Them Bootstraps Aren't Really For Pulling On Your Boots

I confess. I am on a BB in which a majority of the people are conservative Christians. Recently many people on this BB have made repeated attacks on those who are down in their luck,those who are poor, etc and stating their belief that Obama wants to take care of all these "losers" at the expense of all these good God Fearing tax payers. Of course the word Socialism has recently been introduced to instill more fear and justify their irrational hatred of Obama. In fact one person went so far as to write:

The poor keep getting poorer because they keep doing whatever it was that made them poor in the first place. Ditto for the rich. There is nothing at all unexpected or unforseen about the behavior that's responsible for most of the poverty in this country. If you ignore your education, fail to develop a work ethic, do drugs, get pregnant before you're out of high school or before you can afford to raise a child, become a petty criminal, join a gang, hang with what you obviously know to be the wrong crowd, become a drinker, or generally comport yourself like a self-loathing slob, guess what? You're probably not going to make a lot of money!

So let's take a minute and examine this statement and while doing so lets look at it from the opposite end of the spectrum.

Let's examine those persons in the military/captains of business and industry who have used their parents positions/connections and money to circumvent the system to get opportunites that others deserved. They use the system for personal gain not based on merit but on these types of connections. And they use them in order to increase their wealth, grab power, or prestigue . Even worse is their sense of entitlement to those positions. It is truly mind boggling. We don't have to look very far to find examples of these types of people. Do the names Bush and McCain ring a bell? Frankly, these are the people that are far more dangerous to me than any two-bit hooker. Face it, plenty of rich people hang with the wrong crowd, become drinkers, fail to develop a work ethic, etc. Yet, they have the luxury of money, connections and family to sustain them and even promote them to places they do not deserve to be. A lot of people with higher grades/SATS etc do not get into the Ivy league where these connections are further developed and strengthened because someone's Daddy knows someone, has donated to the school, or their parents have attended. During the Vietnam war many kids were able to avoid serving or served in positions that kept them in the states due to the positions their parents held. People can become officers in the military because they can get into the academys that "normal" people cannot or someone who is truly deserving to be there is denied due to those connections. So to try to make the case that the poor stay poor because of their "laziness" while the rich get richer due to their "implied" hard work is not often true.

But even more troubling to me is this. So many of these conservative Christians tout the "Pick Yourself Up By Your Bootstraps" mentality and ,yet, we now have a candidate who stands before them having done just that. And instead of giving him the kudos for doing what they insist all people should do, they turn around and renounce him. So what exactly is it that is a black man is suppose to do? Stay at the bottom rung of society where you are chastised and beaten down? Or rise to the top and then you are labeled an elitist and a terrorist to boot. And if the truth be told many of these people don't want people of color to succeed because it goes against their idea of 'what things SHOULD look like' if all is right with their world. So the next time you hear the speel about bootstraps and the like acknowledge it for what it really is. Racism cloaked in everything but what it is. Hate.

How Hidden Is Racism?

As the mother of three children whom are “persons of color” it occurred to me after watching the RNC that things can change on a dime in the spirit of winning at all costs. All of a sudden Christian conservatives are calling the birth of Sarah Palin’s grandchild a blessed event and making Palin’s 17 year old daughter the poster girl of all that is good and holy; a righteous child who has chosen to do the “right” and noble thing. For young teens everywhere she is now the idol that they are to look up to. The child who has done the “correct” thing under God‘s personal direction. Yet, I wonder how “blessed” that event would be had Bristol Palin come out on stage holding the hand of an African American or Hispanic young man and introduced him as the father of her child. Something tells me that the “blessed event” would have sent shockwaves through the convention hall and Governor Palin would have been sent packing back to Alaska. Somehow I believe that the “mixing of races” might not have played out so well for young Bristol and her mother. That racism would have reared its ugly head like it usually does for those young women who carry a baby to term who is the product of a union that crosses their own racial profile. It would be nice to believe that this would not be so in this day and age. Yet, time and time again we see stories about people of color being physically abused or killed because of their race. Gay men and women who are murdered because of their sexual orientation. While most whites would like to believe that things have substantially improved for persons of color because it is comfortable for them to do so, in fact, racism is alive and well here in the USA. Unfortunately, it is one of the things that is energizing the McCain/ Palin ticket. It isn't just about voting for a woman it is about voting against a person of color. I just wonder if it will ever be about voting for the smartest, most capable person for the job regardless of their race or gender. Seems to me we have a long way to go before those will be the "good old days."

Why?

We were out at dinner the other evening celebrating Kullen's five years in our family.

As we are eating Karson says,"MacKenzie says that Chinese people are ugly and that I am Chinese."

"What did you say?"

"I told her that I was Korean, not Chinese," said Karson.

So how do you explain to a six year old that to this little white girl thinks that all Asians look alike no matter if they are Korean, Thai, Indonesian, Chinese or Vietnamese. That it will not matter to her that each Asian nation and people have their own rich culture of food, stories, dress, history and that are as individual and unique as each person at the school. How do you explain to a young child that he will forever be seen as a foreigner in the land of opportunity and that when people ask where he is from they aren't asking if he is from Cleveland? How do you explain that soon he will be getting questions about where his "real" parents are and that for some reason perfect strangers will always question our family relationship with the "are they related line", planting seeds of doubt about our family in his young mind? How do I explain to him that what I learned was learned based on white privilege and that he will get all that entails when he is with me but that it will disappear when he is not? How to I explain to him that when he is older and driving to keep his hands visible at all times if he is pulled over and not to make any sudden moves? How do I explain to him that people will make assumptions about him like he loves fish and is good at math based on his skin color alone? How do I explain to him that certain words like "chink" are meant to hurt him and "keep him in his place"? Will he believe it when I tell him people like that are the ones with the problem or will he internalize it and grow up not liking himself? And why is it at this date and time these are STILL things that have to be explained to a young boy whose mind has yet to be polluted by others...until the other day.

All For One And Not For The Other

I think about my one son...caucasian, blonde and tall. I think about my other son, asian, dark and small. And I wonder how will there lives be different because we refuse to acknowledge how racism impacts every part of society. My Korean born son is as much my son as my other but when he steps out on the street he will be viewed differently, perhaps even suspiciously. The "face" that he wears will be that of the white person he has been raised as but the face that will be seen will be that of his ancestors. Worse, being raised as a Caucasian ( because after all that is what I am and I know no differently) he will be thinking white, acting white, dreaming white while the world will be thinking asian, seeing him "act" asian, and "allowing" his dreams to be not necessarily of his choosing but what is deamed allowable for someone of his "color." Society sees one thing, I see another. Society will tell him one thing, and I will tell him another. But in the end it is what he will tell himself that will matter. And all I can hope is that I have taught him that his worth is not determined by others but, rather, by what he decides is important and valuable. And may he always know that value is not determined by what others deem worthy but instead it is measured by how many times one keeps putting one foot in front of the other despite knowing the odds. It is a shame that he will have to wear out twice as many shoes for his walk through live than will his brother. But I am determined to make sure that his shoes provide a lot of support and cushion him when the load seems unbearable. It is the least I can do.