I was one of those aimless teenagers probably just as likely to end up working at a chicken processing factory as going on past highschool.

Turns out despite our air of self congratulation in the US over selecting our first non-white President folks in North America are still reluctant to confront it when we see it. We might claim we don’t like it or don’t support it but we are silent when faced with it. A recent study York university illustrates this disconnect.

While people would clearly condemn racism in advance, the majority of non-black people would sit mute and indifferent as blatant acts of anti-black racism occurred before them, according to the Toronto research, published today in the journal Science.

“People expect in a very deliberate fashion that they’ll be offended by racism, that they’ll censor or avoid racists,” said York psychologist Kerry Kawakami, the lead author of the study.

“But our (research) showed that that’s not the case when they’re actually placed in that situation.”

Indeed, while paying strident lip service to their anti-racist attitudes, most of the study’s non-black subjects did not try to rebuke or even avoid a mock bigot who had been planted in their midst.

Silence is easier. And it sets people up to condition themselves to be perturbed or irritated when that tactic is abandoned by others. Thus, white people will react with dismissal when a non-caucasian becomes “angry” over obvious and/or subtle racism. The “anger” signals a refusal to get along with others. Then the “problem” becomes transferred not to the perpetrator of racism or frankly sexism but the person engaging in the call out process.

For the study, researchers placed three students in a classroom, one white, one black, and one white or Asian. And while two of the students – the black and one white – were in on the scheme, the third believed they were all there waiting for a study to begin.

“Then the black person stands up and says `I forgot my cellphone,’ and he walks out of the room. And as he walks out, he gently hits the other white person on the knee,” Kawakami said. When the black person left the room, the white person turned to the other person and said something racist – “in some cases extremely racist,” she said.

Despite using terms as offensive as “clumsy n—-r,” the planted bigot faced little or no reprisal from the majority of white subjects.

Indeed, said Kawakami, when asked subsequently to pick a partner for the purported study, some 63 per cent of the white students picked the bigot over the black.

Are we really that comfortable with our perceived “own kind” that we will chose to avoid confronting them when they are clearly wrong?

   Ajay and Camille had not finished receiving hand off report from the day Clinical Leaders when Ajay’s beeper went off. They all engaged in a collective eye roll.

    “Yup”, said Ajay, returning the page. Camille told Janet and Marjie to leave. Generally by the time they had all finished report things had changed anyway. Stable units were crazy and crazy units were worse.

     “I’m working a double, I haven’t had a break and you’ve got a

     race riot here, my people and the Filipinos,” said Grace Henderson.

     “On my way”, sighed Ajay.

     “Mind if I take my break now ?”

     “After I settle this.”

    Camille glance at her, Ajay waved her off and hustled herself down to the surgical ICU. Grace was settled in with a cup of tea, absently massaging her left hip, watching the dispute.

      “Been here thirty seven years, I worry you won’t make it that long,

       country time,” offered Grace.

    The African American nurses called Ajay “country time”, just to remind her that she never lost the accent, everybody else called her Jay Jay, for reasons she didn’t understand.

     “Sometimes, I worry that I will,” returned Ajay,” Hey,

      has anybody noticed we have patients int his unit.”

    Stacy Harris and three of her colleagues were waving and cussing at Lisa Hernandez

and three Filipinos nurses who were also growling and stamping back. Ajay watched them for a few minutes, arms crossed, humming loudly.

    Stacy jabbed a finger at Lisa Hernandez,

     “They were all yapping before report

     in their damn language, maybe they forgot what country they are in

     so damn many of them in this hospital, but she did say mean Niger bitch in

     English.”

     “Lisa, did you?”, asked Ajay.

     “No.”

     “Did somebody else?”

     “No.”

