I have terrible news.
We are not actually any more special than other people.
I know, I know!! Here, have a kleenex, wipe the tears away. Oops, you got some mayo on the corner of your mouth there. There ya go. Ok, now let's talk...
Anyway, I've been watching all this crazy racism bubbling up over the last months, and there's one thing running through all this that I've been noticing that I felt needed pointed out. The reason I bring this up now is a while ago the trailer for Chris Rock's documentary "Good Hair" came out and I finally watched it:
I've been looking forward to this for a while, since it's a look into a world I know nothing about, which is why I love documentaries to begin with, and Rock is one of the most brilliant comic minds we have these days so it's sure to be smart and entertaining. I was looking into more release info when I made the horrible mistake of checking the comments on IMDB.com (which is like reading the comments on YouTube videos - you're only going to depress yourself)
the following was posted. I know you guys are smart enough to smell the BS without it, but please watch the trailer and then read this:
(I hate) that rock made this a race thing, but I guess that might be his thing. Also if you call whites evil and try to sell it to them they buy it, which is probably not what the movie is about. From what I have seen, the movie asserts that non "straight" hair is "bad". Well i'm white and according to popular culture I have s**t hair. Fat people have s**t bodies, according to pop culture. If the film asserts that people should be who they are and not try to fulfill a unrealistic ideal of beauty, I think that is a good message but why make it a race thing. I have hair that If i did nothing to it would look like s**t, I would look downright homeless, I just don't understand why he made this and others make this a race thing which I think will turn into a why white people are evil thing.
This line of thinking is depressingly common with the teabagger set - something involves black people, therefore it is obviously a "race thing," whatever that is, and is clearly stating that white people are evil (and it's being marketed to white people, obviously, since, like, black people don't go to movies ever). There were a few mentions that "good" hair is more like caucasian hair, but it wasn't followed up with "DAMN THOSE WHITE DEVILS FOR HAVING STRAIGHT HAIR," unless this guy just saw the dude with the huge afro saying nappy hair scares white people and proved him completely right. Somehow this person, who I guess doesn't like their own caucasian hair, has decided that it is somehow racist to make a movie about the culture behind black hair without having some racial fairness-doctrine thing to talk about poor white people who have to use frizz-eaze every morning after the Pert Plus.
It's even sadder when you think that they probably hate affirmative action and scream about the Fairness Doctrine coming back.
After I rubbed away the welt I gave myself slapping my forehead, the next thing I thought of here was that disgusting letter Congressman Scott recieved that we all saw him bring to light on CNN & Hardball. After the initial shock of the pure ignorant hatred, something in that letter jumped out at me: the writer claimed that white people are not allowed in the Congressional Black Caucus, and thus SCOTT must be a racist. ...for not letting white people into the black caucus. Because there are all these white Reps banging on the door to get in, of course.
Fellow white people. We don't have to be involved in everything everyone does. I know you like to spout about the constitution without reading it, but I assure you there aren't any parts that say "white people are special." When Chris Rock decided to do a documentary about black women's hair because of his daughter, it wasn't because he also wanted to say DIE WHITEY DIE. These must be the same idiots who kept using Rock's incredible "black people vs n---s" bit as an excuse for racism to the point that he stopped performing it.
If an Italian-American decided to do a documentary on Italian food culture, is it discriminatory unless he has a section about ramen noodles? If I make a movie about menstruation, am I a sexist feminazi unless I find some guy bleeding from his dick to talk to? When I order the chicken at a company dinner am I telling fish to go fuck themselves? Inclusion does not equal exclusion.
Not everything is about US, white people. I know that's hard to believe. When a minority is proud of their heritage and doesn't sit around crying about not being a white male, like our new Supreme Court Justice, it doesn't mean they spend all their time thinking about how to stick it to those cracker-ass crackers. It means they are proud of where they come from. When my uncle went back to Scotland, where our family is from, and brought home a jar of water from Loch Ness and our family crest, it wasn't because he wants all Mexicans to die in a fire. It was because he is proud of our heritage, which has nothing to do with anybody else's business, white, black, or rainbow stripey. Loving an "us" does not require hating a "them." The only people who believe that are those who project it on others while they do it themselves, like the cartoon villian that exclaims his shock and confusion when the hero doesn't let them die at the end.
Not everyone in the world is as terrified of people different from them as you, white people. I bet a lot of your kids aren't, and maybe it drives you insane. The only thing I can think is that you guys are so terrified of no longer being the majority because you're afraid of being treated by everybody else the way you treated them for so long. Or maybe it's just how Garth Ennis's "Preacher" put it:
EDIT: The discussion in the comments has been really interesting, and focused more on the black hair topic from the trailer I used as an example. So here's a few more Youtubes to add to potential discussion:
A Tyra Banks episode from May focusing on young girls who already hate their hair (the little girl with the Hannah Montana wig made me tear up):
Also parts 2, 3, 4, and 5
Part 1 of an indie documentary focusing on following the money and how Koreans make money off of the black hair product industry:
Part 1
Anyone else with interesting links please share in the comments.