I really try to stay away from racial topics and with all that has transpired in the last week in Dallas Texas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Kentucky and a few other places that dumb fucks think it is open season on cops and white people. There is always another side to every issue. In most cases you don’t hear to much other than what the news, or so called news/media wants you to hear or see. I won’t get on my media rant right now since I covered that subject pretty well in the past and probably will again.
We have had more than 30 years of I am a African American, Chinese American, Native American, Mexican American or whatever racial group you identify yourself with, that there are no more American’s left. We have either by indoctrination through the educational institutions, Government, self imposed ignorance, or whatever divided ourselves. I get it, it is human nature to tribe up with like minded and yes, racial like people. No matter how much you desegregate. The United States has become a pretty fragmented society. Just by making a statement “I am a Muslim American” you are adding kindling to the smoldering fire and perpetuating the myth that you are:
A. Special and deserve some kind of recognition or
B. You are some kind of ego maniac that you feel compelled to tell everyone what you are, or
C. You are ashamed of your heritage. Yes, I knew a guy in the service that did everything he could to deny that his mother was a filipina.
Whenever I get asked, “hey what’s your heritage?” I always make a conscious effort of saying I am an American. Sure I have Irish, English and Lithuanian blood in me. I can’t and could not control where my ancestors came from or who they had sex with. But one thing I can say that my dead relatives couldn’t say, is I am 100 % American. I am only a 2nd generation born and bred American. I am not ashamed of that.
But by the pure definition of saying you’re an American what you are really saying your are a mutt. But a mutt that has a pretty cool place to call home on a rather large portion of the North American continent. Not to take away from the Canadiens, they are pretty much like us, mutts. My family never sat around the kitchen table and talked about the “old country” much. They were Americans. They were not English or Irish anymore.
I guess what I am trying to get at is this, If you live in The United States of America you are an American, To say you are a “fill in the blank” American makes you fit into a nice little racial and political group to be counted, given a pat on your head, told you are special and then sent out to declare to anyone that will listen you are a special person. Bullshit. I grew up in a small dead coal mine town, we all knew are ancestry gave each other shit about it and moved on. We weren’t fucking special. We all had dead relatives 300 ft below the ground that died in a coal mine disaster. An Italian laid next to an Englishman, that laid next to Frenchman, that laid next to a Catholic that laid next to a Protestant. We didn’t dwell on that crap. And, funny thing, we weren’t special! If we thought we were, we got the shit kicked out of us.
I worked with a lot of people in my 24 yrs of military life, yes there are race issues, and like any other cross section of society there will always be strife. But you know what? When it came time to get to work, we worked together and if there was a race issue, it was taken care of pretty quickly and it wasn’t an issue. All this bullshit going on now is just that bullshit.
Yes I’m white, I can’t help that. Do I have white privilege? Very little has been given to me in my life and I have taken little. I sure haven’t sat around and cried about not having as much money as Mark Zukerberg, or the Kardashian’s. Do they have white privilege? How about Kanye West? or Will Smith? oh that’s right they sold out.
Call me a cracker? I’m a saltine American then.
Done with my rant.
This video was shared with me by my wife. Although this is almost a year old since it was recorded it is still pretty relevant today. Preach Sister Preach!
Ad Parare 