Quote:
Originally Posted by transplant99
Yeah I have to agree with you CC....those remarks do come off as inflammatory, though i sincerely doubt he had any intention of that being the case.
I think one large part of his comments are being ignored and really shouldnt be, simply because its the reality of things.
Things arent fixed...but they are so much better than they once were and they are moving in the right direction. That's the reality of the way change works. It takes time.
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Honestly, I am glad for his daughters and their friends.
But I want do want to make one comment here on things getting better, something that people don't hear about much.
I have a bi-racial family, my oldest step son (my kids' half brother) is Korean, and I've had some iisues over the years with people asking me what colour he is and what colour my husband is, but nothing I couldn't shrug off as ignorance. Most people think ask me if he's Mexican or Chinese. Some kids used to tease him in school but he has such a great sense of humour he rolled with it and didn't make it an issue. They called him 'Chang' and or 'Beaner' but he never once got upset about it. I never really gave it too much thought.
Now, my middle son is white. I've talked about him being an athlete on these boards and shared and bragged about his team winning the State Championship, blah blah. He's one of very few white guys on the football team, and the only white kid on his basketball team. His teammates call him cracker, the White Tornado, whitey, etc- and he's always taken it in stride and laughed it off. When the Zimmerman verdict was read, his basketball coach put a picture of himself in a hoodie on facebook and posted 'White women freed a bigot from killing one of my own. This country is so backwards, whitey will always have the upper hand, I wear my hoodie for Trayvon.' I felt that was inappropriate.
My kid mentioned that Zimmerman is not white and that there wasn't enough evidence to convict him, and one of the white linemen on the team agreed with him. Thank goodness they both weigh over 250 and they are big tall kids, because they've been called so many names and been so chastised by their teammates, but nothing physical at all- most of the kids hide behind the facebook and twitter walls. I am not worried about anything physical but I am sure the words sting, even though my kid just sort of shrugs it off because he's used to being one of the only white guys. I read the twitter feed and the kids AND the coach are calling Barkley 'Uncle Tom' and talking about revenge for Trayvon and calling themselves #TeamBlack or #TeamObama.
If you don't think that Obama's words didn't add fuel to the racism fire in this country- you are wrong.
I continue to hope that no one gets hurt as a result of political figures /popular media figures and their unnecessary and irresponsible comments.