So yesterday, a woman at my work posted on the staff chat thread that her church is selling calenders with President Obama on them. That's kinda cool. My church prays for him and all our political leaders (no matter how popular or unpopular they may be), during the prayers of the church. So it's all good.
A colleague of mine made a remark that I would like to buy 20 of each size (wallet and full size). I thought that was totally hilarious. I sent him an email saying I appreciated the joke. I decided I would share the laugh with my co-workers. I LOL'ed and then added: "I need some more kindling for my fireplace." I will admit after I wrote that I was wondering how long it would take before someone took what I wrote COMPLETELY out of context.
This morning there was a comment on the thread from one co-worker that she didn't think it was funny and I should keep my thoughts to myself and my mouth closed. A little later while on the thread another co-worker told me to keep my racists thoughts to myself. I had to hold myself back from writing a scathing response to the libel and slander against my name. But I held my tongue. There was another funny response with one of them talking about burning Bush calenders for eight years and now having to pay high power bills
In the end, I did apologize the the women who had originally posted the sales pitch, because it was taken down a tangent that was not intended. A joke was made about me, that I thought was funny, so I thought it would be appropriate to respond humorously. My joke was not to wish any ill will on President Obama or the lady's church. The co-worker who made the joke about me apologized as well since he knew I would respond to his joke. I got support for numerous other employees during the course of the day. No one of them thought that I was a racist in my comment. People from all sides of the political spectrum were defending me. It felt kind of nice. One even offered to contact people in Cincinnati to help me out if I needed it. I felt kind of flattered at that one.
That's the story of me being called a racists. The bigger issue to be brought up in this story is that of the race or victim card. Just because you don't like the black president doesn't make you racist. Just because you want immigration laws enforced does not make you racist. Just because you blame whitey for holding you down does not make you racist. Racism or other discriminatory beliefs is not an attitude belonging to only one groups of people.
But there are genuine times when companies, individual or groups are being racists, bigots or discriminatory against others. Those ignorant people need to be ridiculed and driven to extinction in this day and age. We must use peer pressure and pressure of our society against people who think, talk and act like that. We need to make it completely and totally unacceptable to be racist against anyone in the United States. We are the melting pot and the salad bowl of the world. There are people of every race, color, nationality, ethnic group, sexual orientation, religion, and identity in the U.S. All are equally America. That is what makes us strong.
As always I welcome comments and questions. Have a great day!
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