just plain funny..
Well, Jcurious rightly observed that I’m being both racist and sexist by not wanting another old white male in the white house.
Okay, I get that he’s correct, but it is how I feel. I don’t really even know that I think that how I feel is wrong, even though it is plainly both racist and sexist. We’re supposed to be a representative government but throughout our history, we don’t seem to represent anyone who doesn’t happen to be both white and male.. and lately we’ve added wealthy to the list of requirements for government officials.
What to do? I guess I just come to terms with being a racist asshole and move on.
Speaking of racism – or something – I recently learned about the seven principles of Kwanzaa, and I must say, I approve. Since all our holidays are made up anyway, let’s make *good* made up holidays 😉 Unfortunately, apparently Kwanzaa is supposed to be a black thing and therefore I would get some very strange looks for trying to participate and anyway I’m missing all of the neccesary cultural heratige. But perhaps I’ll celebrate it anyway.
We were discussing the possibility of shifting our major gift-giving holiday from Christmas to some other date – right now, because everyone gives gifts at the same time, the gift-giving infrastructure gets seriously stressed this time of year – it seems like it’d be better for everyone for people to agree to have different dates for gift-giving – days we were toying with included but were not limited to beltane, Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, Ghandi’s birthday, and candlemas. I don’t know that we actually decided on anything – I do suspect that next year we will be giving our gifts on a day other than Christmas. It also underscores my lack of support of Christianity as it is implimented in the U.S., which is always worth doing..
.. so, friends, if you don’t get a Christmas card or gift from us in 2008, don’t dispair. 😉
December 23rd, 2007 at 5:17 pm
I say Beltane, but that’s just me.
Anyway, yes, it is sexist/racist, but more precisely, what you are expressing is affirmative action.
The problem with affirmative action is, of course, that there are situations where, for example, a white person scores 96 on an application test, and a black person scores 85, but gets the job over the white person, because a quota must be met. This actually happens, and in that case, the white person is being denied his job based on race. And this is because he was born white and is supposed to pay for the sins of his fathers.
Just my two cents…
Speaking of weird religions — Asatru. Very weird.
December 23rd, 2007 at 5:47 pm
My aunt and her family always celebrate Marchmas. I don’t know the exact date, just March, but it’s well away from the December frenzy.
December 24th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
You worry too much about strange looks.
I don’t think a woman or a person of color will inherently help the issues, because there’s nothing magical about more melanin or ovaries that will fix the country. What would help is someone who had stopped and actually questioned all the myriad assumptions that go on in this society. The odds are somewhat better than a person of color or a woman has asked those questions, because it’s easier to challenge assumptions when they work against you rather than for you, but I’d take a white guy who had asked those questions of himself and found thoughtful answers over a woman or a person of color who hadn’t.