I’m not a political person. I’m the least political person I know. I hate discussing politics and political issues. But this isn’t something I can not say. This isn’t about technology, so it’s outside my comfort zone, but I do have a technology tie-in at the end, so bear with me here.
I want to talk about Charleston. Now, if you don’t know what Charleston is, that’s ok because my message here is not about Charleston specifically. There was a stupid, stupid tragedy that occurred when a white kid decided to shoot down 9 black people in a historic church in Charleston, and since then everyone is standing up and saying “It’s such a tragedy, it’s an atrocity, and we need to do something about this.” Yadda yadda yadda.
This is fine, because everyone agrees that this is a tragedy, atrocity, etc. No one is going to stand up in front of TV camera and call that white kid a hero even though I know for a ~fact~ that there are people in this country and in this world who feel that way. But they won’t say it because society won’t allow it. They’ll be ostracized in their circles for doing so. Maybe not everyone will shut them out, but many would, and that’s a very good thing.
But everyone is also saying that we need to do something about this. There will be calls for gun control, and tolerance, and the bottom line here is that no one is going to do a goddamn thing about it. Because the real problem is not in the 9 dead people in Charleston. Their deaths are awful and tragic; please don’t misunderstand. But that is just a symptom of a disease. And the disease is racism. I know, I’m not making any startling observations here. But the real problem is not the racism that drives a white kid to shoot up a prayer group. That’s extreme racism. The problem is the racism that black people, white people, Muslim people, Asian people, and all other types of people deal with on a day to day basis. ~That~ is the real problem.
Let me tell you a true story. About a year ago, I was in a Walgreens, right by my house in suburban Chicago. Inside this Walgreens were three black teenagers, just roaming the aisles doing their thing. Meanwhile, a Walgreens employee was stalking them, never more than 30 feet away, and actively telling them, “I’m watching you.” Needless to say they were getting a lot more attention than three white teenagers would be given.
At that moment, I had something to say. It was on the tip of my tongue, but I stayed silent. This is not one of those “I went home and ten minutes later thought of the perfect thing to say” types of situations. This was right there, waiting to be said. But I chickened out, or I decided it wasn’t my problem, or something else happened that I don’t know. It didn’t get said. But if I had not backed down, I, a 40 year old white guy, was going to point at those teenagers and say, “Well, I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m glad you’re here, because if she’s going to be concentrating on you, I’m going to steal the fuck out of this place.”
It would have been the perfect, assholish, “Adam” thing to say that would have conveyed to the boys, “What you’re dealing with here is bullshit” and to the employee “What you’re doing is bullshit”. But I didn’t. And to this day, I’m ashamed of myself for not standing up.
Because the core problem of racism is not in the mass shootings. The core problem is in the absolute silence between mass shootings. The every day bullshit that people of every color deal with in silence, and among the silence of others. The stuff that is simply not big enough to make headlines, but is nonetheless crushing.
Well, not from me. Not any more. From now on, I swear by God as my witness, I will not be silent any more. I can’t be. Because if I’m silent, I’m part of the problem. Anyone who knows me knows I am not a silent person. This is definitely in my wheelhouse, so I’m not going to be silent any more.
Folks, I’m sorry to take things over and steer it in a weird direction here. But I promised a technology tie in, and here it is. We as a people – humans - are so infantile in the way we behave to each other, that even if we could communicate with other beings – extraterrestrial beings - it would be ridiculous for us to do so. We are not ready to be great explorers who seek out new life, and new civilizations, because even when we find them, we’ll just find dumb ass reasons to hate them too. And no one, not even a being from another world deserves to put up with our stupid, petty bullshit.
So to those who have read this far, I’m sorry to go so far off topic from my norm, but this is something that needs to be said, and it needs to be said from all corners of our society, even the technological ones. I hope you will allow me this one soapbox, and I thank you for reading. I implore you to take what I said to heart. More importantly I ask you to turn it into action.
