What’s Wrong with America

Hey you guys! Let’s talk about racial slurs! If you aren’t so PC brainwashed that you’ve already turned the page out of fear for guilt by association, I think you’ll find this article rather stimulating. Perhaps you’ll even find yourself agreeing with several of the views expressed herein; maybe I’m notcrazy. I certainly hope I’m not the only one who thinks all of the recent “media frenzies” have been ridiculous and lacking any semblance of rationality, but if so, maybe I am insane. Anyway, here’s how I see it:

It’s not a new trend, just a degenerating one- for the past few months, there’s not been a single major news story that hasn’t concerned something stupid someone said. Ann Coulter. Al Sharpton. Sting. The Pope. And of course, Don Imus. All of these people have been rebuked in the public eye in the past 6 months. Go ahead, google it: if you search for “remark” under News, you’ll find that these examples are only a handful of at least a half dozen in the past 72 hours. These particular five stories were each for a remark that was dubbed politically incorrect by the insatiable, untraceable self-appointed verbal police that seem to be running our country nowadays. Honestly, that’s kind of a problem. And sure, I can see the hullaballo over the Pope, what with his word affecting a majority of the world’s population and all, but be honest: could you tell me what it was that he said? Mm, what about Don Imus? I’m sure anyone in America could tell me all about him and his nappy headed ho’s, and what they had to say in response, and what Hannity & Colmes think about it, and how young black women feel about the remarks of 90 year old washed up radio hosts, but the fact remains- He’s a comedian. It was a joke. And I guess in a way, it’s very telling: you can tell a lot about the people you know based on how they reacted to that whole ordeal.

Nevertheless, jokes don’t make you racist. Beliefs do. Mean words don’t make you a bad person any more than nice ones make you a good person. Yes, I know, it’s all been hashed and rehashed by every freelance journalist out there, but it’s a pretty big deal. Besides, how many kids in our school read magazines without naked celebrities in them? That name in itself is a mystery to me- why on earth would anyone celebrate Paris Hilton? Anyway, maybe Imus really is racist, maybe he’s not, I’m not defending or attacking him, that’s all been done. What I’m saying is, freaking out about words is not helping the problem of racism in America. Because let’s face it: in the 60’s there was a lot of white folks who didn’t like black people, and the haters aren’t dead yet. They have a bit of influence on the way their children view other races, but not much; that view is largely determined by the culture. The problem is that in the year 2007, pop culture is telling kids that it’s not okay to talk the same around your black friends as you do around the white ones. “You can’t say the N-word around them, because they might be offended. Don’t talk about slavery, because you don’t know, maybe his great great grandfather was a slave.” Right, maybe Kunta was his granddaddy, but pretending that slavery never happened certainly won’t make up for it. You can’t hide from trouble- Ain’t no place that far.” There are still some definite racial tensions in America, and censoring ourselves around those different from us will not solve that problem. Because really, treating people differently on the basis of their ethnic descent is the very definition of racism.