My mom sent me this email today that made me want to puke. You may have seen this before. It was sent to her by a friend. It had been forwarded several times and due to poor email etiquette it afforded me the opportunity to stand on a soapbox much like I do here, but to a very different audience - one that has never heard me or heard of me before. Perhaps it will make a difference, perhaps not, but not for lack of effort on my part. If you ever have the need for any anti-hate verbiage feel free to borrow.. Trust me, I won't mind.
This was sent to me and I thought it was interesting and mostly true!
Michael Richards makes his point...and whether we like it or not, he is telling the truth.Michael Richards better known as Kramer from TVs Seinfeld does make a good point. This was his defense speech in court after making racial comments in his comedy act. He makes some very interesting points...
Someone finally said it. How many are actually paying attention to this? There are African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, Arab Americans, etc. And then there are just Americans.. You pass me on the street and sneer in my direction. You call me 'White boy,' 'Cracker,' 'Honkey,' 'Whitey,' 'Caveman'... And that's OK... But when I call you, Nigger, Kike, Towel head, Sand-nigger, Camel Jockey, Beaner, Gook, or Chink .. You call me a racist. You say that whites commit a lot of violence against you.... So why are the ghettos the most dangerous places to live? You have the United Negro College Fund. You have Martin Luther King Day. You have Black History Month. You have Cesar Chavez Day. You have Yom Hashoah. You have Ma'uled Al-Nabi. You have the NAACP. You have BET.... If we had WET (White Entertainment Television), we'd be racists. If we had a White Pride Day, you would call us racists. If we had White History Month, we'd be racists. If we had any organization for only whites to 'advance' OUR lives, we'd be racists. We have a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a Black Chamber of Commerce, and then we just have the plain Chamber of Commerce. Wonder who pays for that?? A white woman could not be in the Miss Black American pageant, but any color can be in the Miss America pageant. If we had a college fund that only gave white students scholarships... You know we'd be racists. There are over 60 openly proclaimed Black Colleges in the US .. Yet if there were 'White colleges', that would be a racist college. In the Million Man March, you believed that you were marching for your race and rights. If we marched for our race and rights, you would call us racists. You are proud to be black, brown, yellow and orange, and you're not afraid to announce it. But when we announce our white pride, you call us racists. You rob us, car jack us, and shoot at us. But, when a white police officer shoots a black gang member or beats up a black drug dealer running from the law and posing a threat to society, you call him a racist.
I am proud...... But you call me a racist. Why is it that only whites can be racists?? There is nothing improper about this e-mail.. Let's see which of you are proud enough to send it on. I sadly don't think many will. That's why we have LOST most of OUR RIGHTS in this country. We won't stand up for ourselves! BE PROUD TO BE WHITE! It's not a crime YET.... But getting very close! It is estimated that ONLY 5% of those reaching this point in this e-mail, will pass it on. I DID!!
I could have just replied to my mom about what brainless bone heads these propagators were to forward such ridiculousness but I decided to take some time and speak to them....
Dear Mom,
I have seen this racist shenanigans before and it never ceases to amaze me how anyone could buy into it and so easily be persuaded to continue propagating this type of hate trash and deceit. It is so very offensive to me and the work I do with the County on the Diversity Commission, with the local Diversity Education Consortium, the Diversity Institute, local Jewish Federation, NAACP, PRIDE and the Latino community here.
Here's my answer and I'm copying everyone who it was sent to since the forwarders were so generous exposing everyone's emails. At least the original sender had the sense not to disclose his recipients - though his judgment in wasting internet bandwidth was extremely poor..
First of all, according to the Internet leader in myth debunking, snopes.com -
This bit of racial demagogy was not something offered as a defense in court by comedian Michael Richards (best known for his portrayal of Cosmo Kramer in the long-running Seinfeld television series)after he was caught on tape engaging in a prolonged racial tirade in an appearance at the Laugh Factory comedy club in West Hollywood. This item is simply a version of an anonymous "Proud to Be White" screed, to which Richards' name was added after he gained infamy for his comedy club outburst. However, the item in question had appeared on the Internet long before that incident, and Richards' name was appended to it after the fact.
It's a lie, a white hate speech attributed to Michael Richards... People should learn to be fact checkers.... After all, we don't have to go to the library anymore.
Nonetheless, maybe on the surface it sounds like it makes sense to some people. But I think it's because they are so quick to just pass things on (chain email is spam) and they're not really very analytical at all. There is also a big element of ignorance involved.
