by on October 16, 2009

Social Responsibility Rant

ArgumentI’m taking an exit requirement course with the general topic of equality in schools and the workplace. It’s my 3rd of its kind since meeting exit requirements for my A.A., so it’s getting pretty boring by this point. Anyway, I thought it might be some good conversation.

I think the first steps to reforming racism is to begin radical social reform in the form of slashing federal and state programs that encourage social delinquency. Here are three of the top social programs that are holding back the progress minorities are looking to achieve but are actually slaves to the system that created the programs. I say this as a former recipient of assistance for the extreme expenses associated with having cystic fibrosis. I’d never choose to limit myself to $1,000/mo income again just for that lousy assistance.

Welfare: gone – if you can’t work, then move in with family – if you had 4 kids with no mom or dad around to help, then you can’t afford to have had them in the first place. If you don’t pay for the car you bought or don’t pay for the insurance on the car you were given, they take it from you, and kids are more valuable than a car.

Social Security: completely broken. I’ve already paid more into it than I’ll ever get out and it sets people up with a false sense of security and entitlement that the gov’t will take care of them just because they worked or got injured. Retirement’s not a right and neither is gov’t spoon-feeding.

Bussing is racist in its purest form. Let me translate what the legislatures and school administrators are saying with a veil of compassion: “those kids are too poor, have too many issues at home, and are possibly too stupid to excel as a group, so if there are some shining stars, lets’ get them out of there to a ‘good school'” How about you hire the same caliber of teachers, pay them the same, fund them the same, and treat those kids like the other schools treat their kids? That’s the racism going on in school!

Filed Under: Common Sense, Current Events, Politics Tagged With: , , , , ,
by on July 21, 2009

Black vs. African American – Cut the PC Crap

It’s always great when your college professor teaches you something they didn’t intend to, especially when it involves them making a complete idiot of themselves in the process. That happened about 2 years ago and some recent media events brought back that memory to my consciousness.

The class was a modern literature evening course, Junior level at USF, with a professor with tenure leading the charge every Tuesday night from 6pm-9:50pm. Great times, as you can imagine! The current assignment was Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. The main topics of the book were racism and imperialism in the British Empire in Africa back in the 1800s, which is always a great topic in a racially mixed class because some are “over it,” some are listening intently to a history lesson, some people are racists, and some people just want to get along and sing Kumbaya naked around a campfire.

In some strange shift of normal diversification (I guess bussing doesn’t work for college), there was only one lone black person: an older woman of about 45-50 who dressed and carried herself as an office or cubicle worker of some sort who was just getting off work like half of the rest of the class who doesn’t sleep until 2pm and come in their sweats and PJs.

The professor constantly looked over her way every time she mentioned something about how “African Americans” or “Africans” think, feel, remember, anything having to do with what was clearly being distinguished as “you/them” to the only person of significant skin coloring in the room. She was the de-facto black person to consult, of course, right?

Hehe!

After about 90 minutes of this crap, the professor finally posed one of her factual statements as a question by ending it with, “is that about right?” to our de-facto black person. After taking a second from her note-taking to realize the talking had stopped because the prof was looking at her, she responded in a thick accent, “I’m Jamaican. I am not like all of these people with these feelings of retribution. I am not “African American” nor do I identify myself with any racial movement by Jessie Jackson or Al Sharpton.”

BOO-YEAH!

I’d love to see what she puts down on demographic surveys where the options are Caucasian, African-American, Asian, Latino. I hope she throws the book at them every time. I’ll bet Peruvian immigrants feel the same getting blasted by Mexican stereotypes.

I know I sure as heck don’t call myself “German-American” because 5-6 generations ago my people came over on a ship. The only people who can say that are the first or second generations coming over for each given family. Who’s my leader of the German descendants in the US?

There’s a little food for thought for your Tuesday.

Filed Under: Common Sense, Relationships Tagged With: , ,
by on March 26, 2008

White Paper Only

There has been a sign at work for months that makes me laugh, no matter how mature I try to be. My witty side, ala Alan Alda, keeps busting out and I crack a grin every time I pass it.

There is a huge locked garbage bin, much like you keep in the garage, with a flip lid and a slit to drop paper in, that stores sensitive documents until the document shredding company comes. Above it, our janitor person placed the following message for all:

WHITE PAPER ONLY

For whatever reason, the very first time I saw that, within seconds I wondered what the NAACP would think about such a racist trash bin. By the time I got to the door down the hall, I had re-vamped their acronym to suit the situation and wondered what the National Association of Colored Paper would have to say about this travesty.

Where’s Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton now? At the very least, its eerily reminiscent of “white trash” comments. Anyway, that’s a little nugget from me.

Filed Under: Current Events, Office Life, Politics Tagged With: , , , , ,