Political Racism

<political rant>
When I was 20, I was living in Boston. I was in a conversation with someone and I said a phrase that I had heard or said much of my life up to that point. Considering I was in this conversation with a charming black woman, my gray matter pushed out to me almost immediately how racist what I just said was. I did a lot of soul searching after that point, realizing how stupid racist remarks had made their way into my lexicon. This was the first environment where I wasn’t dealing with 99.8% white people. I had to learn to check my mouth because I didn’t want to be a jerk. It didn’t stop me from being one, I just didn’t want to be one.

So our president, in the given context, said an incredibly racist thing. Maybe he didn’t realize how bad it was, as he isn’t very self-aware. Heck, growing up, I said the same thing. (see above for my repentance.) Ok. Let’s give him a benefit of a doubt. It is still a completely un-American thing to say. We are a country of immigrants. We all came from somewhere else (even Native Americans). My own heritage is of German refugees. Our constitution has qualifications for serving in our government of the people. The women he criticized all qualified and were elected by their fellow Americans. The fact that they want the country to go in a different direction does not qualify for them for an “un-American” status. They can advocate for anything they want. Our constitution says they can. They can be communist, socialist, centrist, liberal, conservative, libertarian, anarchist or advocate for better social networks, tax-free corporations, nudist parks, Amish construction standards…any damned thing they want. This is America. They are doing fine where they are.

I sit at work with my team. Seven people, all from a different country than where they work. My manager is Indian. His manager is Chinese. Hers is Indian. I feel incredibly blessed to work with such a diverse and good set of people. My children are of three different races.  They are wonderful people and as American as I am.

Telling people to “go back where they came from” is entirely missing the point of this country. I wish our country’s motto would return to “E Pluribus Unum”, because we seem to forget that.

</political rant>