Don't Believe the HYPE!

I was having a conversation about race relations, and my belief that we have made "progress" in the past 60-years, but we do live in a time where race and/or ethnicity is a subject that many people avoid discussing, because it's uncomfortable & tensions can run high.

First things first, as human beings, we all want the same things: be happy, provide for our family and enjoy the freedoms that so many gave their lives for in order for US to thrive.

OK, so the conversation turned to the Platinum Premier bouncer, Easton Byfield, who punched a suspected drug dealer not once, but four times in the face. (Read my comment about Byfield being charged with a "Hate Crime on http://WorcesterBloggers.posterous.com)

What if it were Patrick, the suspected drug dealer, who had punched Easton Byfield four times in the face, locked him in a bathroom and taken $300 in cash from Easton's wallet and claimed it as his own? Would Black people be upset? Hell YES!

But, we should be upset based upon one human being taking advantage of another and not solely because we see a Black man beating on a White man. Because we have been taught, from a very early age, to be weary of people different from us, we sometimes don't know when to apply the 'race governor' and stop ourselves from acting irrational.

At the same time, there are people or groups of people that are always looking for the next thing to fly off the top about. I know a number of these people and they have the mentality that, "the world is always trying to screw me." It's sad that they live their life this way, but they have to want to change their thinking and no one can do it for them.

All that I am and believe I've learned from people, but the key has not been taking everything as Gospel.

So, in the great words of Public Enemy, "Don't Believe the Hype!"