CV and mad panic behaviour

[Baggers]

At the risk of sounding cheesy, the change needs to happen in our hearts, and that means all of us, rich, poor, black, white. And it is not a set and forget scenario. It requires vigilance and attention every day.  And apathy is a major problem in this regard.

Also, racism manifests itself in subtle ways - it's not just about skin colour or strange food or being called names. Chris Hedges does volunteer work in prisons around where he lives in Princeton. He told a story of a black prisoner telling him that he never experienced racism because no one called him the n word. Hedges then described to him the public schools in Princeton for the predominately white middle class - all nicely furnished, well maintained etc. This prisoner grew up in a black neighbourhood, and when Hedges asked him to describe his school, he talked about broken lights, things not working, no replenishing of supplies for the teachers etc. Hedges, who has worked in poor neighbourhoods for decades, simply said, "that's racism."

Not at all 'cheesy', Pauly. Not at all. Truth. The truth might sound cheesy and we might be a little shy to advance such observations in such a critical world, but the truth has a strength of its own which is inspiring and terrifying... depending on where you're at.

Change is happening, excruciatingly slowly... but it's happening. Tiny revolution after tiny revolution. The up side of cameras, TV and social media (when operating at their ethical best) is accountability. Exposure. Appalling behaviour is finding fewer and fewer places to hide. But we've a long way to go, and need to remain as vigilant as Rosa Parks back in the mid 50s on that bus... and as much that has changed for African American folk since then, it needs to change as much again. We tend to measure change in terms of our own lifetimes or the ideal of going straight from ignorance to enlightenment... understandable, but a dash naive. We've a lot of paddock to hoe along with plenty of blood, sweat and tears (shout out to David Clayton-Thomas).

Humans have been prejudiced against anyone seen as 'different' since time immemorial. Religion against religion, neighbour against neighbour, tribe against tribe, suburb against suburb, state against state, national against nation, culture against culture and so on, ad infinitum. Sheesh, so many of us are at war within ourselves, FFS. Prejudice is embedded in our hearts... holding hands with fear, well, often it is simply just that - fear. That's why your comment aint cheesy, but we are changing in the right direction with our hoe hitting stumps and mud and other obstacles, but it is happening.