The American Way

[sam_gunn]

There is a subtle importance to studying the plight of the minority, which thanks to my liberal education I have had the opportunity to do. A minority faces a far different set of problems than the majority, and yet they operate within the same framework, a framework necessarily designed by the government to appeal to majoirty. But it isn't exactly

Comments

[sam_gunn]

What am I supposed to say to this Derek? I read your blog, and you have already said the same thing, and I'm tempted to confront you and throw a bunch of stuff in your face, but yeah, it won't work. Really, I just want you to know that if I don't denounce what you just said in some way, I am identifying myself as a racist too. Separate but equall? You're not even saying that. I really do believe that "blacks" and "whites" which are really European-Americans and African-Americans, and hell, Chinese Americans etc. can live together, and that all these racist notions are bullshit, and that the end of racism is the only final solution.

What are you reacting to? I just don't get it. I remember you walking around with a leather jacket covered in symbols of freedom, but you seem to be supporting a system which is directly opposed to that? Are you going to preach social darwinism like the Imperialist Europeans, and then turn around and tell me that you don't support the system they created? Or have you completely switched gears, and are now entirely indoctrionated into the colonialist status quo. You are now white, and want your whiteness to be the reason you achieve greatness in a society which ensures only white people can do that. Intellectually I would like to think that we have been witness to each others growth, and this latest turn seems out of place.

Derek, if you continue to say things like "the parental approach of separation might be a good idea." You will find your friends, who arn't racist, throwning anti-racist rhetoric at you, all the time. You are, by being friends with them, incriminating their values, and then including them into a pattern of behavoir which they consider repulsive and odiously immoral and destructive.

But at once, because I have seen you grow, and I consider us peers, I do want to put up some kind of fight, I want to out argue you or convince you of wrongness. If confronted, maybe you will have a change of heart. Maybe you will hear my rhetoric and realize that yours is specious or verismilar. Or what? I delete you from my friends? I delete you from my friends because my girlfriend is African, and our children would be black, and you would have them ripped away from because "whites" and "blacks" can't live together? Or you would have me move to some special mullatto colony, so that strange minorities like myself wouldn't bother the sensibilities of the white majority. But you're not just talking about me, you're talking about my cousin, a redhead with 3 mixed children. Or my other cousin, who is helping her mexican boyfriend to raise his daughter, and may have children with him. You're saying that I am a diluted breed, and though my European stock may impart some value, and make my families mixed children a "credit to their race", but generally and immiediately they are also inferior and abominable.

Which reaction do you want, More rhetoric or isolation?

[alkeline]

actually, the latest commentary of "race" that you see in my LJ are nothing more than over statements because of a certain preachy individual...who refused to see that he was preaching to the choir and who I chose just to piss off for the fun of it.

you've read my journal back in the day. i still hold my anti-racist views, or don't see race as important as a whole. I dont hate anyone, and I don't judge anyone based on something as simple (or as ridiculous) as their skin color. Let's keep in mind that you are the only one of the two of us who has been with a person of a different race.

what do I want? I want people to stop acting like the race issue is something new. I want them to overlook it completely until it fades away into just a bad memory.

I don't mind isolation because I can handle my own. I don't constantly reach out for human attention, support or affection...because that's just who I am. I like my friends, but I know I can handle the world just fine if not one person can understand my position. shit happens.

I actually really did mean the compliment that I gave you--I like the way you worded and approached this. I appreciate it a lot more. Because I am not a bigot and I am not full of hate, and the tired part of me is coming from another friend of mine who preaches to me like I'm a member of the Klan. again, which is the reason for the latest "race posts". just to give him something to bitch about since he wants to treat me so badly.

we really should talk more sam. sometimes I feel like we'd see eye to eye moreso that we used to.

[sam_gunn]

It may be very possible that we see things closer, but you have taken a really wierd turn lately. It seems like you are more spite than ideas. How far will you go to win an argument? I don't mean to come off like a zen master, or some kind of authority, trust me I know you can survive on your own, and I know you can write the hell out of things, but this meta-hate you were using to give him something bitch about then slipped out and slapped me in the face. That is why I confronted you.

This is all the more confusing for me because you were probably one of the biggest influences on my early rhetorical education. I can remember very clearly you confronting me about my Pro-Imperialist views, and my own belief in Social Darwinism and support of America's Pro-War foreign policy. You said, "believe what you like, but keep your shit off my blog (or out of my face, or something like that)." It was reading your thoughts and ideas, which helped me to question the existence of government and politics as it stands. Yes of course, there were other influences, but you were a big one. It is scary then to see you jump angrily at someone, and then turn with this same anger and rabidly attack Everyone.

Finally, people who do preach need to make sure they are respecting others, Absolutely. If we make it abundantly clear we don't want to hear something, the majority of people are going to respect that, whether they agree with us or not. But we don't need to react and change how we think to set ourselves in opposition. Because without this antagonist saying anything, you now appear abundantly wrong, and your writing is so strident, that they appear sane, and their transgression seems more and more neccessary with every new blog.

[alkeline]

I have actually thought very much about what you said the other day, and I have to agree with you whole heartedly. I know that given our history of conversation, that statement may come as a surprise and is a rarity in itself.

You and I are seeing things in the same light these days, and I have taken a very spiteful turn...but understand that said "turn" isn't real and has only occured within the past few weeks.

strangely enough my arguing is set in my journals only...when I get the time, energy and focus to actually sit down and write them. I won't go far to win battle anymore, because for the most part I just don't care enough about being right. Usually I feel that I have educated myself enough on a matter and feel content with just knowing that I'm correct in my conclusion and leave others to their own.

I can only apologize to you for offending you and thank you for confronting what you thought I was doing. Believe me, I don't want you to have the wrong idea of me and I certainly don't intend to deliberately hurt your feelings. But keep in mind, this isn't real, and I decided last night that other people thinking I've lost my mind isn't worth agitating ONE person.

Strangely enough, I'm not attacking anyone at all. Im more of an isolationist these days who strongly believes that revolution starts at home. Yes, I still hold all the views that you and I used to argue about, but I'm not the "freedom fighter" that I had once aspired to be. I choose to leave the protesting and public battling to those that have the energy and resources for it. For now, I just want to live my life before I end up dying, and pass on my views to whatever offspring I might have.

I have removed the posts from my blogs and will resume my writings s I always have. After all..I don't want people getting the wrong idea, do I? Maybe you should talk to this "preacher" for a little while. If he had your patience, I might be able to deal with him a little better and actually discuss with him.

Until that time, I think you would agree with me on some of the feelings that rise up in my throat when he attacks me with my own beliefs in a belittling accusatory tone.