Racism - What it Is ?

"to rant this is not the 1800's on the frontier you are not cowboys if you have a racist, sexist, anti-semitic, homophobic BS thoughts in your head please do me the favor of not having it come out of your mouth as you drive by in your car I mean really it is 2010 and for the record if you are reading this and have those kind of thoughts feel free to un-friend me cause we need some serious toleration up in here"

We've just watched a serious play and have left the theater. We've waited several minutes for the light to change and have crossed the main street. We start across the side street and - a White Man - forced to turn around by his road blocked off by a roadblock, so he Needs to turn back in the direction he came from.

B - is a few feet ahead of me and she Has The Nerve to walk in front of the Man and His Car - he has a stop sign.

After he's made it through the intersection - he yells back at her: "more points ..."

I both can and can not at all understand! For me - another A-Hole - I can "understand" that B is pissed. It was an obvious blatantly racist statement and totally unnecessary!

At the same time, I can't really understand. I've not faced a lifetime of similar snippets of being treated like I didn't matter - I'm not Black, Female, large bodied, assertive - I've not been told by My Father in so many Deep Ways that I'm not "good enough" no matter how hard I try and how Well I do at What I do.

I can support and love and affirm - and learn a little snippet at a time.

We're in "liberal" Seattle! Perhaps Selma or Jackson or Florida where B spent her formative years aren't "worse".

It's sad for me. We have so many, many people who are in a sense well meaning, caring people, but they Don't Step out of their shoes and see - what is around them around the bend. We also have others Who Do really understand; mostly People of Color or Women Who've Been Assaulted, or Gay/Lesbians who've faced the worst of Our Wrath or Similar.

Really - we Say - that things have Changed, but really the World remains - life is still stuck in the S__t of yesterday.

I'm sad - can't say - "I'm hurt" - but I'm feeling a little of the Pain. I can't say that I really Do Feel it - in its Depths, but it does Affect Me and Hurt. Thanks!