Thoughts

I am not going to wax poetic today about injustice or how race still matters in America, anyone with sense knows that the division between races still exists and that things like the demonizing of black males leads to a great many problems in our society.

Simply, we as a society need to stop assuming that when we see a black kid walking down the street, he must be up to something.  I live in a mixed neighborhood and we've never had a problem in the seven years we've lived here (except the one time I gave the kid 20 bucks to mow the lawn and he never came back to do the work, but that was me being stupid lol).  People of all shapes, colors, and sizes walk up and down the street in front of my house all day and night and it doesn't even register on my radar unless that person is acting a bit off... like the crazy long haired metal dude who marches up and down the street sometimes and got taken away by the cops once for screaming his head off for like 3 hours... that was exciting.  I didn't even freak out when the woman across the street who had a house arrest bracelet on her leg ran over to our yard on New Year's Eve like the second year we lived here and danced around our sparklers....hey... be freaky, you didn't scare me or anyone who was here at the time (though they did move so the corner has become a lot less exciting). 
Did I mention race at all with any of those encounters.... no?  They were both white, but I didn't think about that when they acted the way they did... I just thought look at this singular crazy person acting a bit off....

In truth, we do all have prejudices... a few years after 9/11 I got a big worried on a plane because a guy near me was middle eastern and that was completely shitty of me and I recognize that... but a lot of people act with malice or distrust people who are different and totally just not only embrace it, but defend it and that upsets me.  
When I do something like I did on the airplane, I feel ashamed, not protective of my own insecurities...and we should all be that way.

Another truth, the travesty of this recent debate over profiling kids that ended in the death of a teenager really should focus on the danger of a law that tells people it is OK to willingly attack someone with a deadly weapon when they feel like someone is being threatening because its just too open to excuse and well.... getting people killed.
If I saw a guy following me in a car for half an hour and then lost that guy and saw him get out of a car and coming at me, I would be terrified...now I would probably run, but I sure shouldn't be considered an aggressor for walking down the street and with the Stand Your Ground Law, pretty much anyone you assume is an aggressor, can be called one...

Any law like that should be really scrutinized.... we shouldn't encourage any sort of vigilante justice on any level... sometimes people get guns and think that they are their own law and that is a dangerous thing when laws cater to it.

I'm not railing against gun ownership because I accept that owning a gun is a right (however misrepresented I think that protection is used in the public eye), have a gun, if it makes you feel better to have a firearm...good, but I think there is a danger to create controversial, vague, and dangerous laws that enable people to shoot first and ask questions later.

In the end, there are hundreds of teens killed in gun violence on  daily basis... look at Chicago recently, its tragic...and we should focus on our culture of violence and not one case that had specific issues that brought about media attention... if we gave each and every murder in this country as much scrutiny, if we worked to end the problem and not sensationalize it... it may actually lessen... but we shouldnt make every facebook status, every tweet, and every utterance out of our mouths become more and more divisive...

Do I believe race played a role, yes... but I do not think it was a white on black thing that happened in Florida, I think it was the now normal but highly unfortunate profiling of young black males that led to the confrontation and a lot of people do that... so lets use this as a lesson, lets stop judging people based off how they look... 

I mentioned going to the Kroger by my house the other day because I wanted canned carbonated water and I know they carry it (by the way, this is wayyy off topic in a sense, but stay with me...it comes back around).  My husband reminded me that the Kroger near my house has a tendency to shame people who use food stamps (had an incident that got national attention because a Kroger manager pretty much put down a woman who used food stamps and mentioned her weight as proof she ate well...the woman was overweight due to medication she took for a very serious disease and imagine how horrible she felt because she received those food stamps because she can no longer work because of her illness).  Judgment is a dangerous thing and we are all guilty...  and I even need to work not to judge people, but I am working hard not to while I hear family and friends judge all the time....

We as a society get so defensive over our opinions to the point where we forget who we are and get pretty nasty and aggressive when protecting what we think is the right way.  Anyone who doesn't believe in gun ownership is an idiot, anyone who wants to have guns is an idiot... anyone who holds another political ideal is stupid...we easily call names, when we are normally good people...  I've seen people I respect as loving and accepting people become down right nasty when it comes to political and social ideology and I used to be that way...and I've stopped because it is not who I want to be.
When we become so rigid that we almost paint anyone we disagree with as enemies... we look like the idiots to be honest.  When I see someone say rude, aggressive, mean, and demeaning things about people who hold different beliefs... I think less about that person and it sometimes really upsets me because its people I care about.
I have been guilty of this too in the past and to be honest... recently, with all the racist stuff going on in my neck of the woods... I've relegated anyone who thinks its ok to be slightly racist because of the place you were born in as uneducated ignorant people, but I shouldn't do that... I should instead think to myself... how can I attempt to show them that when they judge someone based off color and excuse it because of old culture, that it is wrong.

My facebook this morning was a barrage of passive aggressive taunts, people trying to state their opinions mildly while also daring people to disagree... I disengage... I just cant do it.