The Colors In A Childs Crayola Box

I once heard it said that"All the fightin and fussin about race was over nothin more then the simple colors in a childs crayola box"
I agree with that statement,well most of it anyway,If I was BLUE, I think i'd pitch a fit

I wanted to start this thread to Discuss ALL FORMS of Racism and they do take many many form's....
Have you been effected by Racism?? and if so, How did you handle it?? OR wish you had handled it??
Saw it happen before your very eyes and wondered what if anything you could do about it??

Got a story to tell??
ALL Comments are welcome!

This isn't about countries, OR Governments, This is about puttin a face on this human tradgey.

~~~We Are The World~~~

~~~I Am Who I Am~~~


RESPECTFULLY

MissPlaced

I saw this with multiple attributions so I'm not sure whats accurate or true even. One of them is it was nominated as a UN poem of the year for either 2005, 2006 or even 2008. No idea if it's true or not. Regardless I think it's thought provoking in it's own way. Also have seen it formatted multiple ways.

Have seen it titled multiple ways as well. I'll use this one:

Kid

When I born, I black
When I grow up, I black
When I go in Sun, I black
When I scared, I black
When I sick, I black
And when I die, I still black
And you white fellow
When you born, you pink
When you grow up, you white
When you go in sun, you red
When you cold, you blue
When you scared, you yellow
When you sick, you green
And when you die, you gray
And you calling me colored?

If anyone can cite the correct attributions I'll make the necessary changes here.

I did a google scholar search on this poem. The author of this article: http://ijds.lemoyne.edu/journal/3_1/pdf/IJDS.3.1.02.Chaudhary.pdf [This is a PDF document] states that the poem was an award winner and that it was circulating around the internet at the time. The author says he/she could not find an original source for the poem. So, she/he has written beneath it: Anonymous 2005. From this we can ascertain that the poem was written at least in 2005 and had received an award by the time this article was written in 2008.

Further searching has led to a book called Chuckles by Edmund C. Hughes which has an original publication date of 2004. The poem above is quoted in that book and the author writes:

"In a message dated 7/23/2003 3:38:58 PM Eastern Standard Time, Mcchemrx writes:

This was written by a black guy in Texas. . . . .so
funny. . . . .what a great sense of humor and creativity!!!"

followed by the poem without a title.

However, I have found this poem quoted in an even earlier text:

LA LITERATURA A TRAVÉS DE LA
PUBLICIDAD: UN INSTRUMENTO DE
MEDIACIÓN CULTURAL EN EL AULA DE
LENGUA EXTRANJERA

found here: http://publicaciones.faedumel.es/articulos/369.pdf most of it is in the language of the title above. The text states that the poem was used as part of a campaign to eliminate racism from football. The text also says that there are several versions of the poem.

So, the poem was around at least by 2002 in various forms.

The poem may very well have evolved as part of an oral tradition and altered in its telling depending on the audience and situation.

Orange Blossom

@ Animal,
Thank you for the thought provoking poem, at one time or another i've been every color of the rainbow, including Black..
you see when I was a kid we had black walnut trees in our back yard,Now for those that don't know about black walnut's, when they first fall off the tree , they have a green hull around them,once you remove that hull, there's the shell of the walnut...
Now removin that hull is color changin to say the least,...LOL because as you take the hull off with your barehands there's a dark liquid, that will dye your skin in a hot mississippi minute,and don't come off easy,once your dyed you stay that way for day's..LOL..you can end up lookin like a dalmation or dependin you can be black all over,as kids we ran the gammet from dalmation to Black and it permently stained our cloth's....Momma weren't happy at all

@ Orange Bloosom,
Thank you for the history of Animal's Poem.

I once had a conversation with a member of this board, I had thanked this individual for their kind words to me about one of the thread's,
during the course of that conversation, this individual asked me if their "Nationality" bothered me,as I sat here and read this individuals words I was stunned to say the least, I sat here thinkin "now why in the name of sence would your nationality bother me"??, there it was again "Racism" had raised it's ugly head again,as I thought about this individuals words it came to me that apprently their nationality had been a problem for them with others, it made me sad for this individual.
To this individual i say,the only thing that matters to me is that you have a kind and gentle spirit, a loving and giving heart, that's all that should ever matter.

