Freedom of Speech?

I work at a movie theatre and last week we had a disruption in a theatre. A man had gotten into an argument with another man because his young (6-7 year old) daughter was talking during the movie. The man had yelled at her and told her to shut up (with profanity). They were all pulled out of the theatre and when the man was asked to leave, he said “This is why they shouldn’t let hispanics into the theatre”. Now the man didn’t technically do anything wrong but my heart broke when I watched the little girl’s father try to explain to her what racism is and why the man didn’t like them. In my opinion, people shouldn’t be allowed to say things like this. I know that it is his freedom of speech, but it is these kinds of words that spawn hatred. That little girl will probably be traumatized by the incident and go on to think that all white people are racist and feel the way that man did.

Lamebook.com

The other day I was on this website lamebook.com and it is about Facebook status that are either funny, lame or just rude. So as I was skimming through looking at some of them there was one guy that posted a lot of racism things about blacks and Hispanics and one of his post were horrific. He had three beer bottles, one that called something Morena(which means black in spanish) and two budlight cans. Well he has the Morena bottle hanging from a rope and the two budlight bottles with a kkk hat on. I just couldn’t believe that people honestly do these things and think it is a joke. I thought we were a little bit more beyond those times but apparently people still have a strong hate towards minorities and think it is okay to joke about them. Luckily for him this website blurs out the persons Facebook picture and name so no one knows who it is posting these status, but let me tell you there were a lot of angry people wanting to figure out this person Facebook. That just really upsets me that someone would do such a thing.

“The Conversation”

I recently started reading Hill Harper’s new book after his visit to UF recently. It’s about Black family’s and how they are dissipating in the percentage amounts. He addresses the issue of how its a repetitive circle and why this is happening.  It’s clear that single parent house holds shape the future generations views and most apparently their postion on relationships.  In Black families have a strong bond with your family (which differ over cultures). The issue before was that during slavery the way to break the bond was by seperating the father from the slave family (Willie lynch google him) now its clear what happened the past has left a stain on Blacks. The importance of the Black family was re-discovered in the 60’s when 84 percent of Black children were being raised in two-parent households but in 2006 fewer than 33 percent of all Black children were being raised in two-parent households.  It would be easy to blame this on Whites, but no men in general need to step up and stop thing life is what you see on TV.  The media allows us to see marriages with stars and then divorces in the same couple within 6 months. Thats not true commitment or a true display of how marriage is supposed to be. Thats why I’m thankful for the Black couples who are in the media and giving a positive portrayal like Will and Jada Pinkett Smith married since 1997. Alot of things shown in the media should stay unreplicated because the state of the Black family is in need of some work.

Confused at the Gas Station

When you go into a gas station, you really don’t think about anything else besides getting gas. I know sometimes, we go into gas stations and end up buying other things than gas but I didn’t know that items had a race? When I walked into the BP the other day with my boyfriend, the attendant greeted him by saying, “what ya drinkin’, what ya smokin’, what ya scratchin’?”. At first, I didn’t catch on, but after I saw the look on my boyfriends face, I knew it was something that upset him. He explained to me that the attendant was assuming he came in to buy liqour, or cigarettes, or a lotto ticket; because he was black. I don’t know how accurate my boyfriend is with his assumption, but what else could it be? I guess a simple “hello, how may I help you?” would have been too much to ask for.

Free to Love?

So, as we approach Valentine’s Day, I feel that this topic is appropriate. Today I was walking in the store with my best friend. Him and I are extremely close, and I suppose that our chemistry can be clearly detected by observers. I have never been one to care what others think, so I never pay it much attention. However, today I couldn’t help but notice a couple of dirty looks I received from a couple of black females. Yes, my best friend is a large black male, who often has many females chasing after him. When other females, particularly those of African American descent see us together, they become disgusted as if I did something to offend them. I’ve heard the argument that I’m “stealing their men” by having affiliations with a black man, but honestly, this is a load of crap in my opinion and will openly defend that with anyone who feels otherwise. I guess my thoughts don’t mean much but I really wish people could accept that you can not control who you love, and even if I could, I see absolutely nothing wrong with caring about someone outside of my ‘race’. There are so many people on this earth who are judged and discriminated against for loving someone that society does not deem  ‘acceptable’. Everyone needs to worry about themselves and stop trying to force their beliefs upon others. If you don’t agree with the way someone else is living their life, then make the change in your own.

Olympics- Ice Skating.

While logging on to the internet yesterday, one of the highlights on my default browser was “Three American Ice Dancing Siblings Won’t Be Dancing for Team USA”. At first, I didn’t bother to look at it but after further questioning  I decided to click on it, and read the article. The article basically stated that three Japanese-American siblings, who will be participating in Ice Skating during the Olympics have chosen not to dance with team USA. Instead, two of the siblings, due to dual citizenship in the United States and Japan, they will be skating for Japan. Meanwhile, the other sibling is taking advantage of her partners rules for his national team, Georgia, and will be skating for them. I find it interesting that these decisions all really come down to the basis of ethnicity and race. Since their is Japanese, and their father is American, they receive the benefits of choosing where they would rather skate. Ultimately, their parents ethnicities have given them more options for something they are passionate about.