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October 29, 2003

Sometimes I just get pissy

Sometimes, I just want to rant and I don't want to deal with anyone else's ideas, especially if they are just lame excuses. I felt like that yesterday, and deleted all comments to my rant on how much I hate it when people describe themselves as WhateverEthnicOrigin-American.

The only person who replied used "black person" as a name. This really annoyed me for some reason.
"Black person" stated that because I am white I cannot understand anything that a black person would ever experience.

Frankly, I think that most of that is pure bullshit. Yes, there are evil people in this country, and everywhere in the world, who would hurt someone simply for the color of their skin, their religion, their ethnicity. Islamic Jihadists come to mind, as well as the KKK, and other groups.

But that person never explained why calling him or herself an African-American made them feel any better. "Black person" wrote 4 long comments, all pretty repetitive, and not really conducive to any kind of discourse.

This person completely missed the point, and I was frustrated and pissed so I deleted everything.

Back when I was a social worker, I had a few very scary incidents in the inner city.

I had a group of teenage black men surround my little car and not move to let me leave a parking space. I layed on the horn until some people came out of their houses, and the young men finally left.

I had my purse snatched by two young teenage boys, who also happened to be black.

I was chased around an apartment by a black woman weilding a knife - I had gone to visit her to explain to her that her children had to go to school.
After that last one, I quit. Social Work does not pay enough to put my life on the line.

I am not really sure what my point is - as I said, I'm kinda pissed off today.
But perhaps it is that some black people scare the hell out me, yet I still don't feel the need to call myself white-chickenshit-American.

And I don't blame all black people for what those particular people did to me.

Yet, it's okay for black people to blame all white people for everything that has ever happened to them - ever.

I guess that is what I don't get.

Okay, on to better things now.

Posted by Beth at October 29, 2003 7:34 PM

Comments

I am against Hyphenated-Americans. Those are US Citizens who find it necessary to define themselves by their own or their ancestors homelands.

We find necessary because because here in America we are not identified as Americans nor are we idenitfied by the ethnic group that we hail from. Take an Asian-American for example. White people and black people will "call" them american, but the words they use their actions towards say we are not americans. They will still say "what are you?" Oh, you're Chinese or Oh, you're Korean, ect. Those citizens who were actually born in an Asian country will look at an Asian-American and say no you are not Chinese, not Vietnamese, not ect. On the whole we are not excepted by either culture. It is only another Asian-American who will consitantly and unambiguously call another Asian-American, American.

Posted by: Jalf at February 15, 2004 11:37 PM