. simultaneously, we need to continue to overcome racism, by every means available. again, education is the key.
when the bush's left kennebunkport for the capitol and the sons established themselves in florida and texas, and the talking heads talk talk talk about it being a political strategy, then they pour money into campaigns to win governorships, (and let's face it, in texas the money bought an election for an average ivy league student at best, by all accounts, from maine, over a popular incumbent,) then they win elections creating a presidential dynasty of wealth and power and favors, and the policies of that president afflicts poor people daily in the prisons of the united states, in the alleys behind the hospitals which won't treat them, in their manual labor jobs they get to in 1980s jalopies w/ "w '04," stickers on them, (so fucking fooled,) and they hate labor unions because money was spent to get them to think that way, and despite the fact president's have not affected roe v wade in some 40 years, they vote based on the candidates stance on this issue because money was spent to make them think this way, (they're programmed, man, money was spent to make them think this way,) they buy into supply side economics because money was spent to make them think this way, they tolerate republican presidents w/ their own agenda to make their name in history, (blah, blah, blah,) by invading some piece of crap little country somewhere which could never come close to standing up to our military might, thereby spending billions of dollars and turning what was a thriving economy into the crap economy of the world complete with sagging currency and trade deficits because money was spent to make them think it was the rightthing to do, (though in reality, for every one of those who lose money based on this economy, there is someone who wins and the president and his cronies likely know every one of those people,) they tolerate corruption at the highest levels of business because the ill-gotten money always ends up in their coffers anyway, (thanx ken lay you dirty fucking pig,) they are distracted by celebrity steroid scandals while wildernesses protected by the american people for decades are opened up for drilling which is sure to line the pockets of some rich texas oil baron or another who has got to be friends w/ our average ivy league student because money was spent to make them look away, (look away, look away, look away.) they don't seem to mind a guy who needed the credential of having served his country on his resume to be eligible for the highest seat of power so he chose a crap-ball, outdated airplane to learn to fly, (knowing it would not be involved in a certain "conflict,") and got favors for favors to serve in alabama instead of his other home texas and even skipped duties relative to that cushy assignment, but they do mind the other guy getting an extra-marital bj because money was spent to make them think that way. (they think it is a moral question but where is the morality in all this cronyism and cheating of the little guy?)
race divides and while i have felt the subtle look or occasional gesture based against my long man-hair or my slightly slanted eyes or my skin color which was not du jour for the spot, it has never, ever affected me in the way these other things do. i have never sat in a high level corporate meeting listening to a guy talk about a strategy for how we can continue to get money out of people without providing a great deal of value for said cash without noticing the subjective morality business-people have adopted. but our society, and i do not mean you and me personally or individually, but by and large in our society, we, (and i think it is important to state it that way so we stay angry and keep pushing for something better,) are more concerned with some group of dumbass white supremacists of the week on maury or local news coverage of yet another gang shooting or jerry and his merry band of lowest common denominators or cops and all the poor people on that show, of various skin tones, we tune in in droves to watch in order to feel better about our pathetic lives. this is where i'm coming from. it aint about the skin color, it's about certain people oppressing others with their money. it's about plush, favor-for-favor, repulican-gotten fcc appointments to open the door for clear channel and rupert murdoch cause if you can control the airwaves you can control the people because money will change the way they think. i know, i saw the money spent to make them think that way.
i've mellowed with age and i recognize that the key people in the middle, the decent americans who are somewhat fooled but still somewhat open to reason do not listen to anger. they tune out and disappear. so i've toned it down over the years because i am interested in making a difference. but trust, i liken it to our ability to understand the murderer and the child molestor and yes, even the crooked self-serving politician, because we have a measure of that man inside us, (be it ever so minimal for me and i hope for you,) but trust, i also still have a measure of that seething warlock of a bitch-ass-mother-fucker who is pissed to the gills about all this shit i've been talking about. fuck the g ride i want the machines that are making 'em.
