Yesterday, Rick Reilly wrote an article about why the need for the Redskins name change is not so simple or offensive as it may seem. You can read the article here:
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/9689220/redskins-name-change-not-easy-sounds
His argument is tenuous at best. He argues that a lot of people don't find the name offensive, including Native Americans, so why change it. Or "try explaining it to kids who don't get it." Maybe almost entirely wiping them off of the globe wasn't enough. And he argues about other team names and how attached people are to them. As if team pride were the most important thing. I could go on and on about why Rick Reilly is an idiot, but this is merely a jumping off point. This article is just skimming the surface of what I feel is the problem with racism in this country.
I noticed he wouldn't even type the word "nigger." Or it was redacted. So he or someone else finds at least one word offensive enough to not even write it, but hey, not enough disenfranchised people find "redskin" offensive. It's just not offensive enough to our collective consciousness.
And I get that. I really do.
If the Redskins change their name or they don't, it's all fine. The world won't stop turning. But this is part of the root issue. My problem isn't even with his shitty defense of what was and is a derogatory term for Native American people. My problem is the side-stepping. The "Certain words are not fit to print, but this PC culture is killing us." People that complain about PC culture the most are usually the people who think the 1950's were a golden age. They want to go back to a time when no one was offended by anything. Oh, by the way, that time never existed. The offended people just didn't have a voice. I'm reminded of this interview with Samuel L. Jackson:
We're afraid of words. To even say them. That interviewer wouldn't even utter the word "nigger" in an intellectual context. He would probably have less trouble saying "faggot" or "spic" or "towel-head". And this is the problem. We've made certain words taboo while other words, that in my mind are equally offensive, are said just because the stigma isn't there. I cringe when people say "the N-word" because it doesn't make sense to me.
What am I getting at?
We're avoiding an honest discussion and what it means to be racist, and more importantly a bigot, in this country. Always. It's easier.
People casually say "That driver must be Asian" if the person is driving poorly. Or they'll say they must be a woman. Hell, I'm guilty of this. It's racist. Or misogynistic. These are facts. People like to side-step their racism. I do it all the time. I pretend it's all joking, but there are deeper mechanisms at work. We adhere to stereotypes because it makes us feel safer and we can sleep at night knowing we're good people because that's just the way it is when the truth is we're ALL racists and bigots. We try our hardest. Most of us try to be good people and judge only on other peoples' character, but we fail.
And that's okay. It really is. It's going to happen. The world's not perfect. We're not perfect.
But we need to try to move past it and not let it rule us. We need to try to get better and I feel the side-stepping is slowing us down. We need to reject our weakness and learn from it and improve. We're hurting progress because we keep thinking "That's someone else doing that. That's not me." If I had a nickel for every time I've heard someone utter something that belittles another race, sex or minority and then wash it away with "I have lots of women/gay/black friends" I'd be a goddamn millionaire.We gloss over it because, man, racists populate trailer parks and are ignorant assholes and that's not us. We're middle class working folks and we care about equality!
And we do.
I know I do. I care about everyone getting their fair shake. And I try, I TRY SO HARD, to not judge people based on stereotypes and what I've heard and how society views them. And 98% of the time, my rational mind wins out. My brain rights the ship and I can rest easy. But that 2% is always lurking; waiting to judge. Some sick, compulsive need to judge. And I honestly don't know what to do about it. I console myself with thoughts about how I'm open minded and liberal and NO H8 and affirmative action is great and I love the ACLU and up with the little guy.
But that 2% keeps gnawing at me.
I love this. It's so true. I catch myself being a Judgy McJudgerson too often in life. :/ I wish I knew what the answer is; merely admitting it is at least one step in the right direction.
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