Thursday, July 8, 2010

Well, Since You Asked

Commenter Gretchen asked for some clarification on my last post. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to explain my rant. I knew I liked you!

      what term would you prefer we use to demonstrate something like this:
      A qualified white person is turned away from a job, which is given to a 

      less qualified minority in order to promote "equal job opportunity"?

I call that exactly what it is: racism. Of what significance is the ethnicity of the racist? Would you call it "reverse domestic violence" when a woman abuses/attacks her man? To me, that sounds just as ridiculous as reverse racism. Adding an unnecessary modifier to a powerful word does nothing but water it down.

This twisting and turning of our language is a symptom of the bigger disease of the pussyfication of our society, where validating and placating people and making sure nobody's feelings get hurt has become our national pastime. And, more frighteningly, has wormed its way into policy.

It is an ugly and destructive practice to judge a person (or group of people) by something as superficial as the amount of melanin in their skin, or the particular slant of their eyes, or any number of stupid criteria ignorant people use to make themselves feel superior to others.

The scenario you describe is anything but "equal". 

5 comments:

  1. Fuck yes, Missus Mustard. Fuck. Yes. I needed to hear it and forced you to finish your thought. I pretty much knew what you meant in the previous post but wanted to coax the complete argument. It worked :-)

    According to PC Police USA: We can't call it "racism" b/c that would somehow injure the sensitivities of minorities, didn't you know they're *delicate*.

    I will surely acknowledge that minorities have suffered a level of racism, across our history as a nation, that I have luckily never known. But that doesn't mean a white person can't have something "racist" said/done to him/her. If a policy is racist, let's own that fact. Affirmative action IS racist - whether it's necessary, or ethical, or helpfully fulfills its lofty goals is a totally different subjects altogether and requires research, surveys, and BOOKS. People need to just call it what it is, though - a racist policy.

    I lost a friend b/c she thought I was an anti-Semite b/c I defended some Palestinian something or other. It was a random news story and I said something supportive of the Palestinian person and criticized and Israeli action. This somehow evolved into "well that's no surprise since your GERMAN you MUST hate Jews!". I was totally "wtf'ed" out of that friendship.

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  2. First of all, we are sisters, for sure! :)

    And secondly, I have now adopted (stolen) the phrase "I was wtf'ed" and will use it every chance I get. Don't worry, though. Since we live on opposite coasts, it's unlikely that we will show up at the same parties wearing it.

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  3. Haha we might be related, for sure :-)

    Do you love pizza and wine...?

    And I'm glad you even understood "I was 'wtf'ed'" as in, so painfully baffled by her obscene idiocy I ran, ran, ran, as fast as I could. But only way cooler sounding.

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  4. Pizza and wine? Bring it on! Not too much wine, though, because I'm a total lightweight with alcohol.

    It's funny, just as I was reading your comment, my eye fell on a receipt I have next to my computer. It's from a store you don't have on the east coast, Trader Joe's, and on the back they have old time-y looking illustrations. One of them has a cherub leaning on a wine barrel, lifting his glass and saying "This wine reminds me of myself: classic, medium-bodied and full of chocolate."

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  5. Thank you Joey-baby. Gretchen, there are Trader Joe's on your end. Oops! :)

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