More of the same
2005-05-20, 9:56 a.m.

A couple of thought for today: I�ll preface them both by saying I guess I was right- society still has a long way to go towards equality. In reference to my previous post about TV being afraid to poke fun at mothers while constantly portraying fathers as bumbling idiots: I saw a Dodge Caravan commercial yesterday touting their stow-and-go seating. The mother was easily stowing away all of the rear seats in their swanky new minivan while her husband stood outside completely perplexed on how to fold up the baby stroller. I rest my case. At the same time, why is every single commercial for house cleansers- be it Lysol, Pine sol, Formula 409, Windex, Tilex, mops, vacuum cleaners, Cascade, etc etc etc. are ALL geared toward women. Are men not allowed (or supposed) to clean? Anyway, I am digressing. I read a news report yesterday saying that there is a bill in Congress right now trying to bar women in the military from being involved in any actual fighting. So as I was saying yesterday, I guess a lot of people STILL don�t think of women as equal. My question is: If lawmakers don�t want women engaging in combat (presumably because, in their opinions, women are inferior), why even let them enlist in the first place? So there is still rampant misogyny and sexism in this country. Are women not as good at firing weapons or piloting helicopters? Government enforced sexism. Gotta love it.

Which brings me to my second point: Racism. Something happened at work the other day that really made my jaw hit the floor. A lady I work with, we�ll call her Jane, was complaining to me about something. I guess she does volunteer work for this organization that helps inner city children. Every year, they have a conference for which the rent out the basement level of the Dayton Convention Center. Apparently, the person who heads this charity is responsible for setting all of this up and tabulating the bill. In previous years, the person who had this job was very good at it, but I guess someone new took over this year. Jane was complaining to me about what a poor job this new lady was doing compared to her predecessor. After telling me all of this, my co-worker says, �Now I�m not prejudiced, but the old lady who did this was white, and the new lady is black.� Yeeeeaaaaaah. So if she�s not prejudiced, as she claims, why even bring up the color of her skin? You obviously think it in some way factors into her inability to perform the job or you wouldn�t have mentioned it. Here�s the kicker, though. Here is what made my jaw drop: Jane is black.

I�ll let you draw your own conclusions.

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