A Quick Reminder

My posts on racism go in reverse order due to the time of posting, so scroll down to the first before you read them all.

Racism Post Three

Wrap things up




Above is the movie cover for Miracle at St Anna. A movie that I thought was good, but I'm going to pick on it a little bit to prove a final point.

Lets begin shall we? I have talked about To kill a Mockingbird quite a bit in my blog, but this is the best use of it that I can think of. I think that book was a golden piece of literature, it displayed racism without making the south out to be bad, and without making whites out to be bad. Sure Maycomb County was pretty racist but unlike movies or stories about modern times it actually fit the year. I respect Harper Lee greatly for her work on that book. Spike Lee however I don't respect. Because in order to make a point about racism he had to make white Americans out to be disgusting jerks that wouldn't even consider treating a black man like a human. True for some, but not for all. There was not one white male American in this film that was not extremely racist. But every one thing that surprised me was that the African American soldiers weren't made out to be saints either. So he got it half way. But still, in fighting racism the movie became racist. Not terribly, but the simple fact of the matter is that not all white male Americans are bad people. There are bad people everywhere, so why peg them out to be that bad guys?

The picture I used to illustrate the first post on this subject had African American men cleaning up racist messages on a wall. All of them were white supremacist messages. That is where I draw the line, making one side out to be heroes and the other out to be monsters. You aren't fighting racism, you are changing it. Perhaps they don't care, because shifting racism would put them on top. Or, as I believe, maybe the group that made that picture is just ignorant. I will not deny that whites have treated blacks terribly in history, but blacks have treated whites bad as well. That is my whole point, that no side is perfect, that in the end we were and are both in the wrong. If everyone recognised that the world would be a much better place.

Maybe if everyone realized that everyone has suffered then everyone would be able to understand each other better. Just because I am white and from Georgia does not mean you know the slightest bit about what I go through, but just because you are black does not mean that I know about what you have gone through either. So please, see people as people, and stop telling yourself that you go through any more or any less then other people, you might, but that's not because of your race. Its because of your mindset, and the mindset of others. The "N" word does not mean a black person, it means ignorance, and slaves were called that because they were ignorant to our society. It, like many other things, has been perverted from a word to a swear, but if people went by its true meaning, then the world would be full of them. The simple fact that they try so hard not to offend makes them one. The fact that they see people differently by race means that they are one. I am glad I wrote these three posts, and if they offend you then I'm sorry. But that isn't for what I have written, It means I am sorry for you. Because you can not recognise the fact that I want the world to see people for their actions not for their race.

I end on this note, Every man is born equal, its what they do after that that sets them apart. That is from Glenn Beck's book, An Inconvenient Book. I agree with it 100%. That doesn't mean that I am racist because I may not see one man as equal to the other, it means that I see people for their actions. Not for the color of their skin.

Racism Post Two

Fear of Racism

Oh no, its a picture of Obama, this is clearly going to be an offensive post! Nope, I will try to not slip my views on our president into this post, simply his race and how it effected America.

I heard something very sad the other day, I heard someone say that he believed that if he did not vote for Obama that people would think he was racist. You know how I feel about that? I feel like every single person who felt that way should not have been allowed to vote. How is it fair to gain voted due to fear of racism? That isn't the biggest reason he won of course, but I will say that it is ridiculous that that ran through Antone's mind.

Don't get me wrong, I am all for change. Just not the change he's selling, I mean a change in racial ignorance. That is the change I am looking forward to. Sadly however people flock to ignorance like bees to flowers, it is almost a worldwide tradition. You will hear me talk about how if people just thought the world could be a better place, well this is it. I am challenging everyone who reads this to think about racism for a second, to recognise ignorance and exterminate it. (I mean in their own lives, not by killing people who are ignorant) I'm sure that a lot of people are reading this because I told them how to find my blog, I did that because they are people that I want to show my thoughts. They are people that I know have good Head's on their shoulder's. So if you are one of them, then I simply challenge you to take in my writing and think about it.

