I thought I’d throw a few thoughts into the ring.

[UTE98]

Putting this in football due to Holliday Jr.

While working in Virginia, yes these stories again, I had a co-worker who recommended the following book. You might be able to get it in PDF, or possibly an audio book. The chance of picking this up in the public library is not very good. They had it available in Virginia but probably not Utah. My co-worker went to a “historically black college” in the south.

“The Miseducation of the Negro”  by Carter G. Woodson. This was a very interesting book, and was written nearly 100 years ago.

Does racism exist? Yes. Is it as bad as many would like you to believe? No. But any racism needs to be addressed. 

My real last name is King, and I subscribe to Dr. King’s assertion from his I have a Dream speech and not judging a man by the color of his skin. Also if you’ve never read his Letter from the Jail in Birmingham, I’d recommend it.

Having lived in Virginia, having served in the Army and having multiple neighbors and co-workers of color I like to think we should be judged on the merits of our life, not by our race, color, creed, religion.

I’ve also been told I couldn’t act on hiring boards because I was a white male. I’ve been subjected to the N bomb repeatedly while slugging into D.C and feeling very uncomfortable with it. But basically being told I was not allowed to feel uncomfortable because a black person was playing Rap music with the N bomb in their car.

I have had my own biases, and they were not against blacks however could be viewed as racist. The group I had a bias against threw a spark plug that hit me in the eye as a kid, sexually molested their niece, and beat up their white girlfriend, as well as being mysoginistic. Am I past those? Yes, but I readily admit I had this bias in the past.

So rather than focusing on what makes us different, focus on what will make us greater as a whole.

The most hated person on the plantation? The slave driver, who was a black man. This is mentioned in the book as well as in a tour I took of Stratford Hall, the Lee family home.

[Waybackutefan]

Sometimes its just better to leave your thoughts out of the public view. I hope you feel better getting that off you chest. 

[dystopiamembrane]

I disagree. Express yourself wherever and whenever you like, @ute98. 

[uteinzoobcounty]

I wish I could tell my kids they won’t be judged by the color of their skin, and stereotyped.  But I can’t. Cool story. You lived in virginia you figured out the complexity of racism lol congratulations

[dystopiamembrane]

Just a few bad apples…

[Utesbyfive]

Didn’t you post something similar after the Scalley incident?

[dystopiamembrane]

Consistency is an important attribute.

[dystopiamembrane]

I’m not sure I understand this fully, but I appreciate your input. I like your use of the term slugging.

[UTE98]

Slugging is a casual carpool. You basically show up at a park and ride lot and people (scrapers) come by and holler out at the line, Pentagon, Crystal City, Rosslyn, 14th and Penn and how many slugs they’re willing to pick up.

And there is more to the story. The problem is instead of addressing racism and standing up when we witness it we allow it to happen to others. 

I love how everyone seems to jump on me. Dehumanize me, just like the rest of society. Call me names to reduce me to subhuman, it’s what the left does to the right, the right does to the left, racists do to those they have biases against and what we always do in war.

Instead of saying we were fighting the Japanese in WWII we used derogatory terms. Instead of calling the North Koreans Koreans they were called Gooks. I am comfortable with explaining the origin of that term. Basically and I’ll get the spelling wrong it is Me Gook, which actually means beautiful country (it is Mei Guo in Chinese). So when they saw Americans they would say American, American or Me Gook, Me Gook. 

I was once told by my black co-workers I understood racism better than many having been a minority in a Chinese speaking country and having travelled around the world. So call me out if you wish. It is just ignorance, reducing me and others to sub-human levels. I’m anti most labels. Mormons, Bolsheviks, knee jerk this, radical that. I’m comfortable with my views based on my experience. Are you?

And honestly a conversation is what we need. I respect where you come from, how you came to your views, and hope to understand them better. But sadly many don’t. So share your ideas, but realize ignorance is manifested in name calling and shouting down others from your internet bully pulpit. Converse.

Anybody else read the book? Do you even know who wrote it? Do you know what it says? One of the premises is that educated black people become “white” in a sense, leaving others behind rather than being a solution to the problems of the black man. Instead of working to lift up they abandon. Thought provoking book.

[Author]

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