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2002-04-25 - 10:52 a.m.
The black thing:
As you well know, I used to be very liberal, but have had most of that kicked out of me by life. And though I have nothing but anger and contempt for most of the current political, ideological, and intellectual stance of the black community, I do have a problem with just writing off a complete race as worthless. I mean, black Americans HAVE contributed to our culture in many ways that are indeed positive. Jazz being one, Blues being another, and the acknowledgement that blind discrimination is a bad thing. Not to mention some of America's great literature. Let's not forget that a lot of the people that hate "niggers", also hate Jews, and Asians, and everyone else who isn't exactly a clone of themselves. That includes you and me. So tolerance has a place in this world. And a lot of the mainstream tolerance in this country is a direct result of the Civil Rights Movement. No matter how perverted the black community has begun to portray it's outcome. And just for the record, I hate the Klan and Nazis more than anything I can think of.
And despite my general scorn, I still see beautiful black people around. I've said it again and again, mainly I think to justify my stance and assuage my liberal guilt, it's not about skin color, it's about attitudes, values, and behavior. Give me a black American who's intelligent, courteous, considerate, takes responsibility for their own actions, and contributes to society in a meaningful way, whether that's just going to work every day on time, or discovering a new galaxy, and I'll be happy to call them friend and neighbor. And for those black militants out there who consider a person like that an Uncle Tom, well, I've got two words for them: FUCK YOU!
Ultimately I don't mean to be hateful. Nowhere in my life have I questioned things more than my changing attitude towards the black community. It's frightening and sad to me to find myself feeling the way I do towards black people in general. I know it's a generalization to be negative, and I still work very hard to try and look at individuals as individuals. But for every time I'm treated disrespectfully, and threatened overtly or subliminally, for every time that the negative stereotypes are reinforced by the behavior of black people around me; I plead in my heart for the world to change, for black people and white people to be able to live together in a way that's beneficial to both races.
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So, how do you like them apples?