Diversity Training
Tomorrow I have a diversity training class that will last all day long...assuming no fights break out. Of course I'm kidding about the fights. Everybody that goes to these classes is always on their best behavior. It'll be a love-fest, I'm sure.
I ran across an interesting website today...Stuff White People Like. One of the interesting things about racism is that you can't even be self-deprecating about your own race without someone dragging another race into it. Probably because in order to exhibit the oddities of your own personal race, you must point out that they are different from those of another race. Once you do that, someone of the other race works themselves into a lather explaining that they do it, too, and you're a racist because you have excluded them.
The other day I had someone tell me that when they first moved to the south in 1973, they were confused by the fact that their house had a doorbell at the back door. That is, until someone told them that it was the "colored entrance". He continued that, "in the South blacks had to go to the back door while white people went in the front door." I think I offended him when I laughed out loud at this explanation. First, if you are so racist that you require blacks to go to the back door, you probably wouldn't give them the luxury of a doorbell. Before you say anything, yes...where I grew up a doorbell was a luxury and almost considered "uppity". And no matter the color, one thing a kid didn't do was ring a doorbell. Unless you were expected or selling something, you hung out in the driveway until somebody noticed you or you yelled for them. Second, who the hell goes to the front door? I thought about it and realized that for virtually my entire life I've always gone to the back door whenever visiting anyone that I knew. Third, many people have a dog in the back yard (insert your own racist remark here if you must) and it will either get out, bite you or both, none of which anyone of any color desires to be a party to.
Granted, when I was growing up everybody that visited us came to the front door. Probably because there was too much junk in the carport to get to the side door and there wasn't a sidewalk to the back door. We also went to the front door of my grandparents house because it was a lot closer to the driveway and they didn't have a rear sidewalk, either. Everybody else that I ever visited I went to the back or side door. Today, I have a doorbell at the front and back door. There are, of course, two different chime tones, one for each door. Whenever I hear the front doorbell chime, I say, "Oh shit, Jehovah's Witnesses." Now, thanks to my friend, whenever I hear the back door chime, I say, "Honey, our black friends are here! Hide your purse."
I'll let you know if the diversity class "takes" or not.
I ran across an interesting website today...Stuff White People Like. One of the interesting things about racism is that you can't even be self-deprecating about your own race without someone dragging another race into it. Probably because in order to exhibit the oddities of your own personal race, you must point out that they are different from those of another race. Once you do that, someone of the other race works themselves into a lather explaining that they do it, too, and you're a racist because you have excluded them.
The other day I had someone tell me that when they first moved to the south in 1973, they were confused by the fact that their house had a doorbell at the back door. That is, until someone told them that it was the "colored entrance". He continued that, "in the South blacks had to go to the back door while white people went in the front door." I think I offended him when I laughed out loud at this explanation. First, if you are so racist that you require blacks to go to the back door, you probably wouldn't give them the luxury of a doorbell. Before you say anything, yes...where I grew up a doorbell was a luxury and almost considered "uppity". And no matter the color, one thing a kid didn't do was ring a doorbell. Unless you were expected or selling something, you hung out in the driveway until somebody noticed you or you yelled for them. Second, who the hell goes to the front door? I thought about it and realized that for virtually my entire life I've always gone to the back door whenever visiting anyone that I knew. Third, many people have a dog in the back yard (insert your own racist remark here if you must) and it will either get out, bite you or both, none of which anyone of any color desires to be a party to.
Granted, when I was growing up everybody that visited us came to the front door. Probably because there was too much junk in the carport to get to the side door and there wasn't a sidewalk to the back door. We also went to the front door of my grandparents house because it was a lot closer to the driveway and they didn't have a rear sidewalk, either. Everybody else that I ever visited I went to the back or side door. Today, I have a doorbell at the front and back door. There are, of course, two different chime tones, one for each door. Whenever I hear the front doorbell chime, I say, "Oh shit, Jehovah's Witnesses." Now, thanks to my friend, whenever I hear the back door chime, I say, "Honey, our black friends are here! Hide your purse."
I'll let you know if the diversity class "takes" or not.
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