massa

the guy that does the landscape work here at our offices is black. he comes once a week. he also washes people's vehicles in the parking lot while they're working (very handy service). he comes in, my boss pays him the same day, it's great. they make small talk, chitting and chatting, and are very friendly. black man and white man interacting harmoniously.

but on a different day, while talking about sports (i feign, i act, i pretend... i thank the academy) the boss uses racial epithets. nigger this, nigger that. a very different demeanor.

i think that his friendliness to the landscaper is genuine, and i don't think he would ever outwardly discriminate agains someone of another race. it bothers me though that people these days (and not just in the south) are satisfied with tolerance.

tolerance? as in, to tolerate?

i tolerate people talking in movie theaters. i tolerate bad drivers. i tolerate the hilton sisters. but at the same time i want to kick all of these people very hard in the larynx.

is that the attitude everyone should have with regard to people of a different race? if so i'm glad i'm a white male.

being free of bigotry (look up "liberal" in the dictionary - it's part of the definition) should be more than toleration. i realize that rome wasn't built in a day, and maybe it's asking too much that people try to mold something as ingrained as a thought process, when noone is looking, but it would make me feel better if at least a conscientious effort were made to do so.

i'm probably guilty of racism as well. it's hard to look at a black man or a hispanic man, and just see a "man". but i'm trying. i try not to treat a black person better than i would a white person because somewhere deep in the labyrinth of my mind i feel guilty. i'm trying in the privacy of my home, far from the sensitive and critical eyes of others. how many people really do this though?

it's easy to act accordingly to moral issues while people are watching. it's another matter entirely to have the self-discipline to recognize fault in your mental processes when you're alone lying in bed.

changing the way one person thinks, much less the way a million people think, takes a while. it's been almost 150 years since the abolishment of slavery, and noone can tell me prejudice isn't still rampant.

i think of this in relation to gay rights as well. how long will it take america to make right the inequality and injustice being perpetrated against homosexuals? granted, they're not endentured and physically tortured as slaves were (matthew shepard may disagree, if he were still alive), but civil rights issues are civil rights issues.

the american population in general is terrified of change. we're like a country of old people terrified of computers.

why am i thinking about red states all of a sudden?