Targeted Ignorance #7

   Unfortunately I started this break with one of the most infuriating conversations of my life. What started out as my brothers friend and I having a surprisingly good (considering the outcome)political conversation turned into the clearest display of my frustration with general opinion that I can give. At first, we were agreeing on literally everything. Corporate greed, untrustworthy politicians, wealth gap, foreign policy, whatever. I was honestly happy to be having an informed political conversation with a college aged kid for once, it felt really good to be talking about something other than the meandering but fun guy-talk I normally have throughout the day. About an hour in, which was already sort of surprising that the conversation lasted that long, the attitude of the talk entirely changed. I'm pretty sure we were going back and forth on whether or not opening relations with Cuba would be a good thing, when the idea of race inevitably came up. This turned into a conversation that angered me so much I'm actually blogging about it to try to get over any lingering pissed off feelings.
   Basically, we were arguing whether or not white dominion is something that should exist. My argument was that the behavior of a lot of American black people, despite the reality of the problem, can be traced back to a systematic repression by the dominating whites. That basically, there's so much more to the issue than meets the eye, and that to correct it we all need to take a more enlightened standpoint and correct the problem at it's core, which is us. His standpoint, and what made me not want to live on this planet anymore, was that they deserve it. That this is the way they are because white people have proven superiority in every possible way. That if they were equal to us, they wouldn't live in poverty, wouldn't have been enslaved, wouldn't live in third world countries, and wouldn't have the highest crime rate in the country. It was put a lot more crudely but that's only partly the problem. And honestly, it wasn't just the ignorance of the opinion that pissed me off, it was the fact that this was a well-developed opinion, the kind you get after keeping it in mind constantly. And it's such a shame.
   The argument got heated and remotely personal. Everyone in the room capable of paying attention at all pretty much stood on his side or entirely out of the conversation. Given, I got way too angry, so it becoming heated was entirely my fault. But when it comes to something like this, a problem I feel extremely passionate towards and actually aspire to attempt to contribute to its solution in my lifetime, I couldn't help but want to fight when someone illustrates exactly what I'm against. In other words, even though my argument was attempting to stand from an enlightened position, my head wasn't whatsoever, and to most people I probably contradicted myself just from getting angry. But anyway, it lasted easily over an hour. But I learned a lot from it.
   There's a targeted ignorance when it comes to race. People entirely intelligent enough to be able to see the issue from an informed position willingly choose not to. They prefer the idea of a simple solution to a complicated problem. Its easier to blame them and put it out of your own hands than it is to blame yourself and actually have to put remote thought into the issue. This drives me literally insane. There is no such thing in this world as a simple solution to a complicated problem. If we look to actually achieve anything worthwhile in our lives, we have to embrace forward-thinking and not settle for bigoted "us-vs-them" mentality. And what drives me insane is that this is a concept many people are either unwilling or incapable of accepting. White superiority doesn't come down to "blacks are more stupider", it comes down to "We got the upper hand and kept it that way, and this is what happens when an entire race of people is systematically oppressed and forced into a position we can't comprehend". And which one of those is easier to digest. That's the problem. There's a targeted ignorance, and we totally accept it. We disregard the essential question of "why?" in favor of the easy solution of  seeing the world on a two dimensional plane. Because it's simpler. Because people are increasingly anti-intellectual. And it depresses me, honestly, that people who are fully intelligent enough to see into these complicated issues and draw beneficial and informed conclusions, just don't. Because there's a targeted ignorance.
   Maybe I'm naïve, maybe I'm too ideological to be remotely practical in the real world, a lot of you probably think I'm totally wrong,but I'm sorry, from any standpoint, justifying racism is poison to humanity. And if you're someone that does, I'm never going to agree with you. And I would like to hope that in time, we'll live in a more socially conscious world where subtle racism and hate is just as objectionable as actually using the word nigger. We're capable of it, if the opposition to it would end. Barely anyone is gonna read this so I'm fully aware this is my own venting session, but honestly, I see the behavior here so often that its a fully necessary vent to me. So on another level I know I probably sound really pretentious, but whatever. It needs to be said in my opinion. The world is an aggravating, nonsensical place once you start to see it