Thursday, March 8, 2012

Trivial


Wow, have you looked at the date?  December 15, 2011, where did the year go?  I see quite a bit of news, blogs and video discussing the "end of the world."  They screwed us those Mayans did, ending the calendar like that.  On December 21, 2012 we may just *poof* and cease to exist.  Possibly, the planet will undergo and extreme natural transformation and we will no longer be needed.  Perhaps, just maybe.... we will evolve into beings of pure energy and leave this plane of existence.
 
No more time or time will end, really?  You do know the concept of time is a man made theory to explain the order of events, don't you?  More specifically, we have to know how long we are going to live.  Very selfish of us.  I do like this "end of the world" concept, even changed some of my aliases to jamboi2012 and jamonit2012, and even JamCo2012 Production several years ago.  I don't like the idea of everybody dying, but I do like the idea of having an exact date for the "END."  Putting an exact date on "Judgement Day" tends to put social issues in perspective, doesn't it?  The day many people believe that we will be judged by God for our actions in this mortal plane.  So now that you know where I am coming from.......  hop on this roller coaster and ride with me.  You can scream all you want, but please no puking, I only brought 1 change of clothes.

To that end, I laugh my ass off.  We are looking at a date the world will end. It is just over a year from now.  The reason I laugh is this funny shit right here. ---->  Isn't it ironic that we are still fighting over such Trivial Bullshit as the color of someones skin?  The world may end... but you are not the same color as me so I do not like you.  WTF!?!?!  Yet here I sit, perplexed by that exact drama unfolding around me.  I do not quite understand why people are racist, so this is to explore my own thoughts as well.  No one is born hating anyone, or anything for that matter.  I believe it is a learned behavior, which in turn means someone must be teaching it. 

You see, I was raised as military brat. I have been in direct contact with people of almost every race, color, creed, and religion.  If you walk on a military base you will see people of different races holding hands, hugging or kissing.  Many service personnel marry people from other countries.  Never, have I cared what color someones skin was.  I do not think I have any racism in my soul.  I examine all people based on what is inside them; personality, education, common sense, and above all is the way they treat me.  I like ALL people, until they give me a reason not to. 

Once again I am an outsider looking in.  Here in Southern Mississippi and Louisiana racism runs rampant in the streets and the institutions.  It is a way of life, passed down from generation to generation.  IGNORANCE BREEDS INTOLERANCE!  That does not mean these people are not educated, quite the contrary and some are very well educated.  I do not think that all people down here are bigots, they are not.  It is probably about 50/50 if I had to guess.

Do you really think that a persons skin color automatically makes them this, or that?  Do you really believe that "She can't help it because she's black?"  I hear this shit all the time at work and at outside accounts.  "I won't vote for a damn Nigger for President," referring to President Obama.  I have been in a conversation with some one who I looked up to, a mentor so to speak.  Just as casually as saying hello, he states that "Niggers are ruining this country."  I almost fell down.   I just looked at him in awe, the conversation was over for me, so I walked away. 

I have been told several times that "Blacks have destroyed the school system."  Please, Mr. Bigot, let me see your proof of that. I was told the other day that a black man, had asked out a white woman, I work with out on a date. She said that her legal guardian did not approve of her dating or being friends with blacks.  Once again, I almost fell down with shock.  This Ultra Christian can not date black people, because her Ultra Christian guardian (owner of a church) says blacks are not as good as whites.  I was explained to his theory on mixing the races, and of course it says so in the bible.  NOT!

Let me not get it twisted, it is not just the white people either.  I have heard so much racist crap from black people around here as well.  My very first run in with racism was from several "friends" of mine.  I had several black friends growing up in Louisiana.  We played basketball all the time, at school or at the park.  Some of us hung out and learned to break dance on cardboard boxes in someones front yard.  I thought we were tight, homies.

