+ "Don't Call Me White" +

I was going to continue this later, but for whatever reason it's still in my head and still bothering me. Do you know the NOFX song "Don't Call Me White"? I feel that the song is underrated.

I'm getting relatively sick of hearing people use the word white. I'm tired of people trying to label me white. I am not white. White is an offensive label, not that many give a dang. Nor do many people see 'white' as an offensive title. Mostly if you say being called white is offensive you just get condescending looks, as if you don't have a right to say that.

I’m not any different (nor better) than anyone else because my skin is pale. I’m different as far as my environment, culture, and nature in which I grew up in, that however just means I had a different childhood. It means nothing as far as my worth as a person. People I love have still died despite my skin color. I've had some pretty awful periods of suffering...just like everyone else in the world. I'm unafraid to stand up for myself. I don't care about consequences if I believe I’m doing what’s right. I have never judged anyone based on their skin color. In my life I've made friends with people from all walks of life. If I am a jerk to you, buckle up because it means you're a poor specimen of humanity.

God knows I’ve been harassed because of my pale skin more than anything. I'm paler than most - I glow in moonlight. I kid you not. I've been made fun of countless times for my skin. I've been made fun of for having to wear eye patches as a kid. I’ve been made fun of for my nose, more specifically, that it looks like my nose is pierced when it’s not. I've been made fun of for my hair, my teeth, my beliefs, and my speech. I'm not saying I've had it bad in life - I've been pretty fortunate in a lot of ways. I'm not denying that, I'm denying it having anything to do with skin color. There’s a lot more to people than physical traits.

I, however, am not white. I am Irish. I am Italian. I am Norwegian. I am Romani. I am a third generation American citizen. I am not white. White means nothing. White is not a race. White is not a description of the person I am, the values I hold dear, or the land I claim as my own. White doesn't describe the culture from which I was raised. By claiming to be white you're claiming that you're not important enough to be an individual. You're allowing yourself to lose your cultural identity. Allowing others to label you and strip away all that you are.

I don't know about other people's history. I do, however, know that my ancestors' hands are clean. They owned no slaves. They kicked no native peoples from their lands in any continent. They were innocent. Yet classes and people who claim to know my past better than I, try and force guilt upon me because I look as if I have Anglo-Saxon heritage. That is wrong, too. Don't pass the sins of others upon my back when I've done nothing. The Romani people were forced into concentration camps, too. The Irish have had their own suffering, too. As have all peoples. No culture is free of suffering from the hands of others. That is the point. We're all guilty, we're all oppressors. We've all suffered. The more you draw lines in the sand and scream about how this group has suffered at the hands of so-and-so the more you increase hate.

The only way to actually get along is stop drawing so many lines in the sand and hating each other for the sins of the past. I'm not saying forget or stop talking about the history and all of its bloodshed. I'm saying educate, accept that horrible things have happened to humanity without blaming each other now. Have intelligent, helpful, and meaningful discussions without anger, hate, blame, and spite for each other.

That is my wish. That is the one thing I've found can't seem to happen in discussion. People will always throw blame around instead of just talking without blaming.

I'm not white. I am, however, genuinely empathetic with those who have suffered because that's what it means to be human; to feel, to suffer, to live. And unfortunately I think to be human means to hate. I would love for the world to prove me wrong. But I've seen more hate than love in the world.