Ignorance and Pride

Racism is very fashionable right now. This is because tolerance was fashionable a few years ago, and you don't stay fashionable by sticking to the same thing year after year. I had the misfortune to stumble on this essay in my perambulations on the interweb. I get the impression it is something people are emailing to each other.


"Proud To Be White

Someone finally said it.
How many are actually paying attention to this?

There are African Americans, Mexican Americans,
Asian Americans, Arab Americans, Native Americans, etc.
And then there are just Americans.

You pass me on the street and sneer in my direction.
You Call me "White boy," "Cracker," "Honkey,"
"Whitey," "Caveman" .. And that's OK.

But when I call you, Nigger, Kike, Towel head, Sand-nigger,
Camel Jockey, Beaner, Gook, or Chink ... You call me a
racist.

You say that whites commit a lot of violence against you,
So why are the ghettos the most dangerous places to live?

You have the United Negro College Fund. You have Martin Luther King
Day. You have Black History Month. You have Cesar Chavez
Day. You
Have Yom Hashoah You have Ma'uled Al-Nabi You have the
NAACP.
You have BET.

If we had WET (White Entertainment Television) .. We'd be
racists.

If we had a White Pride Day .. You would call us racists.

If we had White History Month We'd be racists.

If we had any organization for only whites to "advance" OUR
lives ..
We'd be racists.

We have a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a Black Chamber of
Commerce, and then we just have the plain Chamber of
Commerce.
Wonder who pays for that?

If we had a college fund that only gave white students
scholarships
... You know we'd be racists. There are over 60 openly
proclaimed
Black Colleges in the US , yet if there were "White
colleges" ..
THAT would be a racist college.

In the Million Man March, you believed that you were
marching
For your race and rights. If we marched for our race and
rights,
You would call us racists.

You are proud to be black, brown, yellow and orange, and
you're
Not afraid to announce it. But when we announce our white
pride ..
You call us racists.

You rob us, carjack us, and shoot at us. But, when a white
police officer
Shoots a black gang member or beats up a black drug-dealer
running
From the law and posing a threat to society .. You call him
a racist.

I am proud.
But, you call me a racist.

Why is it that only whites can be racists?

There is nothing improper about this e-mail.
Let's see which of you are proud enough to send it on"

The short answer, Whitey, is that their ancestors did not buy and sell your ancestors. Their ancestors did not create and maintain a society in which their race enjoyed automatically higher status based purely on skin color, not on individual merit.

The longer answer is that everyone can be racist. Many people choose to be racist. If you want to live in a society where we foster these divisions, keep spitting slurs at each other. Keep making blanket assumptions based on physical attributes. Answer one person's resentment with another's. Get pissed off and stay pissed off. Rather than seek a human understanding that transcends those smaller divisions, settle for a balance of power based on mutual insult and distrust.

Maybe that really is as good as it gets, especially if so many of us are so ignorant. If so, prepare for the real world war, in which we finally just start fighting each other mindlessly, wherever we stand, to see who survives and gets to possess whatever is left of the Earth after we're done.