Rascism and a White Girl

Been given to thinking about the question of racism lately... seems to be on a lot of minds lately, can't imagine why;) I've always thought of myself as 'colorblind' and probably am more than some, having grown up in Southern California in a land of no obvious majority. I have come to see that 'isms' come more from the perspective of 'what is the norm.' Now living in a state that is predominantly white, I notice race or at least skin color at lot more. However, this has not lead me to believe that I am more racist.

But, when it is drawn to my attention, I realize that I suffer from a sort of silent entitlement that I am mostly unaware of. For example, I have often invoked strangely colored people when trying to make a point - "I don't care if he's black, white or purple." It never occurred to me that only a white person would use such a phrase... that it minimizes the importance of race because race may be unimportant to me... I'm not discriminated against because of my race. That never occurred to me.

On the other hand, I have been discriminated against because of my gender. Back to the idea of 'norm.' Males have been gifted with this majority position because of our culture. So, when listening to Chris Rock point out that he doesn't have the luxury of being crappy at his job because to be recognized as a professional while being black means that you have to be twice as good.... well, I can identify with that. Remember all those cracks about Hillary Clinton's appearance? yeah.

So back to culture. In the end, that's what it's all about isn't it? We live in a culture that defines the majority in a certain way - and that puts everyone else in the minority and subjects them to discrimination. Skin color, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender - all these things are used to marginalize those that the dominate group wishes to keep at bay. So is there such a thing as race? I think I agree with Edward James Olmos - that there is only one race. It's the human race. Everything else is just the efforts of one CULTURE to dominate another. Think I'll just work at being human....

Greener?

According to Adharanand Finn in the Guardian, one needs to use the ceramic cup over 1,000 times to outdo the polystyrene cup, and even more compared to paper.

It may not sound very plausible - but on closer inspection the arguments seem to add up. Firstly, ceramic cups use more energy in their production. Second, there is all the hot water and washing-up liquid used when you wash up your mug. Third there's the environmental consequences of distributing ceramic mugs - because they are bigger and heavier than polystyrene cups, which can be tightly stacked, you are looking at more ship and lorry journeys, using more fuel. And, finally, polystyrene cups can be more easily recycled.

Except that polystyrene cups are rarely recycled, they mostly go to landfill, often after being carelessly thrown onto the street. And picking them up and disposing of them is an externality to the company that sold you the coffee, usually paid for by the taxpayer, whereas washing the mug is a producer responsibility. So hang on to your ceramic or stainless steel mug and in three or four years you will have made a difference. ::Guardian

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