I wrote this on October 18, but my internet access was down, so I could not submit it until now.

  So, I'm watching the last few minutes of John Stewart, and he's talking to some guy about Madonna Adopting a baby from Africa, and the general practice of adopting babies from other countries.  It was all adequately amusing, but then John said something that really stood out to me.

  He was rather casually, but seriously, mentioning a couple of concerns about people adopting foreign children.  I wish I could recall the exact quote, but basically it was a concern that the child would grow up not being a part of his culture.  So, what does this mean?  An African baby might grow up in America and not what?  Be culturally African?

  So, what does this mean?  It's a tragedy for an African-born baby to grow up of a non-African culture?

  I thought race wasn't supposed to matter.  I guess I was wrong, yet again.  Apparently we can't have a child born in one culture be raised in, and adopt the qualities of, some other culture.

  I still managed to be amazed by how blind so many people are to their own racism and the racism of others.  Not speaking of John Stewart (specifically, at least), it's still fascinating how so many people, who complain about how horrible racism is, behave in racist manners and have racist mindsets.

  I've been wanting to mention racial pride for some time now.  I wonder how many people are proud to be whatever ever race they are?  Proud to be black?  Proud to be Asian?  Proud to be Latino?  Proud to be white- oh wait, it's wrong to be proud to be white.  Forget that last one.

  There's something you have to realize about pride in something.  Pride in something works only when the thing is in comparison with something else.  It means that you believe that the thing you have pride in is better than the comparable thing.  Superior.

  So, what about yourself are you proud of?  Do you have general pride in your race, or do you perhaps have pride only in some aspect of your race which IS ACTUALLY superior?

  I've made a few posts about racism.  I don't really remember if I did it in all of them, but in at least most of them I haven't spoken for or against racism itself.  I speak against hypocrisy regarding racism (among other forms of hypocrisy).

  When it comes to racism, most people don't want to accept that racism just is.  As long as race is a factor in ANYTHING, it will be racism.  Physical descriptions that include race is racism.  Cultural distinctions are racism.  Nationalities are racism.  Racism is like a pencil or a knife or a television: it's not inherently bad, but it can be used to do bad things.

  Race will always matter to some degree as long as people are separated into lasting groups, a.k.a. RACES.  F.Y.I., race is not limited to skin color or countries of origin.  My question is, just how racist do you want to be?  Just how much does it really matter if an African-born baby grows up with little or no African culture?  How much does it really matter if he/she grows up and doesn't really care that much about African culture?

  I'm Scottish, Irish, English, Spanish, German, and who knows what else.  So fucking what?  There are aspects of the cultures that I appreciate.  Genetically, I am what I am.  As far as I know, I'm not at all Asian or African, but I appreciate aspects of those races as well, both genetically and culturally.  There's hard facts, there's circumstances, and there's aesthetics.  The aesthetics are not important.  The hard facts and circumstances are just truth.

  Something else I'm very curious about is why the people of New Orleans re-elected Ray "chocolate New Orleans" Nagin for mayor.  His own racism aside, why did they re-elect a man who put bureaucracy ahead of the safety of his citizens?  I can't speak for the people of New Orleans, but that's not what I look for in a mayor.

  People.  If you want race to not matter, THEN YOU HAVE YOU QUIT MAKING IT FUCKING MATTER WHEN IT DOESN'T FUCKING NEED TO.