The Unchecked Box

Remember this: When you check a box, you are coerced into a question with an X that may well be your untruth, personally.

Over the course of several months an issue arose. It was complicated, but I wondered if I could get to the point of what bothered me about the issue(s). I had seen this before. It is not new.

I’m one part confused, one part not confused, and two parts meh. Feel free not to take it upon yourself to educate me.

I went and sat in the deer stand.  It was soggy, poor visibility, and smelling of mosquito spray. I sat there meditating and waiting.

This is going to be about questions of culture, ethnic affiliation, and the confusion of the contrary language and behavior of people engaging in such things.

I was drafted into a 90 day program where you have to prove you are actively looking for a job. No skin off my nose. I fulfilled the requirement and did some interviews.

I attended a job interview where the worker was rolling her eyes and laying her head down on the table, while the second was transfixed on the room being too cold, yet it was well over 100 degrees outside. I didn’t let it bother me, the unprofessional behavior. It helped me understand this employ was not the place for me to work. There was a question about dealing with cultures in the office and out on the street. It sounded more like a trap question that would lead to a discussion of racial dialogue. I thought it inappropriate and I declined some of the questions because they were irrelevant; trust me, I have interviewed people.

You never know the person you hire until you see that person perform; period. Anything else is a pipe dream. You get what you pay for when compulsive shopping for a employee.

Back to culture

Cultural practices can be detrimental to the individual and the public. An example of a cultural practice detrimental to the psychology of young girls is genitalia mutilation. Another example of public health being endangered by cultural practices is the foreign practice of burying the dead on the side of a river only to give the people upstream, or at the local village Cholera because of the decomposing body in the water. There is the practice of slaughtering unnumbered animals at shrines to appease some religious requirement. Most of these practices have been put under scrutiny and are in decline because of the education and understanding of the implication of the damage it incurs.

Cultural practices that breed negative energy and results are detrimental to society, and the Earth as a whole; it is not a stellar idea to embrace.

Cultural belief: Do not let someone take your photo; they will steal your soul.

Let us merrily review this.

Recently, I went to a Pau Wau. A lady there tried to tell me that some Native Americans believe when you take a photo of them you steal their soul. There are people like that. This lady was going on the idea that I didn’t know anything. I listened to her, went home, fired up Facebook and looked at all the tribal selfies staring back at me with the photos taken of the day at the Pau Wau. I figured by the time I took a picture these particular people would be way passed the negative in the soul check book; by their own hand, too. This wasn’t stealing souls per se but handing souls right over to the masses via social media. Cameras and cell phones were everywhere, but I was singled out as the soul-stealer with a broke digital camera. I joke here.

It does bring up the relevant idea of romanticizing and steeping a culture in mysticism that is attempting or practicing a progressive move toward secular practices. Once a traditional belief is proven to be untrue, the confusion comes from the voyeur placing expectation on the practitioner to maintain the traditional behavior, and belief they have come to associate through re-enforcement from a certain culture. This has been accepted and re-enforced by persons not of that particular culture. The practitioner can choose to keep the old social idea and expectation, or replace it with a more current truthful representation.

The majority of the time, the person against the photo doesn’t like the way they see themselves. They don’t like what they see and are scared other people will see it too.

I saw wild turkey on the way home. It made everything better.

With cultures, you do want to preserve the way of life. Life is better simple. As time progresses, certain items have to be put away as “things we use to practice” but found out there was a better way that made people’s lives better. There are certain cultural beliefs that have stood the test of time and are beyond reproach. By all means, keep those. Once again, if a cultural practice is harming the people, it is time to find a new way, or let it go.

There has always been a sort of grief over traditional cultural beliefs, practices and traditions clashing with mainstream, progressive ideals, etc. This goes back to balance. If you had to construct a foundation from each group, you would take greater care in what and where you place each selection; just enough of each thing. Being culture and tradition greedy will only overwork you and make life unbalanced.

Don’t do that to yourself.

Back to the soul-stealing-selfies; I thought of a word for this outdated cultural belief.

Contrary: when your words and deeds go against what you are actually doing and saying.

A test of life is to become aware of what you are doing to yourself and others; alleviate suffering.

Life has become a barrage of other people subjugating you, expecting your acquiescence and compliance to implement a form of non-disclosure of their behavior, hiding the insult, and then the offending party to maintain status to go on and do it to someone else. All this feeling justified by the knowledge of some past wrong that is doled out on unsuspecting people while becoming the thing that you resented initially.

