What's in a name? that which we call a rose
by any other name would smell as sweet
-William Shakespeare
Throughout the colorful history of our nation, hatred towards various minority groups has risen and fallen out of vogue almost as frequently as cold fronts sweep the Plains during the spring.
In the 18th and 19th century, slave holding and oppression was all the rage. In the early 1900s, it was hip to hate the Irish and other groups immigrating to the United States. During WWII, it was just dandy to hate the Japanese. In the 50s and 60s, beating, murdering and shunning blacks (which had always been popular) made a resurgence to the flavor-of-the-era. Towards the turn of the century, the country's bigotry sensors turned on the gays. After September 11th, the focus turned towards abusing and ostracizing Muslims. More recently, it seems that racists are equal opportunity, getting their hate on for blacks, gays, Muslims, Mexicans, and just about every other group of which you can think. If you listened to a variety of GOP speeches these days, you'd get the idea that America was a haven for white, straight, wealthy Christian business-owning males and everyone else can shove it.
This is nothing new, and those who perpetrate these ideals are foaming at the mouth to deny them.
Last year as I stood in line at Quiznos, I joined in someone's cell phone conversation by force. The iron-lunged, 20-something white sorority girl was screaming valleyspeak with a southern twang into her cell phone, presumably to someone of equal stature on the other end. This was one of those situations where you'd rather not listen to the conversation, but the person is talking so damn loud that you really have no choice in the matter.
After about three minutes, I successfully tuned out the words coming out of the hole in her head, and she devolved into some sort of Charlie Brown teacher from hell. Just as I was about to place my order, she shrieked a shriek so loud you'd think a scorpion just ran off with her prized chihuahua named Foofi. The person on the other end just broke the absolutely devastating news that their favorite clothing store in downtown Mobile closed, as we've seen so many times before in recent years.
After she stopped shrieking and the requisite fifty exclamations of "Oh my God, fuck my life," she said, and I quote, "Great, now I have to shop at Target with the black people. Now I'm going to get AIDS or something."
I'm normally not a confrontational person, but when I hear someone say something so ignorant as that, I can't keep my tongue to myself. This was one of those rare moments. I spun around and said "Did you really fucking just say that? What the hell is the matter with you?" She was taken aback and then glared at me, like I committed some sort of sin by impeding on her obviously very private racism. She turned around towards the people standing in line behind her, turned beat red, ducked out of line and left the building.
I'm sure if she was the only other person around, she would have argued with me and said the magic words: "I'm not a racist, but..."
Five words. Five very powerful, very telling words. The first four wouldn't be so bad, if they weren't followed by the fifth magic qualifier, "but." As a matter of fact, if anything follows the first four words, it automatically nullifies the whole statement. It's just like an apology. "I'm sorry, but you really are ugly." How about this one: "I don't mean to be a jerk, but these pancakes taste like feet." The former really isn't an apology, it's just another insult. The latter doesn't mean the speaker isn't a jerk, it just strengthens the argument that they are, in fact, a jerk.
If you ever find yourself in the situation to say "I'm not a racist," if you amend that statement, guess what? You're a racist! Congrats!
The spark that set off this rant appeared as a reply to a comment of mine in a One Nation diary back on Saturday. Diogenes2008 posted a video wherein an elderly lady calls into C-SPAN with a very interesting comment.
Transcript (my apologies for any errors):
Anchor: Naples, Florida, Dean on our line for the Republicans. You're on the [...] Washington Journal.
Caller: May I speak now?
Anchor: Yes, ma'am.
Caller: Uh, I'm 90 years old, and I just wanted to ask the colored man why don't colored people, instead of saying what we did to them, why don't they say what we did for them? Uh, they, they talk about the slavery, but since then, they have [gotten] welfare, free medicine, free everything.
Anchor: Ma'am, I think this is more of a conversation about the relationship between the Administration and the people on Wall Street, instead of one based on race.
Caller: Oh, oh, okay. I'm not a racist, that was my comment. Thank you.
Anchor: Let's move on to Westchester County and Victoria on our line for Democrats.
See? "I'm not a racist." But, she just wants to know why the colored people don't thank us for those we didn't murder and abuse in slavery. Silly colored people, overlooking such kindness.
That's pretty much the same line sung throughout the racistsphere. They think that it is just fine and dandy to say something incredibly bigoted or racist, then amend it with "I'm not a racist," and everything will be a-okay.
Let's see here. We can assume that none of these signs are racist, so let me translate the real meaning for you.
Just a caricature. It's tamer than Walt Disney's stuff!
Light birthplace humor and creative use of stereotypical black vernacular.
See? White people are hated too!
Racism is alive and well in this country. Racists are out there, and they're usually the ones denying it the most. It reminds me so much of the people who scream and rail against homosexuality, and then they get caught (quite literally) with their pants down. I get pissed off when I hear someone say "I'm not racist, but..." If you're one of those people, stop it. Either stop saying racist things, or own up to it for Christ's sake. Saying you are or are not something does not make it true. Repeating it over and over may make it true to you, but to the rest of us, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.