SU's Racial Ignorance

It seems like every two days, I always have to restrain myself from walking up to certain people on this campus and shattering their jaws over yet another racist comment or ideology that they dare spew from their mouths or their pens. People who say that racism does not exist apparently need to get their eyes, ears and brain checked out for an affliction of "DENIAL" and need to be medicated with a dose of fucking REALITY (and a jaw tap, for good measure).

Yesterday, SU's Daily Orange, or as some call it here, the "Daily Oppressor," released a story on this student-created show called "Over the Hill" that comes out on this local student television station called HillTV. In a nutshell, for the past year and a half, the show's creators have made a program that, in the spirit of "comedy," is filled with racist skits that constantly make fun of "smelly Indians" and "gang-banging blacks" and the occasional ode to the "good ol' days" when black people were getting lynched "for fun." Now, this show has been going on with episodes like these for over a year, but the reason why no one said anything until now was because in reality, no one around here really watches HillTV. In my opinion, HillTV's always been a waste of money (the station itself is funded with a large percentage of SU's student fee), but now, the fact that HillTV has been wasting our student money on racist shit like this has caused the entire minority community to once again drag themselves out of bed and wearily fight yet another battle in the name of equality and justice.

(You can find the DO article, which also includes clips from the show itself, right here)

Now, before people go and commend the D.O. for its story, keep in mind that this is the same paper that has historically and repeatedly called for the impeachment of every single Student Association President that's ever been a minority, despite the fact that they've all done more for the SU community than the rest. Do not forget that this is the paper that constantly ignores the major racial and gender issues that plague this campus, or downplays major events thrown by the darker skinned members of the SU community, despite their tremendous influence across all of campus.

Now, the apologists are quick to mention that they are tired of talking about racism and minority issues, and don't want to even think about them because the only thing that happens is that people get angry. These are the same people that stay completely silent in class discussions when matters of race, gender, and sexual orientation are brought up, despite the dire need to say SOMETHING about them. These people are the same ones that believe that the only reason that the "-isms" are a big deal nowadays is because "people" (AKA: minorities) keep on bringing them up and using them as a crutch to get anywhere in life.

And then, a few days later, and BAM, another blatantly "-ist" incident occurs. And then the apologists go into hiding, or come out in complete denial (like, foaming at the mouth denial) and tell everyone who's upset that they are "seeing things that aren't there."

Well, fuck you people. Let me give you a small dose of what I dealt with in the past four days alone.

A couple of days ago, in Starbucks, of course, this Caucasian girl walks up to me and says, "Umm, excuse me. Are you in Raices?" (and yes, my fellow Spanish speakers, she butchered the pronunciation, too.) Now, Raices is a Latino dance troupe here on campus that about 20 people are a part of, and they are one of the most successful organizations on campus.

"Umm, no, I'm not."

"Really?" the girl asked.

"Umm, noo... why do you ask?"

"Well, I just thought that because you're Latino, that you'd be in it."

"So, I need to be in Raices just because I'm Latino?"

"Oh, no, it's not that at all. It's just that, well, y'know..."

"What?"

"Well, it's just that, like, what else can your people DO on this campus besides dance?"

....

"Listen, I'm, umm, going to go now. Take care. Please don't be offended! Bye!!"

And she ran out, almost burning herself with her grande, nonfat, sugar-free vanilla latte. From the look that I gave her, I guess she saw that I was definitely NOT happy.

Another incident occurred, once again, at Starbucks, when these two white guys were talking to one another and said,

"Didn't Jamal go to that rally or something in DC this weekend?"

"Yeah, man. He was out there for 12 hours in the cold."

"(Laughs) Man, you can never underestimate the willpower of an angry black man."

(They laugh for 20 seconds, then look at me, on the other side of the cash register)

"Hey, man, you're not angry, right?"

"Not yet," I growled. They looked at me, startled.

"Well, let us order our drinks, and then you can be as angry as you want to be. Hell, you can even start a rally!"

Trust when I say that they got their just desserts when they received their drinks...I made sure that they received broken cups that would collapse on them and burn them as they were on their way to whatever shitty endeavor they were about to embark on. And collapse, they did... :-D

. . . .

