If this has already been mentioned, my apologies. Let me know and I will pull it.
I want to say, up front, that I am half white. Here in Hawai`i, I'm what's known as "hapa." Hapa is the Hawaiian term for "half." I am half Caucasian, and half Asian.
As a non-Black who posts a diary like this, I realize
that I may be seen as insensitive, or possibly worse. I hope this is not the case. I can only try to assure you, I suppose, that I believe I am not a prejudiced person. I have friends of many ethnic backgrounds and blends, and I include individuals of African-American heritage in that group.
Hawai`i is . . . was an interesting place to grow up. I've mentioned that I am in the upper fifth of the dKos family age range, according to the May diary poll.
Up until the time I first attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison, I had grown up in the proverbial "melting pot" that was Hawai`i, and I really had never experienced what I would call "prejudice."
On my very first day at UW, after I'd parked my car and was waiting to cross the street to register for classes in the Stock Pavillion, a car slowed and pulled over from the far lane, stopping right in front of me in the crosswalk. There were four all-American late-teen to early-20s young men in the car. The one in the passenger seat leaned out the window and said, "Hey!"
"Hey, " I said, responding to his good-natured smile.
His face went hard. "Remember Pearl Harbor!" he yelled. They all laughed and sped off.
I vaguely recall nodding and smiling, watching them disappear down University Avenue to the east. "Remember Pearl Harbor?" I thought. "Why, I can see Pearl Harbor from my house. Every single day."
Gradually the light dawned. The white-colored walk signal found me shaking my head in slow recognition. "Might this be a little sign of coming events for someone who looks like me?"
Well, it was a preview of coming "attractions." I had far worse encounters through my years in Madison, but, I promise you, I met numerous wonderful people of all nationalities.
So, as I say, when I post a diary such as this one, I want you to know, that although none of my ancestors, to my best knowledge, have been lynched because of the color of their skin, I do understand prejudice to a lesser degree, and I abhore it.
This is the Reuters' Condoleezza Rice quote regarding the Senate apology that, today, really pissed me off:
"My grandfather, who ran away from home at 13 because he'd gotten into an altercation with a white man over something that happened with his sister, and he was pretty sure that if he hung around, that's what was going to happen," Rice said. [emphasis mine]
You know, I've made this comment before here at dKos, and I am compelled to make it again: Why does anyone think this is a smart woman?
She strikes me again and again as someone who was a great high-school debate competitor: slick, fast-talking, and an expert in skimming the surface of every issue she tackled. Substance? Forget about it.
This woman of privilege, in her position, lacks even the glimmer of any acumen to choose her words with any kind of thought or care. How often does she demonstrate this level of incompetence when the script is not before her or is not memorized?
What an abyssmal embarrassment.