CANOE -- JAM! - Andy Dick sorry for racial slur

You know, there really is a great divide in America and of all things it still centers around colour. Now, as a person who has been on more than his fair share of being called a "nigger" for various reason (most of which was hatred and/or prejudiced driven), I find it peculiar and strange that this is being made into this all encompassing huge issue. Let me explain.

Go into any music store and pick up almost any black artist's CD (Will Smith excluded) and you are almost guaranteed to hear the word in the lyrics of one of their songs. Jay Z, Snoop Dogg, TuPac, Kanye West, Mary J Blige, Missy E, all of them use the word. These artists are being played on mainstream radio everyday, being used in commercial jingles hawking various products, being used as interlude music in TV shows and theme music for movies and specials. Sure, those version are radio-edited and cleaned up for the airwaves, but the CDs being sold in your local HMV, Future Shop and Best Buy are not. So, you can see what happens when the kids get their parents to buy them the disc and the parents don't do their job of knowing what the kids are listening to (or the kids buy it themselves because it has been proven these stores don't check jack).

Now I will be the LAST person to blame violent TV, mature video games, movies and music on the state of our youth today. We had all of those things when I was a kid (hello, Duke Nukem in 3D, nuff said) and I never had the urge to go and rip someone a new one because they looked at me funny. That, I can attest, is because of the swift and sure retaliation from my parents that I know would be coming so my ass was kept in line (at least until it really did hurt them more than it did me). Parents need to step up and be responsible for the next generation growing up in the world. And Racism and Prejudice is the number one trait a lot of irresponsible parents pass on to their children. We are all, in some varying degree of levels, guilty of doing this with our own offspring. We may not directly tell them to be prejudicial or racist but we do so in our jokes, mannerisms, cussing at bad drivers and so on. We also do the same to promote equality to balance things out in life but as we all know, hate and anger are easy and strong emotions that often overpowers love and understanding.

So, back to Mr. Dick. Racist? Doubt it. Stupid? Without question. But, he can also be incredibly funny which I honestly think he was trying to be, but it is too soon and simply the wrong time. I have heard the word uttered by white people before and not every time was it derogatory towards me or others. We had a guy in school, RW, who used to hang with the brothers (literally, but that is another story) so we got into this whole thing with the names that each of us were called representing the worst against our heritage. It was a funny outburst and we all laughed and their were no feelings hurt.

But that was high school friends sharing a laugh, some understanding and some tolerance. Ever try that with an entire nation? No one has. That is the most disturbing part of all of this. And if they think some spotlight on it now because two Caucasians dared used the word is going to change anything or move things forward, they are stupider than Michael Richards himself for being caught in that position. You need to weed this out from birth to get it to stop. Some people think continuing the fight and the conflict is much more important than resolving it. the snowball effect is that the next few generations will not see it stop, merely change either for the better or (unfortunately the most likely) for the worst before someone emerges to really stop it.

Will you do your part?

Peace.


CANOE -- JAM! - Andy Dick sorry for racial slur