RyE On Life through Purple Colored Shades

I had a particular interesting and rather heavy conversation this morning that started with "are you wearing purple?"

If you did not know, Oct 20, 2010 is wear purple day in honor of the recent suicide deaths of the young LGBT kids in the recent months. Purple symbolizes spirit on the LBGT flag. This notion of wearing purple today is to remind people that love...no matter the form...is greater than hate.

Due to the homophobic abuse these kids were so distraught over their lives they decided to end it. Nothing in this world is more sacred than your life. Nothing is more precious than what you bring to this world just by existing and so yes I believe in this cause. I did wear purple today.

But wearing purple is not what I'm talking about today. See the conversation started out with if I'm wearing something purple but the conversation went deeper than that. I understand I over think sometimes (prob the biggest understatement ever but HUSH). I also realize that topics on politics, social issues, and religion are generally not great topics to discuss with people because everyone has their own opinion.

I actually enjoy having these conversations simply because I love to hear opposing views. The problem is that my peers are generally....hmmm how should I say this nicely...not open? Fuck it...they are ignorant. Passionately ignorant though so I must give them credit. I think I can only talk to one individual about everything and even she won't talk to me about religion ha.

It's not so much that I care to talk about these things but I like to stimulate my brain and have deep conversations besides the "whats up how was your night/weekend/etc?" Unfortunately I don't talk about them because quite frankly no one really understands me. If we even share a common result I bet you that our process in how we got to that conclusion would differ and thus still cause us to debate. But you know what? Silence is boring. I don't think you have to agree with me. Hell I don't expect you to. What I hate is when people are so close minded they don't even take the other persons perspective into consideration.

I generally detach myself from my emotions when I discuss about certain topics. I like to do my research and learn as much as I can on issues in order to come up with my educated thoughts and opinions on the matter. What I would like to hear from others is maybe something I didn't know and let me find another way to see it. Problem is when I see your emotionally attached I sense a bit of biased and therefore I feel (again just my opinion) that it negates your argument.

(Editors note: this is where people will be offended) I'm not trying to be an asshole I swear but the majority of my friends are too stereotypical minority brainwashed. Everything becomes race...and everything becomes "I'm doing this for my people." So naturally anything that comes up with the slightest tinge of majority vs minority or race issues they always side with their people. Which hey, is what it is...nothing wrong with supporting your people. Where I'm offended is when they expect me to join their side. And if I don't then it's all of a sudden a crime and now I'm the proverbial Uncle Tom. Sorry guys...(Editors note: just an example)just cause some colored man was shot by white cops accidentally doesn't mean I'm going to say die pigs die and swear off all cops. I've had my fair share of run in's with the law where I've been treated unfairly but I also have cops in my family and know a lot of good white cops so it's not so cut and dry. Do I agree with what happened? Hell no! But I also cannot just start an anti white cop campaign.

I cannot blame nor ostracize a particular group because of the actions of a small group of individuals. Isn't that the very being of racism? Oh and let me just say this...there is no such thing as reverse racism. It's just racism pure and simple. Sadly, thoughts and actions are brought out by way of your environment and what you have been expose to all your life. And I know my friends just haven't exactly had the best situations put forth in front of them nor did they have the luxury of seeing all the cultures and things outside their "hood" so they go with what they know.

But I tell ya...there's these things that are out these days....they are called books...the internet..newspapers...all fun stuff that if you read through them you can educate yourself beyond your environment.

My other issue is supporting causes. I have certain things in my life that has affected me one way or another to be fully vested (emotionally and physically) to particular causes. I also like to think I have a pretty decent heart so more often than not I generally would do any type of charitable work that is for a good cause. Now because of that all my save the world friends expect me to bandwagon onto every cause out there. Again like I said even if we share the same conclusion doesn't mean we arrived to that point the same way. This is very important because it's what helps me separate what I stand behind and what I just support.

Just to clarify in my view, standing behind something is being a firm believer in the cause and wanting to help and push it to greater things. For support that would be similar to wanting to end world hunger and homelessness. Sure I want those to end but I'm not actively trying to figure out how to keep homeless people off the streets or be able to give food to every one in the world.

I don't name names but, I have a friend who literally signs up for every type of cause out there. Save the trees, whales, eagles, the closing of the old stamp house...... Support gays they are treated unfairly....Stop using the term midget it's not politically correct. All the while posting on twitter, fb, all these fun little notions. Again, not trying to be an asshole but while I commend your actions and wanting to save everyone and their mother...I honestly don't care enough for every cause. I can give two rats asses about whales and eagles or old buildings that I never even cared to go into. Does it really make me that bad of a person because I simply do not care enough to join your crusade?

I'll give you another example. We all know Haiti was hit hard this past year and everyone worldwide openly reached out to help. It was a beautiful sight to see humanity come together to help those during this unfortunate disaster. This personally affected me too because some of my best friends are from Haiti. So I, like many other people donated and went to benefits/happy hours for Haiti relief.

Then one individual decided to throw a happy hour as a means to show her ability to "raise awareness" and prove that she can put something together in the eyes of her peers. Nothing about what she did was for Haiti. It was all self orchestrated for her own benefits. The cause was a timely excuse and to me that pissed me off. I don't care if the end result was people donated and you were able to "help the cause." It should have been pure from the start if you wanted to really help. So naturally I boycotted this event despite the end game.

I know...I'm a handful. This probably doesn't help my cause to get more people to talk to me about things ha. But to me things aren't so black and white. I wish it was as cut and dry as that but I just see things through too many perspectives to just automatically side with you because of xyz. You can take it how you want but that's just me.

Silence is boring...so if you want to talk let me know. Maybe we can view things through my purple colored shades.