racism – The Agape Narrative Project

No More Excuses

There is currently a crisis in some particular cities and, more importantly, in every American’s heart these past few days. Fires are raging while clouds of chemicals rise from the feet of protesters and police. Batons and shields are met with improvised weapons on a blacktop battlefield set with a curfew. Soaring mists of pepper spray jet through the air while screams and chants hum through the cracks of our cities. It is important to remember why all of this happened. It is important because valuable items are being stolen right before our eyes. You may be thinking “surely, he must be writing about the amount of damage and looting of the local stores found in these cities like Minneapolis and Philadelphia, no?” How about “this author must be speaking about the vandalism on police vehicles or the loss of jobs, correct?” Nope! WE are talking about black lives! WE are talking about our own people. WE are angered by the years of mishandled cases. WE are infuriated by decades of racism that was weaved within society. WE are tired of being spoon fed a narrative that has manipulated other races into thinking that what is happening is not an issue. WE are tired of explaining it to people who do not want to listen with open minds and have already chosen their side firmly.

The division based on the side show of the riots has made people lose sight of the main act of the play. This type of straw man yellow journalism has been used to side stage major issues like racism for as long as we can collectively remember. The amount of deaths, wrongful convictions, mistreatment, and torture we have allowed for our fellow human beings to endure is no longer being met with an accepting mass of people controlled by the media to just say “okay”. With every “but” or excuse we find ourselves no longer focusing on how we are helping but more with how to keep our way of life the same. You say the police were wrong with the murder of George Floyd but rioting and looting is not the way to honor this man. Get rid of the excuses and focus on that first part of the sentence. Are you so quick to conform to your normalcy and judge indiscriminately that the entire first part of the sentence no longer has value or weight? Does this man along with all of the other clear examples of murdering unarmed black people not hold as much value to you than the stock of Target? Does the lives of our neighbors, brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers no longer matter when they are black? Did you ever think that when you take away from the fact that you are comfortably sitting in your own space free from worry about “accidentally” being shot or “justifiably” murdered based off of the continually pushed narrative that you are “less civilized” or “more likely to commit crime” which lead to the ignorance of your culture based off of your skin color that maybe you could understand the pain of other people?

If you have no idea what I am talking about I ask you to do the same thing I had to do in order to understand. Talk to people and really listen to them. Sympathize with their struggles and see the similarities between other races and cultures to your own. Notice your privilege from being on the safer side of the equation. Take the time to know a person and care about their culture because we are destroying it due to ignorance and hate. Open yourself up to understanding racism as a judgment and hierarchy and not just hate and you will see it is a process within our daily lives. A simple quote is “If you aren’t part of the solution than you are part of the problem”. Use your privilege to help make the correct changes so that we do not feel the anger that causes riots. Stand by our brothers, sisters, and neighbors in unity against the allowance of unjustified death with too little repercussions. Our “normal” is not worth the destruction and isolation of other races for our comfort. Our comfort needs to come with the price of fairness and logic for all people to be free as we tote on our country’s tag lines that only some benefit from while others are murdered in our streets or even in the safety of their own homes. No more false narratives. No more injustice. No more peace. No more excuses.

Beyond Beef (Netflix comedy specials)

September 24, 2019 fuzz seymourLeave a comment

No, this is not about your new favorite fast food chain vegan burger option. I have noticed a lot of “beef” lately over some comedians and their jokes. I am sure you know of the two I am speaking about but Bill Burr and Dave Chappelle have sparked a bit of a controversy in my circles as of late. I watched both of the specials and found them both entertaining. The question is… Does that make me all the phobics listed in the articles? The comedians themselves are not what I am interested in writing about, but I will have to explain a few details. There are a tons of articles telling you about how they are trans-phobic idols of an older form of comedy that breeds hateful violence or praising them as defenders of free speech on the front lines of the PC wars. Now I see these people just trashing people on posts and threads because of the “team” the represent.

