I'm getting really tired of people using as a punching bag...

Why is it that people who can't get their shit, together, emotionally, keep using me as a punching bag in lieu of taking responsibility for their bullshit?...

I have this guy at work...he's a friend...a good friend, I'd say...and he can also be a Mexican racist son-of-a-bitch...who doesn't hesitate to tell me at least once a day what a scurge to the human race white people are...and to talk to me as if I am somehow I am the symbolic cause of all of the misery that folks of color have ever encountered...

Now...this offends me on so may levels, I can't even begin to tell you:):):)...

First, of all...TYPICALLY...not always...but TYPICALLY...I have often studied and more fully appreciated the culture of many if not most of my friends of color than they have of their own...

I can, typically, recall names of important native authors that most of my native friends are unaware of...I, generally, know more about the civil rights movement than most of my black friends...I'm usually more versed on matters around immigration and other matters pertaining to hispanics...and in developing countries -- like my teaching experiences in Mexico -- than my hispanic friends can:)...

And I listen...and I constantly absorb and seek to learn new information and understandings and wisdom from a million different people and a million different cultures:):):)...

I've done civil rights and race dialogue and anti-racism work for much of my life...and I know more about civil rights and have worked on it longer than most of my friends of color have done, sometimes combined, defending on the composition of the group or the room...

And the bullshit around this is that racism is wrong no matter who it comes from...people of color...people not of color...whoever the fuck is involved...

And much of the work that I did in race dialogues was to assert this need for white folks to be treated as equals in such conversations as much as people of color...which...on a university campus...was a needed reminder...

I've now had two important encounters with people of color at my work where they have used race cards to try to bully and intimidate their way through work...too often to just avoid it, unfortunately...other times, like today, to just beat up on me because they were feeling shitty, for whatever reasons...

And I get tired of it really quickly...

Especially when I have worked so hard my entire life, really, to create a greater awareness, understanding, and appreciation of others of various cultures, races, religions, genders, sexual orientations, nationalities, educations, backgrounds, professions...and whatever the fuck differences people have between them, really...

And sometimes I have more patience for the bullshit...

But today I didn't...

I guess because I've been dealing with this same bullshit from the same person for a month now...and at some point, you'd think that this son-of-a-bitch would get a clue that WHITE PEOPLE DON'T LIKE RACISM ANY MORE THAN PEOPLE OF COLOR DO...

But I suppose that I will have to say something more directly about it tomorrow...or whenever I talk with this friend...

I also have to say that wherever the hall monitors of political correctness keep their pencils pinned behind their buns and stuffed in their pocket protectors...

I will be defying them:):):)...as nicely...and a sensitively...and as decently as I perpetually can:):):)...

As I've said before on my tripod blog:)...

Building a Better World

...thank you very much, friendly police occifer:):):)...but I think I'll pass on the sanctions on my free expression, thank you very much:):):):):):):)...

If there's one thing people should have figured out by now with me...it is that I am not easily silenced:):):)...and anytime where you might find a temporary manipulation:):):)...I WILL FIND MY OUT OF IT:):):):):):)...

Guaranteed:):):)...

Which is why I want my friend to have the freedom to even say racist shit:):):):):):)...because we all need the freedom to just be ourselves:):):)...and to not have to be something for someone because it makes it look better than we are:):):)...

And...so:):):)...for that reason:):):)...I really appreciate this person:):):) (when I speak positive things about folks -- like when they've got a good thing going, Melissa:):):) -- I'll share their names:):):)...and when I speak shit negative on people on my blog -- where people can get sensitive about how their talked about where lots of people can read about what shitheads they're being:):):) -- then I'll try to write more discreetly:):):)...

I do this as a favor, by the way...for more fragile folks:):):)...it is not your or my right not to have shit talked on us:):):)...it is somerthing I do to care for the all-too-fragile feelings of friends and family:):):)...

But don't push me on it...

Have a good everyone:):):)...

Love,
Ben