Equality?

Before I launch into this, let me preface this by saying no, I am not racist. But then of course I'm pretty sure even the most racist people in the world would deny being so. Does Al Sharpton concede to being racist? I doubt it. Is he racist? Absolutely.

That being said, I was having a discussion with the Handsome JC today about the state of entitlement that this country seems to have settled on. At this point I don't believe it is any particular race or sexual orientation that has decided they are owed the world. It is more like an entire generation that has settled upon that attitude in life. We raised our children as spoiled little brats, if they mess up then it must be someone else's fault. So why should we be surprised when they have that attitude as adults? I have found that the hardest lesson to instill into my children's hard heads is that when they mess up it is THEIR fault, not the person next door. I keep telling them that we all make mistakes, but it is what we do with ourselves after that mistake is made that defines where we go in life. Do we learn from it? Do we move on from it and take the steps necessary to insure that mistake never happens again or do we blame someone else and continue on with the same old mistakes?

I live in the south where 150 years ago black individuals were kept as slaves. As a country mistakes were made, but from what I can see the country has really gone above and beyond what is necessary to make amends for that. Affirmative action anyone? But now I see that living in the south black Americans (I say black Americans because unless they actually are from Africa, they aren't freaking African in my opinion) have a sense of self entitlement. Their great great grandparents were slaves so white Americans MUST pay the price. But when does the paying stop? How long is society to pay for mistakes made 150 years ago? Minorities today have the same opportunities that everyone has, i.e., go to university and improve your life. Work for what you want/need as opposed to expecting it to be given free and clear. I was wondering the other day that at that point in the future when white Americans become the minority, will we be afforded the same preferential treatment. Will affirmative action be available to us? Will we be allowed to have white pride parades? Will we have scholarships to universities based solely on the fact that we are white? Would we have White Entertainment Television (WET) stations? Would we even want that? I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want that, but I would like for the preferential treatment of races and sexual orientation to stop.

As individuals we are what we are. We are born into families that do right by us or we don't. Every single person on the face of the earth has baggage to deal with. Deal with it and move on and attempt to improve your life rather than blaming it on the fact that you are black/hispanic/gay and the white/straight man is keeping you down. It is not my fault, or the guy next door's fault, your ex-husband/wife's fault, or your Uncle Albert's fault that you aren't going where you want in life.. it is your fault.

That is my rant for the day. That is just what is going through my mind.

Black/Hispanic/Gay Pride? Sorry, but that just seems all outdated and silly. American pride? There you go, maybe we should all just settle on that and move on from the inequality bullshit. I think everyone would benefit from that.