A cat sits on a hot stove- QotD

"We should be careful to get out of an experience all the wisdom that is in it--not like the cat that sits on a hot stove lid. She will never sit down on a hot lid again--and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore."-Mark Twain

I don't know the history behind this quote, how Mark Twain intended it to be used, but when I first heard this quote it was in the context of racism. It states that the cat learns not to sit on stoves, because he was burned by the last one he sat on. Unfortunately people often learn like that cat does. If someone has a bad experience with one person from a different race, then they learn not to trust everybody from that race. What they should have learned is not to trust that one person, like the cat should not sit on only hot stoves. I think this is very true. And I used to think that racism didn't really exist anymore and that it had faded out.

I grew up in a town that was 80% black, 15% white, and 5% other (yes I just made a giant catagory for all the other races). Obviously, most of my friends were black, or at least the same amount were black that were white. Race was never a big issue where I came from. To some extent I was sheltered. I do remember one of my friends telling me about a time he walked home. He literally was just walking down the road after school when a cop pulled to the side and started harassing him about where he just came from, where he was going, and what was in his bag. This was one of my friends who never got into any major trouble. After hearing this I just kinda brushed it off. An isolated incident, right?

Not so much. Now that I'm in college I would like to say that everyone here was the same as back home, and that racism was a thing of the past. I would also like to say that the world is at peace, and all religions finally learned to get along. But I would be lying. Sadly many people are still under the impression that someone is inherently inferior simple because of their race. Now, not everyone here is like this. In fact most people aren't. But more people were than I knew back home. But is that true, or was I just unaware when I was younger because of how my parents raised me?

When I was little, five or so, my family and I went to a Braves game. We were up in the nose bleeds (the seats so high it makes your nose bleed) and we were having a great time. There was a large group of black guys sitting behind us, and they were in their twenties or so. Whenever they talked to each other they would use slang and called each other "niggers." Now, being five and never hearing that word while growing up, I didn't know what it meant. So I asked.

"Sir," I asked, "what's a 'nigger?'" They all stopped talking. One of them stood up.

"Guys," he said, "we just taught this little boy something he shouldn't ever hear." After that they stopped saying it and bought me peanuts for the rest of the game.

Now, I always wondered why "nigga" was a term used to refer to other black people. So I asked my good friend, and someone I consider a mentor, why this was. He explained it as this: when there is a class system of any kind, people in the same class often refer to each other using terms they identify with. Such as poor people calling each other "po'." Now I can understand this mentality, but I still think that any derogatory word no matter how it's used will still bring down that group of people. Ergo, that word should not be used anymore, by anyone. But that's only wishful thinking.

For my last issue that I'm going to bring up here, I would just like to mention black culture how I've heard it used by some people. Now I've heard people say that black culture is saggy pants, rap music, idolization of the gangster, etc. I would just like to say that I do not think this is black culture, but urban culture. In big cities, such as Hotlanta (sidenote, "Hotlanta" is a word, according to spell check), this is the prominent culture. But I bet if you move out to the rural areas, the culture is a lot different. Why I think urban and black culture get confused, as well as white and rural culture, is because of demographics.

For example, if more white people live in rural areas, it would be easier to say that rural culture is white culture. The same for urban culutre and black culture. But what about any white people who live in the city and follow the urban culture, or vice versa? Would that would mean the white person is following black culture? No. That white person is following urban culture. But what if they're not even black or white? Of course there are all sorts of demeaning terms for people like this. Racism has been around for a long time.

In closing, I do not think all hope is lost. I think that my generation will be the one to end racism. After all, our new president is black, interracial relationships are on the rise, or are at least not so uncommon, and people have generally become more tolerant of differences. Of course there are still things that need to be fixed, but that will always be the case. Civil wars are still being fought because of race, like the Hutu and the Tutsi. And I know that I do come from a middle class background, and will not know the many difficulties that some people face due to race. But I do see a brighter future. I think that there are some bigger problems that we will face, and to get through them we are going to have to learn to live together.

What do you think? Leave your ideas in the comments below.

-Beast

PS- If you're wondering how I had time to write this if I was going to be extremely busy for the rest of the week, I had an extremely productive day so far and was able to get more work done than I thought. Wish me luck for the rest of the week.