RESPECTFULLY
MissPlaced

Here it is MissPlaced. I said I would post this. You know the name of the young man.

In 2008 a young man goes to the local DMV to change his drivers license from Virginia to Alabama. What transpired was someone showing how totally ignorant she was.

He gives the lady behind the counter his Virginia drivers license and a certified copy of his birth certificate. The lady takes one look at the birth certificate and tells him 2 things:

1) Birth certificate is in Spanish and it has to be translated into English
2) I need to see your green card.

OOPS, wrong things to say to the young man. He politely responded

1) The birth certificate is dual language-Spanish and English.
2) Puerto Ricans don't need green cards because PR is a territory of the United States thus making Puerto Ricans legal US citizens.

The lady refused to back down. The Spanish part still needed to be translated and she needed his green card.

The young man then pulled out an OFFICIAL ID identifying him as currently serving in the US Navy. (He had returned from deployment one month before AND that he had missed the birth of his daughter because he was deployed during when she was born)

The lady kept at it. By this time the young man was very angry but kept his anger under control, although he did raise his voice a little.
That got the attention of a supervisor who came out to see what was going on. Once he understood the problem he let the lady know 2 things:

1) Since the birth certificate was dual language it was acceptable. (even if it had not had English on it they would have to accept it since it
is a "certified U.S. birth certificate issued by an agency designated by state or federal authority")

2) Puerto Rico is indeed considered a part of the U.S. and Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens.

She made judgments based on his name and the Spanish part of his birth certificate. Her ignorance showed that day.

There were other people at the DMV who knew PR is not a foreign country-these were the smart ones.

A couple of years later the young man, now out of the Navy, decided to use the GI Bill to go back to school. When he went to register for classes another ignorant fool asked to see his green card. This time there was no fuss because the other person working in the office was quick to point out NO he does not need a green card.

This all happened to my son-in-law. Today he carries his passport with him every where he goes. It clealy proves he is a United States citizen.

Because of him, I have met many wonderful Puerto Ricans. The sad thing is they are all subjected to the same thing he was. People assume that just because they speak Spanish and have Hispanic names they must be here from Mexico and are illegal aliens, when in fact they are no such thing.

In one of my previous careers I was the manger of a telecommunications team. Part of our territory included dealing with state and federal level secure communications operations. Those always required technicians to have secret or above credentials for access. On more than one occasion I had to show up to vouch for my technicians being American citizens and that their credentials were in fact legitimate. Not once in the 7 years I was responsible for those sites were white Anglo male or female technicians questioned or delayed. Appear to be any ethnicity but a white Smith or Jones and you may be delayed. Hispanic, Middle Eastern and Russian or Slavic appearing names set off the profiling triggers for some reason.

@ Queen Evie,

Thank you for sharin that story.
The ill treatment of your son-in-law, brings this phrase to mind..."It is better to be thought a fool, then to open your mouth and remove all doubt"

Bless her heart, she lends creedence to the "MYTH" about Southern Folks, you know the one,being southern automaticaly makes you Racist,slow,Uneducated,Lazy,that we eat dirt ,I ain't had a mouthful of dirt since i was a teenager and was thrown from a horse
She is a shingin example of not only racism, but stupidity as well.

At this point I'm gonna have to be brutality honest,and i know some of you are gonna find this shocking,BUT here goes...
I am prejuiced,shocked, I know....My particular predjuice is against STUPIDY

@ Animal,
Profiling is an ugly business to be sure, and to my mind it encompass's more then just Nationality, or Race,
Let me explain what i mean here:

Many years ago, their was alittle boy,who just happened to live on one of the local Military Base's here in the cradle of idoicy,(for those of you that don't know what I do for a livin, I transport Challenged children to and from school,I'm tellin you this so that what i'm about to say makes sence to you) Now i had been pickin up my Little passenger for a few week's on this base....On this particular day, as i pulled up to the guard station to show my ID, I was handed a Laminated "PASS",it was spotless.

