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The R word

Thursday, May. 13, 2004 @ 10:31 a.m.

The views expressed in this entry are those of the author and are not intended to represent anything other than the annoying, opinionated (but still nice, cute and adorable) nature that is him. Welcome to Planet Narcissist, heh! :)

Leave it to America to redefine terms as they deem fit and convenient to their use. Just as "Freeing the Iraqi people" was redefined as "the unwanted and unneeded massacre of thousands of people", and "mission accomplished" means "we toppled over the Saddam statue".

No, my latest gripe isn't political, I've already ranted about that in another entry. This one came to me after watching "American Idol" last night. Once again, a huge controversy is brewing, not so much because the two best singers received the least votes, but mainly because they were - brace yourselves - black. Oooooooh! *Roaring thunder and flashes of lightning*

I was immensely amused by some of the posts I read in the American Idol message boards - there are some *really* idiotic, prepubescent people out there. A lot of them were expecting Jasmine to go last night, but she ended up getting the most votes. And there were people saying that America was racist because they booted off the black diva instead of the weaker Asian singer. Back to my point about redefining terms: "Racism" doesn't mean "Discrimination or prejudice based on race" anymore, as defined in the dictionary. At least, not in America. It's now been unofficially redefined as "Discrimination or prejudice targeted specifically towards African Americans". If a black person is on the receiving end of that boot, it's racism. It's not racism if it's any other minorities like Asian or Latino, even if they might be even smaller minority groups. We'd have to come up with a new term for those, now that the generic term has been given an all-American make-over.

I was also seriously pissed off by American Idol judge Randy Jackson's comments on the Fox 11 news last night. When asked if he thought the voting controversy was a racist phenomenon, he answered, "Man, I dunno man... I mean, those two girls were black, so... yeah, I dunno man." Jasmine is Asian, she's a minority too. Diana is mixed, so she's not white, and she probably constitutes as a minority too. So what made last night's elimination more racist than any other possible outcomes? And why was it NOT racist when 2 of the 4 finalists (that's the MAJORITY) were black? Hmmm.

I believe in racial equality. I believe very strongly in non-discrimination based on everything, be it race, sex, color, sexual-orientation or choice of deodorant. But I also believe that this rampant use of the word "racist" when it pertains particularly to African Americans is an abuse of that equality status. It's become so much of an over-compensation these days that even if 11 of the 12 finalists on "American Idol" were black, and a black person got voted off, there would still be protests of racism. It's become so much of a reflex knee-jerk reaction that "RACIST!" has become the national African American excuse for everything from genuine personal flaws to even pure statistical chance. Let's say a person has a gun. He drops it, and it misfires off into a crowd. It hits a black person. What do you hear? Yep. That ugly R word. If it hits any other minorities or a white person, what do you hear? "It was an accident".

So given all the societal taboos we have today, the MOST powerful individual would actually be a black, lesbian woman, just because she can yell "racist", "homophobe", and "sexist", and everything would turn right around for her in the name of "equality". So in a sense, the victims of racism aren't the racial minorities anymore - it's everyone else.

Those people in the "American Idol" forums should really get an education. In the first place, those kids shouldn't probably be even allowed to participate because by the time "American Idol" is over, it's gonna be past their bed time.

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