Nah, I knew you were black. If you guys haven't noticed I always say I thought someone was the opposite race to troll the TAN
On a related note about office ethics.
I was utterly shocked at our Thanksgiving and Christmas luncheon this year when our department head had everyone bow their head and said grace. Dude said "we thank you lord Jesus Christ" a couple times during each grace. I couldn't believe it was happening.
Running down the stairs really fast in the summer on a humid day and you hear your nuts clap against your thighs. Does anyone else know this hear? I haven't heard that sound since I started wearing briefs>boxers
I feel success is around the corner for me...I believe this is my last opportunity to get it right or ima be in a jam for a while...bout to take advantage of everything around me...failure is nowhere near on my radar
I have the same level of hair on my legs I had when I was 12. (*flips coin between
or
emoticons*)
The first of today's unsolicited diatribes is on the subject of America's favorite racist grandmother, Paula Deen, why nobody should really be surprised and just how recent the uglier parts of our country's history really are.
In case you don’t know who that is, she’s the friendly, grandmaternal looking woman on all the food channels delighting people with her exceptional home cooking skills, combining fat, sugar, butter and butter in new and interesting ways to delight the palates of a nation. I’m pretty sure my lady has made me one of her recipes, which made her cool with me. Cordial and engaging with plenty of Southern charm, she seemed like just about the nicest old buzzard on TV.
Until this week, that is. That’s when I found out she was being sued by a black ex-employee for racial discrimination.
Allegedly, she often made racial jokes and comments in the presence of her black employees, and did so with not a damn to give. She’s also reportedly planning a classic Southern wedding party, hiring black “slaves” as the help, just like the good old days…which is also, of course, just fine.
(I’m less mad at her for that party than I am at whatever self-loathing black folk agree to staff that party. Please peel your skin off immediately afterward, thank you.)
When asked about some of these accusations, specifically her use of America’s favorite racial slur, she calmly replied “of course”. Not “once or twice”, not “occasionally”, not even a fake-shameful “at another time in my life I made mistakes, etc.”. An “of course”, like it’s as much a part of her vocabulary as “a”, “an” and “the”.
My respect for her honesty aside, it was like finding out Mr. Rogers was a Klan member. Well, until I thought about it, anyway.
After some consideration, I think we all overlooked a few things. For starters, she’s a near 70 year old white woman from the armpits of the Deep South. They probably tossed out a little hate speech in the morning at school right before the Pledge of Allegiance in those days. She was an adult back when people like me had to come into stores through the back door and pay front door money. I guess the real surprise would have been if she never said anything like that.
It also makes me think about how all of that ugliness wasn’t really that long ago. Yes, we have partial claim to the President, but Jim Crow is in living memory. A lot of people’s grandmothers grew up back when it was cool to hate black people in public, and some of their kids and kids’ kids have learned more than we like to think about from them. Odds are Paula's family has been serving up skin color prejudice for generations.
Hell, slavery itself wasn’t all that far back…the last farm intern left his plantation with fond memories in 1850, and that seems like a good chunk of time until you realize that was only 5-7 generations ago. Your grandmother’s grandmother just might have done a whole lot of yard work. Paula Deen’s great-grandmother was probably a demanding boss too. The complete subjugation of an entire race and the attitudes, standards and practices it entails don’t exactly fade away over a year or 200, and I guess this was our latest reminder of that cold, hard fact.
Of course, this semi-realization doesn’t change much. For every Paula Deen out there willing to be candid about her…appreciation for American history…there are thousands from her generation who feel the same and just aren’t so dang proud of it. I guess I won’t be watching her cooking shows any more, because I’m going to picture her calling me some Negro fighting word at the end of every sentence. I don’t have any ill will against her…all that butter will eventually do more than I ever could about it.
Still, the whole situation is just an unmistakable refresher course in what it can be like to be black in America. I often try to pretend there’s nothing different about wearing this particular paint job—and in a vaccum, there’s not. However, perception is often the true reality, and the reality is that family heirlooms often last more than a few generations…and it ain’t always recipes for food being passed down.
I feel success is around the corner for me...I believe this is my last opportunity to get it right or ima be in a jam for a while...bout to take advantage of everything around me...failure is nowhere near on my radar
I think I'm too picky when it comes to people. Had classes with a dude and he seemed cool and would suggest we chill but I would feel like he's literally forcing me into a friendship , everytime he sees me he goes "Dude let's chill". I'll admit I'm a introvert and I can be somewhat standoffish at times.