Wednesday, November 21, 2007

I'm not Racist but.....

Have you ever heard that phrase before? Have you ever noticed how the next thing to come out of the mouth of the person saying it, is usually a racist remark? Why try and mask your ignorance and bigotry with that bullshit preface? If you're racist and/or making a racist comment (which usually means you're a racist), why start off with "I'm Not a Racist". You clearly are!

For example, today at the park where I take my son everyday, there was a new mom with her child. Many of the "regulars" weren't there so I didn't hesitate to strike up a conversation with the New Mom and have our kids play. She informed me that she wasn't from the area, but liked to come to this park because it was much nicer than the ones in her neighborhood. Foolishly, I asked what was wrong with her local park. And I got "I'm Not Racist....but the park near our house is mostly blacks." Ok, so what's wrong with that, I asked. To which she replied, "No no don't get me wrong, I'm Not Racist but....they all looked like gang members and probably had guns". Seriously. I'm not making this up. I politely informed the woman that this was South Florida and the 95 year old woman crossing the street over there probably had a gun. I also said to her that just because the people in her park were black didn't mean they were gang members. Again she replied "Oh I know! I wasn't saying that to sound racist. I'm Not Racist..........but they were all playing basketball and acting all thuggish." Clearly, I wanted to bang my head on the nearest swingset, but just stared blankly and said "Oh". I had made my point and tried to enlighten her as to the *ahem* gravity of her errors, but no. She was a racist in denial, and that was that. Needless to say, when some of the other park "regulars" began showing up to play with us, I saw her skitter away with her son and leave. You see, the children and families Dante and I usually play with are black (oh no!) and I guess New Mom thought we'd start a gang and throw signs. Now that I think of it, Dante's pants were a little baggy today and his friend Rocco had baby tattoo band-aids on his knees. GANG! RUN!!!!!!!!

Another example occurred right in my back yard a few days ago as I was playing outside with Dante. My neighbor and his wife were outside and came over to the fence to say hello. Their neighbors on the other side had just moved away and I asked them if they knew if anyone had been looking at the house. Wait for it! The wife replied "Oh we saw one woman over there and We're Not Racist...........but thank god she was white!" Um, ok. Who the fuck cares what color the people are?!?!?! All I am concerned about is are they clean, quiet, and friendly? So I said to the neighbors, "What does it matter if they're black, white, green, orange, blue or purple? All that should matter is that they are nice people and good neighbors!".

So the next time you hear someone preface their sentence with "I'm Not Racist", be prepared for some ignorant, racist shit to come out of their mouths.