After much reading here - a straight white guy's take on all this mess

[The Straight Story]

There is, obviously, some tension a brewing in these here parts. This little corner of the web many of us call home seems to be, at times, a volatile place on some subjects.

So I thought a lot and tried to understand a bit more as to why. One cannot broach such a topic without someone getting pissed of at them. Oh well, people have been pissed at me before...

At some point, you have to start at the top. And the top of the heap:

White

White people have the most power, majority, etc and so on. No need to go into depth.

So what happens from there?

We start to classify people into minority groups who want (and should have) their rights to be at the top as well, and that is where things sometimes go wrong. Allow me to demonstrate:

White,
-Straight, Male - top rung
-Straight Female - A minority
-Gay Male - A minority
-Gay Female - A minority within a minority
-Handicapped - same as above in template (male/female/min within min, etc)
-Mentally Handicapped (ibid)

You get the picture - people are continually slotted into sub groups who feel they do not have the same rights and privileges as the top group. And really, they don't.

This leaves the straight white guy chilling with a brew in Texas working at a gas station wondering why folks like Obama are so much more successful in life while he is sitting there trying to pay his rent on time.

So then he starts subdividing more - overweight, a minority, etc and so on. He is not getting where he wants in life due to some factor X and yet others who claim to be a minority are kicking ass. Where is all his white mojo and power at? He must be a minority in some way too.

Most the white people in this country are not in powerful positions, they are the day to day folks just living their lives trying to get by.

But they are lumped in with all the others. They are told - you can be anything you want because you are white, if you are not where you want to be it is solely your own fault for being lazy - you have the potential minorities don't have.

Unless, of course - we are talking about some homeless white guy and the above paragraph is being spoken by a rw crack job. Then we take some offense of course.

Now - before someone goes off saying 'oh you poor white males have it so hard' - that is not my point at all.

What happens is we start lumping people together with negative additions and we see it as ok for them.

To wit:
White males + power = always bad thing
Any minority group + anything sounding bad about them = Xphobia
Any minority group + anything repressive said = spot on, we love ya
---ie, blacks have been screwed over (that is ok)- versus blacks do X (insert something negative) which is considered racist.

The refrain is 'not all X minority are the same, and to use a blanket statement based on race is racist' - unless, of course we are referring to the top rung as defined previously.

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In the end, there are a lot of us straight white males who care about those who are not straight white males and want to see them happy and enjoying a great and free, equal, life in this country.

If we disagree at times on issues it does not mean we are Xphobic or don't care, we all see things differently and continual input helps us all in examining issues in a more broad light.

It is not race, but ideology which is what we must work together to fight.

There are plenty of downtrodden white males in this country - gays, homeless, handicap, et al.

And then there are people like Condi in power - sending lots of white, black, men, and women to their deaths.

It does not matter the race, sexual orientation, etc of people - power and ideology are the true oppressors of people, and all are capable of tilting in that direction.

Gays, blacks, women, handicap, etc - all can use their talents as humans to beat down those who do not submit to their views on things. It can be as simple as calling someone a hater who does not toe the line as you feel they should, or as complex as having and educated black woman (and man with powell) thrust our young people into death's waiting arms via a senseless war.

In the end - we all have some power - how we use it says more about us than the label we affix to ourselves.

You are human first, gay/black/woman/etc second - and as history shows, humans of all stripes have a tendency to abuse power.