One of the most frustrating aspects of the recent election and the general long term warfare of confronting weird ass republican myths is the way you actually have to listen to them as if they are based on fact and respond in kind. After about the three hundredth time of hearing for example the “Obama is a Muslim” meme or “Obama is a communist” concern what I actually wanted to say was: Are you fucking stupid, illiterate, have you read a book or newspaper in the last twenty years,do you actually ever have your own fucking thoughts or ideas or does that proposition just scare you so much you would rather not make the effort and rent a  damaged brain with all the other stupid fucks who say that same shit. And Jesus H Christ people actually ask me why I haven’t become a citizen yet. I mean I am of very average intelligence and often think my homeland is populated by the blandly average people and you want to know why I am hesitating to join land of the blatantly intellectually lazy?

But I didn’t do any of that. Nope. Partially because Hey it doesn’t win them over and partially because I knew I was not operating from a position of intellectual superiority but chatting with people who had a complete and absolute lack of curiosity about most of the universe. If we really do have massive economic realignment they are going to be shocked, surprised and act like a rabid mob.

Chris Hedges argues that the divide is actually between not Red vs Blue but between being literate and post literate and you can read the article  here.

He notes….

There are over 42 million American adults, 20 percent of whom hold high school diplomas, who cannot read, as well as the 50 million who read at a fourth- or fifth-grade level. Nearly a third of the nation’s population is illiterate or barely literate. And their numbers are growing by an estimated 2 million a year. But even those who are supposedly literate retreat in huge numbers into this image-based existence. A third of high school graduates, along with 42 percent of college graduates, never read a book after they finish school. Eighty percent of the families in the United States last year did not buy a book.

I admit he doesn’t cite his statistics but if one agrees with the premise the idea that one does or does not have some form of “education” doesn’t have a significant impact. My grandparents both had a grade six and grade eight education respectively. They were infused will notions about how reading made one a better person, that one had a vague obligation to know a few things. And I imagine reading must have been a nice escape for say my grandfather who worked a shitty and dangerous job oiling the equipment at a steel plant that no longer exists. Nor did he complain about it. Compared to losing the family farm and then working on it for the new owner it must have seemed not all that bad. Compared to fighting in tanks in Africa, it must have seemed reasonable. He wasn’t much of a talker about that experience but told my grandmother that they were “death tins.”

As a result political campaigns reflect a certain vacant quality…

Political leaders in our post-literate society no longer need to be competent, sincere or honest. They only need to appear to have these qualities. Most of all they need a story, a narrative. The reality of the narrative is irrelevant. It can be completely at odds with the facts.

For somebody who is basically lazy, I picked the wrong profession. And I did it on purpose I reasoned that if I did not find a job where showing up on time verged on moral necessity, I wouldn’t show up at all. The truth is I would really rather just stare up at the sky for no apparent reason or rub my dog’s belly than work. Pretty unAmerican confession.

Part of the reason so much of our popular culture makes reference to work and the ups and down is because well…. That is what we do. Americans work. It becomes our frame of reference for how we see ourselves and others socially. How we measure ourselves and how we judge others. And it would be great and inspiring if every single America was working because it was their absolute fucking passion, not their job.

Americans put in more hours at work than any other nation, surpassing even the workaholic Japanese. We average nine more weeks of labor per year than our working counterparts in Western Europe, who get at least 20 paid days of vacation each year

My old homeland isn’t quite the mega paradise my faded memories insist it is….

Canada and Japan are near the bottom of that list, with a legal minimum of 10 vacation days, while the United States has the dubious distinction of being the only industrialized nation that does not have a mandatory minimum of vacation time. In fact, out of the world’s 195 independent countries, 137 have some kind of vacation/annual leave legislation in place.

I have blogged about this topic before but I think it deserves another visit. Why? Because we are entering an era of sacrifice, dwindling resources, and a well intentioned new administration that will be unable to deliver on a lot of promises. And the fact is if Americans are going to have to “make do with less” then perhaps we should all consider also doing less ourselves, at least in the free market.

The article I am drawing from here focuses on an activist who tries to raise the work/vacation issue and finds that he gets rebuffed and told….

I caught this on the local Memphis news but am having difficulty embedding you tube videos suddenly.