I got very close to a girl named Suzann in the 7th grade.  We studied at the library and at each others houses together.  I think it was partly because we were both doing very bad in Social Studies.  After about half the school year we started getting really close, holding hands and such.  We were hanging out all the time after school.  I started to notice I was getting the shit knocked out of me on the basketball court at school.  Then it happened, she said we couldn't hang out anymore one day at school.  I kept bugging her as to "Why?"  She started avoiding me.  Then I got a knock on the front door and saw several of my "friends" in the front yard.  I went outside thinking they wanted to hang out, and was slammed up against my dad's truck.  They were Suzann's brothers and cousins.  They had a plain and simple message for me.  I was not ever to lay a finger on their sister again, or any other black woman on this planet.

I was in shock for days.  Some of my closest friends had turned on me.  The one that gave me the name Jamboi, jam on little white boi, had threatened me.  All this because I was white and I dared to get close to a black woman.  To me she was just a girl I really liked being around, it hurt me a lot.  I didn't talk to Suzann anymore.  I didn't play basketball at school or the park anymore.  I had to find somewhere else to break dance at.  The only one I was still cool with was Ant, or Anthony.  He was her little brother and he didn't give a fuck, we were still homies.  He told me years later she was still sad about what happened, so was I.  Let's just leave those skeletons in the closet from now on.

The most amazing part to me is that anytime I have brought this up in conversation, I am told I am wrong.  People have called me a liar, a drama queen or a "shit starter."  Some discussions have gotten so heated I expected to have to literally fight my way out of the room.  White racists are in denial.  Everyone is unhappy with the way the country is heading.  I think white people just refuse to take their share of responsibility for fucking it up, so they blame it on black people.  Black racists say they wouldn't be racist, if the whites weren't.  That's bullshit too.  They say it is because of slavery that they hate whites.  Can you blame them for holding a grudge?  "Blue eyed white devil."  At the same time, no one in my families history had slaves.  None.  So how can all white people be blamed for the actions of some?

Our cultures and history are so different that we do have a hard time meshing together.  Sometimes we can't even talk to each other, just don't know where to start.  When we do it leads to such amazing collaborations, teamwork, and even babies.  I have seen several mixed racial children that are just beautiful, way beyond "normal" beautiful.  What if Andre Young had told Marshall Mathers to fuck off because he was white?  Just imagine that shit.

Well, before I get my ass beat for dissing on black and whites, let me get to the problem at hand, the situation... the reason this is weighing so heavily on my mind.  I was asked for my opinion, and ideas for solutions to this problem.  That was a bad idea.  Never ask me for a solution if you are afraid of upsetting the status quo.  We are contractors.  That means they hire us to come work in their businesses, in their environments.  We have people of several races that work for us.  The people that own the company say "Go there!" and we go there.  We are just worker bees in search of a little honey.

We recently got a new account, a pretty large account.  The people that we have working there are black, the supervisor is black, and the sales people are black.  They started finding things written on walls in bathrooms, on paper taped to mirrors and lockers, and pictures/drawings taped up around the place.  The people working for us thought they were directed at them.  One of them even said she was going to quit because she feared for her safety.... her life even.  I don't blame her at all.  The graffiti was sayings like this; "Die Nigger Die!" "The only good nigger is a dead nigger." "We don't want your kind here."  "Go back to Africa, Nigger."  It hurts my heart to even repeat it.  There were several pictures of a person hanging by a rope from a tree found and quite a few pictures of burning crosses.

So, some of my people, met with some of their people.... and he said, and she said, and everybody talked... "Yada, Yada, Yada Nigga... It's just talk." (Tech N9ne)  You see, this is where is all leads back to "Who teaches racism and why?"  I can tell people from here the approximate location of the school, and they instantly say "The White School."  It is common knowledge to them.  This is an all white school, from K through 12.  Did you read that right?  All white school.  It is a Christian School, a private Christian school.  When they say private, THEY MEAN FUCKING PRIVATE!  The people running the school have even said as much.  They say the parents want it that way.  They have passed all these rules and qualifications in order to keep it that way.  Not to mention you have to be pretty wealthy to send your kids there in the first place.

