Yeah, so perhaps I am a bit racist. and offensive. deal with it.
You what gives me the shits about a person more than just about anything else?
Excuses. and carrying around a f-off gigantic chip on your shoulder that you have not that much right to bear.
Now to my (apparently racist) point.
non-white people who do nothing but whinge about how terrible and racist America is and use that as their excuse for lying back and doing nothing with their lives. Yes, historically there is some insanely bad shit that happened. Dreadful. No one is ever going to argue that. And yes, I know that it still influences the black culture, for instance, now.
But really, I dont think it should as much as it does.
If you act like you're expecting someone to treat you like shit, then chances are they're going to live up to the expectation. If you stay so ridiculously within the confines of your own race, then of course there is going to be division. I have no problem with cultural pride. I think it's a beautiful thing. Nobody should ever lose pride in where they come from.
BUT, fierce cultural pride becomes an issue when people are so divided and start scrapping.
Now, I'm not American. I have never been there. I have no idea what it's like. BUT, I see no reason why African-Americans, Irish-Americans, Asian-Americans, fricking Americans from the moon, etc etc, WHATEVER cant just be content with calling themselves "American." without a prefix. Nobody says you have to lose touch with your roots or abandon your culture. Never. But really, what's so bad about seeing your fellow human being as somebody, who, deep down, is exactly the same as you? We all bleed the same colour, right? People arent the same, diversity is beautiful, yes, I get it, but I think people in general could do to be reminded now and then that we're all more similar than we acknowledge. I'm not Irish-Australian. I'm just fucking Australian. So is the Vietnamese family across the road. So is my dad's secretary whose parents are Pakistani. Nobody has to give away their old culture to be able to embrace a singular, unifying one.
There's some pretty intense history with a lot of average Aussies too you know. Kelly's best friend at school was from Bosnia. Her, her parents and two brothers got out of there when there was all that seriously nasty civil war, fricking genocide stuff going on there. I played hockey with a kid who was from Afghanistan who's dad was a high court judge pre-taliban. When you're an official like that you dont wait around to see what they have in store for you and your family. There are some Australians that have some seriously fucked up history, in some ways way more fucked up than we can ever imagine, but they still manage to embrace being an Aussie. On the whole you dont get middle eastern kids headbutting white culture because western forces bombed the crap out of their ancestor's birthplace. A big chunk of Aussies with Irish and Scottish blood have ancestors who were chucked on a boat, shipped halfway round the world and used as slave labour for the rest of their lives for pinching bread. Bad shit happened, of course, but there's really no sense in throwing around blame and guilt when the people responsible carked it ages ago. The past is remembered, of course, but not dragged back up time and time and fucking time again to guilt trip people.
I just want to know why my narrow view of America isnt something like that. Colourblind and relatively unified. I have a few yank friends who go on and on and on about how terrible and racist it is there but who then jump to America's defence when I say "hmm, that doesnt sound great". I hope it isnt like that. I'm pretty sure it's probably not.
But seriously. unity? sound that bad?
But noooo, apparently that'll never happen because things are so RACIST and IGNORANT and the white government is run by arseholes. Firstly, they're arseholes because they're just dicks, not because they're white. Dickheads comes in ever colour. Secondly, why the hell not? Why cant you guys have a country where people are just people, all equal, regardless of what colour they are, how many generations they've been there or what happened to their great great great great grandmother? Why not?
Because I think people secretly like being part of minority. It's pretty cool. You get to stand up and protest things and have people go "Oh, poor you". Being "downtrodden" and "unaccepted" gives you excuses for things. Perhaps that's just the white, western male in me saying that. who knows. But seriously. If you act like you're so dreadfully, painfully different, people are going to treat you accordingly. Now I'm not talking being little clones of each other. I'm talking about being colour blind and treating other people as PEOPLE and not making harsh judgements on them based on their race.
Yeah, your country probably is racist. Mine probably is too. Maybe I just dont notice it because I think it's about damn time we had a colour blind generation. It starts with one person.
I dunno. I guess I'm just tired of being constantly hammered and lectured about stuff like this. Yeah yeah, I got it the first time. You're passionate about it. Good for you. You Americans are a brilliantly passionate lot.
But seriously. ease up and dont take opinions so personally. Stop attacking me because I "dont get it" and stop assuming that I've seen nothing but cosy, comfy, middle class Australia. As I said... see some of the rest of the world, not just your tiny corner of New York suburbia, then we'll talk. You want to see real pain and persecution, go to a little bit of research on what Cambodia did to its own people. and yet they get on with things.
So I end this little spiel with a note to you. You know who you are. (not you, paddleboat lady)
You're a nice guy. You really are. But either give the constant whinging a rest, or whinge productively. Nothing is ever going to be done to change things if you sit there, doing nothing but writing your stories. Get a job, dont give up on something just because it's difficult and you dont "like it", and go and start your little movement. I'll stand behind you and wave equality flags too, you know. I realise you probably didnt mean to lump me in with these ignorant racist twats you seem to think the european-descended community is, but you need to watch your tone sometimes because that is very much what it sounds like to me. Quit taking things so personally and quit the attitude, "darling". I like you, I have a lot of time for you, but I have dealt with waaaay bitcher, more defensive queens than you. Just deciding if it's worth the energy to argue with you because you're not likely to listen anyway because god forbid anyone talk about anything other than you and have have an opinion that's different to your's.
AAAAND I'm done.
