Race to the bottom

Recently a friend has taken a fancy to a fellow who is in the unfortunate predicament of having the words "White Pride" permanently painted to his chest. I suppose the circumstance isn't so unfortunate to him, however, because he can't be bothered with getting it removed or covered -- even a black bar would do given the situation. It's very perplexing to me how indifferent my friend is to her condition since she is a very reasonable young lady. And a very nice young lady.

I can't support something that I know to be wrong. I'm sure he's perfectly lovely to my friend, and even to those black coworkers who apparently know all about his tattoo, but this is 2011 and decent people just can't support that. I'm sure he's cool if I met him, and no I haven't met him and I don't have anything personal. It is my sincerest belief that he chooses to live out his life with hate speech on a large part of real estate on his body, and for that I really don't want anything to do with him.

And I guess the friend in question has read this and since defriended me on Facebook. I would suppose that it was her passive aggressive way at retaliation for this very post. And I may also suppose, if I took a deep look into my own personal motivations, that these musings are a tinge passive aggressive as well. In addition, I feel like I need to put my thoughts in the universe. To consolidate and refine my thoughts, since at times they can be all over the place.

Tunnel Vision

You walk down the tunnel and what's at the end, you figure it out when you get there but at least you'll know, right? But why would you not want to know?

2moro

"She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing." — Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5, lines 17-28)

Nostalgia

Remember on 80's sitcoms, there was a popular theme for having one of the main characters fall in love for someone, only to find out that their love interest was actually IN A WHEELCHAIR? During that time, technology enabled people to connect, without having to see the person (phone dating?). So there was always someone, like Zack Morris, who thought he'd be finding a bodacious babe on the other end of the line, only to find her unable to move her legs. This caused an emotional dilemma for our protagonist, but he/she always let the inner beauty of the object of his/her affection shine through. Then they were never seen nor heard from again.

Nowadays we don't have that because of the internet. I guess you could Skype and not know the other person can't stand up, but I think that somehow you'd just know. I think in the 70s it used to be interracial dating, and in the 90s maybe that person was really a dude or a lady. I don't know. But I do know for 10 glorious years we learned through our favorite sitcom character that people in wheelchairs are people too.

Jesus Blanco y Negro

I was offended when I walked past a black church and I saw a depiction of the Last Supper with a black Jesus and black apostles of varying hues. I guess I was more taken aback than offended, but either way I thought it was bothersome without being able to articulate it. In the Malcolm X movie with Denzel Washington there is a scene where he talks about Jesus Christ being described in the Bible as a person with dark features and kinky hair, ergo he's black according to a certain Black Liberationist (Supremacist?). I really didn't think that meant that he was black. People think Egyptians were black too because they come from Africa, but they are definitely not black. There were black Egyptians and even black Pharaohs (from Nubia), but the majority wouldn't what I consider to be "black." (I especially bristle when people claim that Cleopatra was black just because she lived in Africa. She came from the Ptolemic line of Macedonians. It would be equivalent to insisting that Charlize Theron is black just because she happens to be African American.) So a black Jesus by that logic is a similar thought process or so I think. But then I thought of how I had to grow up with super Anglo Jesus who had milky white skin to match his pure soul. And I thought that was even more bullshit, so I let the black Jesus slide for now.

I still think this is funny

A conversation cut short

March 16, 1985

A man who has recently read Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead" has joined his longtime friend at a cafe. After a exhausting the conversation, the second man remembers the television show he has just seen.

"So what do you think of Mr. Belvedere?"
"I don't think of Mr. Belvedere."