Different races… aren’t they just the funniest thing God could have ever invented for us to break our minds on. Well to me they are. There are those who claim to not even see the difference between them as to point out how much they’re involved in being ‘just human’, but you should never believe these people. They are merely trying to place themselves in a position that doesn’t even exist. There are also those who claim people who belong to a certain race have certain characters. That doesn’t seem right either. Although I must admit I laughed oud really loud at Mitch Hedberg’s joke “OFF-WHITE! It’s a NEW race, WE WILL PREVAIL!” because to me that joke meant ‘I feel awkward belonging to white people, because they usually are really white.’ (I am about to make a shirt that says just that as a sort of tribute to the late comedian, keep your eyes open for that one!) So, differences between the races… actually are. They exist.
White people for instance will take any talk on white people without getting upset. That’s our main quality. Other races seem to not handle that so well. This might have to do with recent history more than actual genetics, but still. I, like Paul Gauguin, usually dig south-east asian girls most of all. Black an white chicks I do like are herefore part of a special breed called ‘girls up there with the south-east asians’. The same is true about music. Negroes, blacks, black people, they who come from Africa, the earth people, the originators, they who where here first, or whatever the fuck one should call black people without ’saying it wrong’ make some of the best music ever made. Or, MOST OF IT to be specific. But when Jamie Lidell or Charlie Haden are performing everyone’s like ‘white, you say?’. We all got some qualities. But the funniest thing of course is that we continuously wonder: is this a fact or just a generalisation? These wonderings often get me in ‘Larry David-style’ situations. I think of something, a black guy asks me ‘what is it?’, I answer and they walk away nodding their heads like I’m some sort of racist. Example: I don’t know how you guys live your lives, but my white friends and me like calling each other ‘nigger’ every once in a while. Not in a racist sense tho, we’re more like ‘wassup, nigga!?’ Let’s not forget that since white people have been plundering the world and tried to screw all other races, there’s no N-word for white people with the same importance, there’s no proud or even funny way to say ‘waddup redneck!?’ to a friend, like black guys call each other nigga. (although ‘waddup kaaskop’ could be quite funny I guess.) Us calling each other ‘nigger’ simply says something about ‘being the underdog’, or us joking around with that same notion. It ain’t no racial thing, but it does COME FROM a racial thing. Another example; a pretty upset girl once told me ‘You’re even worse than a negroe’ and I took it as a compliment. Pretty strange thing to say when you think about it, right? Not to me, because I understood what she meant, merely because I underline differences… usually pretty ludicrous differences, but still… It’s funny ’cause it’s true.
So why is it some people all want to be the same and part of a big, happy family? I mean, eventually we’re all human, right? isn’t that just enough? I mean face it, I’d like to be the same sort of quiet wandering spirit as I believe all American native Indians are, or have the same sort of natural zenny depth as all Japanese seem to posess, but it’s not going to happen, I’ll always be the same loudmouthy, over-privileged european white kid as I was simply born to be. This kind of mix of believing in the pre-assumptions and images that exist about races on the one hand AND in the explicit character of the individual on the other is the reason I believe in a thing I like to call EMBRACISM. Embracism is racism embraced by an individual influenced by society as we experience it. Embracing the differences between the races, differences based on truths and on hearsay/gut feelings.
Luckily, my friend Martijn van Berkum and his friends at the point-of-view weblog found this weblog for everyone to enjoy. It’s about my race -yet, those brought up in the US, there’s a difference you know…- and it’s hilarious(ly on point). It’s called Stuff white people like, please check it out asap.
PS. Go see Stöma and The New Earth Group perform at the NAi this saturday. Starts at 9 pm. for free!