My problem is that people are so wrapped up in not being racist that they end up being biased, and also being a little racist towards people who they see as having been racist in the past. Most often it isn't racism though, its generalization, which I believe is just as bad, no worse and no better than racism. For instance, Michael in NBC's The Office is a boss who tries so hard not to be racist that he ends up being biased and giving colored people special privileges. He also shows a large amount of racial ignorance, Steve Carell is not this way but Michael is. People see his behavior as ridiculous, but they then go and do the same thing. Hmm, do I feel another rant coming on? I will shorten this one up a bit, hypocrisy, racism and generalization are all bad things. And they are all things that everyone struggles with. Except me. Just a word to all readers who just got offended, that was a joke, but I forgot two important things, if they weren't smart enough to understand my use of italics then they probably wouldn't be reading this far into my post, and secondly I don't have any readers. Back to that however, it is pretty easy to stop the cycle of racism-generalization-hypocrisy. It is simply by stopping. Stop generalizing. that's it. Stop being racist, that's it. I would ask the world to stop being ignorant but that would be like asking a brick wall to walk across the room. I doubt I can change the worlds ignorance, but if I can change one persons then all of this writing will be worth it. However the cycle is something I believe I could help stop, because the work has been done for me. I don't need to stop racism, I need to stop people from going from one extreme to the other.

This basically wraps up the topic of racism, but I have one more thought on it that is burning up inside my head, so I will finish up by writing it.

Check out the next post, Racism Post Three

Racism Post One

The Race Card

Lets take a moment to look at racism. I know what you are thinking, that this is going to be offensive. Or maybe you are wondering why I would write about racism, everyone knows what racism is. Right?

What comes to mind when you think of racism? Ku Klux Klan, Nazism, Hitler? That is the problem, why is racism limited to these huge scale events. Why is it limited to the holocaust and slavery? Probably because they were the most recent, but I think that sometimes people love to run their mouth about the two. Its just another thing to blame, another thing people can hold on to just to make themselves feel good, because they have experienced real pain, the kind nobody else has. That's just another way of setting people apart, racism. And I don't mean judging people because of race by setting them apart. Like I often do I am looking at racism from the other side of the coin. The way that it can be used to inflate egos and the way it can be used to set us apart because we know pain, and he has never suffered like we have.

I'm going to be looking at this in three ways, firstly, slavery in comparison to the holocaust. And after that I will look at why those are such popular perspectives on racism. Finally I will talk about how racism is not confined to one versus the other, but how races have judged each other for all of time.

First Section The Holocaust and The South

Alright, why is it that on television or in everyday life you hear about racism between whites and blacks. You see on the news about hate crimes between the two, and another special about the heroes that rescued slaves and the evil southerners who made slaves work. Here is my question, in all this talk about racism why on earth is it confined only to slavery and blacks and whites. I won't deny that blacks have been persecuted, beaten, judged, enslaved and even sometimes killed because of race. But what about Jewish people? Did it even cross your mind that Jewish people have had slavery, a holocaust, and have been driven out of their rightful homeland because of crusades and holy wars. Jewish children would have to watch their parents gunned down at their homes doorsteps, and then be dragged off to concentration camps. They would have to live in ghettos or even in hiding just hoping that someone would come to save them. Egypt enslaved them and made them work in bible times. Their homeland has been in conflict for almost all of recorded history! But we never hear about big bad Nazi who came and killed a Jewish person. We hear about big bad farmer who was raised to have a slave work his farm, isn't that farmer just the devil!

I'm sure much of it is because slavery happened in America, and the holocaust happened in Europe. However, isn't it time that people quit pulling the race card? You see it every day, on television and in real life. Its simply a matter of fill in the blank, "Is it because I'm a ____?" I'll give you an example really quick, when I write this post many people will call me a racist, but the fact that every white American in the movie Miracle at St. Anna is a terrible racist is just historical. Because after all, there couldn't be a white man who isn't a complete racist, that wouldn't make sense? Why is it that modern day society is blinded by the past and can't see whats happening now?