“Teams” are an issue for me as a whole. I don’t fully subscribe to any ideology that limits my perspective of thinking. From sports to politics and now comedy, I see division among the people. Recently I ran across a thread on social media about the difference between these two comedians jokes. I bit. I bit hard enough to read almost ever response and look up more information on the opinions in place. I have seen a lot of hate for Dave’s special. It was shocking because I found the piece right on the edge of offensive. An artful comedy pulling at the strings on the developing cultural differences that have become more highlighted in recent years. Bill’s was, well Bill Burr. He is an aggressive comic who has a very successful podcast and is doing the same thing as Dave in his own way. I know his stance on so many things but maybe I am used to the over the top antics of Bill Burr by this point. Clearly one was much more willing to push the line and step on it the whole show. Bill went full Burr and Dave politely danced around with genius delivery and I think there is a difference in their specials but let’s get in to what I learned.

So here I am looking at this thread thinking “oh boy, we got some drama.” Before you judge me too harshly I was unable to sleep and just fell in to this conversation by happenstance. I have written before about my failed attempts at getting points across on social media or text based platforms and these people didn’t read it at all. Hit that subscribe and you will not fail like them or me. Name calling and insinuations were thrown around like hands after Popeye’s ran out of chicken sandwiches. I find listening, or reading in this case, really gave me more information than talking. The following statements were the overall understanding of those “teams” I spoke of earlier. So Dave was not at fault for offending the trans community due to his ability to not assume any perspective of who was the “T” or trans person in his joke was. He made jokes about the situations they were found in and how he can’t stop writing about how hilarious it all is to him. He showed empathy but still got his jabs in basically. Bill is at fault because he immediately made the character in the joke a male with his sexual organs removed and made a jokes about their choice to become female. I am paraphrasing but this is accurate enough to continue on with the conversation. This not only lead to differences of opinions but racism and general intolerance due to lack of education.

This isn’t because Dave is black and Bill is white. It was brought up but that was not the main part of the thread. It became about the “race card.” So someone made a comment that if Bill was black maybe he would have had a lighter response like Dave. Maybe so. In a world of “what if’s” maybe is a great response. So the poster asked the commenting people if they believed in the “race card.” What a drastic change in conversation. From trans-phobic jokes to racism. Some replied they agree it does exist. I for one have used this term in the past and do not want to act innocent of these crimes. The poster and his “team” proceeded to explain how it was a belittlement of the oppression of minorities, specifically black people, to use that term. That it undermined the struggles they had to overcome and was indeed a racist term. So all those who replied yes were deemed racist. I am not a fan of that logic. I am willing to accept a phrase or word I have used is offensive and accept the new rules as they come out. But ignorance of the rules are indeed forgivable in some circumstances. It does not help that the people giving the “lesson” were beyond arrogant and hateful. We will get to that in a minute.

Now I am polling friends and asking people if they think that phrase is racist or offensive. I am messaging my black co-host and getting some input from him as well. This leads, yet again, in to more deliberation. So I have written this article to ask the readers a question. What can you learn if you are not presented the information? Let’s not take the road of “look it up” or “you have a smart phone, use it” approaches. Let’s be honest. You expect someone to look up a guideline or information on something that is not a part of their daily life. Let’s highlight me. I am a white straight male and have a diverse group of friends. However, I don’t know many people from India or the middle east. If I accidentally offend someone with a phrase I was unknown to be demeaning or hurtful I would apologize once informed. If I was unaware of the negative response I don’t expect a pass per say, but at least a second chance. Anyone who genuinely knows me will tell you I have a big heart but I will joke about anything. I made fun of my father’s autoimmune disease while he laid in the hospital because that is how I cope. I am the guy who speaks about the elephant in the room. Why? Because I want you to talk about it. I want to understand. I want to engage conversation to learn from both sides.

