A Quick thought on the PC movement

"...attention is focused on surfaces, on words and metaphors...signs and symbols are accorded more importance than content...the P.C. movement's obsession with language is accompanied by a strange Orwellian willingness to warp the meaning of words by placing them under a high-powered ideological lens." Michiko Kakutani, "The Word Police"

When we focus too much on political correctness, we are taking attention away from the problem and are wasting the energy we could be using elsewhere. It's superfluous pandering to the idea that words hold more weight than action. Worry less, for example, about the term "wife beater" (a man's sleeveless undershirt) and more about men that beat their wives. 

Basically, stop worrying about what someone calls something and worry more about how they treat other people. Hate speech is not acceptable. Pissing over terms such as "rule of thumb" (which used to refer to the fact that a man could beat his wife with a stick as long as it was no wider than his thumb...horrible, but how many people actually know this when they use it?) is a waste of energy. 

Police Bashing - it needs to stop

I wrote this in September 2015 and thought I had posted it here but apparently it was only on facebook. Anyway, it's still applicable so I'm going to repost it here.

So I'm doing my readings for my Crim-J class and, with all of this hatred in the Media that I've been seeing against civil servants lately, I just have to get this off of my chest.

I am incredibly tired of police bashing. So tired, in fact, that it is difficult for me to continue with this post, primarily for one reason - I don't know if it'll even matter and it's exhausting. There are far too many people who are incapable of thinking for themselves. They think life is bad now, that police are all of a sudden the enemy, well here's the thing: How do you think life will be without them? (Research Deadwood, SD's history for an example of what life was like before law-enforcement.) The police aren't the problem, people who spread falsehoods and lies about the police are. Every time someone shares a post on facebook of a blurry video (or video taken out of context) of what people assume to be police brutality, every time people post opinion threads about cops and how corrupt they all are, you are spreading hate and misinformation. We are falling prey to the Media's desire to stir up hate and fear, and are persecuting the people who do the job we are paying them to do! People need to start doing their own research instead of vomiting forth twisted and misrepresented "facts". Police aren't the enemy, ignorance is. And as long as ignorance reigns, our species is doomed to extinction by our own hands. (On that note, groups such as ISIS don't need to do anything but sit back and wait for us to tear ourselves apart, which we are doing quite spectacularly, might I say).

Yes, there are bad apples in every bunch. I am not excusing that nor endorsing bad behavior. There is still racial profiling, this is true, though there are initiatives in place to try and help eradicate it from law enforcement. However, there is a reason why racial profiling exists and it's not because all White people are racist (people of all races racial profile, don't think any race is exempt from this). If people uphold a stereotype, it will continue to thrive! Don't like the stereotype, then change it. Stop behaving that way! To think any form of negative behavior doesn't have a base for it's existence is naive. Black on black crime is much more of an issue than white on black crime but do people understand this (or care)? No, it's not sensational enough. People are used to Black people victimizing each other (which is a far bigger problem than the handful of corrupt police officers). And yeah, I bet there are people who have been wrongfully accused, have been hassled by police, but the majority that feel they have been were actually...think about it... doing something wrong! I am not excusing the poor behavior of those rotten apples in the PD but there is a bigger problem within all groups and it is not in police/citizen relations.

Now, I know that I am going to get flack for these thoughts but honestly, I don't really care.  I'm ashamed to admit that I used to be one of those people that I am speaking out against. Then one day I woke up, reversed my ignorance, and did my own thinking. ALL lives matter. It's that simple. To focus on one group and exclude all others will do nothing but create barriers and cause people (who should be working together) to want to turn inward in order to make sure that they are not being forgotten or wrongfully treated.  At the pace we're going, we're going to end up creating another civil race war. We can't keep going on in this way if we expect to evolve. We are sliding backwards as a species. We are going to tear each other apart and it scares the living shit out of me. All because people are either a) unable/unwilling to think for themselves or b) are afraid to speak out against these newest initiatives for fear of being called racist (or worse) simply because they don't agree. But guess what, we don't have to agree! That's the great thing about America. But we do have to live and work together so lets stop with the qualifiers and start working on cleaning our mess up.

One last thing to keep in mind: have you ever heard the saying "there are no guilty people in prison"? Every con is innocent, remember, and someone else is always out to get them. Start holding criminals responsible for their actions and stop targeting cops. Or one day you just may need a police officer and there may not be any left to help you.

I'd like to introduce to you...

Keeley Fey! My number one kitty!

My thoughts on the conflict between races...and white guilt

This is my response to a post written in one of my classes concerning racial profiling and interracial relationships.


