I don't hit on racism / sexism around here very much (Although maybe I should). That being said, here's a rare treat for you.
As some of you may know, yesterday was the primaries here in West Virginia. Since I never found the time to run myself up to the courthouse and switch my registration to "Independent", I didn't have much to do today besides my "statement" vote for Ron Paul. We can hope, can't we?
But when discussing my vote with a few of my lady friends (you know who you are), who were over for the hockey game last night, I got quite the treat myself. Hopefully they were just messing with me, but you never know. ;-)
Apparently they voted by reading down through the ballot and checking all the women running.
Let me repeat myself. They voted for all women, simply because they were women.
Of course, this set me off, so while I was wigging out, I got the next gem of the night.
"Hey, it's empowerment."
Heh. If my brain hadn't already been sent off the edge, it certainly would be now.
So let me get this straight. If I go to the polls, look down through the candidates, and purposefully vote for all men, it's sexist. If I vote for all women, it's empowerment.
I guess this holds true for other areas as well. If I vote a straight white ticket, I'm racist. Meanwhile, the news media sees no problem with the fact that 90% of blacks (Yes, blacks. Not African Americans. They were born in America. Not Africa. They're just as much "African American" as I am "Czechoslovakian American". Which I'm not. You want a real African American? Try Dave Matthews.) are voting for Obama, a large majority of which I'm sure are doing it simply because he is black.
Now, if you ask me, voting for all women or all blacks is just as sexist and racist as voting for all men and all whites. Think about it. How are these prejudices defined? It's when you form an opinion or take an action towards someone with the main deciding factor being their gender or the color of their skin. Voting for Obama because he's black is the definition of prejudice; you're saying he should be president simply because he has dark skin. The same goes for voting for Hilary simply because she's a woman… Equally wrong.
Instead, here's a novel idea: Why don't we examine each candidate on their political platform, their positions on issues that are important to both ourselves and our country? It's funny, though, how no one ever talks about that. We live in a country that thinks it's over racism, over sexism, but I have to disagree. As long as we continue to treat anyone who isn't a white, middle-class male differently, whether it has a positive bias or not, we will continue to be a country of sexist racists.
How about affirmative action at colleges? That's another favorite topic of mine. If I were black, I would be offended… No, downright insulted... by affirmative action, because you know what it would say to me? "You know, Justin, because you're black, you must be more stupid than the white kids applying here, so we have to give you bonus points on your application if you have any hopes of making it in." No. No. If everyone is equal, then everyone should be judged the same… Put on an equal footing… Given the same opportunity. Playing games like affirmative action or demanding reparations only serves to point out that everyone still believes that there is a divide there. Even if the action has a positive effect on the demographic your examining, it's still racism because you're basing your actions off of their race or gender.
Now yes, there are cultural and social differences between races and sexes, which is perfectly OK. Things like that actually make the world a richer, more interesting place. When people continue to make judgments, though, positive or negative, in places where race and gender isn't important, such as the workplace or the political arena, I continue to lose hope that society will ever get over its racial and gender driven ignorance.
