Racist Houston, Racist America

For a good long while now, it’s been freaking me out that Houston’s Craigslist Rants & Raves seem way, WAY more racist than those of other American cities. Also, our Houston Chronicle is littered with more racist/conservative/hateful commentary than other online papers I’ve read.

And I wonder why, and I come up with various theories (uh… Houston is a port town and more of a melting pot than other cities and therefore on the cutting edge of race-relationships exploration… uh…) but, in the end, it just makes me sad and ashamed, and I wonder if I should go live somewhere else.

Racism fascinates me, though. Maybe because I’m of mixed ethnicity and have seen a lot of it from alternate sides, it always has amused and interested me. I like to read honest, anonymous, insane racist commentary and use it to draw thumbnail pics of what’s going on in the world.

Here is a recent, racist rant on Houston Craigslist that’s stuck in my head lately. If you’re too tired to click, I’ll summarize and say that it’s about a white person who is upset that Rucci’s (a taqueria in a trendy neighborhood) is full of Mexican employees and patrons who don’t give white people preferential treatment.

This post touches my heart because it reveals what’s going on a lot lately around these parts. That is: Racist white people are afraid, because the Latino population is growing so quickly. Racist white people know that they’re the minority here, now, and they don’t want to be treated the way they’ve always treated non-whites.

Sob.

I mean, that’s a dynamic that’s been happening in America for a long time, anyway, but now I see the very specific, anti-Mexican manifestation of it here in my hometown. It’s pathetic, but kind of amusing, too. Especially in the case of that post. My friends and I don’t go to Rucci’s anymore because, last time we were there, some stupid-ass white people tried to start a fight with us. There were ten of us and three of them–one guy and two blondes with implants–and the reason for the argument was very stupid. The blondes kept parading around our table in their skimpy outfits, and one of the women at our table made a disparaging remark about them, so the two blondes went to their male friend and demanded that he defend their honor. And the lone guy walked up to our table and randomly picked the lightest-skinned of our men to start shit with, and our light-skinned friend didn’t know what the issue was, but he was willing to beat this guy’s ass just for the fun of it. And some of us tried to reason with the guy and send him back to his blondes, but he was hell-bent on impressing them by getting his ass beat, I guess. And the (Mexican) security guards eventually came over and made everybody chill.

And it was funny, and pathetic, and we often reminisce about it and wonder if the guy ever got any sex for his foolish trouble. But, at the same time, we don’t go to Rucci’s anymore because, obviously, trashy people eat there. Trashy white people who start fights, over nothing but the hope of rutting with each other at 2 AM.

I guess it’s probably difficult to go from being the majority culture to the minority one. Well, I know it is, because I’m expected to go back and forth between cultures all the time. When in Rome, you do as Romans, and sometimes conflicts arise. It gets stressful.

But that’s the thing, isn’t it? You do as the Romans if you want to go to Rome, don’t you? You don’t walk into Rome wearing your “Grecian and Proud!” t-shirt and screaming rants about how non-Grecian these effing Romans are. Unless, of course, you’re stupid.

Yes, I know, racist white people: You didn’t ask to go to Rome. Your city is becoming Rome all around you, without your permission. I know, I know. Hush, little babies. You might have to move away. Or, you might have to learn to get along with Romans. Poor racist white people, I know it’s hard.

So, anyway–from the specific to the general, now:
Don Imus deserves to get fired. You know why? Not because he exercised his right to racist free speech. No. He needed to get fired because he’s behind the times. His show is no longer entertaining to the masses. It’s outdated, old-fashioned, not funny anymore.

You know why no one says wop or dago or spic on the radio anymore? Because it’s boring. It’s lame.

You know why ads got pulled from Don’s show? Because there’s nothing interesting about a racist old white men. It’s old. It’s stale. Move on.

And you can complain all you want that Dave Chappelle gets away with it, or that non-Mexican Mexican-disparager Carlos Mencia gets away with it. And you’re right, they do. But I promise you that when they get stale, they won’t be able to sell ads anymore, and then we’ll all move on to the next big (offensive, stupid, lowest-common-denominator-serving) thing.

If you want to succeed, you have to sell to the masses, even when they aren’t the same color as you. That’s how it works in America. That’s how you live in Rome.

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Posted in culture, pop culture, venting on 04/13/2007 02:28 pm
 
 

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