Dave did a better job at showing that same sentiment I have but I think that is why they added the extra content at the end of the special. It gave a look at Dave the man, not the comedian. Bill did not record/release that opportunity to the crowd or maybe did not offer that time to them. Maybe this is his real downfall. I am sure a joke of mine would offend a slew of people if they truly did not know who I am. So let’s walk back to the conversations at hand. So the “Bill is a piece of shit team” decided they would educate everyone else. In the process they were as pretentious as possible. Insults and questioning the other sides intelligence was most of the starting points they made to the “Bill is just a comedian” team, which I was starting to side with just due to the abusive way the woke community was acting. The hawkish PC side made very valid points. I read through the trolling coarse dialogue and found myself actually siding with them on the “race card” issue. Then I noticed something as I was reading. No one else was even in the threads any longer. The “Pro Bill” team was gone.

So you may be asking yourself, “what does that have to do with anything?” Everything. Every conversation has a point. Knowledge, aggression, manipulation, etc. can be learned through simple words. Eyes can be opened and new experience will grow. I am not claiming they will all be positive, but I really honestly think the can all be enlightening. The woke community won the argument but never once made an impact on the other side. One claimed to be impervious to new knowledge since they believed to be a higher form on human that could rationalize something as complex as a spectrum of gender with no limitations while the others dug their heels in and kept saying “it is a comedy routine” and PC culture ruins everything. Here was the difference for me in the conversation. One side implied that the fault of an attack on the trans community would be rationalized by the hateful speech of comedians. Meanwhile, they approved of Dave who ended a joke with the explanation of how writing about trans people made them feel that “trans” would become a household term bringing a commonplace to the concept which many struggle to still accept and this normalization of the term would bring acceptance. So isn’t Bill doing the same thing in a different way? He may have a little more enthusiasm on the subject at hand but generally it is the same thing. That was only answered through opinion of how one can speak and no actual information. Logic or tolerance were used as the judgment of how someone can speak about the issues but those rules are ever changing. I picked through the hay pile and found the understanding they were trying to display but unfortunately what I saw was many open people on the sidelines of the conversation just walking away with nothing but more anger and confusion.

White people do not take well to being called a racist, let alone by mostly other white people. The “race card” issue was raging on with one team still in the thread. White people who were unwilling to shed themselves of the privilege their skin tone brought were marginalized and the conversation continued. Absence of the knowledge the hate implied in the phrase “race card” was touted as the new way of finding a homophobic unsophisticated racists that were not up to par with the rest of the community. I find this to be lazy and irrelevant to anyone in the LGBTQ community. This kind of broad stroke generalization is what makes the people so divided in the first place. To assume you can judge someone off the answer of one question that they may not have been informed of is the same, in my mind, as judging someone of their skin color or decision to have an operation to feel like who they really are inside.

Comedians like these two were never intended to be the epicenter of a quarrel. Do not misunderstand what I am saying in that they were intended to question or antagonize the listener in some way and invoke a response of laughter. Jesters were the ones who would give bad news to the king that no one else dared to deliver and modern comedy stems from this sentiment. The idea that sometimes you need to hear the truth of the people or the concerns of a new ideology with a humorous delivery helps lessen the blow but still get a point across. As much as I love conversation and deliberation I find that with my newly acquired knowledge about the term “race card” I also learned that nothing is sacred any more. I am not saying these phrases or racial comments need to be protected by any means so do not misunderstand me on that point. I am speaking about comedy. Comedy will be dulled down to be as compliant to single minded thinking as a corporate office. Edgy or hawkish comedy that once helped people remain humble will disappear as will conversation. People will continue to see themselves as kings among the weak minded unintelligent on both sides of the aisle. I just hope us people not willing to break down to a team are capable of mediating peace in these trying times.

From Anonymous to Proud

Featured fuzz seymourLeave a comment

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
— Oscar Wilde.

This is something I have felt strongly about since the first time I put anything up on YouTube or saw a rant on Facebook from a fake account. People belittling each other for fun as it would seem, but many really have strong beliefs in the hate they spew. I find myself noticing some people have donned the mask with their full identities available. Remember the times when racism, homophobia, and hate speech were behind closed doors and life was better? Was it really better? Is doxxing making it better or worse? Did behind closed doors really make it any better? Did knowing the name give you justice?

