Last night I found myself watching the national news, which is something I typically avoid because it usually makes me mad. Last night was no exception. Maybe it was because I ended up on ABC. I was just waiting for the local weather to find out if I needed to plug my truck in or not.
The first story was on billboards in prominently black neighborhoods in Atlanta. Diane Sawyer talked about the higher pregnancy and abortion levels in black women as billboards showing black children and slogans saying black children were an endangered species and going extinct flashed on the screen. (A little extreme perhaps) The point was that out of about 31,000 abortions in Georgia last year, around 21,000 were in black women. The billboards were encouraging black women to rethink abortion.
Then they interviewed some black women. My blood pressure started to rise as one after another they told ABC news how they felt targeted and discriminated against solely because of their race. One even mentioned how this all led back to slavery. But...every woman started almost every single sentence with, "As a black woman I.." or "As a black woman this..." and most strayed off the topic at hand to make their race-related point. So who is it that discriminates and separates by race?
These women couldn't even get past their racial identity for a single sentence in most cases. And the real kicker, the billboards were designed by blacks as well. The designers explained that this was targeted to black women, just as other ads may be targeted to teenage mothers, and they were meant to be educational and thought provoking. It was based on statistical data and not designed to pick on them.
When people are so racists they can't function without dragging ethnicity and the "poor me" bit into the conversation it really ticks me off. As usual, someone was trying to help and these women couldn't see past the color of the situation.
The second story was on the hot dog. Apparently it's the leading food choking hazard in kids with 17,000 (I think) going to the emergency room each year. The discussion included the possibility of changing the hot dog shape, or that additional warnings might be put on labels. So, perhaps this isn't politically correct, but if you're too simple to realize your child may choke on a long, cylindrically shaped item, you probably need more help than additional warning labels will provide.
After that it went to local news and finally the weather, which was predicted to be cold. I changed channels, marched outside, plugged my truck in and wondered about society while I literally and figuratively cooled off.
Amen.
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