Are We All Undercover Racists?

Insults!

On Saturday I got really, really pissed off.  Like...angrier than I've been in a long, long time.  See...I try and be kinder and gentler and not let SIP out as much these days.  Growth and all that.

Let me paint the picture for you...

I was told that I could park somewhere while I got my volunteering on.  Several hours later I returned to my truck and it was fine.  Several hours later...I returned to my truck and...still fine.  Few hours later and I'm ready to roll out...and a car had blocked me in.

Someone went to go see what the what as I waited patiently thinking the person who blocked the cars in was just running in and out somewhere quickly.  When it became apparent that wasn't the case, I got out of my truck and followed the direction of the people who went to go see what was what.

I walked in on an argument and the person whose car was blocking the cars of the volunteers was saying that we needed to pay him to move his car.

Um...now say what now?

I didn't address the owner of the car...I addressed the person who was attempting to handle the situation.  I said...I'm not paying him anything...call the police.  He's impeding my movement and I consider it a form of kidnapping.  Call the police and let the police sort it all out.  Simple.  He doesn't own that area, you were told we could all park there.  I'm not about to be extorted by this dude.

So the dude in question was all super arrogant and whatnot.  The kind of person who has gotten over before and plans to do it again because he normally does this with good church folk who don't want no trouble.

Hi...I'm SIP...I don't mind trouble.  CALL THE POLICE!

So...I noticed that he got a bit nervous when cameras started snapping and folks started pulling out their phone to call the police as I'm continuing to tell folks to call the police.  (I'd left my phone in my truck.)  I head back to my truck to get my phone and he comes out with the other people and moves his car.  I am FURIOUS at this dude and I say a few choice words without cursing to him once I'd moved my truck.  He felt that it could probably escalate so he didn't say anything until AFTER I'd walked away.  Because of the company I was keeping...I stopped talking.

But BAAAAAAAAABY...the things I was thinking?  NO.CUT.

Now...it should be noted that I don't have a problem with many folks.  Just ignorant mofos.  I don't really care what you're doing with your life, who you are, etc. as long as you aren't messing with me or mine.  I just stay away from you and don't give two figs about what you have going on.  Ignant ish however?  I have a problem with.

I thought some really horrible things about the guy, who was dressed in traditional Muslim headgear.  You can imagine as you've probably heard these things before.  I didn't feel bad about my thoughts either...I was just furious with an ignant mofo who was coming at me all wrong.  I didn't know anything about him other than, at that moment, I wished the ground would open up and swallow his ignant azz up or that I could have yanked him out of his car and slapped him silly.

Now...during some quiet reflecting, I started thinking about insults and how not many of us have problems slinging them or thinking them when we feel insulted.  These insults...does it mean we have a problem with ALL people who share the trait, characteristic or similarity we used as an insult?

Hmmmmmmmmmm...

And I thought about the firemen fighting last week.  The fireman who called the other one an offensive slur...did it mean he hated all Black people...or...could it mean that he just REALLY not like that one Black person in particular and wanted to insult him to his core just to let him know exactly how much he couldn't stand his azz? 

I mean...I don't have a problem with Muslims.  Period.  I believe everyone should be allowed to practice their religion because I'll be damned if someone is going to  tell me that I can't practice my religion my way.  I certainly don't think all people who are obviously not FROM here are illegal and I don't think all people from the Middle East are terrorists.  Not even in the slightest.  Dare I be all cliche' as hell here and say that some of my FAVORITE people are Muslim because well...it's true.  Very true.  

But it made me think about what we do, think and say when we are mad as hell at one particular person.  It made me wonder about insults and what it means that we have them so readily available in our verbal arsenal...

So...I ask you, In 2014...can we insult people who have HIGHLY offended us using slurs without said slur being a blanket statement across the board?  Do YOU think offensive insults that you'd never say out loud?  Do you think it means you're a little bit racist?  Have you ever thought about this?