Yesterday, when my parents and brother were watching the news, the Michael Richards video came on.
My older brother as some very bigoted views, which was a huge reason that I wasn't really looking forward to coming home for Thanksgiving break. When the news was over, I overheard him say something about how Richards should have yelled at someone to get the idiot out of there instead of exposing his racist beliefs. This morning, my mom even came to me and told me how he had wondered why Richards would say something like that.
You have no idea how naievely happy this made me feel. I felt much better about staying home for break because for once, I might not have to put up with that from him.
I'm not a COMPLETE idiot, I knew this was probably too much to expect from him, but any hint that a loved one might change their ways is a welcome one, no matter how small that hint is. Tonight I heard them making fun of some commercial for being racially diverse. This angered me even more his usual bigotry because now it feels like he's let me down in some way. I really, really wish that there was some way to change his attitude. I love him with all my heart and he's a good person otherwise, but at times I hate the person he is.
Please understand that I'm not looking for anyone's sympathy, neither do I mean to whine. I feel a little foolish for even posting this, but there is really nowhere else I can say it.
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My dad is somewhat bigoted as well, so I understand where you're coming from. The best thing to do is politely counter what he says when you feel strong enough to stand up to him (doing that to a loved one can be awful hard), and just leave the room or completely ignore it when you don't want to be confrontational.
I'm getting married to an Indian (of the South Asian kind) this winter, so I might be leaving the room quite a bit come Christmas.
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I personally poke fun at these types of commercials, too, because the diversity is so calculated. It's like they plug in the number of people in some calculator and get the racial makeup back. It screams marketing ploy to me.
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quote:Originally posted by Swampjedi: I personally poke fun at these types of commercials, too, because the diversity is so calculated. It's like they plug in the number of people in some calculator and get the racial makeup back. It screams marketing ploy to me.
To me, it usually screams "we don't want to face a BS lawsuit."
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quote:I personally poke fun at these types of commercials, too, because the diversity is so calculated. It's like they plug in the number of people in some calculator and get the racial makeup back.
The Daily Show poked fun at that a little bit a few weeks ago. They illustrated the racial makeup of some group using a picutre of the cast of Lost. X percent white, Y percent hispanic, Z percent black, I percent asian, J percent hot arabs, and K perecent black smokey tentacles.
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