The "problem areas" where we see the high occurrences (according to statistics) of racial profiling happens in areas where there is a large minority population and high number of violent crime incidences. This tends to be in lower-class/poverty areas. Which makes sense: discontent breeds animosity and desperation which fuels criminal activity. So where people discuss racial profiling, it's really less about race and more about socioeconomic status. Basically, it's not like police are in a primarily White neighborhood picking out the Black community members and ignoring the Whites. They're in lower-class, high-crime neighborhoods that have predominantly minority/ethnic residents. Stereotyping happens. It does and I'm not excusing it. But I think it's important that people remember that it goes beyond Black and White (I meant for the double meaning).

White people face a problem these days, as well, and that's "white guilt". White guilt occurs when members of minority groups believe that (and expect that) White people should feel guilty about all of the injustices that occur in the world against minority groups. White people can't get away from it. If we're not outright racist, we're told that we're latently racist because of "white privilege". And this builds resentment and aids in reinforcing the gap between groups of people. How are we (humans) supposed to fix anything when one group feels like they are being discriminated against (and it's not necessarily just minority members who feel this type of racial/socioeconomic discrimination) and/or blamed for the actions of other people? When a group of people (in this case White people) are made to feel that they shoulder guilt for other peoples' behavior, both before (especially before) emancipation, as well as simply guilty by association of race, there will always be conflict. Many groups of people forget that all groups have gone through hardships. For example, I'm Swedish-American. When my ancestors got here, we were treated like horse-shit. Swede Hollow in St. Paul was a disgusting shanty tenement where living conditions were absolutely horrible - no sewage system, no electricity, building codes weren't enforced, and there were pretty much no city services to speak of. It was nestled in a ravine, only one way in and out, beneath the city streets of St. Paul. It existed from 1850-1950 and at one point there were horse-drawn carriages ... when it rained, there was really only one place that the trash and horse-poop water would travel to and well, gravity works wonders where ravines are concerned. Swedes all across America were seen as lower class and often treated like gutter trash by members of the upper class. What I'm getting at is that everybody's ancestors, (hell, even the members of Great Britain went through multiple instances of being conquered/violated by other groups, such as the Romans, Normans, Vikings, Germans, etc.) faced incredible hardship at one time, by the hands of another group. It's not like Whites aren't discriminated against by police (or even by each other), because as I mentioned above, there isn't just racial discrimination but also socioeconomic, sex/gender, religious discrimination, etc., but we don't really hear about that in the media. And I think that is where part of the problem lies - the media. I've talked to people in Melbourne, to get their perspective on us, and they basically think most of us (those that they have had direct contact with are usually the exception) are all white-trash, gun-wielding, trigger happy rednecks...who don't believe in affordable health care! They believe this because it's what they have seen in world- and social media.

Where White people want to be allies in fights that different races/ethnicities must fight, they are often apprehensive and feel like they can't be, simply because they are White. And I think this behavior on the behalf of minorities, as well as the behavior of Whites fearing that they will step wrong, really needs to change. I think there is a fundamental problem when it comes to the understanding of every group involved. I don't usually quote others when writing discussion posts because they aren't meant to be formal, but in this case I would like to make an exception. Judith N. Martin (2002) quotes Gloria Yomato who wrote "For people of color: Remember...various groups have been oppressed in a variety of ways. Educate yourself about the ways different peoples have been oppressed and how they've resisted that oppression. Expect and insist that Whites are capable of being good allies against racism..." (p. 367). Her point here is that there isn't a reason why people should not help each other out, and that every group has had their hardships, regardless of race. Those who hold power should be embraced if change is desired because they have the ability to help create the change. Why wouldn't you want to befriend people who can help you?! We need to go into these fights as allies that recognize this. To alienate Whites because they aren't Black and don't understand the Black person's hardships will just create more problems, not solve any. As I've watched the happenings between the police and suspected racial profiling cases, as well as some of the acts of the Black Lives Matter movement members, I can't help but feel that this needs to really be remembered. What happened to Africans that were enslaved was absolutely, 100% deplorable. The behavior of racist people is not acceptable. But it is not okay to expect people to support one group when they are also expected to feel guilt for something they had absolutely nothing to do with. And I think that right there is the major obstacle when it comes to propagating positive inter-racial relationships. 

My opinion might not be popular, there are plenty of people who could throw a number of blanket statements at me about how it's invalid because I have White privilege, but I have watched and have been in college (studying social sciences/humanities) for, well, way too long. I feel pretty secure in what I have learned that I can openly discuss this sensitive topic.

Martin, J. M., Nakayama, T. K., & Flores, L. A. (2002). Readings in intercultural communications: Experiences and context (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw Hill.