About racism...

Nothing makes me more angry than people who are incredibly rude, thoughtless and racist and think they're funny.

We have a neighbor who is from Yemen, for his safety I will not tell you his real name but I will call him Joe. He is a lovely man, funny and kind, he has welcomed us willingly into his life and he owns a business down the street that we frequent.

Have you ever frequented a small business? It seems like there are always people who love to just hang out there by the counter bothering the people working. They have nothing better to do than lean on the counter and talk constantly for hours on end about nothing in particular. Well at Joe's store there is a man who does this named Mike. Mike is a classic counter-leaner, who is always there and you wonder if he has a job or anyone to come home to. He is hairy and large and is always sweating like it's 100 degrees out. This man has given me the heeby-jeebies since we moved here.

Well anyway, one day we walked in and got a few items and checked out. We had exchanged pleasantries with Joe and were walking out the door when Mike addressed us with a question. After answering, Mike continued to engage us in conversation for the next 25 minutes with no break for us to escape gracefully. He would move from one story to the next with no pause to catch a breath.

He moved from gambling to being a published poet seamlessly and then moved on to talk about his brother purchasing a hooker in Vegas. Why this man thought we would care about any these things is beyond me and we tried a few times to back away and get out with no luck.

Mike finally moved on to talk about Joe, our neighbor, who had been standing behind the counter the whole time. Mike talked about how often they hung out (by hang out did he mean he leaned on Joe's counter?) I'm not even sure how it came up but he told us he called Joe "camel" which is short for camel-jockey. Noticing the look on our faces he laughed and said it was ok, because they were such good friends. We looked at Joe with raised eyebrows, he just shrugged.

The thing is, I don't even think that Mike knew he was being such a racist bastard. But ignorance does not excuse this kind of behavior. So here's the thing about racism...in no way is it ok, in no way is it acceptable behavior. There is no excuse for ever using racial slurs. Mike is rude in many ways; but ultimately I can handle his never ceasing conversation about God-knows what, I can handle his counter-leaning and his gross tank-tops, I can even handle his 3-toothed grin, but I cannot and will not handle his blatant racism.

Unlike my other blogs, this one is not just a rant, this one is about an issue that needs to be dealt with:

There are a lot of ways that we can fight racism, we must show that we believe racism to be cowardly, shameful and beneath contempt. Our best weapons against racism are our common sense and our unity against racist violence and exploitation. Our goal needs to be social equality for all people.

And while it’s important to take part in rallies, letter-writing campaigns and the like to fight racism, it’s also important to speak out against racism in everyday life. So, the next time a coworker tells a racist joke or a family member complains about a certain ethnic group, do your part and speak up. It’s hard to fight racism at large if you can’t stand up to it in your own backyard. I'm going to do my part, you need to do yours too.

About stupid people 2...

One of my friends said, "Well maybe she was nervous!"

Now I feel bad.

About stupid people...

And I don't use that word lightly. My spouse and I were watching "Who wants to be Millionaire" and there was a lady on who was so stupid it made me a little bit crazy, maybe a lot crazy. We did not see her first few questions but she was going for $1000 as we turned it on. The question was this:

Who shares their first name with a month on the French calendar?
A. Britney Spears
B. Ashlee Simpson
C. Avril Levigne
D. Beyonce Knowles

She used a lifeline - the ask an expert one, and got it right...but ultimately she should not have needed a lifeline (in my opinion). If you would have needed a lifeline, perhaps you shouldn't read the rest of this post.

So I was feeling annoyed because I already feel like they put people on Millionaire who are not only stupid but also appear to lack common sense, which this lady obviously did. Well this was her next question:

The New York Islanders have a silhouette of what island on their jerseys?
A. Long Island
B. Hilton Head
C. And, well I don't remember the other two Islands but they WERE NOT in New York

So she of course called her husband, even though Meredith emphasized "NEW YORK." Man, this woman was dumb. Her husband got it right and she moved on (sheesh) to this question:


(DON'T LOOK DOWN) On a QWERTY keyboard which of these letters is not directly above the space bar?
A. M
B. B
C. P
D. V

Ok, so you are looking at a keyboard, but truly my spouse and I both knew the answer without looking at a keyboard...I bet you would have known it too. So she decided to double dip, because apparently she has never used a computer. And get this...she got it wrong! She guessed M and then B.

So here's the thing about stupid people, they make me angry. How can you possibly think you should sign up for "Who wants to be a Millionaire" and not know these things which I believe to be common knowledge. That lady didn't deserve the $1000 she got. Sigh*

I am disappointed in humanity. I guess what my spouse says is true, "The thing about common sense is that it isn't all that common."