1193 The Pig Problem

1193 The Pig Problem

What’s worse than being a racist pig with an unstoppable mouth?  Being a racist pig with an unstoppable mouth and genuine ignorance or self unawareness.

Cast aside all the baloney about people from Confederate States claiming their “heritage” by flying the confederate flag and distancing themselves from anyone who doesn’t look like “us.”

There really are people who don’t “get” their own evil.  They do not understand.  They don’t do it out of anger or jealousy or spite or tradition.  What do we do in those cases?  Ignorance of the law is no excuse?  I didn’t know the gun was loaded?  

The simple answer is to let go of our own anger.  Simple, but not easy and maybe wrong.

So the question today is:  Did America’s Butter Queen, Paula Deen know that using slurs and creating hostile work environments -- even in private -- were wrong or did she just not think it through or see it for what it was?

In the Deen case, there’s no way to know for sure.  So “the” question becomes “a” question, “does it matter?”

If you crush your foot by dropping a truck engine on it, your foot is crushed, even if you somehow didn’t realize that dropping a heavy object on fragile bones might result in such an end.

In this case, you are both the aggressor and the agressed.

When you use a slur, you’re only half the equation.  The foot still hurts, even though it’s not YOUR foot.

Ignorance matters … especially in times like these when everyone has access to every kind of information.  Making oneself aware of how your beliefs interact with the culture in general has become detached from its former moorings:  school, neighborhood and family.  The whole thing is up to you now. You and your internet connection.

Are people like Deen forgivable just because their surroundings and culture prevents them from seeing the harm they’re doing?  Of course not.

A prominent public figure like Deen, age 66, has lived long enough and through enough to have learned something.  And yet, she hasn’t.  

She should think about things like that as she goes door to door peddling surplus bakeware, frying pans, recipe books and other gear that Wal-mart and Target now refuse to sell and videos of her former TV show.

Shrapnel (SCOTUS edition):

--The Supreme Court’s decision on the voting rights act... was it a sign of increasing re-segregation?  Or does it mean the civil rights movement worked and now regardless of race or economic status you get to be oppressed like everyone else.  We vote for the latter.

--We welcome the new day for gay marriage.  Why should we hetero  couples have to suffer alone?  Also, please remember there’s saltpeter in those wedding cakes and it works.

--The U.S. Supreme Court sees its mission as filtering things through the Constitution and deciding what does and what doesn’t pass through.  But it has turned itself into a closet legislature.  And it doesn’t matter which political outlook dominates the court, activist judges are activist judges.

I’m Wes Richards.  My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com

© WJR 2013