This isn't about Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The reason why I just mentioned her name in the first sentence is because she is someone I have the utmost respect and admiration for and I want to make clear that when I have the following discussion it doesn't mean I hate people, or think they are racists, or bad or evil or any of that jazz.
In short I AM NOT CALLING ANYBODY A RACIST (Miles what happened to you.). I am just describing what I consider a common difference in outlook based upon racial experience.
With that out of the way...
It kind of drives me nuts when white people want to divorce politics from regular life. The impetus for this go round was Mitch Albom's article about The Pats skipping out on the traditional Superbowl White House visit.
Again this is not about Mitch Albom. I like Mitch Albom. Five People You Meet in Heaven helped get me out of a funk a while back, (The movie. I haven't read the book, and dear god, I need to get to work on building that library.)
But he did the thing. He called it rude.
Yes, yes it is.
But is the thing. In this country who gets to be rude and who doesn't is often about who has the power in any given situation and you bet your ass race (and gender) has hell of a lot to do with that. Often the mere act of being polite carries with it tacit approval of the status qou in power dynamics in interpersonal relationships.
And that's kind of bullshit.
Like I said MY racial experience has been that it's hard as hell to separate politics from my everyday life. Insisting people are polite often means insisting they shut up about both their politics and how their politics affect their lives. Why am I always of afraid of showing it when I'm put out?
And no I am not doing the traditional Black History Month thing because I can't just be Black for one month.
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