A local church created a bit of controversy in South haven Mississippi with a church sign that said, Exiles in Obama Nation

The pastor of the church was quick to indicate that:

“We’re not racist at all and again we’re going to pray for him. He’s our president. But we don’t agree with our platform,” pastor Dr. Barry Baker said.  

Baker said the church does not like Obama’s stand on homosexuality and abortion and that is what he will talk about on Sunday.

Fair enough, but I can’t help but wonder why the sign did not say:

Pray For Obama on Sunday

A church member was quoted as saying she understood the implications of the message clearly.

Probably what the Bible says on how our country may evolve. What does the Bible say about that. Tribulations possible maybe the end of the world is about about to come,”

The sign attracted plenty of attention, folks stopped by and took pictures.

Not all church member were pleased about the sign.

A few church members took pictures of the sign and said they do not like the sign because it is sends the wrong message

My question: if the sign sends the wrong message and it does not have racist overtones, what wrong message are they concerned about.

I am straight and my gay culture/history knowledge is limited to a few childhood friends who were gay, going to a few gay pride parades because the parties afterward were excellent, I know who Harvey Milk is and I know about Stonewall.

But I just can’t give progressives a pass on this one. I can’t. I can’t tell gay/lesbian/transgendered Americans to “wait and be patient” and explain to them that their rights are not a priority. I do not know what it is like to face the hatred and oppression that gay Americans and those across the world who are gay must face.

For how long are gay Americans supposed to be patient? For how long should straight folks expect them to support other priorities on the progressive mystical agenda while getting nothing in return? For how long are gay Americans expected to be “reasonable” with their demands? For how long are they supposed to pretend that inequality is alright as long as we (the straight folks) “accept” them? Do we think that is all gays want? Do we think gays are just happy not to get beat up every five minutes ( which really still happens )as a measure of our so called “toleration and progress”. Progressive hesitation is starting to sound like liberal racism ” oh I have a black/gay/person who is different friend” therefore I pass the “test.” And yes, I have trotted out my black friends in stories to prove I am somehow “less racist” than other Americans.

The only good thing about the proposition in Arkansas that prevents unmarried people from being adoptive or foster parents is that it hits straight people and gay people hard. Maybe it will make the straight folks go hmmmmmmm. Or not, I don’t know.

I am a squirming environmental hypocrite because I still like going to the beauty shop for highlights. I figure I am middle aged, the body is falling apart so I can’t really deal with bad hair in addition to that. Do men have bad hair days? A bad hair day can completely distort and torment your perspective even if world peace and brotherhood is spontaneously breaking out around you, and also I am fairly shallow. I am sure there are real progressives out there that don’t worry about human unity and  universal planetary love  happening on a bad hair day but I just don’t happen to be one of them. If I was a real progressive I would be killing my own cows and growing my own cotton and making my own clothes with it using non toxic dyes and recycling my dog hair into natural insulation for the house and riding a horse to work. So. Hey I outed myself.

You aren’t going to tell your Republican gynecologist you’re a progressive in the middle of a pap smear, right? So I decided since I live in uber red state town that I wouldn’t mention politics to the nice but conservative lady who does my hair for fear of ending up with a Mohawk. I had one of those when I was 20, I think it might be slightly less cute at 44.

But it happened. My hairdresser told me she was confused she thought both McCain and Obama had some good ideas and she was vacillating but she “heard” Obama was against saying the pledge of allegiance and she found that very anti-American and she was worried he wasn’t a “true” Christian.

I asked her where she heard that. She wasn’t sure. I asked her if she thought John McCain was a true Christian and she said she was pretty certain. So, I asked her what church/congregation he belonged to. She had no idea. I told her where Obama worshiped and i suggested that if she wanted to hear his views she should go to the source and look at his website or hit youtube and see snippets of his speeches.

Aren’t you just far too intelligent to rely on what other people tell you, I asked? Don’t you remember high school when everybody gossiped and told one another what they “heard” and how often was it really true? She said hmmmmmm.

At this point the hairdressers and customers were all staring at me. And I thought hmmmm.

I am thinking here I am in a small town in the south are storm troopers coming in to take me away?