remember joycelyn elders, clinton's failed appointee to be the surgeon general who did not condemn masturbation as a tool of satan? i saw her once on late night tv being interviewed by tom snyder. (i can't remember if i made a phone call last night but i remember this.) he asked her what the #1 health danger in the world was and she answered, (in heartfelt david byrne style,) same as it ever was; ignorance. not aids. not cholera, scarlet fever, polio, hepatitis, the plague, (black or otherwise,) the common cold or any other malady you and i expected to come out of her mouth. this super-intelligent godsend of a woman said; "ignorance," (and just about that softly.) undoubtedly, she's right.
this is why people in america today think the following words are dirty: liberal, communism, left-wing, labor union, gun control, (like some jackass who couldn't pass 10th grade english should be toting an ak-47,) affirmative action, ralph nader, cuba, free speech, etc. these people, too, they are the nicest of people. they work hard like us. they cook and clean and raise families and give gifts at xmas time-they're the freakin' salt of the earth, but they're fooled and it starts at the top.
it's fucking god's fault. i mean, it can't be the fault of an imaginary creature but it starts right there. until more of this ignorance falls away from us, we're going to be influenced by the money they spend to influence us. last week i was confronted by a friend who believes in ghosts. ghosts?! geezus h fucking christ!?! ghosts? (*winces and scratches head*) and they believe in god but they believe in all kinds of different ideas surrounding him, (doctrines and attributes and names. . .) some believe he's a woman. for some there are many gods, all without so much as an ounce of proof. you can hardly get someone to believe there's a guy on tv pulling a train by a piercing through his nose but imaginary, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient creature who created our world and our kind and lives in heaven with streets of gold and has a son who died in order to redeem our sin nature, blah-blah-blahhh? duhhhh, yep. (oh, and did i mention he's a god of love who knew how it all would turn out beforehand, including the hellfire and brimstone and gnashing of teeth part for the relative masses, but created it anyway? spiffy, huh?)
in my 20s i wanted to rage against the machine. i was mad my mother overdosed on heroin, that she was 14 when she had me and i never met my biological father. i was pissed at a lot of things i discovered. thankfully, i've arrived at a point where i recognize the impotence of mine rage. i accept those circumstances that formerly gave me visions in red. it is as it is. going forward i can make of my life whatever i want. the thing is, i have a choice. i could continue to be mad. and i don't regret having been mad, it served a purpose. but that time has passed. so now i choose acceptance of the truth and to go forward. i have a daughter. i am going to make this world better for her. i am.
and to at least a degree, this is how i have come to view race. i would we all just agreed to move past this angry stage of racism and sat down to a meal of enchiladas and collared greens and hummous and schnitzel and all the other foods of the peoples of the world. i wish we could just choose it. now.
i think it is important too, for me to mention that i love my country. i am not a patriot as such-i am opposed to nationalism. still, i recognize the good that has come from this country. i love our constitution and the bill of rights. i know we are a good people, despite the ignorance that sometimes obscures our actions.
race, belief systems, diversionary tactics all. we need to continue to fight the good fight and educate the good people of the united states so their political representatives are more representative of their/our values. simultaneously, we need to continue to overcome racism, by every means available. again, education is the key.
Friday, April 08, 2005
chuck d and race relations
race does have the power to divide, doesn't it?
i get frustrated by the way race is used in this country to create division among people. every single time someone remarks about how race is at the root of this or that problem or how a certain race has a certain trait or certain tendencies, i get frustrated just hearing it.
i think it was the communist manifesto where i learned an important lesson that has stayed with me all these years. economy is the one force that plays upon everyone's life most significantly. based on economy, much can be accurately predicted or intuited about a life. i get that sometimes people defy conventions as such, but economy is. . .
in chuck d's book, Fight the Power : Rap, Race, and Reality, chuck spends a lot of time explaining how things have stacked up against american blacks in the past and continue to do so in the present. ultimately, he's right most of the time. when he talks about the slave trade, he's right, and it is maddening that our forebears thought it was okay to do what they did. (i say this as three-fourths of a white man even if my irish ancestors were practically enslaved by the british.) chuck's book made me think about how it was possible to enslave people. now, i know the chinese invented gun powder and it seems to me an american invented the rifle but it must have been some european or another who invented some type of handgun that allowed the white euros to hop across the mediterranean and set up bases for the slave trade. or perhaps they were simply better organized and so, were prepared to counter any resistence the tribes of africa might have offered. in any case, what we all should agree on is that the act of enslaving humans for any purpose whatsoever was, (and is,) reprehensible.
