Racism and Hatred and Bile, Oh My!

Here are some facebook posts that will lose me friends that I've posted today. Enjoy!!

I hate being the voice of dissent, but sometimes things need to be said. We can't live our lives in an echo-chamber. We can't only listen to the voices that agree with us. We'll get nowhere and start to only see the differences between ourselves and those who do not share our point of view rather than the similarities.
Every day I am exposed to opinions that might differ from mine and every day I consider those opinions. I at least give them thought. It rarely leads me to agreement, but it does keep my brain from transforming people I like and love into ideological enemies. Here are some things to think on.

 On the subject of the Charleston Shooter and no-one blaming him personally:

     No, I blame him. He was a sick, racist piece of shit. The thing is you don't become a sick, racist piece of shit in a vacuum. Ultimately, he made the decision to pull that trigger and that's all on him. However, someone put that gun in his hand and a pervasive atmosphere of Racism magnified through the funhouse mirror of the internet were all a factor in him making that decision. He is singularly responsible for the reprehensible actions he took, but if we do not take the time to understand what lead to those actions we are not going to be able to stop the next domestic terrorist, or the one after that, or the one after that.

      We need to understand how this kind of hate is bred if we are ever going to effectively stomp it out. Otherwise it just becomes a series of shootouts and barbarism. A million "Good Guys" with guns aren't going to put a stop to this kind of act. They will ultimately only increase the body count as innocents are caught in the crossfires of their battles. Psychology, understanding and a real effort to eliminate the underlying factors that influence these kind of decisions will.

On why there is no Straight or White Pride parade:


  It also helps to look into context, especially in an international arena. There are communities and countries in the world where being gay is a literal, "Men will drag you away to jail to be executed, possibly via pretty brutal methods" death sentence. In this country the color of your skin can still literally determine whether or not you can practice your religion without being forcibly ventilated, even when that religion is the religion of the majority, shared by the terrorist who committed the act. Even other white nationalities such as the Welsh or the Irish have felt the boot heel of European/British colonialism on their backs.

   There is really no place in the world where the pride of white, straight people is not/has not been felt in one way or another and most often in the most violent, negative way possible. You want to know why there is no straight pride parade on a specific day of the year? It's because all one has to do is look down the streets where the powerful tread to see one every day of the year. You want to know why celebrating White Pride is looked down upon or why there's no "White History Month"? Because "White Pride" is the status quo. It's all around us. Being white is now and throughout history has been nothing to be ashamed of. It is celebrated every day black victims are called "thugs" because of pictures they posted on facebook and white killers are called "Quiet" or "Soft spoken" and their acts of terror called, "Mistakes" by the media. Every month is white history month and every day is straight pride day.

    Having pride in your culture isn't bad. There is nothing wrong with being glad you are who you are and how you got to be who you are, but also realize that there are people who haven't been able to do so until now, and even still get a boatload of shit for it. Not just here, but all over the world. We've (( Hey I'm not only straight and 88/100ths White, but also a cis-gendered, cis-sexual [Most of the time] Male! Trust me, I am the Oppressor.)) been celebrating our pride and our history for so long. It only seems right to let others do so too, right?

Thoughts on Moderation

Look people, it's like this.

You can be incensed that a police officer killed
an innocent person based on the color of their skin
and still be supportive of police in general.

You can be angry that people who took their religion
far too seriously decided to take the lives of car-
toonists and writers and still acknowledge that
a vast majority of the adherents of said religion
don't think or feel that way.

You can hate war and hate those at the root of
war and still honor and support the soldiers
that are willing to spill their blood so that
we do not have to.

It's okay to know that racism exists and that
the current system deals out priveleges to
white people and still acknowledge things
such as classism and know that despite
the priveleges white people get not all of
them are living idyllic lives free from
suffering or oppression.

You can be both cis and heterosexual and
still not have to feel hated,
afraid or threatened that
transgender and homosexual people want
need, and deserve equal rights.

Alternately you can be of a non binary
gender and a non heterosexual orientation
and not have to hate or think bad of every
person who is both cis or hetero or any
combination thereof.

You can support the right for responsible
citizens to own and bear firearms and
still want measures take to make sure
those who are unstable or irresponsible
don't get ahold of them.

You can be a straight man and not
have to objectify or hate women.

You can be a woman...well, sadly
no, you can't really be a woman and
not be afraid of men. Sorry guys, but
our track record and the society we've
built around it kind of speaks for
itself.

There are terrible things around us.
Tragedies abound and hatred is a real
serious thing in the world. What breeds
this hatred and births these tragedies
however is the idea that absolutes exist
in the world. That things have to be one
thing or another. That a person has to be
either rabidly for something or
violently against it.

Not everything has to be serious. Some
things are meant to be fun and enjoyable
and don't have secret messages or meanings.

Right, Left, Straight, Gay, Cis, Trans
Black, White, Rich and Poor. All of
these words mean something and are im
portant, but maybe we, as a group of
thinking and feeling beings have allowed
them to mean too much. They divide us.

Isn't it time we stopped considering
how different we are from one another
and started concentrating on how alike
we all are? Isn't it time, not to elim
inate titles, but to allow them to be
descriptors rather than definitions?

We are the ones building these walls
but we are not reaping any benefits
from them. The time and energy being
used could be put toward actually
making the world a better place.

We don't have to carry a chip on
our shoulders. None of us has any
thing to prove. We can relax, really
it's okay.

We are all human beings. We are all
the same kind, the same family. We
could be going so far if we'd only
remember that.

Then again, I could be doing the
same thing. You don't have to
agree with me, I suppose. As
long as we can still see that
having different opinions does
not have to make us enemies. We should
be fine.

-C Emrys Carrington.