Monday, January 4, 2010

No Profiling

I hate to admit I'm prejudiced -but-
This morning I was at the laundromat. It was just me and some redneck housepainter doing his wool socks, flannel shirts and overalls. He had a crewcut, looked like he knew his way around a beer bottle and was wearing a carhardt jacket.
I didn't have anything to read so I turned on the TV. One of the public access channels was broadcasting the audio of Democracy Now. I sat down to listen to Amy tell about the travesty of justice in the Blackwater scandal, and was sort of lost in thought when the redneck says, "You watchin' this?"
Immediately I expected him to start complaining about the show and how it was bullsh** and unpatriotic and could he change the channel.
Instead he says, " kinda depressing isn't it?".
Well for the next half hour we had a conversation about the economy, industrial farming, manufactured food products, etc. We agreed that the problems were so complex it was depressing because it was hard to figure out where to start cleaning up the mess.
One place I'm going to start is on myself. I know better to assume that a redneck (a working class rural white person actually) is necessarily not progressive thinking, intellectual or liberal. For crying out loud - I'm a rural working class white person!!! So are most of my friends and family!
From now on I'm going to join in conversation with folks. Get to know a few more people and learn from everyone.