My Aunt just sent me the cutest song lyrics to a song called "Down on the Farm" by a couple called Lewis and Lewis and I just laughed (it's on You Tube). That made me feel a little guilty. It also kind of made me miss the South a little. Those of you who have never lived there will just have to take my word for it. There is nothing quite like walking down the streets of a tiny Arkansas town with all of your biases in place laughing at the (fill in the ethnic or person who is different) along with everybody else knowing that you fit right in. It made me ponder what I have been learning about diversification and if it was worth blogging about.

 

I have spent the last few years going and getting myself diversified and I think I have just started to learn a few things. I know I ain't supposed to run around saying the words n*****r and q***r.  I don't suppose I wouldv'e anyway, it just ain't polite and I have always know your color or sexual preference was not the be all and end all of who you are. And to be honest, it ain't much fun when they punch you in the nose for it. I never really cared what color they were or who they slept with anyway.  And, I really haven't found many that do. We did not care if they were black, white, red, or yellow and tattooed. We did not care if it was guy on guy, girl on girl or whatever else they could think up. What we were really laughing at was not what they were or who they had done but at thier differences from us which made them seem unusual in our eyes. And we were using the laughter to make ourselves feel better about who we were because at least we were not like them.  After all, they were different.

 

Now; I suppose one of the things I should say that I learned at this point was how we should embrace that difference, celebrate that difference, and then tell others how great it is to accept diversity. Sorry, not what I took away from it. I started to evaluated the diversity/acceptance movement and it made me wonder, did we really accept thier difference? Or is it something we turned to our own purpose again? After all, instead of laughing at them for it to make ourselves feel better about our insecurities we just use a more polite way of making ourselves feel better about ourselves.  Nobody is out saying accept them for what they are, ignore thier differences and treat them the same as you would any other person . Politely, if you are polite and like a jerk, if you are a jerk. That would seem to me to be equality. I suppose, it would be easier to understand if the political correctness applied to all. But, I haven't heard many say "Hey a*****le, quit acting like a jerk when it is just some white guy walking down the street with long hair and some idiot yells "Hey hippy, get a job."

 

Then, just when I was wondering if what I was picking up from my evaluation was right  a professed liberal friend wearing a celebrate diversity T-shirt asked me if I knew someone who could use a little side work then insisted when I suggested my hubby stated "You can't let your husband apply because he has long hair and these good ol boys don't accept that kind of thing and we must work within thier paradigm." Nothing about changing thier mind and absolutely zip about acceptance. Blew the whole diversification thing she had been preaching right out of the water.

 

So, what I ended up learning from it was that what they are really saying is "I am better than you because look, I can even accept the people who are not as good as I am because they are different." What is the difference between them and us hicks who were down south in the 80's laughing at the gay kid?  I believe what they are really saying is accept me for what I am because I am a good person for accepting them.  And what we were saying was accept me for what I am because we are both not like him. Both ways are usually; although, not always a means of making us feel better about who and what we are and a way to gain acceptance. Well I have a better idea!

 

Maybe, everybody should just be taught that if they accept themselves for who and what they are, fixing what they don't like about themselves including thier unacceptance of others differences and spend less time in everybody else's personal business then world would sort itself out.