chuck d assesses inequities in the music business, talking specifically about his grand visions for the genre rap, how the players within that genre are not as organized as they should be, and how the powers that be, everyone from music execs to corporate radio programmers, keep rap down.
chuck d comes through in his book as an honest and respectable man, a heroic figure in fact, fighting injustice and openly and honestly judging himself and his actions. i believe he means every word he coauthored in his book and i do not believe any portion of it is intended to be mere propaganda.
still, i disagree with him and others when it is suggested race is at the core of the various inequities. it is not race-it is economy. (same as it ever was.) i doubt the white, euro slave trader was appalled at the color of the african's skin to such a degree he plotted slavery. i don't think the southern plantation owner had a hideous reaction to the color of his slave's skin. rather, he recognized the manpower increased his own wealth, which was a greater incentive than a racial hate or intolerance ever could be. (what do you find more compelling: financial gain or revenge?) when chuck d talks about how much more money could have been made in the game of rap music, be it through merchandising or touring, the question is who would have been making the money. the white executives who would have put up the money for said ventures or the black recording artists or licensed rights owners? if the venture was risky for the white promoter because buildings were getting razed, it was economy which compelled the promoter not to get involved with the tour/venture. did that cost black artists money? yes. it did. my point is i think the promoter who did not become involved because he is prejudiced against black people is likely the exception to the rule.
i swear i have heard virtually every race called lazy at some time or another. recently i watched a latin kings of comedy show and noticed several jokes were dependant on the audience recognizing a stereotype of latin people being seen as lazy. i suppose they are the people of the afternoon siesta but still. . . my ancestors, (the 3/4,) have always been considered a lot of drunks. but then i've also heard similar stereotypes used on native americans. my ex-girlfriend used to swear up and down that no men were as domineering as armenian men. ha! i never could understand how she said it with a straight face. ask a japanese woman about that subject. or an indian woman. talk to the italian women about their men and see if you don't hear the same things. come to think of it, gender differences seem way more authentic to me than skin color ones. social and cultural differences will always exist, (but then there's always carlton, too.) my 1/4 side is known to eat the meat of dogs. (i've always wanted to write this next sentence. . .) wops, chinks, niggers, nips, cans, spics, mc's, russkies, polaks, trailer trash, japs, nazis, gooks, crackers, and rednecks are just a fraction of the many racial slurs that exist. in fact, most people and most languages have a slur of sorts for any person who is not of them or their place. if you are white in hawaii, someone might call you a haoli. if you are not armenian but your girl friend is, listen closely amongst her people for the word "odar." it means outsider.
the point is, the guy from the other side of town who we don't know but about whom we can perceive outward differences, will always be feared to some degree. he will always be regarded as an outsider so long as he stays an outsider. but he is usually not oppressed unless financial gain can be gleaned from him in some way.
tell me what race i am talking about when i describe these people. they are in our prisons in a disproportionately greater amount than how they are represented in society. they tend to be less educated. they tend to have great amounts of drama in their lives. they die sooner than the national average in part, because they have lower quality health care, (if they have health care at all.) they use drugs to a greater degree than any other segment of society. they are often characterized as lazy. they collect more unemployment compensation and welfare benefits than any other group. they are the most likely people in our society to spend time homeless. they are seen as dirty. they lack manners and class. they use poor grammar. by comparison, they smell bad.
this is poor folk. (again, there are always those who defy the rules or odds or convention but by and large,) economy is the force that dictates these things about people.
