Cold as a witchs t*&…

Well On Thursday the 22nd (Thanksgiving) I went over to the “Run for hunger“  Here is a few thoughts as I drove over to the race and standing around before the race…..Well it was 17 degrees outside when I was driving over to the park where the race was being started and ended in.  The ground was covered with frost. 

• Wondered if I could run without a hat…
• Thankful I had bought 99 cent gloves the day before….
• Wishing I had a head cover…The coldest part of my body was my neck
• The lines seemed really disorganized at registration…
• 4 porta potties for a race that expected 700+ runners…..PLEASE

It was extremely cold and I ran poor in the 17 degree weather…On to the next race…

How Old was I????

As I am sure you might have seen I am reading a book currently about racism and specifically racism in the childhood.  It is called Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?”: A Psychologist Explains the Development of Racial Identity.  I only end up reading 10-15 pages a day since I leave the book at work and grab a few pages at lunch ect.  As I see something interesting I highlight and write notes in the margins…

I ran across a few interesting thoughts in it so far though.  Here is a question I read the other day….”How old were you when you realized skin color?”.  You know, when was the first time you noticed that someone had a different skin color then yours. 

 I remember being in about 5 years old.  I noticed one kid had darker skin then I did.  I don’t remember how I discovered that he was Mexican but I do remember wanting to be Mexican because he was really nice kid and everyone liked him. 

I remeber later on (still as a little boy) being afraid of a guy (older adult) because he was Native American, I knew him as Indian then.  I was afraid he would scalpe me like the Indians did to the cowboys on tv.  It is interesting how playing Cowboys and Indians had an effect on me as a young boy.

 So how old where you?  What is your first memory.

Is Racism Ever Justified

So let me say before I get going that this blog is kind of stolen?  I was reading http://mattandharry.wordpress.com blog and it got me thinking about this topic a great deal.  You can see my comments on that blog as well on a simliar topic.  Needless to say I want to give them credit for a great topic that made me think and encouraged me to write about on this page.  Please go read their blog.

 WHEN IS RACISM JUSTIFIED?

~I knew a man who was racist against people from
Vietnam.  He openly admitted it but justified it to himself and others with the fact that he fought in the Vietnam War.  He claimed his feeling where hardened and changed when he was shot at and had buddies killed in
Vietnam.

~I have a co-worker who hates people from India and
Pakistan because he has lost two jobs to contractors from those nations or had his job outsourced to those nations.

So can they justify it….

I don’t think it is justified simply for the reason that you are making a blanket assumption on an entire group of people rather then judging them individually.  I graduated from Idaho State University (hence ISUALUM), I would hope that if I applied for a job that I wouldn’t be turned down for that job because the last lazy guy that worked in that position and was let go was a graduate of ISU.  It is at the root the same logic.  Connecting two dots and then turning it into a blanked statement.  He was lazy and from ISU, there for all people from ISU must be lazy.  He is from Vietnam and tried killing me, there for all people from
Vietnam must want to kill me.  It is a standard leep in logic…I have never been shot at but I would hope afterwards I would still feel the same.I welcome all comments on this and I still encourage you to visit http://mattandharry.wordpress.com