Why the "birther" phenomenon is racism.

I know you just rolled your eyes, and thought, "Everyone is a little bit racist. I do not want to listen to Alexis tell me why this is racism just because the president is black, because black people can be racist too."

Individual racism is not the issue that I am talking about. I think everyone should take the time to realize their biases and work to see people as people (No, I am not saying be "colorblind" that in itself is racism. People are proud of their heritages, and it is okay to see that. This is all another topic for another time, so moving on....) The point is I am NOT talking about individual racism.

First a lesson in White Privilege, (here is wiki's explanation) and Institutional Racism.

WHITE PRIVILEGE:

What is the white privilege? It is that the "white" culture is seen as the norm. If it is normal to be white then you have power of invisibility. That is not to say no one notices you, but more no one notices your race. Everything you do and succeed at is attributed to you personally, and everything you fail at is attributed to you personally.

Here are a few examples:

• When you are asked to describe yourself do you ever say "I am white."? Or is that not something that you feel identifies you because you do not understand that there is a white culture. When people ask who I am. I am always a Latina. It defines me, and I am proud of it, but it marks me as different from the "normal" culture. 

• When you get a job no one is going to say it is because the company had to meet their "quota." It is going to be because you were qualified, and the best fit.  Like the countless people that say, "Obama only won because he was black, and had the black vote." 

• It is the fact that donkey-punchers (the tea-party) could march around the capital with guns, and no one care. If any minority group did that they would automatically be seen as a threat, but the tea-party was seen as patriotic. How wonderful! 

• A personal example of "white" being seen as "right": When I was younger and someone would ask about my heritage (this happened more often than you think). I would say, "I am Mexican," and 90%(Remember I grew up in South Weber, Ut) of the time this person would respond back and say, "Cool! I am American." I would then say, "I am American too!"I was completely shocked that this person thought I was Mexican while they were American. We were all American, but my ancestry came from Mexico (Utah, Texas, Colorado, California, Arizona.... ya know, Mexico!), and theirs came from somewhere in Europe. They some how thought they were more American than me because my skin was brown, and my last name was Lopez. That was because an American to them was a white, middle class, christian..... person **cough, man, cough**(let's not kid ourselves). 

INSTITUTIONAL RACISM:

This goes hand in hand with white privilege....

Examples:

• It is the simple fact that Black and Latino males are 2-3 times more likely to have their cars stopped and searched, but white men are 4 times as likely to have the "stuff" in their car. 

• There was a study where job applicants with "white-sounding" names were 50% more likely to get called back than job applicants with "black-sounding" names. Even though everything else on the resume was the exact same. 

• White males with a high school diploma just as likely as black and latino males with a college degree to have a job. 

I will not drag on for too long, about the definitions. I am sure you get it.

I am hoping you can connect the dots, and see why all this birther stuff was really racism, but if not I am going to tell you why, so don't worry.

We have a black president whose name is Barack Hussein Obama, and black is not perceived as American, or successful, and his name does not sound "American" **cough, white, cough**.  So how would a political foe get others to fear him? Easy, all they have to do is use what is already engrained into people's minds, and enhance this fear. Ask yourself, why no other president was harassed and asked to show his birth certificate countless times. Ask yourself why a president would continue to be harassed  even after he did show it. If you don't see white privilege, and institutional racism as the answers then please explain it to me, because it is all I can see.

I apologize that this is a rambled mess of thoughts, but I am frustrated right now, and it is hard to gather all my thoughts. This has bugged me for a long time, and I think I am about to explode.

A book review that quickly became a self-evaluation.

A little bit of a backstory: I have been reading Dan Brown's Lost Symbol, and I want to kill myself. I do not know why I thought picking up a Dan Brown novel was a good idea. Can I even call it a novel? I guess it technically is, but a more appropriate term for it is garbage. I hate his writing style, and the "voice" of his book. If I ever saw him I would call him a pretentious douche, and explain to him that I don't need his characters thoughts in italics especially since most of those thoughts I can assume. Every time I see those italics, I want to scream, "Dan Brown you aren't a genius, and I am not THAT stupid."   He is now second, behind Stephenie Meyer, on the list of authors I want to punch in the face. Thinking about how much I hate this book made me want to write a blog, on an actual novel. I will give you one guess...

