“We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.”
The above line starts the wild ride that I love to pop in and watch whenever the world gets a bit too…dark for even me called Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I had a great piece for today. Made of very positive messages about expressing yourself by sharing more of who you are with your friends. So it is rather fitting that this piece by Adam Salter for The Grio would change my mood http://thegrio.com/2015/02/15/white-liberal-racists/ Feel free to have a read of that before we continue.
Are you finished? Good let’s go.
The immediate thought I had was everything but surprise. There is something disheartening about it though. Like no matter how much I know the truth it still hurts to hear it from other sources. Law School as much as the end of undergrad was the major reminder that no matter how seemingly okay a person is, you really don’t know what the deal is until you know what the deal is. For my less slang oriented readers, people will continue to surprise you until they stop or you walk away.
It was no wonder then that rich supposedly liberal white kids were as racist as their inbred, meth head, backwoods, shit hook, conservative counterparts. Which if you think about it explains why I don’t use political affiliations to determine friends and enemies. All sides will let you down. It is the person who you need to know. When I say though, that I was not surprised, I am not saying that it didn’t bother me. Much of what often bothers me is betrayal. As House might say “Everybody lies,” but it is one thing to lie about who drank the last of the bourbon, and another to lie about what you actually feel about people who look like me.
You might say that after all this time I am less moved by the people who claim to be your friend then prove themselves to be bigots. You might notice I keep saying bigots not racists. I’ll refer you to previous articles where I told you why I use one word over the other. I hate the faux Pro blacks talking more and more bullshit about white people and conspiracies as much as the Klan members and people reposting videos and photos they claim are Mike Brown. Or comparing Trayvon’s coverage to random white boys killed by black men. The difference is always the same and one they don’t seem to get. You have to fight for sham investigations, sham trials, and acquittals of the killer if the victim is black. You have no worry that the killer will be found and convicted the other way around. In the end though, I care less and less about you if you are that obtuse and can’t see the difference.
I’ll tell you the last time someone surprised me before I get on to one last point. I was in undergrad. It was a discussion with three classmates and a friend. I was arriving, but I’d stopped to get some water outside the room an they didn’t know I was there yet. I expected some heated talk, it was one of those groups with hot heads. And we were talking politics. A straight up republican I’ve been friends with since I got to UMKC. A teammate from Mock trial who is a stereotypical Democrat so much that she actually cried when Kerry lost. A girl who went hardcore communist a few weeks before this conversation and is a well-noted atheist. My friend who is a bit more conservative than liberal, but doesn’t really get too political because he is in theater.
While I’m getting water the thing I hear strikes me. “That’s a black issue. I’m not a nigger I don’t care.” Followed by silence. To this point even I expected more shit like that from the republican in the room. My body apparently moved faster than I thought because in a flash I was in the room screaming “Go fuck yourself you racist cunt.” One of the few times I have in person called someone a cunt. But the fact that the communist was the one saying it was the shocking surprise. I consider myself generally a uniter. I like bringing together opposing views. I like having friends of multiple socio-economic backgrounds. Different geo-political ideologies and certainly different races. This shook me. Hard enough that I spent my time for the rest of the night talking to the republican, my theater friend, and one of closest friends to this day in the lobby of the dorms while trying to pretend that didn’t happen.
The point of that story and indeed this piece is that I have a very weird relationship with these issues. I’ve had female friends who got moved to the random acquaintance list because they were more interested in pissing off their parents by hanging with me than they were actually getting to know me. I’ve had male friends who got their heads so far up their ass about black culture that they said things like “You can’t have white people involved in the black history month celebration.” Reality is people are going to prove themselves actually good or just another facade. You could get mad about it. But right now do the smart thing, be glad they showed what they really are and remove them from your life. I’ll be talking about some cool upcoming things next week, For now tonight looks like another Fear and Loathing night. I would love to tell you more about what is ahead but…Words Don’t Do It Justice!
– THE Ruthless Wonder
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