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perzephone
For history, I had to watch a newsreel on Martin Luther King, jr.'s I Have A Dream speech. Listening to him, one can understand exactly how powerful an old-time gospel preacher's voice can become. MLK was an incredible orator - when the camera panned over the audience, you could see how many grown men were brought to tears, how many women had that rapt bordering-on-sexual expression on their faces as they watched him. The language he used made me squirm inside, though. Every time he said 'negro' (only you could hear the capital 'N' - 'Negro') I winced. Every time he said something like, 'the Negro man must throw off the shackles of oppression', I wondered to myself, 'what about the Negro woman?' It's just further proof to me about the sacredness of words & the innate power of language. Somehow, the Spanish word for 'black', 'negro', has become a symbol of political incorrectness.
It got me thinking, about 'equality', though. I do not think that everyone actually wants to be treated just like everyone else. I think people want their individuality celebrated and respected. I mean, yes, women want to receive the same pay as men for performing the same job. Blacks want to be able to eat in the same restaurants & ride in the same section of the train as whites. Other than some of my throwback Tennessee relatives, no one wants segregation - it's just a stupid, inefficient concept.
However... when it comes to something like Affirmative Action - does anyone really want a promotion just because they are a minority/female/disabled? Or do they want a promotion because they honestly deserve it & worked hard to get it? I'm sure it pisses people off when they have busted their asses in school, gotten good grades, put in all the applications, done the footwork... and someone else gets admitted to a college because they're a different color or gender - and they can't speak English coherently. I imagine that when Affirmative Action went into affect, it may have been the best solution to a problem that was widespread. Black people couldn't get the same jobs as white people because they were black. Women weren't honestly considered for promotions because they were women. Affirmative Action also leads to abuse - my sister tells her kids to put their ethnicity as 'Native American or Alaskan' on applications because they are both maybe 1/8 Native American. She tells me I should take advantage of it, too, because our mom was French Canadien, which has that mixture of indigenous Native Canadien in it. Just for the record, I don't - when I have to fill out the racial profile on a County government application, I put 'Caucasian/white'. I don't know what tribe my mother's people originally came from, but I know that they are far, far removed from their heritage, except maybe for one cousin I have who married a Blackfoot & lives on a reservation.
I'm not griping for my own sake - I don't go out for promotions to managerial positions because I prefer working in my Cubicle o'Doom rather than being on the front lines. I like the notion that I technically make more than the supervisors because they're salaried, work 9-hour shifts & have to pay their own insurance costs, while I work a 40-hour week, get OT pay, I pay my Union dues & the Union pays for my insurance... it's a pretty sweet deal, and I don't have to deal w/the angry public.
I think I'm just kind of annoyed right now. All this crap about Wal-Mart's return to 'Merry Christmas' is getting them sued for cultural insensitivity... so they asked their employees to visually profile patrons to determine the proper holiday greeting. I'm a Union member, so I'm not even supposed to shop at Wal-Mart, but damned if I'm going to pay Target's prices - or try to find a K-Mart anymore. If I owned a retail outlet here in America, you know what I'd do? I'd stop making a big deal out of any holiday. I'd take the Jehovah's Witness stance on the celebration of holidays. If I wanted to throw a sale because my store was in a second-quarter slump, I'd throw a sale. Black Friday is fine - it's the day after Thanksgiving, biggest shopping day of the year for Americans. Thanksgiving also isn't a religious holiday - it's a civic holiday. Same with Labor Day, Memorial Day, Veteran's Day. Veteran's & Memorial Days are even kind of controversial because, well, there are people who protest wars & those days memorialize veterans & active service people. Labor Day could be considered controversial, too - it's a celebration of the worker, and in places like Germany it's kind of like Hallowe'en, allied w/May Day/Walpurgisnacht celebrations. It's a day that commemorates the freedom of the working class & leaves the Big Business employer feeling left out. In the modern economy, celebrating cultural differences is great for business, but Gods forbid you make anyone feel left out or ignored. Do a Mother's Day sale - well, what about single fathers who have to go grocery shopping on Mother's Day? Father's day sales leave out single moms. Grandparent's Day - well, what about moms & dads? There is no 'Children's Day', except maybe for Christmas, but Christmas is a veritable socio-religious timebomb for retail outlets. How does Christmas sales & decor make Jewish people feel? Or Hindus? Or Satanists? Do you know how many people I've seen playing WoW who misspell the Lord of Darkness' name in their character names? I've seen at least one 'Sonofsanta' on each server on which I've played. Not to mention 'Santaswhelp' or 'Santasspawn'... I always feel bad for dyslexic Satanists during Christmas. It's probably quite confusing.
