Every Party Has a Pooper

..and no one invited you.


[Keep in mind this is more like a rant than a well written piece]


Ok, I have been SUCH a slacker on blogging but this topic irritated me enough to speak up. Does everyone remember the "planking" game that was trending this year? For those of you who don't know, the term "planking" refers to mimicking a wooden plank. It requires lying face down with hands by side in an unusual location, basically performing a crazy balancing act. It first became popular in North East England in 2000, went viral and eventually hit the states this year. Here is a picture Dwight Howard posted on Twitter of him in a Zaxby's earlier this summer. He posted a few and they were hands down the best I've seen because he always planks in the craziest places!

Twitter world didn't know whether to laugh or start a death related trending topic on this one..

Not such a good idea, Hef. People will think you've finally OD'd on Viagra.

Harmless right? Right. Until a Bobcats sales employee posted a picture on Facebook of him planking in the office and fans went CRAZY. Apparently, critics of planking compare the game with the slave trade-era practice of stowing African slaves upon the planks of a slave ship's lower hold. Are you kidding me? Come on, people. There is always someone who has to "stand out" and ruin all the fun. It's a harmless game of people in a ridiculous pose in an outlandish location. The picture was later removed. Why are we so afraid of offending someone? 


Not only does it make me mad that there are those few people whose life mission to ridicule, it really pisses me off that everything is about race.  It's 2011. Racism is dead! Or at least it's supposed to be. Why can't we LET GO? Unfortunately, I witnessed the answer.  



This really pulled on my heart strings when one night I was out to dinner with my little sister from Big Brothers Big Sisters.

A song by Beyonce came on in the restaurant and I started singing along. She laughed and said "you know this song?" I said "yeah, who doesn't?" She said "but you can't like this music it's 'brown people music.'" Later, I jokingly called her a brat after I bought her a sundae regardless that she didn't finish her dinner. She got offended and actually hurt. I felt horrible! Of course I apologized a million times and told her how much I love her and I would never seriously call her a brat. She said that she will forgive me but only because I'm her sister and that "brown people aren't supposed to forgive white people." "Where did you hear that?!" I asked her. Due to BBBS liable reasons, I can't disclose any information of her "sources." 


But my point is this - racism isn't dead because people refuse to let go. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery in 1865. We keep instilling these beliefs on our children 146 years later. I thought these opinions would be diluted over the generations but I learned first hand that people still live like this. And it makes me so sad :( What will it take for us to implement the United facet of our country's appellation? 


"Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation." - MLK Jr. Think about it.


What does this quote mean to you?