A person with the above issue can sit and think, “How can I use this to my benefit and to my opponent’s detriment?” Evil comes in all shapes and shadows. You can quote me on that.

Watch the psychological cancer grow, spread, infect others, and destroy.  A person is a carrier of what is wrong in society by the act of perpetuation. Perpetuating fear and disdain against someone else because of what you are afraid will be done to you, being powerless, not having control, and an assortment of other thoughts breeding in your brain pan. The mouth is the route of injection and intention that spews an un-divine plan to inflict psychic and physical pain inherited through the repetitive act of re-enforcement onto others unaware of what is going on in their headspace.

On to the perpetuation of ignorance via the Telly.

I was watching an episode of Atlanta Plastic Surgery. A Hispanic lady awaiting rhinoplasty stated she believed the African-American doctor would understand her biology better than a person of non-African descent. It is right there for the whole world to hit rewind and listen to.

Finally, someone confirmed Extraterrestrial Aliens are working in cadaver wet labs to prove Humans are the best guinea pigs in the galaxy; no more painful anal probes, body snatching, or abductions.

Whew!

My question was:

When did accredited institutions of higher education for students pursing Doctorates of Medicine begin to segregate out students in their consecutive groups to learn only their ethnic group’s medical issues due to the inability to understand the human body, or be teachable in the ways of diversity of ethnic group’s disease, conditions and treatments?

This statement implies the Doctor of Medicine curriculum is vastly flawed and is not diversified in its teaching practices for students heading out into the world to perform medicine on multi-cultural peoples. Can medical students pick many colors from the Crayola box and make a beautiful picture regardless of the perpetuation of a reality television show airing a woman that doesn’t think so? Or, is it all in her thinking as being erroneous?

Bad experiences are bad experiences. Don’t let them rule your life.

I traveled to Texas for a week. I had never been on a plan; traveled on five. I arrived at the airport at midnight. I had never taken a taxi. The worker at the front diverted one up to where I was standing. The taxi driver rides up on the curb. I thought, “Oh man…” The driver looked more Pakistani. He said he was African. I saw his taxi permit up on the console. I told him where I wanted to go. He tried to GPS the directions; stalling. He decides he is going to drive on after I tell him where it is. He isn’t even putting the address in and hitting Enter; just swiping it away. He picks up a second cellphone the claims the hotel is not on the directions. He pretty much drives me to a dead-end out in the woods. I am sitting in the taxi, looking at a blockade sign. I say to him, “Why are we here? You better take me to my hotel.” Taxi man looks afraid. I am sitting there undaunted. Five minutes later, we pull up to the hotel. At one point, I wasn’t sure if he was going to mug me or run away. He got back in the car. I didn’t pay for the scenic tour but what I knew to be the drive from the airport to the hotel. After that I didn’t take a taxi. I used a service, and my last day I rode public VIA Metropolitan transit. I had never road a transit bus. I rode three buses. The first bus tried to run me over. The other two buses had the nicest drivers. I met some pretty sweet people on the buses.

I could have thrown a fit because the taxi driver was a lost foreigner. I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I could have huddled up on the transit bus like someone was going to shank me with a shiv. No, I chose to believe people on the bus were there for the same reason I was-to go somewhere.

The service I used while in town told me a lot of the taxi drivers were from foreign countries. They are not familiar with the road systems or the locations of things. When you come out the airport to take a taxi, they know you do not have a weapon because of airport security. Yet, they are driving around all night long packing heat. I watched the news and one taxi man got shot at by the runaway fare.

It always pays to pay attention and keep a level head.

This brings me to the biggest thing. When you are filling out an application for work, there are still those questions for statistical counts and diversity where you have to admit to yourself one of the following (as long as it is not Hispanic or Latino):

Box 1: Hispanic or Latino

Box 2: White (Not Hispanic or Latino)

Box 3: Black or African American (Not Hispanic or Latino)

Box 4: Native Hawaii or Pacific Islander (Not Hispanic or Latino)

Box 5: American Indian/ Alaskan Native (Not Hispanic or Latino)

Box 6: Two or more races (Not Hispanic or Latino)

I copied this down from a business website to apply for a job. I guess there is no wiggle room or grey area for being Hispanic or Latino.