Some of the people working there are friends of mine, and I do not wish to see them harmed.   I can not believe I actually have to worry about their safety, but I do.  I can only imagine what it must be like for a black man/woman having to work in that environment, with those kinds of people.  Especially the type of people some of them are.  Proud black folks, very well educated and dedicated to their work, professionals.  They impress me very much for being able to do their jobs so well, even when faced with all this hatred.  I am opposite, a middle class white boi, with a college degree.  I can't possibly know where they are coming from, can I?

So that is where we are at, a stand off.  A bunch of racist as hell white folks, trying with all their power to keep their kids away from the "niggers."  If this is how the human race has evolved over the last couple hundred years, maybe we need to call it quits in 2012.  Just a thought I have had.  Fuck it, just push the button and blow us all to kingdom come.  Sometimes I am ashamed to be white.  I think about how my race has treated so many other races over the years.  We are conquerors, conquer, kill, rape, pillage, and enslave.  Even now we are trying to enslave the middle east in the name of freedom and democracy.  Oh please.....

So that is my macro view.  People hate each other because they are different.  White people are in denial and refuse to accept any responsibility for their own actions.  It is easy to blame the blacks, Indians, Native Americans, Latinos, Spanish, French, British, and now Muslims for our problems.  It is much easier to just stick with that, than it is to try to change it. 

Here is my theory about all this racism bull shit.  The government, yep government, stands to benefit more than anyone from racism and segregation.  Have you ever filled out a government form that didn't ask for age, sex, and race?  According to our government everything has to be categorized.  African American, Caucasian American, Asian American, Native American Indian, etc.  Why is that.... to keep us apart.  Just think about it for a minute.  Is there anything we couldn't do if we were all united?  No obstacle would be too big for a truly "United States."  Would we need all these fucking politicians?  No.  So I think the government is behind it all.

Hopefully with each passing generation the racism will fade away.  It has not been very long ago that whites had slaves.  Many families did not, but we are all guilty, until proven innocent.  I look forward until the day all my brothers and sisters can stand together, United, and fight the real demons in this world..... not each other.  Finally, putting an end to all this trivial bullshit.

4 comments:

  1. I thank you. Wrote this a little while back, but never got around to posting it.

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  2. Good post, lots to think about. I do wonder if the school you are talking about is PCS. Because when I was there, there were a number of black kids, and we all got along fine, as far as I know. Obviously, though, in the intervening 9 years (jesus, has it been that long?) things might have changed.

    Its true that we're raised to be racist down here, most of the time, but I think we're getting better about not being racist. But it seems like people always need some group of people to put down. The less racism I see, the more sexism against women I see. More "jokes", more leers, people are even joking about rape more than I've ever seen. Just go to your nearest community forum and see how many more "jokes" against women than even just a year ago there are. Its sickening.

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    1. The school is not PCS, not in the immediate Hattiesburg area. I think you are right that racism has been declining over the years, especially due to the increasing popularity of hip hop. We have all found more things in common. Unfortunately, you are also correct, we seem to need someone to blame, especially in times of economic struggle.

      Men in general want to control things. Jobs, bills, children and even women. The man is expected to be strong, a born leader and provider for his family. In this age of equality, men becoming less dominant in the institutions, I really believe that men are feeling they are becoming worth less, and some even scared of losing their power. This too is very overwhelming for men who have lost work due to the downturn in the economy, and may no longer be able to provide. So they take out their anger and insecurity on women, who are for the most part physically weaker. I am not going to try to make excuses for men because there are quite a few men who are just pigs. They still believe women should walk 4 steps behind them and stay home cooking, cleaning, and staying barefoot and pregnant. Rape is control and physical pleasure, and it is not something to joke about......... ever.

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