Sensitivity Really Burns My Butt

You know what really burns my butt?  People who cry racism or discrimination at every little slight that comes their way.

Recently, a First Nations lady in B.C. had a media melt-down because of some very colorful head dresses being sold in a store.  By the way, my daughters thought they were absolutely gorgeous!  No doubt these head dresses were designed as mementos for those visiting the province, wanting a little piece to remember their vacation by.  She immediately takes offense, screams discrimination and insensitivity to her culture, resulting in removal of the head dresses from all the shelves of this chain store.

Really?  Very well.  We won't buy any more beaded moccasins made by First Nations, as a means of income.  We won't buy totem poles designed by you, either, even though your art is spectacular.  We won't try to learn more about your culture.  This lady made it very clear anyone outside of their culture must "earn" the right to own even a tiny piece of it.

Quite frankly, I have always been very curious about the Indian culture in our country.  Granted, I don't know as much as I might want to, but I certainly would not have been able to deduce buying a head dress, full of colorful feathers, would have offended anyone.  In fact, I would have been thrilled to purchase a little piece of this culture, authentic or otherwise.

How can you educate others about your culture if pieces of it are not out there for us to ask questions about?  Why would you immediately scream discrimination and insensitivity to your culture?  Instead of having a media melt-down, you should have used the opportunity to properly educate those of us who had no knowledge a head dress was to be earned -- not bought.  Rather, you made a nation shake their heads at your crazy behaviour.  No one was intentionally insulting you or your culture.  It's called lack of knowledge.

The same week as this story breaks in the media, Oprah gets her nose out of joint because a sales clerk did not allow her to "see" a certain purse.  What was the ridiculous price tag again?  I can't even remember.  Anyway, the first thing she assumes is racial discrimination.  Holy crap!

Personally, her OWN network isn't doing as well as she thought it would (a name can only carry so much weight after all), and she needed some serious free publicity.  She got it, but for the wrong reasons.  It would have been more amazing to see her helping those less fortunate than her.  I mean, seriously, have you not seen the pictures of New Orleans?  So many areas are still completely devastated many years after Hurricane Katrina went through.  Sandra Bullock won an award for humanitarian of the year for just such help.

Those of different racial ethnicities need to quit using the discrimination card for every little slight.  Some things are just life.  They weren't done to intentionally hurt your feelings or the pride you have for your ethnic background.  Even white people have different backgrounds we are proud of -- whether they are Irish, French, German, English, or Italian.  Are these not ethnicities, too?  Or are they simply "white"?

If racial discrimination is to end, we all need to be treated equal.  We need to quit screaming our woes to the media.  Every single one of us bleeds red.  Educate rather than try to become ethnically more superior because there is no such thing -- Hitler found that out.  What else could all this media posturing is about anyway?