I won't deny the fact that America has treated blacks very poorly in its day. But I do not tolerate racism towards whites just because of slavery. Lets me tell you something, when I moved to Pennsylvania I left Georgia, and I had many African American friends there, but the second people heard I was from Georgia I was branded a redneck racist scumbag who wasn't worthy of being in the great north. African American kids didn't even acknowledge my existence. What did I do to them? I never owned a slave, I never committed a hate crime. But I'm from redneck infested Georgia so I am bad. I'm going to let you in on something, Georgia isn't full of rednecks. I met more rednecks in PA then I even thought existed. Georgia had some racism, but I noticed as much if not more in PA, and Ive noticed racism in Oregon as well. But the south is the cesspool of it all, the south is automatically bad right? Wrong.

Second Section: Racial Ignorance, the most common form of racism.

I can't even count how many times in my middle school someone would hear the word Negro in to kill a mockingbird, and they would laugh. Or how they would be eating mnm's and see a dark one and say "Mnm dark, that's racist ha ha ha." This is just ridiculous. It disgusts me, yes DISGUSTS ME that people are so ignorant. Without ignorance, the south would be recognised as a good place, racism would be cut in half. Mnm dark wouldn't even cross someones mind as being racist, even in jest.

The fact is that racism is mostly made up of ignorance. Some people truly hate blacks, but others hear about slavery, the holocaust, it goes in one ear and the remainder of their intelligence jumps out the other. People joke about racism, that is a lot of the ignorance there. People look at African Americans, they see a different culture and they either worship it or hate it. Because they don't think about equality, its one extreme or the other.

Lets look at the worship part, people see African American styles and boom, all the kids are wearing them. People see a black person in a gang and here comes a new style. People see the music they listen to and bam! Hello new favorite style of music. There is a line between being intrigued and interested in different cultures, but intrigued and interested is a lot different the infested into it. People become obsessed.

Here is the other side, hate, or racism. Which is pretty simple, people dislike the other culture because it intimidates them. That is it.

Section Three: Greed

You all remember greed, if you read my blog that is. People use racism to their own personal gain IE the "Race Card." You remember the "Is it because I'm ___?" That is it, the race card, you want someone to do something and that's their reasoning. their race. Pretty simple, I have pretty much ranted enough on the subject in this post, I am sure that you understand my point.

I try to avoid general statements, but before I go to post the second and third installments of this little miniseries I want to inform you all that I know there are good and bad people everywhere in the world, no matter the color of their skin. I am simply combating racial ignorance. Nothing else.

Rome wasn't built in a day, but the sandwich was.

Think for a second, what if Rome was built in a day? It would have been amazing, such a famous city, but for it to be good it would have needed careful planning. I heard a friends say once that a bike ramp he had built wasn't good because it was made quickly, it seemed fine to me. That made me think, why can't the world change in a minute, and has it ever?

Think about this, If you ask people where Rome is on a blank globe they wouldn't know, but if you ask them what a sandwich is they will know immediately. Rome, one of the most incredible cities in the world, is less famous then meat stuffed between two slices of bread. Is that a bad thing? I don't think so, because it proves that the world can change in an instant. The second that card player asked for meat between bread to keep his hands clean the world changed. Just like the instant where the chocolate chunk cookie was accidentally made. This proves that anyone can change the world, that card player wasn't famous, neither was the toll house cookie shop.

People act like the world is how it is, the seek out normal lives like they can't change something. They can't invent something, they can't gain peoples respect. They can't leave their comfort zones to try and make something new. But that is completely untrue, anyone has the means necessary to change the world, we all have a voice, that's all we need. We all have minds, that's all we need. Never tell yourself that you aren't good enough, because you are.

