Alright, I gotta get on here because bashing many for the actions of a few seems to be the trendy thing to do now. And recently, this trend seems centered like a magnifying glass on minoriites, and what certain ones do.
Let me explain something to all you people that want to come on here and write your "outraged" articles and rants about how minorities cry racism and can bring lawsuits for everything and are now getting better treatment because of what they went through in the past: YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT OUTRAGE IS.
Outrage is what I, and a majority of the minority population of this nation, feel when we read the same stories that you do.
Because when you turn on the news, or buy a newspaper, and read about a minority claiming he/she was discriminated against, or suing for bad treatment that they claim was racially motivated, you see an argument, an anecdote, a point that you can make. You see a story that you can read and be angry at. You see an example of reprehensible actions. Then, you are done with it. You can leave it alone and go on with your life. It does not have to affect you. You allow it to.
You want to know what I see when I read those stories? I see a beam coming down straight across my back. I see a sword coming for my head. I am Sysiphus, and I see that Goddamn rock slipping down the hill for the 2569405th time.
Because when I see that some woman has accused an elementary school of "setting up" her child, I can't be angry and be done with it. I can't sit back and call her an idiot and go on with my life the way it was, because she has cast a shadow on me. Every year that I have walked, trying to find sunlight and fertility and hope, this fool has eradicated with one sentence. One specific set of words out of this idiot's mouth, and all of a sudden the minorities are playing the race card again, because that's what they do. And I have another 100 miles to walk.
You think you get upset when you hear Jesse Jackson open his mouth? You don't know what upset is. Upset is what happens when you realize the percentage of people that think he speaks for you.
Upset is what happens when you realize that what you see as an idiot trying to sue Wendy's for millions of dollars is seen by everyone else as a Hispanic idiot trying to sue Wendy's for millions of dollars.
Upset is what happens when some idiot afraid of her marriage tells the police that she was kidnapped by a Hispanic man, or when a mother tired of her children tells them that a Black guy killed them.
That's when upset starts.
You read the stories too, and you think that it's not right, but you have never been angry like I have. You have never been angry like the minorities involved have. Because these stories come back to us. They never leave. They inhabit us. They stain us. They tattoo us.
They stay in the back of your mind, and maybe you let them go and don't think about them, but when you see us you remember. Maybe it's only for a split second, and maybe you shake your head, and maybe you give us the benefit of the doubt because you know that not all minorities are like that. But the thought is there, and without you thinking, before you catch yourself, its what springs forth.
It's the woman that instinctively clutches her handbag when a friend of mine approaches; He just wanted to know the time.
It's the man that crosses to the other side of the street when he sees a group of us approaching; We're on our way home from tutoring second graders.
It's the police officer who stops me from walking through an alley; I am less than a block from my house.
You have never been angry like I have. You don't know what it is to feel rage. Because rage is what sets in when you realize something:
A white person who does something stupid is a person who is stupid. An idiot. Just another idiot. A minority who does something stupid is a minority who did something stupid. A minority idiot. Just another minority idiot.
That is rage.
Rage is knowing that I am a minority, and so I am not free to be stupid.