Category Archives: Prejudice

mindless hate

May 10, 2015 6:28 AM , Leave a Comment ,

Sigh.

It takes a lot to get me angry these days.  Maybe it’s a function of age and passions have cooled, or maybe I don’t have as much to get angry at these days.  Sure there are things that frustrate me, all around me and I get frustrated on a daily basis.  But anger doesn’t manifest itself in my life anymore.  At least I didn’t think it did.

I was driving around getting various chores done early on a Saturday morning.  I pulled up at a turn signal at a large intersection and as happens more often than not there was a panhandler there.

He looked thoroughly beat up by life.  Dark tanned skin, ratty and dirty clothes, and nothing than skin and bones.  Most public officials frown on people helping out panhandlers but I will pass out a few dollars every once in a while and I suppose I will continue to do it in the future.

But just before I hand my money over he stops me and pulls out a printed sign.  He asks me if I was a christian and just then I read the sign that’s filled with a litany of hateful anti-homosexual messages.  The sign looks like it was printed on a computer and the paper was laminated so it could survive out on the streets.  I think to myself “You’ve got to be kidding me”.

He starts up on some rehearsed speech denouncing same-sex marriage.  I stop him in mid-stride and tell him “I am not going to listen to this.  We are not going there.”  He walks off down the median and mumbles something that sounded like “Have a nice life, homosexual lover”.  Of course he didn’t say homosexual.

I think about getting out and saying or doing something regretful but the light turns green and I drive off instead.  I have to control my foot to not floor the pedal.

I am incensed.

It’s a naked, mindless bigotry that I have not witnessed in a long time.  It’s not the veiled or hidden prejudice that you see in popular media or hinted at by people you may casually know.  It was this stupid, in your face, and even prideful hatred that I thought no longer existed except in some of the most backward of places in the middle of nowhere.

I am flabbergasted for the longest time.  Just mulling it over and over in my head.  It’s like I can’t believe I just had this encounter.

What makes it worse is that this is a guy that most likely has had to live with the sting of prejudice against homeless people.  People have probably made negative judgments about his character without knowing anything about him and here he is doing the same thing.  I want to find this guy and ask him what made him turn into this hateful person?  Was it his family, a teacher, some friends that warped his perspective and made him the way he was now?

I am left angry by the encounter.  Angry that this still exists, angry that people can still fall prey to such notions.  Angry that I can’t really do that much to change the situation.

I wish I could end this post on a happy note but there is really nothing happy about the episode.  This is just sad.

Posted in: culture, driving, Houston, life in general, prejudice, religion

Are we closer to or further from racial equality?

January 18, 2015 7:15 AM , Leave a Comment ,

[Author’s note:  This is the next in a series of writing challenges first proposed to me by Leslie Farnsworth.  Leslie has organized and expanded the challenge to include a larger group of excellent blog writers.  Once per month, one member of the group will propose a topic and we will all give our own unique take on the subject.  I proposed the latest topic.  You may want to look at the other bloggers listed below to see what they came up with.]

I suppose that I am fortunate that I’ve only really felt the sting of prejudice a couple of times in my life.  Most of the people who I know or associate with are open-minded individuals that look past the outer shell of their fellow human beings and don’t care what the outside looks like.

But I also know that my experience is for the most part unique and I am aware that in some situations that my race will come into play.  Every Latino or Black male knows what to do during a traffic stop.  Hands firmly on the steering wheel or on the front dash-board, no sudden moves, always answer “yes, sir” or “no, sir”.  Never give them a reason to hold you or to draw their weapon.  Police interactions with minorities have been unfortunately too well documented in the last year.  What you look like does make a difference in the way that an individual policeman or the justice system in general will deal with you.

But that could just be outdated attitudes within governmental structures and those kind of structures take time to readjust and change.  In general are we as a society or just as individuals beginning to get past racial differences and treating each other equally?

On the surface I would say yes.  I mean you really have to search hard and roam far and wide to find the most backward and out of touch corners of the country with people who openly use racial slurs and pridefully display their prejudicial attitudes.

For the most part people who engage in reprehensible bigotry in our day and age are routinely pilloried and lashed by public opinion.   That type of racism is a dying institution.