another thing chuck talks about in his book is how black americans are too often divided against one another. he suggests they should be united in their struggle against oppression and makes many similar points to the one made in john singleton's film; boyz in the hood, when lawrence fishburn's character explains how jewish people, a race which has suffered persecution, unite by patronizing one another's businesses and thusly, bring up the whole, (if you will.) i do not condone that behavior, from jewish/israeli people or anyone else. i would we lived in a meritocracy. it is my intention to run my life that way. i choose my friends based on a sort of merit system. but then, this idea is similar to that of affirmative action, which i agree with. as capitalism is a competitive system, when you hold a competitor, (an entire race or class of people,) at the starting line for some 15-200 years while everyone else is running to get ahead, it is hardly a fair race. for those who complain they did not commit the atrocities represented by slavery i say, the sins of the father are visited on the son. step up and take your medicine like a dignified man. it may be an imperfect solution but it has dignity. and in this way, i understand why chuck d feels as he does about the black cause. i get why he feels it is necessary for black people to band together and think as one. he wants the conditions of black people to have greater equity in society. he doesn't want a disproportionate number of black men to be incarcerated. he does want a proportionate number of black men, (and women,) represented in the board rooms of america. and so, he pursues, (in his book,) an agenda that doesn't sit entirely well with me but one i understand none the less.
in our country and system, (capitalism,) people can usually be seen either trying to get money or hold on to money. (the best movie i have seen for the insight it imparts is born rich. it is made by an heir to the johnson and johnson family fortune. watch that documentary and see if you don't get a bad taste in your mouth for those who seek to hold on to money.)
race is a diversionary tactic. chuck d spends time in his book talking about how plantation owners recognized the importance of creating division amongst slaves. it helped the owner to maintain control. in our modern day, race relations work in exactly the same way. we get caught up in thinking race is the difference that causes differences. in fact, it is economy. when riots erupted in los angeles, (either time,) and stores were looted, that was not a black-white thing. that was a have-have not thing.
i'm glad chuck d got me to thinking about these things.
i get frustrated by the way race is used in this country to create division among people. every single time someone remarks about how race is at the root of this or that problem or how a certain race has a certain trait or certain tendencies, i get frustrated just hearing it.
i think it was the communist manifesto where i learned an important lesson that has stayed with me all these years. economy is the one force that plays upon everyone's life most significantly. based on economy, much can be accurately predicted or intuited about a life. i get that sometimes people defy conventions as such, but economy is. . .
in chuck d's book, Fight the Power : Rap, Race, and Reality, chuck spends a lot of time explaining how things have stacked up against american blacks in the past and continue to do so in the present. ultimately, he's right most of the time. when he talks about the slave trade, he's right, and it is maddening that our forebears thought it was okay to do what they did. (i say this as three-fourths of a white man even if my irish ancestors were practically enslaved by the british.) chuck's book made me think about how it was possible to enslave people. now, i know the chinese invented gun powder and it seems to me an american invented the rifle but it must have been some european or another who invented some type of handgun that allowed the white euros to hop across the mediterranean and set up bases for the slave trade. or perhaps they were simply better organized and so, were prepared to counter any resistence the tribes of africa might have offered. in any case, what we all should agree on is that the act of enslaving humans for any purpose whatsoever was, (and is,) reprehensible.
chuck d assesses inequities in the music business, talking specifically about his grand visions for the genre rap, how the players within that genre are not as organized as they should be, and how the powers that be, everyone from music execs to corporate radio programmers, keep rap down.
chuck d comes through in his book as an honest and respectable man, a heroic figure in fact, fighting injustice and openly and honestly judging himself and his actions. i believe he means every word he coauthored in his book and i do not believe any portion of it is intended to be mere propaganda.
still, i disagree with him and others when it is suggested race is at the core of the various inequities. it is not race-it is economy. (same as it ever was.) i doubt the white, euro slave trader was appalled at the color of the african's skin to such a degree he plotted slavery. i don't think the southern plantation owner had a hideous reaction to the color of his slave's skin. rather, he recognized the manpower increased his own wealth, which was a greater incentive than a racial hate or intolerance ever could be. (what do you find more compelling: financial gain or revenge?) when chuck d talks about how much more money could have been made in the game of rap music, be it through merchandising or touring, the question is who would have been making the money. the white executives who would have put up the money for said ventures or the black recording artists or licensed rights owners? if the venture was risky for the white promoter because buildings were getting razed, it was economy which compelled the promoter not to get involved with the tour/venture. did that cost black artists money? yes. it did. my point is i think the promoter who did not become involved because he is prejudiced against black people is likely the exception to the rule.
