Julie R. Neidlinger: Lone Prairie Blog

Pride and prejudice.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 4 comments link this post

I was thinking about Mel and Michael.

Mel Gibson got drunk and blasted the Jews. Michael Richards got angry and blasted African Americans.

Then the rest of the country joined in a chorus of blasting these men.

There is not one single person on this planet who does not harbor secret racism or prejudice against some group of people, whether the group be formed by race, religion, political leanings or gender. Anyone who tells you he is not racist, he is not prejudice, is a liar. What he's really saying is that the words in his mind have never slipped out of his mouth.

Jesse Jackson, who had his own anti-Semitic tirade moment in 1984, can stop trying to save Michael Richards' career now. He has his own prejudice to battle against. He, and everyone in his choir, are too proud to admit they are lying to themselves. So shut up already. No one gets to throw any stones today.

No one.

Labels: essay

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4 Comments:

Julie:
I disagree, (although respectfully, without invective) with your assertion that all of us harbor prejudice, bigotry, et al. I truly don't think that I hate anyone because of the color of their skin, ethnic background, religion or sexual preference. I'm sure there are many gay, black Muslim Somali's that bug me...but only because they're jerks.
I think we can toss some stones toward those that allow such hatred to spew forth.
We should also hope (pray if you wish,) that such crap never finds it's way to our stage and out our mouths.

By nodakjack, at 2/12/06 06:13

It's OK to disagree.

I wonder, though, if racism/prejudice only deals in the currency of hate. I don't hate anyone, either. But there are moments when I think unkindness towards a person (sometimes quite severely), or dismiss them, based on a group I associate them with. That is a form of prejudice.

It seems right to throw a few stones at such bad behavior as Gibson and Richards, but the problem arises when I think "I can throw this stone because I'm not as bad as they are." I don't always know the depths inside me, and what lurks there at the bottom until a moment comes, the right buttons are pushed, and my self-control goes out the window and I'm horrified and wonder from where that behavior came. And then I have to dodge the stones of people very sure they are never in danger of the same moment.

I can easily say I would never say what Richards and Gibson said because I don't have those feelings. It's easy for me to express outrage and disgust for what they did. That's the easy part. But I can't say that I would never, in a rage, speak some horrible equivalent towards who knows what.

By Julie, at 2/12/06 11:43