Post I-Hate-V-Day Wrap Up/You Mean Racism Still Exists??? No Way! Oh Yes Really!

Okay so I hate Valentines day. The whole give me shit cuz you *do* me is so silly. You ought to give me shit cuz I do you everyday! When folks ask about Valentines I let them know I'm too romantic for just one day of lovings. So this year I have a ladyfriend who hates V-Day as much as I. So despite the fact we loathe the V-Day tradition we had a very romantic day where we exchanged gifts (I got her man panties that look like an old school taxi & she got me the latest Lily Allen CD), had a romantic dinner at Savoy and watched one of our mutual favorite films on the big screen -Valley Girl. Yup it was as typical as you can get. My gal pal even placed bloomed flower heads in a line leading up to her place to guide me to her front door. Ahhh sappy! And so sweet! Had a truly wonderful 14th.

In other news it's interesting because lately I have a few peeps in my life who seem to think racism is-like-totally over. One pal who I love and will remain nameless didn't like a disturbing pic I posted weeks ago that had Emmet Tills horrid looking remains in it. When I responded with "yes racism is ugly" this friend said "yeah but that was like 50 years ago." This friend then noted the Matthew Sheppard tragedy which was very awful indeed. Anyway this got me thinking about how many white folks seem to think racism is dead. That it was a long time ago "so could ya stop bringing it up" kind of attitude. And "guess what I had to do a report on MLK Jr. in high school so enough already" type of mind set.

There are more problems with this attitude than I can say. It damn near makes my soul cry every time I hear it. So today I present Racism: Alive and still Annoying. Or It Exists so please take your pale head out of your ass. Chose whichever title you like best. So without further ado, some lovely links you may want to read and pass on to others.

• From Brazen Careerist a list of how to not be an annoying white person at work. I can't tell you how many times I've heard these things. "You're so articulate!" Or "you people sure can dance!" Errg!
• Southern Maryland's very own Pro-White Power advocate Lisa Stallings. She wants to put an end to Black History month. Because ya know her kids are white and shouldn't have to learn about that stuff. Because ya know white history is taught so little! Here are some responses to her truly intelligent letter.
• The KKK doing they're silly/scary ass jive with Latino Americans. Yes it's not just Blacks, Jews & Catholics anymore!
• Blackface parties on college campuses lately and especially on MLK Jr. Day! Ummm can you say WTF?
• From Poynter Online an article bringing up the phenomenon of white owned media wrongly identifying Black celebrities, writers & artists. I'm sorry Al Sharpton does NOT look like Fred Wesley! People please!
• Rosie O'Donnell with her ching-chong crap that went hardly noticed yet Donald Trump calling her fat made huge news. No link needed for that.
• Biden's comments on Barack Obama. "I mean, you've got the first sort of mainstream African American, who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a story-book, man." This is as Kai Chang notes what Biden really meant: Blacks aren't mainstream like you and me, man. I mean, most Blacks have trouble speaking proper English and seem kind of yucky and not very bright, and you just can't trust a lot of those inner city types. But I mean, this Obama guy seems So Safe To White America that he possibly even has a shot at winning, though I doubt it, man.
• Yes skin tone effects earnings. You may say "no way" but yes folks. It twixt be true.
• Palestinian students attacked and called terrorists. For realsies?!? Oui!
• Hollywood stereotypes of Brown skinned folks. Can you say Mel Gibson's latest film?

And I wanted to save this one for last (but very much not least) because it shows us how racism is not only haunting us but very directly hurting POC especially Black folks with regard to equal treatment in medicine right here right now. Harriet A. Washington's book Medical Apartheid teaches us about the horrible experiments done to Blacks in this country that still go on today. In the name of science Black folks have been given diseases or left untreated to see what would happen. Not by their own volition mind you. From being denied adequate medical care to death and broken confidentiality, Blacks have suffered and continue to suffer from research "treatment" that whites don't seem to get.

So sure racism may not seem as direct as it used to. We're not hung from trees and set on fire so much these days. So I guess it's all okay right? Well it's just that we just can't get equality. We just get beaten up for being perceived as terrorists or made fun of because of the shape of our eyes or our accents or considered dirty because our skin is dark or given more money if our skin is lighter or have college kids mock our culture at parties or when we get some fame we get mixed up with other famous people of color or we have the KKK thinking of ways to kill us or we're told our history isn't as important or we're told over and over how surprising it is we can speak intelligently or are portrayed as savages in films or we have our body parts removed or are given diseases because we're still thought of, due to this countries racist legacy as 3/5 of a human. Yeah man racism- it's like so 50 years ago. Right?