i swear i have heard virtually every race called lazy at some time or another. recently i watched a latin kings of comedy show and noticed several jokes were dependant on the audience recognizing a stereotype of latin people being seen as lazy. i suppose they are the people of the afternoon siesta but still. . . my ancestors, (the 3/4,) have always been considered a lot of drunks. but then i've also heard similar stereotypes used on native americans. my ex-girlfriend used to swear up and down that no men were as domineering as armenian men. ha! i never could understand how she said it with a straight face. ask a japanese woman about that subject. or an indian woman. talk to the italian women about their men and see if you don't hear the same things. come to think of it, gender differences seem way more authentic to me than skin color ones. social and cultural differences will always exist, (but then there's always carlton, too.) my 1/4 side is known to eat the meat of dogs. (i've always wanted to write this next sentence. . .) wops, chinks, niggers, nips, cans, spics, mc's, russkies, polaks, trailer trash, japs, nazis, gooks, crackers, and rednecks are just a fraction of the many racial slurs that exist. in fact, most people and most languages have a slur of sorts for any person who is not of them or their place. if you are white in hawaii, someone might call you a haoli. if you are not armenian but your girl friend is, listen closely amongst her people for the word "odar." it means outsider.
the point is, the guy from the other side of town who we don't know but about whom we can perceive outward differences, will always be feared to some degree. he will always be regarded as an outsider so long as he stays an outsider. but he is usually not oppressed unless financial gain can be gleaned from him in some way.
tell me what race i am talking about when i describe these people. they are in our prisons in a disproportionately greater amount than how they are represented in society. they tend to be less educated. they tend to have great amounts of drama in their lives. they die sooner than the national average in part, because they have lower quality health care, (if they have health care at all.) they use drugs to a greater degree than any other segment of society. they are often characterized as lazy. they collect more unemployment compensation and welfare benefits than any other group. they are the most likely people in our society to spend time homeless. they are seen as dirty. they lack manners and class. they use poor grammar. by comparison, they smell bad.
this is poor folk. (again, there are always those who defy the rules or odds or convention but by and large,) economy is the force that dictates these things about people.
another thing chuck talks about in his book is how black americans are too often divided against one another. he suggests they should be united in their struggle against oppression and makes many similar points to the one made in john singleton's film; boyz in the hood, when lawrence fishburn's character explains how jewish people, a race which has suffered persecution, unite by patronizing one another's businesses and thusly, bring up the whole, (if you will.) i do not condone that behavior, from jewish/israeli people or anyone else. i would we lived in a meritocracy. it is my intention to run my life that way. i choose my friends based on a sort of merit system. but then, this idea is similar to that of affirmative action, which i agree with. as capitalism is a competitive system, when you hold a competitor, (an entire race or class of people,) at the starting line for some 15-200 years while everyone else is running to get ahead, it is hardly a fair race. for those who complain they did not commit the atrocities represented by slavery i say, the sins of the father are visited on the son. step up and take your medicine like a dignified man. it may be an imperfect solution but it has dignity. and in this way, i understand why chuck d feels as he does about the black cause. i get why he feels it is necessary for black people to band together and think as one. he wants the conditions of black people to have greater equity in society. he doesn't want a disproportionate number of black men to be incarcerated. he does want a proportionate number of black men, (and women,) represented in the board rooms of america. and so, he pursues, (in his book,) an agenda that doesn't sit entirely well with me but one i understand none the less.
in our country and system, (capitalism,) people can usually be seen either trying to get money or hold on to money. (the best movie i have seen for the insight it imparts is born rich. it is made by an heir to the johnson and johnson family fortune. watch that documentary and see if you don't get a bad taste in your mouth for those who seek to hold on to money.)
race is a diversionary tactic. chuck d spends time in his book talking about how plantation owners recognized the importance of creating division amongst slaves. it helped the owner to maintain control. in our modern day, race relations work in exactly the same way. we get caught up in thinking race is the difference that causes differences. in fact, it is economy. when riots erupted in los angeles, (either time,) and stores were looted, that was not a black-white thing. that was a have-have not thing.
i'm glad chuck d got me to thinking about these things.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