I'd better stop now. I don't quite remember where I was going with this when I started.
It got me thinking, about 'equality', though. I do not think that everyone actually wants to be treated just like everyone else. I think people want their individuality celebrated and respected. I mean, yes, women want to receive the same pay as men for performing the same job. Blacks want to be able to eat in the same restaurants & ride in the same section of the train as whites. Other than some of my throwback Tennessee relatives, no one wants segregation - it's just a stupid, inefficient concept.
However... when it comes to something like Affirmative Action - does anyone really want a promotion just because they are a minority/female/disabled? Or do they want a promotion because they honestly deserve it & worked hard to get it? I'm sure it pisses people off when they have busted their asses in school, gotten good grades, put in all the applications, done the footwork... and someone else gets admitted to a college because they're a different color or gender - and they can't speak English coherently. I imagine that when Affirmative Action went into affect, it may have been the best solution to a problem that was widespread. Black people couldn't get the same jobs as white people because they were black. Women weren't honestly considered for promotions because they were women. Affirmative Action also leads to abuse - my sister tells her kids to put their ethnicity as 'Native American or Alaskan' on applications because they are both maybe 1/8 Native American. She tells me I should take advantage of it, too, because our mom was French Canadien, which has that mixture of indigenous Native Canadien in it. Just for the record, I don't - when I have to fill out the racial profile on a County government application, I put 'Caucasian/white'. I don't know what tribe my mother's people originally came from, but I know that they are far, far removed from their heritage, except maybe for one cousin I have who married a Blackfoot & lives on a reservation.
I'm not griping for my own sake - I don't go out for promotions to managerial positions because I prefer working in my Cubicle o'Doom rather than being on the front lines. I like the notion that I technically make more than the supervisors because they're salaried, work 9-hour shifts & have to pay their own insurance costs, while I work a 40-hour week, get OT pay, I pay my Union dues & the Union pays for my insurance... it's a pretty sweet deal, and I don't have to deal w/the angry public.
I think I'm just kind of annoyed right now. All this crap about Wal-Mart's return to 'Merry Christmas' is getting them sued for cultural insensitivity... so they asked their employees to visually profile patrons to determine the proper holiday greeting. I'm a Union member, so I'm not even supposed to shop at Wal-Mart, but damned if I'm going to pay Target's prices - or try to find a K-Mart anymore. If I owned a retail outlet here in America, you know what I'd do? I'd stop making a big deal out of any holiday. I'd take the Jehovah's Witness stance on the celebration of holidays. If I wanted to throw a sale because my store was in a second-quarter slump, I'd throw a sale. Black Friday is fine - it's the day after Thanksgiving, biggest shopping day of the year for Americans. Thanksgiving also isn't a religious holiday - it's a civic holiday. Same with Labor Day, Memorial Day, Veteran's Day. Veteran's & Memorial Days are even kind of controversial because, well, there are people who protest wars & those days memorialize veterans & active service people. Labor Day could be considered controversial, too - it's a celebration of the worker, and in places like Germany it's kind of like Hallowe'en, allied w/May Day/Walpurgisnacht celebrations. It's a day that commemorates the freedom of the working class & leaves the Big Business employer feeling left out. In the modern economy, celebrating cultural differences is great for business, but Gods forbid you make anyone feel left out or ignored. Do a Mother's Day sale - well, what about single fathers who have to go grocery shopping on Mother's Day? Father's day sales leave out single moms. Grandparent's Day - well, what about moms & dads? There is no 'Children's Day', except maybe for Christmas, but Christmas is a veritable socio-religious timebomb for retail outlets. How does Christmas sales & decor make Jewish people feel? Or Hindus? Or Satanists? Do you know how many people I've seen playing WoW who misspell the Lord of Darkness' name in their character names? I've seen at least one 'Sonofsanta' on each server on which I've played. Not to mention 'Santaswhelp' or 'Santasspawn'... I always feel bad for dyslexic Satanists during Christmas. It's probably quite confusing.
I'd better stop now. I don't quite remember where I was going with this when I started.
