Stuff you say.

This is a racial-themed post so skip it if you aren’t ready to see my one-sided attempts at continuing this discussion. I’m putting it behind a cut too, for good measure.

Okay, so two people I consider friends, Maurice Broaddus and Chesya Burke, have recently taken on something I hear a lot (maybe it’s my company, maybe it’s because I live in the South. I admit a lot of people I know are embarrassingly racist, however they’re also pretty honest and upfront about it, and in a weird way not hateful, just judging. Which isn’t right, but it’s not like they’re making crosses in their garages for Saturday night, you know?)

So the statement in question:

One would think that since we’ve come so far as to have a black president we wouldn’t need award programs where the winners have to be of a particular ethnicity. Imagine the hate and protest that would come if there was a White Entertainment Television channel and awards ceremony, or a White Miss America Pageant. Are these ethnic-centered events still needed? Are they racist? What are your thoughts?

So let me address a few things, from a poor white bisexual, non-Christian point of view (just so you know where I’m coming from). First, how exactly does having a black president mean we’re living in a post-racial world? We still have black kids being kicked out of swimming pools, laws being passed which make it legal for Hispanic-looking people (not just actual Hispanics) to be harassed, and gays and lesbians banned from the deathbeds of their partner of decades. We do not live in a world where everyone is equal just because Obama is president.

I ended up voting for Obama, not because he was black, but because Palin terrified the shit out of me. That is what politics has become, choosing the least evil. In a world where the least evil just happens to also be black, how is that a sign that racism is over and we can all wave our victory flags and pretend color doesn’t exist?

My second reaction is always “Wow it sucks to be excluded doesn’t it?” I can’t help thinking that this argument always comes from the universal ill feeling of being excluded from something, and often times it’s something the people complaining wouldn’t even need or be interested in.

My third reaction is “But they’re right, the shit would hit the fan if there was a white channel, or white only beauty show or white only scholarships.” (Let’s ignore for the sake of this that most other channels are predominately white already. I’m tempted to also joke that TVLand is White Entertainment TV, but they don’t show those funny as hell old shows like Mister Ed and Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore anymore. Boo hiss!) The shit would hit the fan…kind of like people are already complaining about the black-oriented scholarships and beauty pageants and such. In other words it would be no real different than it is now, with some people heartily approving and taking advantage, and some people crying foul.

Fourth, the people fronting the money to these groups do have the right to say what that money is for. Have we lost so much control over our finances that we just throw money at things with no knowledge of how it’s going to be spent, of what the money is going for? (Oh yes, in many, many ways, we have, but that is a rant for another time.) On the scholarship front is it also unfair for scholarships to be designated for the low income? For students trying to become teachers? For those who maintain a certain GPA? Or members of the Armed Forces? Out of high school I received a scholarship that was specifically for a female of the advanced program and to keep it for the full two years I had to maintain a 3.25 or better GPA, yet I hear no one complaining about how unfair that one was. The way I see it, when it comes to education people if someone needs to or wants to be educated, then we should fucking celebrate and encourage them.

College is already a massive headache (as my attempts to re-enter have been nothing but a nightmare), filled with constant uncertainty, massive discouragement and an absolute insane price. (Again, another rant for later.) Education should be absolutely universal. It strengthens the whole community when its people are educated and no one should be complaining about programs that help people get educations.

And race-specific charities? I’m sorry, does PETA have any right to demand that Tiger Haven share its donations, because it’s unfair that people  give their money to charities with specific goals that don’t include another organization’s goals? I didn’t think so.

Ahem. Next, there’s the beauty pageants and awards programs. Again, these are funded by people who believe in that cause. That’s where they want to give their money, that’s what they want to see it do. If you want to give to an organization that give white power awards…well I’m sure you can find them.

And again, let’s, for good measure, take the race out of. For fun let’s insert a genre. So then is it also unfair/genre-ist for the HWA to give out awards only to horror books? And for the Hugos and Nebulas to go to SF/F works? I mean, don’t we live in a world where all these genres are accepted and they can stand on their own two legs without hand outs and genre specific grants, awards, programs, and heck, publisher imprints?

How are black beauty pageants any different from say, groups like the Suicide Girls, who celebrate beauty that doesn’t match the media-standard colors, shape and style? As an aside, can I just mention how much it means to me, as a big girl, that Dove runs commercials with larger women in them, as opposed to damn near everything else, but specifically Victoria’s Secret (where I was almost laughed out of a store because of my size), or those HORRIBLE Yoplait and Special K commercials which show really skinny, beautiful women and heavily imply they’re fat? With the tone of the Dove commercials the company is all but looking right at me and saying “Hi, we consider you a valued customer too.” Well then hell yeah I’ll give you my money, because I DESERVE to be a valued customer. We all do. And unfortunately in today’s world you are not guaranteed good customer service. I will gladly spend my money on places that appreciate me as a consumer. How do ethnicities other than mine not deserve the same?

As for WET/BET keep in mind that BET does not have the best reputation with all the members of its target audience. It’s not some channel that as a non-black you can’t watch. There aren’t secret messages being passed around on its programs. There is no universal black solidarity. Or universal gay solidarity. Or universal anything solidarity. There is no racial/minority agenda that is threatening your way of life. (Not only can most people not plan that far ahead, but most people also can’t get along that well.)

And while I’m ranting let’s completely obliterate the term “reverse racism” because racism is racism, whether it’s white vs black, black vs white, Vietnamese vs Chinese, whatever. We have been making decisions based on physicality for eons. African tribes warred against one another. The Gauls fought the Romans, the Huns fought everyone, and China currently controls Tibet. Racism is everywhere. We all still live in a world where decisions are made on race, feeling are hurt by race and people are held back, or vaulted forward because of their race.

If you can take a statement like the one above, and change the racial keywords into something else, let’s say something like:

One would think that since we’ve come so far as to have a horror president we wouldn’t need award programs where the winners have to be of a particular genre. Imagine the hate and protest that would come if there was a Horror Entertainment Television channel and awards ceremony, or a Horror Miss America Pageant. Are these genre-centered events still needed? Are they genre-ist? What are your thoughts?

And it sounds absurd or outright silly, then maybe leaving the racial language in is just as silly too.