Sunday, November 23, 2008

Everyone's A Little Bit Racist

This song from the Broadway show, Avenue Q makes some interesting points that are relevant to the issue of racial diversity.

- Most people, despite how they act, hold at least some minor or major prejudices against people of other races
- It would be more effective to tackle stereotypes if they were kept in the open, rather than everybody hiding what they think to be politically correct
- Racism is not just something that white people do. Even minorities hold stereotypes about other minorities
- The character, Brian, is married to a Korean woman. When trying to prove that he is not racist, he says "how many oriental wives have you got?" Then all the other characters chastise him for using the term "oriental". Is it more important to use the right terms to avoid offending people or is it more important to actually be open minded to people of different races and cultures?

For your viewing and/or listening pleasure, here are two links. Click here to look at the lyrics. Click here to listen to the song.

Dana "Sunshine"

1 comment:

ebnjbrawler said...

I found the song to be very funny in the fact that there was alot of truth behind it. Being of hispanic dissent it doesnt bother me if someone thinks of me a certain way based on my race but when I am forced to change the ways i act and watch what I say in order to abide by what is "politically correct" I believe that no one can truly be politically correct due to the fact that the line between what is politically correct and incorrect is to vague. I also believe that it would be unconstitutional to be punished for being politically incorrect because every citizen is granted freedom of speech by the constitution and to restrict those rights is to go against the freedoms this wonderful country offers. It's Abe again by the way