It’s not often that I want to punch people for being stupid. Laugh at them, yes. It amuses me to see people making ignorant assumptions. Typically, while I am happy to educate or discuss an issue, there is one things I will not tolerate. It’s pretty much the one thing that is bound to set off a Heathen almost as bad as killing one of his family or insulting the gods.

That’s calling one of us a racist when he isn’t. This time, that was me.

Now, this isn’t the first time it’s happened. It happened a couple times on the Wild Hunt back in the day, though that got cleared up with I explained that a) didn’t know the dude was black and b) i meant he could move to canada or england or somewhere if he found America so detestable. (Personally, I’m thinking of moving to canada, mostly because I’ve seen reports of some of the stuff going on and the violations of civil rights happening.) In the end, everyone went home happy. ish. But it was known far and wide once again that I was not, in fact, a racist. And these were the opinions of people I really didn’t even care about.

It’s different when someone you respect professionally does it and gangs up on you with their friends. I am not going to name names, because I respect people’s privacy. If they want to get involved in it, that’s fine, they can message me personally or they can take the way out of doing it in the comments here.

It’s even worse when they do it not because you’re actually a racist, but because you’re white and dare to raise a differing opinion to someone else’s racially motivated rants. Then calmly and logically point out the histories of different peoples to draw similar points of conclusion, none of which have racial motivations, and are backed up by hard history.

But, according this person and their friends, a gay white hobo is “privileged” compared to any black person, regardless of economic or political success, just because that hobo is white. In which case that story I found about the black city council woman blaming the Jews for the Knockout game is perfectly correct. Clearly, the Jews, with their history of being slaughtered by everyone, is privileged and responsible for black criminal behavior.

Let me be honest with you folks. I’m not a racist. I’m not even an ethnitist. I could say that some of the coolest people and teachers I’ve had were/are black, but that would be disingenuous, because to me they aren’t black, they Human Beings. People. I don’t care what they look like or where they come from. Skin means nothing. Where you come from is cool, but it doesn’t have to define you as a person or make you any better or worse. It’s not going to change if I like you or not. It’s a place on a map.

Because here’s my thing. If you really wanted to break me down into all the little “catagories” i am i’d probably look like a multi-personalitied-at-least-one-of-whom-is-a-transgender-lesbian-in-a-man’s-body-who-decided-to-roll-with-it-polythiestic-heathen-scandinavian-american. Or you could just see me for what I like to be seen. A person. A Human being. No labels, no hate, no throwing me into little categories so you can make yourself feel like you’re a better person than me because of my sexual orientations, my genders, ethnicity, “race,” or what have you.

Or maybe that does make me a racist. Because I don’t see people as some arbitrarily created group, that means I must hate people of a different group than my own arbitrarily created group that I didn’t pick out. I don’t care about race, must mean I’m a racist. I suppose next the fact that I don’t care about a person’s gender means i’m homo-transphobic or something. I don’t care about a person’s wealth when I get to know them, clearly I’m a classist mother fucker.

What’s next people, I don’t care if my peas get mixed in with my mashed potatoes? DOES THAT MEAN i HATE VEGGIES!!!!!?

-sigh-

I mean really. People who know me personally know I don’t give a crap about a person’s race. I thought I could expect the same knowledge and understanding in professional circles too, but I guess not. Or maybe I can an this is just one person and their friends, and I can expect better from people. I hope so. I hate it when people’s political beliefs define how they see everyone and everything.

Or maybe all those people running around saying belief makes you stupid are right. Maybe I’m stupid for believing a world and myself that doesn’t see people divided up into racial or ethnic lines. Maybe people’s belief in things like privilege and race makes them so caught up in that world that they stupidly can’t see one without it, and can’t see that some people are innocent of the crimes they accuse. I don’t know, I just honestly don’t know.

I think Jim Butcher said it best. “It’s not evil we have to fear, but stupidity.”

Anyways, sorry for ranting and taking people’s time. I know you all have better things to do, but if you read this all, you have my thanks.

Gods Bless.