Usually apologies for being offensive and blunt and apparently white. My bad.
Excuses. and carrying around a f-off gigantic chip on your shoulder that you have not that much right to bear.
Now to my (apparently racist) point.
non-white people who do nothing but whinge about how terrible and racist America is and use that as their excuse for lying back and doing nothing with their lives. Yes, historically there is some insanely bad shit that happened. Dreadful. No one is ever going to argue that. And yes, I know that it still influences the black culture, for instance, now.
But really, I dont think it should as much as it does.
If you act like you're expecting someone to treat you like shit, then chances are they're going to live up to the expectation. If you stay so ridiculously within the confines of your own race, then of course there is going to be division. I have no problem with cultural pride. I think it's a beautiful thing. Nobody should ever lose pride in where they come from.
BUT, fierce cultural pride becomes an issue when people are so divided and start scrapping.
Now, I'm not American. I have never been there. I have no idea what it's like. BUT, I see no reason why African-Americans, Irish-Americans, Asian-Americans, fricking Americans from the moon, etc etc, WHATEVER cant just be content with calling themselves "American." without a prefix. Nobody says you have to lose touch with your roots or abandon your culture. Never. But really, what's so bad about seeing your fellow human being as somebody, who, deep down, is exactly the same as you? We all bleed the same colour, right? People arent the same, diversity is beautiful, yes, I get it, but I think people in general could do to be reminded now and then that we're all more similar than we acknowledge. I'm not Irish-Australian. I'm just fucking Australian. So is the Vietnamese family across the road. So is my dad's secretary whose parents are Pakistani. Nobody has to give away their old culture to be able to embrace a singular, unifying one.
There's some pretty intense history with a lot of average Aussies too you know. Kelly's best friend at school was from Bosnia. Her, her parents and two brothers got out of there when there was all that seriously nasty civil war, fricking genocide stuff going on there. I played hockey with a kid who was from Afghanistan who's dad was a high court judge pre-taliban. When you're an official like that you dont wait around to see what they have in store for you and your family. There are some Australians that have some seriously fucked up history, in some ways way more fucked up than we can ever imagine, but they still manage to embrace being an Aussie. On the whole you dont get middle eastern kids headbutting white culture because western forces bombed the crap out of their ancestor's birthplace. A big chunk of Aussies with Irish and Scottish blood have ancestors who were chucked on a boat, shipped halfway round the world and used as slave labour for the rest of their lives for pinching bread. Bad shit happened, of course, but there's really no sense in throwing around blame and guilt when the people responsible carked it ages ago. The past is remembered, of course, but not dragged back up time and time and fucking time again to guilt trip people.
I just want to know why my narrow view of America isnt something like that. Colourblind and relatively unified. I have a few yank friends who go on and on and on about how terrible and racist it is there but who then jump to America's defence when I say "hmm, that doesnt sound great". I hope it isnt like that. I'm pretty sure it's probably not.
But seriously. unity? sound that bad?
But noooo, apparently that'll never happen because things are so RACIST and IGNORANT and the white government is run by arseholes. Firstly, they're arseholes because they're just dicks, not because they're white. Dickheads comes in ever colour. Secondly, why the hell not? Why cant you guys have a country where people are just people, all equal, regardless of what colour they are, how many generations they've been there or what happened to their great great great great grandmother? Why not?
Because I think people secretly like being part of minority. It's pretty cool. You get to stand up and protest things and have people go "Oh, poor you". Being "downtrodden" and "unaccepted" gives you excuses for things. Perhaps that's just the white, western male in me saying that. who knows. But seriously. If you act like you're so dreadfully, painfully different, people are going to treat you accordingly. Now I'm not talking being little clones of each other. I'm talking about being colour blind and treating other people as PEOPLE and not making harsh judgements on them based on their race.
Yeah, your country probably is racist. Mine probably is too. Maybe I just dont notice it because I think it's about damn time we had a colour blind generation. It starts with one person.
I dunno. I guess I'm just tired of being constantly hammered and lectured about stuff like this. Yeah yeah, I got it the first time. You're passionate about it. Good for you. You Americans are a brilliantly passionate lot.
But seriously. ease up and dont take opinions so personally. Stop attacking me because I "dont get it" and stop assuming that I've seen nothing but cosy, comfy, middle class Australia. As I said... see some of the rest of the world, not just your tiny corner of New York suburbia, then we'll talk. You want to see real pain and persecution, go to a little bit of research on what Cambodia did to its own people. and yet they get on with things.
So I end this little spiel with a note to you. You know who you are. (not you, paddleboat lady)
You're a nice guy. You really are. But either give the constant whinging a rest, or whinge productively. Nothing is ever going to be done to change things if you sit there, doing nothing but writing your stories. Get a job, dont give up on something just because it's difficult and you dont "like it", and go and start your little movement. I'll stand behind you and wave equality flags too, you know. I realise you probably didnt mean to lump me in with these ignorant racist twats you seem to think the european-descended community is, but you need to watch your tone sometimes because that is very much what it sounds like to me. Quit taking things so personally and quit the attitude, "darling". I like you, I have a lot of time for you, but I have dealt with waaaay bitcher, more defensive queens than you. Just deciding if it's worth the energy to argue with you because you're not likely to listen anyway because god forbid anyone talk about anything other than you and have have an opinion that's different to your's.
AAAAND I'm done.
Usually apologies for being offensive and blunt and apparently white. My bad.