Imagine All the People Living for Today

Racism. The dictionary defines it as “a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one’s own race is superior and has the right to rule others.” Wikipedia says it “points out taxonomic differences between different groups of people, even though anybody can be racialized, independently of their somatic differences.” You would think that after almost 50 years of discrimination, in a time of war, that Americans could pull it together and learn to get along. Wrong.

In Coal Run, Ohio, a group of residents just won a $11 Million law suit against Muskingum County, the county to which they belong. The Ohio Civil Rights Commission filed the lawsuit in 2003 because it claimed that residents were being discriminated against, as they were denied water by the water company and county. The county and water company both claimed to have offered the residents water years ago, but the residents refused it because they could not afford it. Since I don’t have any of other facts and wasn’t witness to either side first hand, I can’t accurately say who was right and who was wrong; but here is what I do know:

Fact: Certain residents have not been granted access to the county’s water supply for several decades
Fact: Many county commissioners, judges and other prominent officials are among those residents without water
Fact: One in every five families is below the federal poverty level (population = 25,000)
Fact: Unemployment rate in Muskingum County is around 7.4 percent
Fact: The national unemployment rate that month was 5.5 percent
Fact: The residents claiming they did not get water were indeed Black (and I took that term straight from the article, so don’t shoot the messenger)

If I was sitting on the jury it would be a tough call. It is suspicious that the residents who happened to not have water access were all Black, especially since some of those residents were prominent figures. However, considering 20% of the Muskingum County is below poverty level and Unemployment Rate is above national levels, it makes sense that most families would not be able to afford water, among other expensive utilities and luxuries that most of us take for granted. I will say this: if you want water, you ask for it. You don’t usually sit around waiting for someone to offer it to you as you sit thirsty and dirty, unable to wash. Paperwork would need to be provided by the plaintiffs, showing that the residents did at some point apply for water access. Which, I guess the plaintiffs were able to show, since they won.

Speaking of racism and discrimination… It’s getting pretty old, people. It’s become a gigantic racist circle that has lasted longer than it should. Some naive, rainbow people think that it’s gone, but people living in my generation know better. Racial slurs are used all over the world – cracker, gook, dago, coon, honky, limey, paki, pole, redneck, snowdrop, spic, monkey, wog, wop, yankee… the list goes on. Sure, it’s funny in movies when they make fun race and use over-dramatic stereotypes to emphasize the differences in race. But no one actually likes to be called names! Yet, they still do it to other people. This whole hating one another for being different practice just goes around and around. The white group hates the red group, the red group hates the brown group, the brown group hates the black group, everyone hates everyone, blah blah blah. It’s so freaking annoying. No one takes responsibility for their hate either, they just blame it on the other groups. It’s a two way street, people, gotta give a little. Then there is the issue that some people seem to want to live up to the negative racial stereotypes the world has given them, out of spite. Good, go out and prove that you are the ass that others think you are. That will make everything better. Not. There is a good way to represent your ethnicity, and then there is a sucky way. Stop being sucky! I think the world needs to be schooled in “how to be nice to your neighbors.”

Grow up, World, and go watch the movie Crash