Maybe some people don't know, but there are German, Italian, Irish, Jewish, Asian, etc. Chambers of Commerce in the US. So, to ask why there is a Hispanic Chamber is ridiculous.
There is Susan B. Anthony Day (we know she was white), a great leader in the movement for women's right to vote. So, why shouldn't there be a Martin Luther King day? Someone needed to get people off the back of the bus just like she helped make sure you and I can vote. Just because slavery was abolished it didn't make people equal. It makes me sad when I hear people say "if you don't like it here go back to Africa" about people whose families were kidnapped, torn apart and shipped here. They deserve reparations in my opinion. My educated guess is that the families of most if not all of the people reading and passing came here voluntarily.
White people did horrible things to Native Americans in North, Central and South America and the Caribbean and governments have provided them protection and assistance - though not good enough. Jews suffered horrible things and the world body recognized they needed protection so they were given a country so they could be safe and not have to deal with the persecution. Any Jew that wants to live there can and they will pay your way to bring you there. But, we as a nation cannot afford to pay reparations to the 12% black US population - it would completely bankrupt us. So the government made laws to protect and promote equality and ensure it. But it doesn't stop people from being ignorant.
The reason there is no white pride day is because white is the norm and WASP's haven't suffered persecution ever. They don't have to have their own isolated parties because they are the mainstream and all the parties, and in fact the country, belong to them. It's the reason there is a gay pride day, a day when they can have a party just being who they are and not having to worry they'll get strange looks or be treated like second class citizens.
If white people would treat everyone else the same as they treat each other without government imposed regulations, there wouldn't be a need for any of this.
Within the euro-American population there are cultural and heritage celebrations all the time. Oktoberfest, St. Patrick's Day, Columbus Day, Polish-American Heritage Month, Italian-American Heritage Month, it goes on and on. But, when it's Black History Month or Hispanic Heritage Month - it's wrong... That's wrong.
It's only a very ignorant person that asks the question why we don't have a WET. Minorities weren't until fairly recently even on TV, so they started their own.. It's not rocket science. The same for record labels and print media. Do people seriously not know this and still live in a cave?
Why don't whites have an association for their advancement like the NAACP? Oh, there is... it is the NAAWP. Does the name David Duke ring any bells?
There are no black colleges or white colleges any longer, although the label still exists for traditionally black colleges. Black colleges were established at the end of the 1800s early 1900's to provide collegiate education to African Americans in America, because African Americans were not allowed to attend traditional white colleges at that time. There are people of all races at most colleges, even those considered traditionally black colleges. In fact, Morehouse college just graduated the first white valedictorian last year... not the first white student, there have been many. Most things that carry the designation of being for black people, arose out of segregation imposed by white people in the country, not because the black people sought to exclude the white people. If people want to be upset at the existence of black colleges, they should be upset at the social atmosphere that made such an institution necessary.
To the comment "If we had a college fund that only gave white students scholarships... You know we'd be racists. Here is a partial list. <-- More cave dwellers.
Euro descendant white people tend to define themselves by their ethnicity. Blacks can't really do that because their ancestors were ripped from the African continent and there is no record in most cases which of the countries they came from so they are defined by their color or the term African-American.
By the way - how many hundreds of years does it take to stop saying you're Italian, Irish, German, Polish, English, etc.? The last known person to be born a slave died fairly recently in history in 1948, after a good portion of people reading this were born. You tell me how long it takes for a community or people to just "get over it already".
It isn't only whites that can be racist. Are people that lame to think people of other races aren't people with the same nasty ignorant habits?
I could go on and on and address the issues of inner city violence, ghettos, beauty pageants (completely demeaning to ALL women regardless of color) and all the other ignorant racist rhetoric.. but I'll stop here because:
I estimate that only 1% of those reaching this point in this e-mail, will pass it on (I couldn't resist).
By the way: It would be in everyone's best interest to learn to use the Bcc email function. It reduces the risk of being sent spam - and I regard racist trash spam. I used it on this email to protect the identity of everyone who received it and even those who were responsible for sending it... I see who they were and don't think much of them but I won't subject them to having their email exposed.
People would be better off playing Farmville on Facebook than passing on garbage like this.
Love,
Sissy XXXOOO
Karla Porter
http://karlaporter.com
570.592.8378
P.S Thanks to the Ontario Women's Directorate for the fancy clip art
Leave a Reply