i feel compelled to do this - it will be long but come on i post once a month
ok. today at work it finally happened. everybody started talking 'politics'. maybe i'm crazy, or maybe my coworkers watch too much television. maybe both are true, who can judge? you can. so lemme know if i'm just insane.
anyhow my coworkers (about 7 of them, varyingly at minor disagreement with each other but all wholly against me) got to talking. they were having their usual tightly bound conversations about war and the economy and i couldn't help getting involved. i tried ever so hard, but we didn't have a patient for over an hour and i couldn't stay out. anyhow, it started by talking about rev. wright... not all of this is strictly linear.
coworker: "I feel that once that generation dies off, things will be better. people will realize that it isn't like that anymore. i can't believe that people are still preaching hate like that."
me: "You don't think that anger against a racist power structure is a valid response? I mean, i thought a lot of what he said was right on"
coworker: "but things aren't like that any more"
me: "how do you figure? black people are arrested at much higher rates than whites for crimes whites commit more often, they are convicted at greater rates, and sentenced to harsher penalties. people of color receive the death penalty at much higher rates than whites for the same crimes. overt racism is no longer as tolerated, but black families own less real property and assets now than they did even in the 1960s. there position as a whole has actually gotten worse"
coworker: "people need to take control of their own lives. they need to own their own decisions, and take responsibility for the decisions they've made"
me: (tactfully failing to point out that she just essentially said that blacks are lazy and lack moral fortitude) "horatio alger died a hundred years ago"
coworker: (blank stare)
later...
coworker: "we need to be in Iraq. women are being raped and people are having their doors kicked in"
me: "yeah, by u.s. soldiers. I mean, we've killed literally millions of iraqis"
coworker: "yeah and what did saddam do?!?"
me: "ummm killed thousands?"
later...
coworker: "i don't see race. like, i don't see obama as a black or a white candidate"
me: "fucking seriously?" I then went on to try and explain how a viewpoint that doesn't acknowledge race and privilege was inherently racist...
coworker: "I grew up a white middle class female. I had to take out a loan to put myself through college and had to work hard to get where i am"
me: "that's true, but you got to apply to college at all because you went to a decent middle class school, and you could get a loan because you had good credit scores from your parents. i mean, you've had lots of difficult challenges at your life, but if you had been black, at each and every one of those instances you would also have had to contend with the fact that somebody might have denied you simply because of your race. if your life was hard, imagine if each challenge might have been simply unattainable because of the color of your skin. how would you have coped?"
later...
coworker: "i mean, what is black english? like, we live in america, speak english"
me: "british people would say we don't speak english at all. we speak american at best."
coworker: "that's what i'm saying. i mean, if you want to be taken seriously, speak english. i mean, do you ASK a question or AXE a question?"
me: "English is an evolving language. "axe" will probably be how everybody says it 200 years from now because it flows better. the language changes, y'know?"
coworker: "all i'm saying is, speak english"
me: "oh! you mean speak like white people!"
there was much, much more. i am so shaken by the complete lack of affinity that i felt on every single topic that i am beginning to question whether or not i am in fact a "loony liberal" as they labeled me.
anyhow my coworkers (about 7 of them, varyingly at minor disagreement with each other but all wholly against me) got to talking. they were having their usual tightly bound conversations about war and the economy and i couldn't help getting involved. i tried ever so hard, but we didn't have a patient for over an hour and i couldn't stay out. anyhow, it started by talking about rev. wright... not all of this is strictly linear.
coworker: "I feel that once that generation dies off, things will be better. people will realize that it isn't like that anymore. i can't believe that people are still preaching hate like that."
me: "You don't think that anger against a racist power structure is a valid response? I mean, i thought a lot of what he said was right on"
coworker: "but things aren't like that any more"
me: "how do you figure? black people are arrested at much higher rates than whites for crimes whites commit more often, they are convicted at greater rates, and sentenced to harsher penalties. people of color receive the death penalty at much higher rates than whites for the same crimes. overt racism is no longer as tolerated, but black families own less real property and assets now than they did even in the 1960s. there position as a whole has actually gotten worse"
coworker: "people need to take control of their own lives. they need to own their own decisions, and take responsibility for the decisions they've made"
me: (tactfully failing to point out that she just essentially said that blacks are lazy and lack moral fortitude) "horatio alger died a hundred years ago"
coworker: (blank stare)
later...
coworker: "we need to be in Iraq. women are being raped and people are having their doors kicked in"
me: "yeah, by u.s. soldiers. I mean, we've killed literally millions of iraqis"
coworker: "yeah and what did saddam do?!?"
me: "ummm killed thousands?"
later...
coworker: "i don't see race. like, i don't see obama as a black or a white candidate"
me: "fucking seriously?" I then went on to try and explain how a viewpoint that doesn't acknowledge race and privilege was inherently racist...
coworker: "I grew up a white middle class female. I had to take out a loan to put myself through college and had to work hard to get where i am"
me: "that's true, but you got to apply to college at all because you went to a decent middle class school, and you could get a loan because you had good credit scores from your parents. i mean, you've had lots of difficult challenges at your life, but if you had been black, at each and every one of those instances you would also have had to contend with the fact that somebody might have denied you simply because of your race. if your life was hard, imagine if each challenge might have been simply unattainable because of the color of your skin. how would you have coped?"
later...
coworker: "i mean, what is black english? like, we live in america, speak english"
me: "british people would say we don't speak english at all. we speak american at best."
coworker: "that's what i'm saying. i mean, if you want to be taken seriously, speak english. i mean, do you ASK a question or AXE a question?"
me: "English is an evolving language. "axe" will probably be how everybody says it 200 years from now because it flows better. the language changes, y'know?"
coworker: "all i'm saying is, speak english"
me: "oh! you mean speak like white people!"
there was much, much more. i am so shaken by the complete lack of affinity that i felt on every single topic that i am beginning to question whether or not i am in fact a "loony liberal" as they labeled me.