Friday, October 21, 2011

He Ain't Heavy...


People are up in arms about Rick Perry calling Herman Cain “brother” in the latest episode of “Who Wants to Be a GOP Candidate?” Even I was mildly shocked and agitated. That’s OUR word!...but then I realised, it really isn’t.

I hear some say that Perry belittled Cain by calling him “brother”, but at its base definition, brother is a peer family member. As long as you don’t put the adjective “little” or “big” before it, I can’t see the harm. If he called him “son”, then there would be a point to this argument.

Perry is an evangelical Christian, and Cain is an ordained Baptist minister. Perhaps the “brother” was inferring that relationship. They’re both right-wing nuts who veil their selfish ideas about the world in biblical verse, contradicting the very message of the book they claim they wish to emulate. “Hey ‘brother’, I like the way you pick and choose bible verses and appropriate them for your own political and social agendas.”

Perry is also from the South. Perhaps that is just his way of laid back, friendly speaking. If this is the case, then it’s just an etiquette thing. I doubt that 20 years ago candidates used informal vernacular during a debate, but times have changed greatly. Something happened in the 21st Century that made nearly every social interaction a lot less formal. There was a time when you’d wear a suit to an airport. People would not wear jeans to ANY restaurant. Night clubs would have strict dress codes. Now it’s normal to see a person in sweatpants in all venues. People would not talk back to their elders, but now it happens a lot. Perhaps Perry is just another example of the erosion of 19th and 20th Century etiquette rules. No one is saying that we need to follow Vanderbilt or Emily Post’s guides to proper social interactions, but the world, as we seem to get closer via technology, seems to get more comfortable saying what it wants. This blog is a perfect example.

I have to be honest: I call my friends "brother" and "sister" all the time, regardless of their race. Friends, after all, are my family, so why not call a friend brother or sister? And I pay it no mind when a white person calls me brother. Better "brother" than "boy" or "son". Furthermore, any victims of racial, gender, age, or ANY type of discrimination can tell when someone is using a patronising or condescending tone with them.

People that say Perry is a racist because he “brothered” Herman Cain are flat out wrong. Perry is a racist because he had a giant f***ing rock on his family’s property that had “NIGGERHEAD” painted in block letters and only painted over it when he started getting deeper into politics. Had he not been gunning for money, power, and office, that rock would say “Niggerhead” today. The excuse that it was always called that doesn’t make it right, and if it really bothered him that much, as he so claimed, he would have painted over it the same day he acquired the property, back in the 80’s. He’s a racist, but he’s an "I’m-not-racist-but" racist.

HA! You thought I was defending that a**hole, didn’t you! F***'em both! Vote or Die, motherf***er, Vote or Die!

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