Smart Stress

When I think of stress, I typically think of a soap bubble floating around, the slightest bit of contact with anything will make it burst, and over time even the friction of the air will eventually make it burst no matter what. But it doesn't have to be like that, letting out the stress can be a lifesaver. Not taking time to de-stress is about as smart as the French Military trying to battle against an amateur paintball team. They would obviously fail, so why not stop and think about it? But then again, who am I kidding? Its not like France has an army.

But lets not steer away from the topic of stress, France is another topic for another time. Back to stress, In my mind there are three types of stress, Anger, Depression, and Sickness. Shall we start?

Anger

Anger, being angry, not a good thing. When you are angry or frustrated it shows, and it effects everyone around you. But it is truly a pointless act. I of course never get angry, but we can't all be perfect. That was of course a joke, I get angry as much as the next guy, but I can recognise how anger is a pointless thing. What happens when you stomp around screaming and whining, or when you break something. What do you gain other than lost time and lost whatever you broke. Every second you spend in anger is a second that whatever made you angry has power over you. If you are getting mad because your closet wont fit an extra pair of shoes then congratulations, a closet has power over you. Just don't let stress get to you.

Depression

Depression is a sort of "meh" subject for me. Its a complicated thing with two sides, medicated and counseled depression. Don't get offended by my next statement because it is simply an opinion, and do you want an opinion to have power over you? I believe that medicated depression is a lot less trustworthy than counseled, a counselor can help you with depression, but just because you are sad does not mean you need to pop a few pills. I believe that depression medication has some good intentions but like those little daily vitamins they simply feed off of peoples paranoia. I'm sure that the meds help some people but mostly its just I'm sad I need a doctor. That is the kind of depression that I think people manufacture. Paranoia sales is one of the smartest ways to make money, mean, but smart. The thing about depression meds is that they think it works because of a few changed signs in the brain, whoopdy doo! The brain holds so much in so little space that a changed sign could mean ANYTHING. So because there is one that means the magic happy pill works. Believe what you want but my opinion is that if a counselor can't help you a pill cant.

Sickness

Ah, here we go, lets get into the final part of stress. Sickness, stress is proven to be able to give you a stomach ulcer. This is much more concrete than the "magic pill's brain wave," Because it has been tested, several different times, with rats and humans. Rats were once put in a cage with other rats in unhappy conditions and eventually they all had stomach ulcers and died, that birthed the idea of "stress." Stress can do things anywhere from making you throw up to destroying your stomach. This is really the one bit of stress that I buy into.

Conclusion

I believe that stress is a much manufactured term that has been perverted from real physical things to "I yelled, it wasn't my fault! I'm stressed!" People like to have things to blame, stress is one of them. You get mad, its because you are mad, not because of stress. No magic pill will cheer you up, and you can't just blame living life for your mistakes. Everyone goes through frustrating situations, and everyone gets angry, but that doesn't mean that it is the worlds fault, it is theirs for not handling in a health way.

So, that's it. Everyone gets mad, it doesn't make you bad. But stress is the physical things that happen due to bad situations. I believe the rest is just in your head, because we can control anger, but you cant pick when you will have a stomach ulcer. That is my pure reasoning why I think that stress is simply peoples way of blaming others, congratulations, you spilled hot coffee on yourself at work, you screamed at your friend when she tried to help you, while that was happening someone was shot, and they handled it better. You go ahead and whine because you stubbed your toe, when Jesus Christ was tortured and crucified, and he handled it better. This anger caused by "stress" is just a part of our spoiled society. Because if Jesus can handle torture better than you can handle a rough day at work then there is something very wrong with the world. Sure this may sound quite harsh but it is truth, we live the best lives possible in America, we can call up pizza or watch a movie with the press of a button, we have the Internet, which is the whole world at our fingertips when our world could be no more than a room in a house. So we take bad situations in a worse way then someone who lives a rough life. I know I have an incredible life, and I know that I often don't take anger well. But that can change for everyone if people would realize how easy we have it here.