My grief with this system is this:

It has been proven with genetic analysis that people are ethnically diverse yet this circumstance perpetuates an individual of diverse and dynamic background from the beginning of human awareness of ancestors to dwindle the whole of their genetic existence on choosing the box of ethnic illusion.

This standard way of coercing an individual into self-identifying with an ethnic affiliation is deeply and tragically flawed to the point of harm.

Well-meaning people and relatives will want you to be submersed into one set identity when you are more than a check box on a job application. You are more than their perception of who they expect you to be. You are more than any plan that a human has for you. You are more as an individual than what governmental law wants to dictate out to you is the appropriate race selection to identify with because you have to decide for statistics sake. I think by now everyone has transcended (Not Hispanic or Latino).

The worse time of the year to see this is the presidential elections. Ethnic groups are posed on news media like one would watch a race horse. Instead of people voting, it is John Q Public is running for office and he has the Hispanic and Latino vote-yet you go to apply for a job; then it is (Not Hispanic or Latino).

As a viewer, you are watching the comparison and targeting of ethnicity by the numbers during a presidential campaign. Depending on those numbers, who is more favorable to court in the way of votes to the victor? It used to be this portion of a state, or the state itself but now the racial profile of proportions illustrates a disturbing trend to mathematically divide communities into subsequent ethnic quarters by color label or a much struggled after title of geographical name. The only people getting labeled a color are white. It is not European because there are a lot of ethnicity in this group. It is not labeled Caucasian either. This sets a statement on what the ethnic job box represents: color label versus geographical affiliation as a label.

I think the only person I know that has been determined to be 100 % European is Iron Man.

It started to read like one of those creepy Sci-Fi novels where humans have their DNA tested with a mouth swab for the majority of their ethnic group, then forcibly put into a location regardless of the superficial surface; Worse yet, ethnically cleansed right out of history.

There are a lot of multi-cultural and ethnically diverse people living in the world. Sometimes, it appears almost implied that someone of this nature has to be validated by admitting to one category. It is implied they must turn their back on a family member of the opposing ethnic group because government ruled so. If you are of two different races, how many times are you just determined as one particular one. Have you ever wanted to know the other sides of your heritage only to be told no by your relatives? Have you ever had to deny one of your relatives because of their ethnic difference based on what you thought society demanded of you, or were told to do so because it was expected?

Did you ever stop to think this is some pretty (sailor language) excrement (poop for the layman)?

Why does society and governments perpetuate what is now, and has always been referred to as a mixing pot of world ethnicity. I am not even going to waste my time on using the word race.

President Obama has Caucasian genetics and so does his wife from what I have read. Yet, they do not openly identify with that Caucasian part of their DNA. If they have, I haven't seen it. Have you? Our POTUS is suffering the same malady as the people he serves. It is implied he has to choose a side for politics, ratings, and even acceptance.

Why is it implied that a person of multi-ethnic origin has to pick a side only to have it affect that person, their friendships, and their family in a negative way?

Human life seems to be the replay of the game, King of the Hill; whomever is at the top will get knocked off ad nauseum.

Going back to the (Not Hispanic of Latino), if you are multi-ethnic, how do you mark that box? If someone pulls DNA on you but you look Hispanic with a majority of genetics from the Caucasus region of Europe—which box are you checking? What if you look Asian but have 75% Hispanic blood quantum?  

Why is this still a thing?

Written by: Free Radicals

p.s. Still mulling over racism but have it down to one part:

Racism is thought, taught, and active. It is merely a term under the broader blanket of discrimination. A person can choose to discriminate against another person due to ethnicity. A person can choose to discriminate against another person due to status and wealth. A person can choose to discriminate against a member of a family, because they feel that member is a disgrace. These instances of discrimination are not based solely on an ethnicity's exertion of ethnic supremacy. It is just being what it is, a Douche Bag of the Ages. Someone with the will to choose to judge and discriminate, more so in their favor, and for the terrible enjoyment of doing so. 

The wordage of racism is a member of a collective of discrimination. It is just a word packing more pound for the punch in the pain department. 

Racism has become a financial commodity to sale to the masses like any other product; endorse, endorse, endorse via subterfuge. Either way, deceit will be used to achieve one’s goal, directly or indirectly under the guise of a less threatening decoy. I guess that is why I don't write about it much. It is negative.

Bigger question is: When did people start letting a blood quantum rule their lives and happiness? Why did anyone agree?

Think about that.