Racism is not dead. Not by a long shot. I recently attended a lecture by one Professor Chris Crowe of the BYU English department. He is the author of Mississippi Trial, 1955 and Getting Away with Murder, two books on the murder of Emmett Till. The thing that struck me the most about his lecture was during the Q&A. One student asked what the state or racism was in Mississippi. His answer (which will make sense to all you Mormons out there) was he ran into the missionaries and they told him they were teaching an investigator who wanted to be baptized. They told the Bishop, and he would not allow it because she was Black. This sent me for a loop. I expected people to be long over the racism issue, especially Mormons. Blacks have always been allowed to be Mormon and have been allowed to recieve the Priesthood since 1971, so what this Bishop did is 100% wrong. But on to more important matters.
There is a post on the Agitator that tells the story of Cory Maye. One day in southern Mississippi, the SWAT team got a warrant to break into a house without knocking and arrest a man known to deal drugs. When the SWAT team arrived at the house, they saw that it was a duplex. They picked one door (the wrong one) and broke in. The man who lived there did not realize it was the SWAT team, so he did what ever good father would do, he protected his family. If a bunch of guys run into your house at 3am shooting, wouldn’t you shoot back? Well he did and he got a lucky shot off that killed one of the officers. Unfortunately, he was Black. He was arrested and sentenced by an all white juroy. His sentance: death by lethal injection. Why such a harsh sentence? First, he was Black and there are obviously still plenty of racist people in Mississippi. Second, the officer he killed was the son of the police cheif. And third, Mississippi has some very racist residents. Right now, Cory Maye is sitting on death row because he was trying to defend his family from intruders, who just happened to be police officers breaking into the wrong house.
I am utterly disgusted by racism of all kinds. Growing up in metro Detroit opened my eyes to Blacks, Whites, Arabs, Indians, American Indians, Europeans, South Americans, and basically all types of people. I was lucky enough to be raised in an environment where everyone is equal no matter what their accent is, how broken their english is, where they are from, how much money they have, and what they drive and wear. I then moved to Orange County, CA where I picked up a slight resentment to the ultrarich, not because I am not rich (I have no doubt I could be if I wanted to) but because of their attitudes and the way they treat other people. Now about the Cory Maye case, I think he should be let free and whichever officer made the call to storm into his house should be reprimanded. We should leave it at that. I think those racist Mississippians (and racists everywhere) should grow up and learn to deal with their problems in ways that do not hurt others.
Now on to free speech. Recently a Danish newspaper published 12 political cartoons which are very disrepsectful to the Islamic Prophet and Founder Mohammed. Traditionally, Mohammed should not be depicted at all, especially doing things that are against the Islamic religion. One hopes that in this world of ours people would have enough deceny to understand and accept the beliefs of others. Unfortunately that is not true. Yes, we believe in free speech, but we also believe that people should be responsible and print things that will benefit at least someone. In response to these cartoons, Danish products have been boycottted all over the Middle East and Africa, many Europeans and European businesses have lost a lot of business, face, and trust in Islamic areas, and multiple Danish embassies have been burned down. How’s that for free speech? I believe these reactions are uncalled for, but I believe the cartoons were also uncalled for.
Now on to Christianity (remember, I am Christian myself). This concept also applies to other things, like being a white male in America. Because Christianity is so common place and a majority in the western world, it accepts a great deal of stupidity similar to the aforemetioned cartoons. Cartoons making fun of Jesus and Christians are quite common and exected, especially in Europe (compared to America). But because Christians are the majority and those types of cartoons are common, nobody cares about them. This shows the state of Christianity in the world today. I am glad Christians do not burn things down because of the derogatory use of free speech. Unfortunately it is because they don’t care rather than they are striving to live a Christlike life. It is like affermative action. Affermative Action gives minorities more chances, but that could also be seen as it gives majorities fewer chances. If we truly thought we are all equal, there would be no need to differentiate between minorities and majorities. The world shouldn’t be colorblind, it should just accept the rainbow how it is and move on to things in life that are actually important and meaningful. It is amazing how much time is wasted over completely ridiculous things that do not matter at all.
Venue: BYU International Cinema
Posted by thenewone 
Posted by thenewone 
Posted by thenewone 