The I.R.A Terrorist

Up Above, you can clearly see two soldiers. Men of duty, but seemingly completely different. There is a clear difference in weaponry among the two, also a difference in uniform and overall evil appearance. The world will typically tell you that on the upper left is a hero, and on the upper right is a terrorist, or a radical. The left is a depiction of a continental soldier during the American Revolution. On the right is an IRA soldier during a north Ireland "Struggle."

Funny isn't it, two soldiers who are fighting for the same thing, yet have been painted out to be complete opposites? One a hero, and one a terrorist. What are they both fighting for? Independence from England. The IRA has an interesting past and present, I am going to take a deeper look into it.



Home Rule (1870-1914)

Home Rule was an act that was brought up by the Home Rule League in 1870 which would allow Ireland to be self-governed but still remain in the u.k. Several attempts were made to get the act into effect but they were unsuccessful. However on May, 25, 1914 a Third Home Rule was passed, although it was rejected by the House of Lords three times the Commons used the Parliament Act to get the act passed without the House of Lords. This "Third Home Rule" Divided Ireland into Northern and Southern halves.

The Act was postponed until the end of World War I, The Irish Volunteer Army was also split, most of them accepted the promise of the home rule act, but some of them split off to form the IRB which fought for Irish Independence before the home rule was enacted. Finally however it was, in 1922 most of Ireland was self ruled. This was accepted by many as the first step towards full Independence.




The Unionist Rule (1921-1972)
North Ireland was still largely a Protestant state while "free" southern Ireland was catholic. Northern Ireland was ruled by a Unionist style government. It was declared a Protestant state for Protestant People. In the 60s, inspired by Martin Luther King, the North Ireland Civil Rights Association started up, leading to several civil rights protests. One Sunday The 1st Battalion of the British Parachute Regiment opened fire on civil rights protesters, killing 27. Bloody Friday was the IRA response, several bombings on North Ireland economic and military places. This however did not hurt Britain, it hurt Ireland. The IRA Issued an apology after the events. Saying it was not their intent to kill non combatants.



The Direct British Rule (1972-1999)

Britain decided that they needed to take charge in North Ireland, they decided to rule it directly from that point onward. In the 80s the IRA used a weapons shipment from Libya to battle for freedom, these efforts failed. But the violence eventually led to a more republican style of rule for North Ireland. The IRA continued to fight for Independence until 2005 when they gave up violence. North Ireland has had its new form of government since 99, who knows what will happen in the future, but if it does flare up again, pray that the worst is already over.



The IRA

In 1916 the IRA was formed, before it were some movements for Independence but not as powerful as this. Its full name was the Irish Republican Revolutionary Organisation, which was then changed to the IRA Team, no these are not the super soldiers you remember from television, this was the IRA Team. It is now simply known as the IRA. From 1919-1921 they fought a small war against Britain, and they fought again from the 80s until 2005 when they agreed to give up violence against Britain.



Conclusion

If you have indeed stayed with me through this unusually long and dry post that feels like it would serve better in my computer's recycle bin than on my blog then you are in for a little treat. This is the part where I tie everything together in an interesting way and try and add a comedic aspect to a few things while maintaining the serious nature of the subject. The IRA may seem like terrorists, but that is the tactic, not the people. Sure terrorism is not the best way to handle fighting a war, but it has been proven effective in our own revolution against England. When you call an IRA soldier a terrorist, just note that terrorism was used in our own revolution and civil war. The two soldiers you saw at the top of this ridiculously long and slow paced post were not that different from one another. It is quite sad that through heavy weapons shipments from two nations and through several battles the IRA was not successful in achieving their goal, what better way for the victims of Bloody Sunday to rest in peace would there be than their full country having full Independence. I believe that with the odds stacked against us so highly in the revolution, it was God himself who helped us through to the end. Perhaps in the future God will help Ireland in the same way.

And that's the post, hope you enjoyed it!