Reply #33: OK, let me be direct [View All]

** Disclaimer. You have won your point. Read to the end.**

People of color are not held to the same standard of linguistic correctness as white people. I have a biracial kid. He gets it from all quarters, lemme tell ya. My experiences in that regard have me wanting to tell a lot of people of color to clean up their own goddam racism.

And there is a part of me that is really frustrated about it all. I think Biden is a corporatist sop ... but I don't think he's particularly racist, and I do not believe he intended to be condescending. (OK, the "clean" bit really made my right eyebrow twitch ... but his explanation makes sense in the context he was trying to establish, i.e. that Obama carries a record without much in the way of baggage. Obama is not corrupt, at least, not yet. Not sure Biden can claim the same ... let's just say I have what I think are reasonable questions on that matter.)

The irony of all this is Obama is articulate. Much more so than Biden. But then, compared to Obama, Biden has the IQ of a carrot. Seriously. Biden has never overly impressed me in the brain department. Obama, Clark, Kucinich, Dean, Pelosi ... yeah. Smart people. Biden. Meh.

For me the issue is not Biden at all. It is the fuckin' double standard of linguistic correctness that pisses me off. And, quite frankly, if we are serious about improving the lives of all people, we have more critical matters to focus upon.

That being said ... I think my own issues are somewhat coloring my reaction to this. I resent the way certain people of color have treated my son. I resent the way certain white people have treated my son. The subject tends to set off my Irish. I know that with a few beers in me I might have said something similar about Obama, and meant it in all sincerity and without any disrespect to anyone.

And in all honesty, despite my personal history, I have to admit that I am not free of the stain of racism. It is a thing I must struggle against. It sucks but it is true. But I do believe strongly the same thing is true for you, and it is in that context I respectfully suggest we grant each other a little slack.

And that does not mean we are bad people. We aren't. We're just less than perfect. We are here, trying to articulate a viewpoint and teach each other something. We could be blowing each other off, harboring our resentments. Instead, we are trying to reason together, along with others in this thread.

So no, buddy, your input is not invalid. It is just not the ONLY valid input. You are here, trying to reason with me as I am trying to reason with you. This is how we fight the beast itself. This is how we come together. Because we took the time to think of words and bang them into keyboards, we've already shown we care about each other and the others in this thread, like beaconess who also took the time to share with me.

That beast we both know retreats somewhat thereby, and we gain a small but real victory over our own demons.

And so I now see that what beaconess and you have been saying is correct after all. We need to have this discussion of race and the poison the world works so hard to inject into our hearts.