I Don't Understand

There are several cultural things that I just don't understand. Please shed some light if you do:
--I don't understand why I keep working in places where the children are obsessed with confederate flags and calling themselves rednecks. I am asking any confederate flag toting redneck to please shed some light on this because I don't understand.
--I don't understand why people think it's acceptable to ask me or anybody else if their hair is real. First of all, it's none of your business. Second of all, why do you care? Third of all, it's just plain rude. I honestly think people think it's a compliment when they ask me this question, but it's not; it's insulting.
--I don't understand why telling me that someone would want me to work for them because I am "young and aggressive" would be deemed as a compliment. For some reason the combination of me being a woman, being black, being tall, and being articulate makes me "aggressive" and "intimidating." I am so not aggressive. In fact, I'm a bit of a chicken at times. What is it about me that scares people?
--I don't understand why CNN spent 12 hours yesterday talking about that stupid chimpanzee and only 2 minutes about the racist New York Post cartoon.
--I don't understand why people are still hating on Barack Obama.

Please help me understand or feel free to let me know about anything that you don't understand.

Drunken Negro Cookies

Shaking my head...
I normally don't like to give publicity to ignorant people on my blog, but I have to make an exception for this fool guy because I would like to deter people from giving him anymore business. I'm going back to NY next week, and I've been contemplating on whether or not I'm going to visit this bakery. Why.....you ask. Well, how can we change the racist society we live in if we do not become an active part of the change? Not to mention I'm still working on extracting the ignorancist out of me and becoming more inclusive. My only problem is that I'm not sure what I would say to him. He is clearly very special as you can see from the video. But that's what I have all of you for. If I take the trip to the bakery, what do you think I could say to get through to this man who obviously feels he's above admitting that he is being offensive in his actions?

I Refuse!

I refuse to give a name to this person who is ruining my quest to get the ignorancist out of me. I refuse to give her/him a name because the more we rant and rave and give this fool--I mean person x--airtime the more money he/she will make off of his/her ridiculous book. If you don't know who I'm talking about--good. If you do know who I'm talking about, you're probably as annoyed as I am, and you won't give this person a dime or your time. Person X decided to criticize famous bi-racial people such as Barack Obama (B. Hussein Obama, as Person X refers to him), Halle Berry, and Alicia Keys for referring to themselves as black and in turn discounting the white mothers who raised them and honoring the black fathers who left them.

Shaking my head.....Where exactly do I begin? It's funny you mention the white mothers because just like it's not their fault that their ancestors created the social construct called racism which divided the human race into different groups and colors, it's not the bi-racial children's fault for society forcing them to check the "black" box because of the color of their skin. In case you forgot, light skinned black people used to "pass" for white just so they could be treated equally. How do you think a bi-racial child with brown skin would be treated if he/she claimed to be white? Scratch that. How would you be treated, Person X, if you claimed to be black? So before you criticize someone for making a "choice" that they really have no control over, take your shoes off and try on someone else's size. Oh that's right.......you can't do that because your feet are so darn BIG! How about closing your mouth and opening your mind?

Mixed-Race Twins

This is maybe the third story I've seen like this in the past year. Apparently it is unusual for twins of mixed-race parents to come out favoring one race more than the other. Even though this seems to be medically true, I'm not sure why this is so shocking to people. Black children come in various shades and their shades don't always resemble that of their parents. Regardless of that, I feel sorry for these children because already at a young age people are putting way too much emphasis on the color of their skin. I mean it was "priceless" when the father said, "I'm still in shock...you just love 'em the same." Um, gee thanks Dad. Because for a second there I thought you were going to treat the "white children" white and the "black children" black. I hope that someone in these children's lives has enough sense to treat them and teach them as equals. If society won't do it, the parents should at least make an attempt.

Merry Christmas Around the World!

Arabic: Milad Majid

Brazilian: Feliz Natal

Chinese: (Cantonese) Gun Tso Sun Tan'Gung Haw Sun

Ethiopian: (Amharic) Melkin Yelidet Beaal

French: Joyeux Noel

German: Froehliche Weihnachten

Italian: Buone Feste Natalizie

Japanese: Shinnen omedeto. Kurisumasu Omedeto

Korean: Sung Tan Chuk Ha

Spanish: Feliz Navidad

Tagalog: Maligayamg Pasko. Masaganang Bagong Taon

Thai: Sawadee Pee Mai or souksan wan Christmas

Urdu: Naya Saal Mubarak Ho

Vietnamese: Chuc Mung Giang Sinh

Yoruba: E ku odun, e ku iye'dun!

Wordless Wednesday: The Reason for the Season

Take Down Tolerance Tuesday

I'm adding Take Down Tolerance Tuesday to my meme box. People talk about tolerance and inclusion together often as if they are interchangeable. I think they are related, but different. According to dictionary.com, tolerance is a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward opinions and practices that differ from one's own. I think the distinction between tolerance and inclusion is eloquently stated in this exerpt from the What is Inclusion? article by Shafiq Asante(I encourage you to go to the link and read the entire article.):

Inclusion is recognizing our universal "oneness" and interdependence. Inclusion is recognizing that we are "one" even though we are not the "same". The act of inclusion means fighting against exclusion and all of the social diseases exclusion gives birth to - i.e. racism, sexism, handicapism, etc. Fighting for inclusion also involves assuring that all support systems are available to those who need such support. Providing and maintaining support systems is a civic responsibility, not a favor. We were all born "in". Society will immediately improve at the point we honor this truth!!

Tolerance acknowledges the fact that we are different and implies that a person will "tolerate" you. Meaning, they are not choosing to exclude you, but they are not necessarily choosing to include you either. When I look at it this way, inclusion is so much more favorable than tolerance. I think about the times in my life when I have just tolerated people, especially ignorant people. Then I think about the times in my life when I'm sure people were just tolerating me. Both cases are unfortunate, and my goal is to work towards inclusion and being what fellow blogger from the desk of...me refers to as a filler instead of a dipper.