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This week has resulted in my being startled by very vocal, racist remarks.  On Monday, a very dear friend of mine was the victim of such vocal racism.  While riding in an elevator with an older woman and a young girl, my friend was called a “gook.”  This term was not used in anger against my friend, but was sharp and jarring none-the-less.  The older lady in the elevator turned to the young girl and matter of fact-ly stated (while pointing at my friend), “That is a gook.”  Out of shock, my friend did not respond.  She told me it was the first time in her life she can recall someone using that term in her presence to reference her directly.

Two days later I was at a gas station filling up my car in San Antonio, Texas.  Although I do not live in San Antonio any longer, I was raised in the city and have always found it to be a very welcoming city for minorities, particularly Hispanics as they are a huge portion of the overall population.  On the opposite side of the pump from me was a black male.  A young Hispanic woman was across from me.  The black male went inside the store and when returning to his vehicle called the young Hispanic woman “stupid.”  That’s what caught my attention and I looked over in their direction.  The woman did not respond and just continued pumping her gas.  As the man walked away mumbling at the woman pumping gas, another Hispanic woman yelled to him, “Just leave her alone.”  He responded by shouting, “Go back to Mexico.”  I was dumbfounded and found myself staring blankly at the Hispanic woman, unable to form words.  She then responded, “I could tell you to go back to where you came from too,” or something to that effect.  The black man simply repeated himself more loudly, “Go back to Mexico.”

Today, I was listening to NPR and a black man (as he indicated) was discussing immigrants in his town and the jobs they have taken from the residents there.  He began his sentence with, “I don’t mean for this comment to sound racist.”  At that point, I knew he was about to say something extremely racist.  He did not disappoint, “If you’ve ever seen a house overrun with cockroaches…” thus he began, “… watch them come out of the building, there isn’t one white person or black man coming out of that building, they are all Mexicans.”  Interestingly, they interviewed one of the workers who was not “Mexican” but “Guatemalan.”

His comment reminded me of a comment I received in my youth from someone I considered to be my best friend.  I was going through the coming out process and thought I would gauge his feelings about homosexuals before telling him affirmatively that I was a homosexual.  I mentioned gay people and he said, “I don’t like them.”  I inquired as to why and he said, “They are like cockroaches, anytime I see one I want to step on them.”

Yes, we’ve come a long way in the battle for civil equality for ALL people, but there are miles and miles to go.  We must continue to educate each other that ALL people are human, ALL life is valuable and fragile and our words have power.  We must stop teaching our children that Asians are gooks, immigrants and homosexuals are cockroaches and that Americans should “Go back to where they came from.”  These are the values we are teaching our children and the values they will teach their children in turn.  Unlearning racism is a daunting process, one which I myself struggled with due to my upbringing and continue to try to evolve away from.  Somehow, we must overcome this disease.

I’ve been contemplating this project for a while – Should I, do a video slide show?  Do a video monologue?  Use puppets?  All of that seemed complex and I wanted the message to be clear.  The fact remains that Evangelical Christians continue to abuse biblical text and the “authority” bestowed upon them by “God” to keep people other than themselves down.  But how do you express that in an honest and forthright way?  I attempt to with this video:

The Southern Poverty Law Center has published a map indicating the number of hate groups in each state.  The map allows users to choose their state and find out which groups are active.  Hate groups included are the Ku Klux Klan, various “ministries”, the American National Socialist Party, and other Christian Identity and Neo-Nazi groups.

California leads the states in the number of active hate groups with 84 groups.  Texas is next in line with 66 groups.  Only two states are reported to have no active hate groups, Alaska and Hawaii.

The total number of active hate groups reported is 926.  Perhaps most significant, the majority of all U.S. Hate Groups reside in only 17 states.  Those state are generally considered “The Bible Belt” (being KS, OK, TX, MO, AR, LA, KY, TN, MS, AL, GA, FL, WV, VA, NC, and SC) and together they contain 483 of the 926 known and active hate groups.  Is this a coincidence?  I think not.

Click image for full size.

