"it don't matter if you're black or white"

1. enjoyed reading a book during a nice morning thunderstorm. then the sun came out and i went to the pool to keep enjoying my book!
2. didn't realize until late in the day that it was thursday today! i thought it was wednesday. yay! less than 2 weeks until the hopeful beach trip...
3. went out for coffee tonight with a family friend's friend and really enjoyed it! she told me more about this place and also mentioned that i might get some baby sitting clients. that'd be great!

oh, thank you michael jackson. he sure did have some glory days. anyway, what prompted me to talk about racism was something my boyfriend mentioned to me yesterday about a text one of the ladies at his job received. essentially, it was very racist and stereotypical. something i argue about with him a lot is southern culture. i love the south and he's a northerner (kind of, also a transplant). so while i understand the concept of living in the south, it is really foreign to him. he claims that you have to be born into southern culture to get it. that may be true, but i am just thankful that i wasn't born a northerner. anyway, racism is a big issue for him. don't get me wrong...it infuriates me. it was pretty prevalent at my high school and always a topic for jokes. mainly racism against blacks or hispanics, but sometimes asians. so blatant racism bothers me a lot and often upset me in school. what i want to make a point of proving, though, is that everyone is racist. yes, EVERYONE (even you). while not every person is blatantly racist, most social psychology research agrees that people of all races have stereotypes about other races/religions/social classes/intelligence levels/genders/sexual orientations/etc. so while it may be an uncomfortable topic, especially for people who claim not to be racist, it is true. everyone is racist or prejudiced in some ways. part of it is just in-group and out-group bias, simple social psych stuff. but a lot of it is more deep seated for us--how we were raised, in what environment, around which people. racism is not always taught, but can be picked up from parents, friends, media, books, any source of information that people use to shape their world views. anyway, my point is that, yes, racism is an awful thing and has torn people and countries apart, there are none who are guiltless. racism affects everyone and racism exists in everyone. disclaimer: this picture is not meant to imply that racism is only whites hating blacks--that is not so--"racism" encompasses a lot of things in the context i am using the word.