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Thursday, October 11, 2007

I Have a Headache

This one in particular:


I made the mistake of reading some of the comments on some of the YouTube videos about racism. There's some weird stuff in the videos themselves, but the opinions of some people - oy. Try the conversation about racism in Alberta, for one. Or better still, don't bother.

There's a December 2006 CNN poll on racism shows that most Americans do see lingering racism -- in others.

Meanwhile, Hispanic Business magazine reports that bias costs companies billions. So, bigotry is not just wrong, it's expensive.

Not so incidentally, John Mellencamp has a new song called Jena:

It can also be found on his website. BTW, the name of the town is pronounced Gina, not Jenna.

Anyway, I think every once in a while, the fact that we're still dealing with this stuff makes me feel as though my head were in a vise.

But I don't think the answer is to pretend that we don't SEE differences in race, because we do, just like we see red hair or a burka. It's how we ACCEPT differences, in my view.



ROG

1 comment:

Uthaclena said...

"Phobes vs Phials"

The idea of being 'colour-blind' is absurd, and is usually expressed as either a strategy of ignoring the abuses in history and culture, or as a fluffy-minded, ungrounded idyllic vision.

I think the real divide along racism (and other "-isms") is whether one is phobic of "The Other" or is attracted by other forms and declares"Viva la Difference!" Some people are desperate to lead a white bread life; others want a granola-crunchy Heinz 57 lifestyle. Why? I think, some Nature, but mostly Nurture.