I once spoke with a co worker about these feelings in 2013. For those of you who did not notice, I am a white male. The epitome of “privilege” from a broke ass family who is told I have the world by the balls every day for having external sexual reproductive organs and fair skin. All I know is that my balls itch and I burn easy. Fair trade I guess for the grand idea that I am a walking demigod. My co worker was a black man from Philly (Philadelphia for the uninitiated) and he was very much a people watcher. Some would write “Fred” off as non-confrontational and mild mannered. A family man who did his job, coached his kids, and loved his car. But I knew “Fred” for a long time. I knew the stories he only mentioned off the clock.

One day we got to have a real conversation about race. So there I am working with “Fred”, a Liberian born black man who is close to me in age , and someone in the immediate area says the “N-word.” I never even once got assumed to be the person to say it. It happened immediately behind me and they were both on the other side of the machine and had no visual of anyone else. When I looked at “Fred” he immediately said “Couldn’t have been Fuzz” and just went back to work. I appreciated his lack of assumption and obvious lack of rationality but it led me to ask him “why not me?” It’s not like I have never said the word in any capacity. So I asked him…

“Fred” told me a story about when he worked in a factory in Philly. He worked with a man that would call any black man he saw doing something he didn’t agree with racial slurs. Usually saving the “N-word” for more extreme cases, but that man never once posed a threat to “Fred” or any other person at work. Confused and interested, I asked “How was he not a threat?” In which he replied “It’s not the ones that call you a N-word to your face, it’s the ones that say it behind your back you need to watch out for.”

I never thought of me openly talking about my own prejudices and questioning everything as me letting my guard down and telling others I was safe. I thought it was normal. My whole life I got in trouble for saying the truth until I learned about when, and most importantly, WHO you can trust. I always had this thought in the back of my head until I ran across the quote above. I thought of all the fake profiles on social media that would stir up hate and ruin peoples day for no reason. It wasn’t like Skankhunt42 level comedy or anything. So what was the point? I saw that none of them were really giving you a way to know who they were. They were the ones we needed to watch out for.

So what if they came to light? Would they be ostracized or mauled in the street? Admittedly, I was late to a lot of things in life. Reddit was never really something I utilized or the dreaded Twitter. When doxxing started happening I felt it could be a cure to draw out people of hate and have them atone for their actions in some way. Maybe this would help them see the error in their ways and help bring conversation to the topics? Quickly we saw the social media justice machine just go off the deep end and it became judge, jury, and executioner on so many levels since then. So it didn’t really make a big impact. Now people just say “fuck it” and own their own brand. Telling people to “Unfollow me or block me if you don’t (insert any bs here).”

So where does that leave us now in 2019? When people are openly assaulting one another over red hats and chanting “Send her back” at political events? When people feel rewarded for being banned from social media as if it shows you’re against the “Liberal Agenda.” When you can make unsubstantiated claims of whatever you want to make up and people have to prove they never said or did it to begin with? We have a generation of people that are so closed minded they shut out every thought process or conversations that doesn’t align with the opinion they have temporarily made. Are we in a time where the mask and the person are one and the same?

I talk to my co host twice a week about racism and prejudice. We can have a civil conversation and know where we stand, but if I look at the social media engagement he gets from aggressive white people wanting to knock down his opinion or stance with no willingness to converse, or the hate cards being dropped with no one being allowed to question it… well I find myself appalled with how logic, reasoning, discussion, and tolerance have disappeared from the mindset of those around us.

I started this blog to show that behind every mask is not bad intent. Sometimes it’s just sad truths, from my perspective. Maybe it’s a story from an unlikely hero. Maybe we get to know a little more about goals and dreams we never thought about. I hope to give insight and stir deliberation amongst people like we should be used to but with the walls taken down. There is nothing wrong with being wrong and there is nothing great about being right. In the end it should all be about understanding and growth as a culture. Read more than a headline. Act like a civilized human being. Crave understanding. Learn tolerance. Be disciplined.