I'm totally not a racist...but I am a peoplelist! I don't think I was a peopleist until moving to DC. This has nothing to do with race. It does, however, have to do with people, meaning that I don't care what ethnicity someone is, there is a huge difference in people. Maybe it's their personal history, maybe it's simply geography.
Okay, I'm sorry, but here's where that opinion originated...working and dealing with people in DC for the past 13 years, particularly women. What's with the idea that the government should compensate them for their biological histories. It's been 200 years or more! Some families have been on the government take for generations. My theory is, if you don't like how America has treated 'you' for the last 2 days, 2 months, 2 years or yes, 200 years, go home! My son-in-law is black. I'm sure he has basically the same history any black person has. He's a graduate of Stanford, has a fabulous job, a great attitude, and doesn't think anyone owes him anything. He couldn't live in DC even though he tried. It's a different culture than he cares to live in.
I was all for Obama winnng the Presidential election. When I saw him speak at the Democratic convention in '04, I thought, what a guy! He's dynamic, brilliant, and has the style and charisma of Clinton or a Kennedy. I really believed he just might be able to lead the country back to some kind civility.
Then i saw him on CNN after he won the primary in South Carolina. Reality hit....standing next to him was his African American wife. Oh, my god! What was I thinking!? Obama in the whitehouse is one thing, but having a black woman in the whitehouse? Then i heard her speak. She is also brilliant. She said she hopes African Americans do not vote for her husband 'just because he's black'. uh, okay....that may not be the case across America, but here in DC? OH YEAH....they will vote for him because he is black! And if he does indeed win even the nomination? oh, my god! Does anyone remember DC when OJ was found 'not guilty'?? From SE up through PG County there will be celebrating...and not because Obama is a brilliant man, but because his skin is dark. Rather than going with the idea that this man is like any other man who takes the initiative to make something of his life, some folks look at him as a 'saviour' for others in their race. What...he's going to make their lives better because he's their color? Do they think 'ahhh, at last we'll get reparation for our history of slavery'? Okay, slavery was an awful thing. Children were ripped from their mothers and sold. Families were destroyed. It was truly horrible what happened. The truth of the matter is, however, that some of the slaves were brought here by black men. Maybe some of the folks here in DC are related to those merchants who sold people to Americans.
Working with people everyday, some paid very high salaries doing the same job I do but showing up for work late, taking long lunches, and complaining all the time simply drives me to be a peopleist. And in this beautiful city of Washington, where example should be made of us because we are the Nation's Capital, fraud, deceit, and manipulation runs rampant. Maybe it does in all big cities, but here, it's generally those who believe they are owed something. Maybe there isn't a difference in feeling like you're owed something, and just plain greed.
Maybe it's just me. Maybe, 'truth be known', I am a racist pig.
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2 comments:
doesn't make you a racist, just makes you a realist. you're saying what so many of us think. and i thank you for that.
....and you articulate what so many are afraid to put to paper....the frustration of dealing with people - any group of people - that believe their "rights" come first because of some perceived long term damage they have adopted as their own - because it suits their purpose and allows them to take every advantage....and the rest of us must sit silent for fear of retribution....at least now we are able to blog
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