But does that mean we’re there? Do we live in a colorblind society? I wish I could say yes but I routinely encounter what I term “passive racism”.  I’ve been in office buildings where I was mistaken for janitorial staff just due to the way that I look or sometimes people will assume that I don’t “hablo Ingles” and start speaking to me in a pidgin English to try to communicate with me.

Are these people doing these things in a mean or spiteful spirit?  No, of course not.  But they have been raised in and live in a system where they see a particular skin color and make some assumptions based off that and sometimes the results are not as benign or merely annoying as the above examples.  Sometimes the results of this type of attitude can mean that certain opportunities are closed off even before anything happens or sometimes the consequences can even be deadly.

Will it get better?  I think so.  More than ever before mass media is homogenizing the culture and its message reaches out in every direction.  The message being broadcast is that despite any outward differences that we are all humans and carry the same type of problems around and are all looking for the same type of solutions to those problems.  It will take time of course but given time and honest effort I think that it can happen.

 

 

 

Posted in: life in general, prejudice, racism, thought

Why I don’t support pressuring the Redskins to change their name and why they should do it

June 26, 2014 6:40 AM , Leave a Comment ,

It’s no secret that I am no fan of censorship in any form.  I do not agree with any forms of restriction on speech in any format.  Whether it’s censorship in some sort of art form or in actual words.  Using the threat of force or law to alter or diminish speech is wrong no matter what the intention.

Many people will say that when the subject becomes objectionable that it becomes difficult to justify my stance on free speech.  People will say that some things need to be curtailed or dissuaded for the greater good of society as a whole.  Another argument is that pragmatism demands that although ideally we should be allowed to say what we want that reality demands that some sacrifices be made for the greater good.

These are the arguments of those that already have made up their minds and are just casting about for an excuse to justify censorship.

Nowhere is there a greater need to allow free expression than in those things that we deem objectionable.  The unpopular opinion, mindset, or idea needs to be present and readily accessible in the public discussion.  It may seem a small, insignificant point to exclude those ideas that we don’t like but any disruption to the stream of ideas that are available to the public creates a rift, a chasm that will ripple outwards towards other ideas that you may agree with.  Maybe not today or tomorrow but eventually.

If for no other reason these ideas have to be expressible and accessible to future generations at the very least as educational examples of the way that humans can be cruel to each other and may be cruel again in the future.  The key to not committing the errors of the past is to study them in the future.

Now as to the Redskins football team in particular, why should they voluntarily change their names?  Well, the very property that they seek to protect (the name, the logo, etc) is now damaged beyond repair.  It’s now well established that a large number of people find the name objectionable and that they consider it to be something hurtful and downright insulting.

The fan base that treasures the brand is going to age and slowly disappear over time.  The younger fan base will not support the brand and as a result they will lose fan support.

The pragmatic argument to change the brand is that it is no longer tenable or desirable to keep.  Changing the brand to something else is the smart course of action to maintain the fan base of support and keep the franchise going for the long-term.  But whatever they do, they should do it on their own.

 

 

 

 

Posted in: culture, football, language, pop culture, prejudice, racism, sports

How much farther we still have to go

May 1, 2014 6:21 AM , 2 Comments ,

The current big news is that of the owner of a professional basketball team being recorded making some racist remarks.  He will probably face stiff penalties for his actions.

Last year an actor and popular commentator was overheard making anti-gay remarks and lost his job.  A few weeks ago he did it again on a social media site.

A few years ago a presidential candidate was recorded saying he didn’t care about a large percentage of the American people.  A remark that contributed to his loss in the election.

All of these people have been penalized for their actions.  As these events were widely reported in the media, the expectation is that there will be some sort of sanction for what they have said.  You would think after a couple of examples that people would learn.  But as it continues to happen it makes me seriously wonder how many people are really open minded and don’t pre-judge or hold prejudicial thoughts.

I mean these are all people that are constantly in the limelight.  They are used to being scrutinized and inspected all the time.  They are not ignorant or new to contemporary social trends.  Yet when push comes to shove or when they feel relaxed they easily and naturally go with their prejudicial attitudes.

I have to wonder if these are just the dying spasms of attitudes held by older generations or if this is really symptomatic of attitudes and ideas held by a majority of people in secret.

Posted in: culture, current events, prejudice