And Bigotry and Injustice for All

My seven year old has to say the "Pledge of Allegiance" at school. Really?! Do we still make kids spout this nonsense at school. They don't even know what they're saying let alone how non-inclusive those words are. We all know that when the founding people of our country got together, and wrote the Declaration of Independence, that the words, "All men are created equal" really meant all White, Male, Landowners are created equal. We all know that was their intention, so why do we still have kids saying the pledge of allegiance. Liberty and Justice for all. Try saying that with a straight face if you have even an inkling of what our society is really like.
How can schools that espouse virtues like diversity and tolerance (still hate that word) and honestly expect our youth to repeat words that don't apply to the majority of them. Liberty for who? The immigrant worker here trying to earn enough money to feed his family? The Middle Eastern family who is here within all aspects of the law? Not hardly. No those people don't get liberty at least not to the same degree as the Big Four do (Big Four for those who don't know are White, Heterosexual, Temporarily Able Bodied, Males).

How can we as a society with the history of racism that we have still speak those words. When people of color represent an inordinate amount of the prison industrial complex population. When women still make 79 cents on the dollar to men even for the exact same job. When education is supposed to be equal in a public school, but yet my own son by virtue of living in an apartment complex located in an upper middle class neighborhood gets to go to a school that still has music, art, and P.E.. If I drive ten minutes away from my house I will find myself in a neighborhood where the schools are more worried with getting their kids adequate nutrition than whether or not they can even afford decent textbooks let alone computers.

In a country run by what has to be one of the most incompetent people in history, where do we get off pledging allegiance to him or this country. We shouldn't have to say those words at all until the meaning is true. Until everyone gets real equal justice, racial profiling ceases to be used, and something as simple as the idea of a level playing field comes around then I say we don't say those words. I'm all for pledging allegiance to a country whose pledge isn't absolute bullshit. Until then I'll pass. If you want to swallow that tripe and believe what those words say then don't be surprised when you choke on them.

Don't call me European American

When I heard the term European American something sounded wrong. I could just see some white person who was feeling left out somehow saying "Oh yeah well you may be African American, but I'm European American, so there." As if they could somehow get in on the oppression Olympics as a target if they said that. It's absurd the whole idea that we as white people who haven't been concerned with our ethnic identity as a whole in a long time if ever suddenly need our own label.

Well I was right about my hunch. This whole European American thing has been picked up by Americas poster boy for tolerance, David Duke. He even has a web site espousing "White Civil Rights." It would be hilarious if it weren't so pathetic. Seriously, when have we as white people in this country ever had our civil rights trampled on? It's this kind of nonsense that people are swallowing right along with reverse racism that makes me afraid. We are so frightened that we are bound to lose something in the process of people of color achieving things that we make up stuff like reverse racism and white civil rights as a way to justify our ignorant beliefs.

So I am begging you as enlightened people reading this blog who also happen to be white, don't allow yourselves to be labeled as European American. Have some pride, don't allow these ignorant people to drag you into a fight that doesn't exist. And for sure don't call me European American, I have no wish to be grouped in with the completely ignorant, incompetent, rejects that go by that label. I have more pride than that.