To find out which groups are active in your state, visit the map at the Southern Poverty Law Center Website.

Police have found and are questioning the second suspect in the crime committed against José O. Sucuzhañay on December 7, 2008 in Brooklyn.  Mr. José Sucuzhañay and his brother were walking arm and arm when Keith Phoenix and Hakim Scott [allegedly] attacked the two men while shouting antigay and anti-Hispanic slurs.

The minority against minority attack drew much attention, including one of my previous posts, as both Mr. José Sucuzhañay and his brother were heterosexual men.  The attack was based on the perception of their homosexuality, as two brothers showed affection to one another in public and was also apparently associated with their Hispanic roots.

Police had previously shown a video wherein Mr. Phoenix was paying a toll and smiling only 19 minutes after the attack which resulted in José Sucuzhañay death.

Police Find Second Suspect in Hate Crime Killing – City Room Blog – NYTimes.com.

Yesterday, I received a text message from a very dear friend.  For purposes of this story, we will call her Irene and her employer XYZ Corporation to protect the identities of both.  The message was to advise me that she had just been “written up” at work for using racial slurs.  I was shocked.  Irene is not someone I would ever consider to be a racist.  In fact, she is a triple minority (a woman, part Asian, part Hispanic).

I messaged her back, “what happened?”

The response was nothing like what I expected.  Apparently, Irene was to have her picture taken for a new security badge.  She remarked during that she did not want to have her picture taken, because she “would look like Yoko Ono, just like every other Asian.”

This resulted in the reprimand for “racial slurs.”  An ugly blemish on her employment record because she stated what she believed was a fact about herself – that she looks like every other Asian person. The particular funny part is why she believes this to be a fact.

After her graduation from college, she received an email from another friend advising that her Alma Mater had just placed a picture of her on the front page of their website.  Irene was so excited, she forwarded the link to everyone, including her fiance and her mother as well as to me.  We were all so excited for her.  After a couple of months passed, I received a phone call from Irene.  She asked if I remembered the photo and I said, “Of course.”  She then told me it wasn’t her in the photo, it was another Asian girl. I was floored.  Not only did I believe it to be a picture of her, but she believed it, her mother believed it, her fiance believed it… etc… etc… I pulled the picture back up and looked closely at it.  It was Irene, not another Asian girl.  Then I realized that the girl in the photo was wearing her “chords” which were not part of Irene’s ensemble and was shaking the hand of a different person than Irene had at her graduation.  Thus, Irene’s theory that she looks like every other Asian was seemingly true.

The question becomes, have we gone so far in our efforts to obtain “civil rights” that we have become humorless, unforgiving clouts?  Should Irene have been written up for her remark about her own race and how being within that race has made her “look like” other members of that race?  Is such an off-hand remark a “racial slur?”  It can’t be, but had it never happened, I wouldn’t have spent the better part of yesterday evening calling everyone of my friends and relaying the story while laughing hysterically.

For the record, Irene is recovering from this tragic enforcement of anti-discrimination policy. In fact, the entire time she was being reprimanded, and well into last night, she was laughing about the situation.

Join the Impact is a community driven website centered around LGBTQ people and their supporters.  The design of the site allows members to actively change aspects of pages, add content and update tags.  A small contingent of users have abused this site, vandalizing it by adding tags to the discussions such as “Butt Pirates, Faggots, Ass Rape, Cum Guzzlers, Fucking Faggots, Niggers, Fudge Packers” and other derogatory terms.

Although legitimate users are removing the remarks, the haters continue their efforts.  This is a prime example of the mistreatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons (and the continued mistreatment of “people of color”) in society.

I remain baffled as to why mainstream society doesn’t recognize this hatred for what it is – poor education.  As the religious right continues to lie about the LGBT community (isn’t lying a sin?) we will continue to see such acts of hatred.

NOTE:  I used the phrase “people of color” above as that phrase always makes me think of a bumper sticker I see periodically in South Texas which reads “De Colores” (of color) with a rainbow behind it.  Although I think that is actually a Latino art community sticker, it has always given me pause.