Shit like this happens every fucking day here at SU. Whoever says that this shit doesn't happen anymore definitely needs a fucking reality check.

Be Cool, I Say!

Let me put it on record now that I fucking HATE anal-retentive people. We all know those kinds of people; the ones that make a big fucking deal about the absolutely stupidest and most inconsequential of things. These are the kinds of people that walk into Starbucks and bitch and moan for about five minutes over the fact that the sugar-free vanilla syrup has run out. "OH MY GAWD! You're ACTUALLY OUT of sugar-free vanilla SYRUP!? How can that BE!? How can you do this to ME!?"

Yes, bitch. The thought of us running out of a flavor syrup is, gasp, worse than world hunger. How dare we do such a thing!

Unfortunately, these kinds of people are not just confined to your local Starbucks, either. They're fucking everywhere. At least around here in Syracuse. I think that the largest population of anal-retentive people, outside of Long Island, resides right here in Syracuse University. People like these assume that the entire world revolves around them, and that if things don't go their way, time must stop in order to remedy the situation. And we're talking about the most meaningless things. Like, let's say, someone is five minutes late to meet up someone to go hang out on a night off. The anal-retentive would spend the next 45 minutes complaining about how this one individual was five minutes late. Just about anything could've caused the five-minute delay, but they really don't care. All they worry about is the fact that for five minutes, things didn't go their way. These are the kinds of people that actually have a SCHEDULE made up for hanging out. And I mean schedule, like, "At 8:44 PM, we will walk out of Bar A and make it to Bar B at 8:47 PM." And if they make it to Bar B at 8:49 PM, all of a sudden, their life is ruined.

A few days ago, this one girl blew up on me for not calling her at 10:00 PM. I called her at 11:00 PM, instead, because I had to work a bit later than usual. She spent 15 minutes bitching and moaning at me for not calling her at 10 on the dot. I spent the entire time just standing there and letting her talk. Finally, when she realized that I wasn't responding, she finally said, "Don't you have anything to say about this!?"

"Not really. I'm just waiting for you to realize that you just spent the last 15 minutes screaming about a delayed phone call."

"Oh, and that's not a big deal?!"

"No, it isn't. Be thankful that A) I at least called you back, and B) that I didn't drop kick you 14 minutes ago for screaming at me in the same tone that my mother does."

After I said that, I guess she saw the anger that had been building up in my eyes, and she immediately calmed down. She looked down at her feet, and then looked back up at me, and then blurted out, "How do you do it? How do you go around life being as lackadaisical as you are?"

I only shook my head at her, almost in the same way that I do to someone that I feel absolutely sorry for. I think I even sighed at one point.

"See, I do get angry, but not for things like this. I get angry for things like bad politics, racial profiling, world hunger, the Hurricane Katrina debacle, people dying, and spoiled brats attempting to talk down to me. I don't waste my energy sweating the small stuff."

She looked at me like I was speaking another language. I couldn't take her stupidity anymore so I just turned around and walked away.

"Wait, where are you going?! We're not done yet!"

"Oh, we are. We definitely are. Besides, right now, you're making me late for something else."

"And what could that be!?"

I just laughed, and then framed my response in a way that she would understand.

"I scheduled some free time for myself at 11:30 PM. I'm three minutes late."

Heeelloooo There!!

Man... seriosuly, I need to find some time to write... updates definitely coming soon. I promise. :-)

Let me put it on record that I:

A) Hate these spam comments I've been getting lately

B) Hate the fact that I haven't updated in so long

C) Am not really enjoying the concept that my Chatterbox is being overrun by an argument between two people that need to meet up over a cup of coffee and discuss their issues in person.

D) Just got a kitty. :-)

E) Hate the topsy-turvy weather that's going on in Syracuse.

F) Love my momma. :-D

G) Hate my roomies' lack of cleaning prowess

H) Need to get laid more frequently

I) Named my car, Jasmine

J) Love the fact that Nora is blogging on her main blog again. :-D

Tata, for now!