Now I'm not stupid,they were getting my fingerprint's without having to go thru alot of legal mumbo jumbo.
This ticked me off,because i hadn't done anything to warrent a background check of my personal life!
Especially troublin to me, was that just on a whim, they could dig into my private life without reason!

I thought to myself"How dare you invade my privacy just outta plain ole curosity,Good luck findin any dirt on me!"
You all have been lettin me on this base for week's now without a problem,NOW all of a sudden your doin a background check???
Apparently I must have passed with flyin colors, I was still allowed on the base to get my Little man.

edited to add: in order to do what I do for a livin,I have to pass afew background check's,things like do i have any ticket's,dui's,have i ever been imprisioned,ever been in trouble with the law at all,,just recently they finally added a fingerprint evaluation as well( I don't have to do this, because i've been doin my job for over a decade so i was grandfathered in, but new driver's have to do this, me personaly i think this should have been done yearsd ago, for this reason,what i do is a perverts dream job,unfortunately there have been a few perverts that slipped thru the crack's, so now there's a 50 state check.

I sometimes wonder if my fingerprints are on file anyplace..LOL...It would serve those guy's right if their not..LOL

RESPECTFULLY

MissPlaced

Here is a story from the journey that is my life.

Many Many years ago, I lived in a small town,,The KKK had decided to hold one of their ralleys just up the street from where we lived,that street went past the church where I was married, and my babies where Baptised.

At the beginning of that street where 2 brick pillars on each side of the street,those pillars were just across the street from my house.

Now The KKK had decided to place 1 of their members at each of those pillars in full KKK attire, I guess to give directions to where the actual ralley was bein held.

I had just put my babies down for their naps and had decided to look out the door to see what the day was like outside,as I looked out the door, I was a little shocked to see those 2 KKK members just across the street, as I leaned against the door frame with my coffee in hand,i was overcome with a sense of sadness to see such hate blantently displayed just outside my door.

I remember thinking "How sad,I hope there's no trouble over this,how sad it must be to be consummed with such hate,It's gotta be like being consummed by cancer, it just eat's you alive".

Why do we go to such length's to hurt one another, what good can possibly come from this??


As I sit heretyping this and remembering that day, I can't help but wonder why groups like the KKK, Skinheads,ARRIAN Nation,Louis Farakan and his following, Bin Laden and his followers..ever hope to gain, by spouting their messages of hate, don't they know, can't they see that the very hate that they serve so proudly is the very cancer that's eating them alive.

There are none so blind as those that will not see!
All that is required for evil to thrive, is for good men/women to do nothing....

As for me, I have always believed it is better to light a candle then to curse the darkness....

The answer to all of this is so simple, why do we refuse to give creedence to the simple amswer????

~~~Color Of Love~~~

~~Face In The Crowd~~~

RESPECTFULLY

MissPlaced

I now have heard it all. Crayons caused racism.

I was hopeing that this disscussion would go farther then it did....But it didn't...so in closing I would like to say this.

When you are looked upon with disdain, Don't buy the lie,for you see you're accusers are broken inside, by the very lie that has caused them to accuse you.

Instead look up and see and Know who you really are, for then and only then will that lie have no power over you.
~~~No One Know's My Heart~~~

RESPECTFULLY

MissPlaced

When I was a little boy, before WW11, every paint box I ever had, had a colour called bleep Brown. Toyshop owners would be shot nowadays.

I see we are censoring history now.

No one is censoring history.

What is being censored are words that are not acceptable for posting.


http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forum-rules/
"There will be no use of profanity on our message boards. This will not be tolerated and can lead to immediate suspension."


While each person has different views on what constitutes profanity, here at BC we need to remember that what bothers one person may not bother another. We see and hear worse things in our everyday lives. Just because it happens out in the world is no reason things such as that should be posted at Bleeping Computer. In order to be the best help site we need to show respect to all by "keeping it clean".

edit to add: The word filter doesn't know you are referring to history.

DRAT...the thought police/political correctness, strikes yet again... I'm so offended.

I wonder if those that have bought into the political correct ideology will ever understand that it is impossible to have a forum to debate in.. If the only people that are allowed to speak their mind is such people.. how can there possibly be discussions?

There can't be and that is why this part of the forum has dried up.