East of Eden 

John Steinbeck

If you haven't read it, read it,

and if you have read it, read it again, 

and again, and again, and .... 

A quick review: East of Eden is another book by John Steinbeck about the Salinas Valley, but quite possibly the most important one. As the title suggests it has a Biblical theme, but the overall theme is the battle between good and evil. It takes the Biblical story of Cain and Abel, and portrays it in two different sets of brothers, but unlike the Biblical story it shows you the effect on the other characters, and you get to know the "Cain and Abel" characters much better.  My personal favorite parts of the story are when Lee, Samuel, and Adam are discussing the story of Cain and Abel, and when they come back to it years later. It is beautiful, and brings up the most important lesson of the book, that evil can be overcome because "thou mayest."

The other day I was thinking about that discussion, and something besides the lesson of being able to conquer evil stood out to me. It was a few of Lee's other comments that stood out, and his process in understanding those 16 verses in Genesis.

In their first discussion Lee is interested in, yet confused by the story of Cain and Abel. He tries to understand, but still one part doesn't make sense to him, so he studies it. He looks at different translations, and eventually goes to his family association in San Fran where he asks 4 sages, and they ponder on it for years, hire a rabbi, and learn Hebrew. They are very engulfed in their Chinese tradition, but are still curious about these verses.  When they feel good and ready they translate those 16 verses word for word.

Lee is explaining this process during their second discussion and Samuel asks, "Do you then not think this is a divine book written by the inky finger of God?" and he responds, "I think the mind that could think this story was a curiously divine mind. We have had a few such minds in China too."

Lee then explains to Adam and Samuel what they found, and at the end of his explanation and his praises of these verses, Adam asks "Do you mean these Chinese men believe the Old Testament?" Lee responds, "These old men believe a true story, and they know a true story when they hear it. They are critics of truth. They know that these sixteen verses are a history of humankind in any age or culture or race...." He then goes on to say one of the greatest quotes in East of Eden, "... And I feel that I am a man. And I feel that man is a very important thing--- maybe more important than a star. This is not theology.  I have no bent toward gods. But I have a new love for that glittering instrument, the human soul. It is a lovely and unique thing in the universe. It is always attacked and never destroyed---- because 'Thou mayest.'"

I love that Lee, a man who has recently found himself becoming more engulfed in the Chinese tradition, and the Sages can look at something that doesn't come from their history, and see truth in it. I love that Lee praises the individual human, and sees the beauty in them. I want to be like Lee in these aspects. I want to be able to look at different cultures/beliefs and see the beauty in them instead of just what I perceive to be "wrong."

Isn't that what we should all strive for? I look at different cultures, and see this same lesson. Some of them show it better than others....

• In India the word, "Namaste" is used as a common greeting. This means, "The divinity in me respects the divinity in you." How beautiful that they use this word that represents seeing people in such a light. 
• Christ taught that the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. 
• Confucius said "Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself." 
• The Qur'an says, "The most righteous of men is the one who is glad that men should have what is pleasing to himself, and who dislikes for them what is for him disagreeable." 

It is "The Golden Rule" and is literally in every belief or culture. It is a truth that has lived on in every way of life, so it must be extremely important, if not the most important truth. 

All this thinking has led me to analyze my life to see if I am applying this to it, or not. I am going to work much harder, and maybe I should start by saying, "Dan Brown and Stephenie Meyer, I may not enjoy your writing, but many other people do, and I am glad that you are helping people learn to love to read because that is important." 

Side note: The blogger clothing challenge will start the first week of May. Unless somehow "No" starts winning on the poll. 

Dan^2 Clothing Challenge

In my Honeymoon & Wedding post, I listed some of the discoveries of married life. One was that Dan and I have so many matching clothes that we could probably wear the exact same or very similar thing for at least a month. That got me curious about how long we could actually go, and maybe it got you a little curious also. I posted a poll question in the right side of this blog, and am curious as to if you would like "A Convenient Truth" to participate in a Dan^2 matching challenge. If you want our daily matching to be documented and blogged then vote for it, and if you would absolutely hate seeing that then vote the other way. Thanks!

Softball Shirts!