Sole Morality

The sting of discrimination

This article is from a couple months ago. Truthfully, I couldn't help but find some irony in this bit from the Oregon Department of Transportation. From the article:

A $30 million project to add a lane to Highway 217 in Washington County is the first to include requirements for hiring African-American and Asian-American contractors. In years past, ODOT did not specify which minority groups needed to receive state contracts.

“If you’re a minority, you’re a minority. There’s no classifications,” said Gene Nelson, owner of Forest Grove-based Sundown Electric Co., a Native American-owned electrical contractor specializing in highway construction projects. “We are now a minority that is being discriminated against.”

For me, the big irony here is the loud protests of minority preferential treatment from someone who has probably been receiving government contact work over others based solely on his minority status. Perhaps Gene Nelson now understands a bit about how many non-minority owned/run businesses feel when they are passed over for jobs based not on the merits of their work or the bid price that they submitted, but on the color of their skin.

The majority of blacks feel that with the election of President Obama, Martin Luther King's dream has been fulfilled. I'm not sure that what the Oregon DOT is doing right now is quite in line with his dream that his "children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

I'm of the opinion that Dr. King's dreams will more fully be realized when our government hires contractors based on who can do the job quickest, cheapest, and best, not based on the color of their skin. His dream won't be reality until Gene Nelson's comment of "there's no classifications" applies to all US citizens and not just minorities.

Racists, Racists, Everywhere!

I oppose racism. To clarify, I don't believe that any one person is smarter, holier, more favored or anything else because of skin color. I believe that racism is wrong. I have friends and acquaintances of various races and enjoy their company, value their input, and generally like them immensely. Now, with that out of the way, I'd like to make a few observations about racism.

Broadly and generally speaking, I see the battle against racism as having tiered results. The first and most basic was policies and social rules that dictate tolerance towards those of other races or a curbing of racist behavior. Tolerance has lead to a demand for acceptance or a push to eliminate prejudiced thoughts and beliefs. Acceptance has begotten an expectation of sensitivity to racism or, in other words, you are expected to be on the lookout for racism in all its forms, everywhere you go. And anytime that sensitivity is demanded, hypersensitivity isn't far behind.

Hypersensitivity is often used as a humorous device in entertainment. The first example that jumps to mind is in an episode of the sitcom Seinfeld where Kramer refuses to wear a red ribbon during an AIDS walk and everyone mobs him since you can't actually be against AIDS if you don't wear the ribbon. He's on the AIDS walk, yet instead of seeing a man there supporting the cause by walking, they choose to get offended that he won't wear a red ribbon.

The sad fact is that hypersensitivity like that exists in the real world. Don't believe me?

Prime example: The Colusa County display on their seed producing crops (a $30 million/year source of revenue) that was featured at the California State Fair.

The display contained caricatures of the various seeds of Colusa County. Those seeds included tomato, cucumber, pumpkin, and watermelon seeds. The display was drawn by residents of Colusa County's juvenile hall, Fout Springs Boys Correctional Facility.

Along comes Veronica Thrasher and her husband who immediately took offense at the depiction and called it racist. Or, at least the depiction of the watermelon seed. The drawing of a smiling watermelon seed is obviously racist (ignore the fact that watermelon seeds are actually. . .well. . .black). It didn't matter that the drawings were done in a facility where the population is 40% Hispanic and 40% African American. No, Thrasher objected because it was obvious that if the residents of the facility ". . .had the benefit of a black history class" that showed images depicting African Americans "as a happy black slave eating watermelon," Thrasher said, ". . .they might have drawn Waldo Watermelon Seed a little differently."

So let me see if I understand the reasoning here. First of all, because the seed is black in color, any personification of the seed must consequently be categorized as African American. It can't just be a seed that is smiling? And then, even if we accept the first, no black person can ever be depicted as enjoying watermelon because a couple of black slaves over a hundred years ago enjoyed a watermelon?

Black slaves are often depicted as shirtless. Does that mean that every black guy on the skins side of a shirts and skins basketball game is racist? Black slaves are often shown working in agriculture. Does that mean that every farmer who's black or who employ's black workers is now racist? Maybe they wouldn't go shirtless or work the fields if they had seen an image depicting slaves that way because then they would understand that doing so is racist.

That, or maybe some people are looking a bit too hard for racism. In the picture below, do you see anyone being harmed, threatened, or intimidated? Was someone or some group of people demeaned or insulted in this drawing? Do you see any of that?