Thursday, July 31, 2008

Say they want you successful, but that ain't the case…

Because I feel like griping…

First: There will be no shortage of discussions about race over the next few months, a fact that, depending on your perspective, will be most welcome or entirely aggravating (or possibly in between, but not likely). It doesn't matter to me where you fall on the spectrum – as I'm sure it doesn't matter to you where I fall – but what does matter to me is that we come together as a nation to accomplish one thing: the abolition of the term "race card" (as in, "to play the") from our vernacular.

Not only does it trivialize legitimate concerns about racism (you mean it still exists?), but using it makes you sound like, well, a Not Very Bright Person, regardless of whether you use it "correctly" – that is, in response to a spurious claim of racism. Here's a tip: If you find yourself in a discussion about race in America where someone points out that a particular thing is racist – say, a political advertisement involving a certain candidate for President of the United States and a couple of blond-haired, white "celebrity" women – and you disagree with this person, you should state your disagreement in such a way that actually demonstrates the falsity of their claim. If it is indeed a spurious point, refuting it shouldn't be too hard, now should it?

As a corollary, just because a particular thing – say, the above-mentioned advertisement – doesn't bring out the inner racist in you that doesn't mean it isn't bringing out the inner racist in others. You know, kind of like how you can't hear a dog whistle but a dog can.

Second: Office 2007. Seriously, Microsoft, why did you destroy the one thing you did really, really well? This new version of Office is an abomination -- over the top graphic interface, confusing menus, general navigation issues, auto formatting from hell, etc. -- and it has me longing for the good, old days of Office 2003 (and I hate longing). But, hey, thanks for including a "blog post" template in Word. Progress!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm of the generation where this racism thing should matter a whole lot. And yet I find it appalling we're stil discussing it? HUH?

Anonymous said...

You can't be rational about racism. There is no rational reason to care what color someone else is. Racism is rooted in emotions.

That said there are people of all hues who try to play a, um, "race card". I think it is means emotional button pushing rather than a "spurious claim of racism". I see nothing wrong with the actual word itself.

Excel 2007 is great.

Anonymous said...

I finally saw the ad that you alluded to. Contrasting Obama with Paris Hilton and some other young woman who I can't recall is not racist. The point was that Obama is famous but he hasn't done anything, sort of like Paris Hilton. And sort of like John McCain in many ways, too. Nothing racist about that.

Anonymous said...

I took the comparison as an inadvertent compliment, knowing that one such Hollywood celebrity helped save the world from self-destruction and made things like the iPhone possible, too. Thanks, Hedy!

Anonymous said...

Why don't you just use OpenOffice? It's full-featured, free download, and is an almost perfect clone of Office 2003.

Anonymous said...

How is it racist to compare Obama to vapid celebrities Britney and Paris?

If the ad had other black people instead, that would have been construed as racist.