Thoughts on politically incorrect slang and other useless tidbits...

I never cease to be amazed at how naive I can be. Take for instance the fact that since I moved from California to central Illinois my eyes have been opened to several blatant instances of racism. Correct me if I'm wrong - but we live NORTH of the Mason-Dixon line - and this is in fact the 21'st century - not the 19th. Nevertheless, negative stereotypes abound - all around. (I made a rhyme!) Where was I?

Needless to say, I've heard a few 'NEW' racial slurs since I moved here. Without going into detail (NO I WILL NOT LIST ANY HERE) - I thought I'd heard them all by the time I had graduated from 6th grade. Apparently not!

By way of background, I grew up in California, in a low - to lower - to somewhat lowest of the low middle-class neighborhoods in a notso fashionable high-desert community in the less than desireable north-eastern corner of Los Angeles County. In gradeschool we didn't care about race - honestly. My best two friends in gradeschool were black, and Thai - and we were inseparable.

There were also families from Mexico, and Central America living on our street. We never - and I mean never, thought twice about who's house we were playing at, or what color they were, or even what langauage was being spoken.

The cool thing is, I grew up getting to sample authentic Thai cooking, real "soul food", homemade tamales and hand tossed tortillas, and a host of other great things. Sure, we knew we were different in some ways - but we all had more in common than anything else. We were kids playing together in the neighborhood.

"Well, good for you, Steve. You must be a wonderful person." That is not my point!

What amazes me, is how sheltered and naive I have been about the fact that there still are (apparently) soooooo many ignorant, racist people reproducing in this country.

Then again.... there are several towns out here with not more than two or three last names in the phonebook. Some new brides HONESTLY don't have to change their last name when they get married.

Though the above is NO exaggeration, let it be said, I don't wish to be guilty of the same thing for which I accuse those of the "redneck" persuasion. Let me just say, some of what I have heard and observed - in public, no less - definitely crosses the line, causes me much pain and grief and truly makes me sad. Just thought I'd share.

So, that being said, I'd prefer to have remained in my naive little world where kids just play together and don't care about the color of anyone's skin.