I'm surrounded by bigots

[angrycarpenter]

I went in to work this morning tired but jubilant. I had stayed up late to see the victory speech. I was filled with pride in our country and optimistic in our future.

The first person I saw when I got to the job site was my foreman. His first words were "Well your buddy got elected. I guess I'll quit and get on welfare like the rest of them" I said "Good morning to you too" and brushed it aside and started getting tools out. He was not done. He was genuinely pissed. "That socialist, racist, lefty is going to give away the country to a bunch of ignorant, lazy people who would rather lay around than work". He went on like this for most of the day.

Another guy walked around the corner holding his cell phone And said "Hey, they just reported that Obama is taking out the whitehouse rose garden and putting in watermelons" and then laughed as if he had just said the funniest thing ever.

The Electrician asked me if Obama was going to do what he said he was going do about the guns. I asked him what he was talking about. He said that he had heard that that Obama had said that he was going to ban all guns including hunting guns. He at least seemed relived when I told him that it was only a rumor meant to scare people into voting against him and that it was not at all true.

Is this what my life is going to be like for the next eight years? Constantly being subjected to a barrage of crude humor and ignorant racist remarks? Sometimes I am ashamed to be from the south. For the most part I like it here but there is just no getting away from people who still hate black people. I am about to the point that there is a race that I hate, the human race. Is there no hope for us? Are we doomed to be a bunch of hateful ignorant savages forever?

On a related note, In a couple of months I will be moving back home to share a house with my parents, in Alabama. Florida is bad but that place is sure to test my patience and my sanity.

Obama will be the greatest president of our lifetimes but even he cannot change the small mind of a southern racist horses ass.

[Doctor Cynic]

1. There's a reason Fark has a special Florida tag.

[PDJane]

2. You have my sympathy.........

I'm so sorry.

That kind of assininity is why I'm grateful that I really have no reason to visit the deep south any more. My friends have all moved to blue states, or the blue states came them. It's an improvement.

[Fire1]

3. That's why they all need to secede from the union and get their

own freakin country. Republic A and B is the best solution I've heard in years.

[ornotna]

8. I don't think President Obama would agree with you.

Just sayin'

[JerseygirlCT]

4. I wonder

I wonder if things change for these people in a few years - if life is better for them - if they'll have to begin to grudgingly admit (to themselves if not to you) that the guy is ok.

In the long run, it may change some tiny minds.

In the short run, I'm sorry you have to live with all that crap.

[orleans]

5. omg--i'm really sorry you had to put up with that shit.

but...look at it this way--at least they weren't celebrating a win on their side.

if it keeps up i'd tell these guys to stop talking like they are so scared. point out that at least we elected a president with a brain and some class. (they sound like little kids crying because they had a bad dream and then wet the bed)

[ailsagirl]

6. I'm sorry to hear that-- it's so... pitiful somehow.

He's yet another one of those who "don't get it." Ignorant-- probably has been racism in the family for many generations. You almost have to feel sorry for him-- he doesn't know what we've felt, what we're feeling, and what we'll feel in the future as our country gets back on course. And people like him will be left behind.

Hang in there-- :hi:

[upi402]

7. Swine can't apreciate pearls

Construction is a rough game and many have a prison mentality. And the south looks very red in spite of Republican ruin.
Take heart, you are right and see the light. I've been there and back with you brother.

Keep posting here and try to get to a coffee shop by a college town once in a while, maybe.

[Lilyeye]

9. I'm really sorry about this. But the next time those assholes bitch about welfare...

tell them that Joe the plumber was a "welfare King."

[upi402]

16. And socialist Republicans bailed out the banks

like true socialist countries do - state ownership of companies. Republicans love welfare for the rich who don't even need it. They're jealous that someone might somewhere might be getting a free ride. Republicans HATE to work and love to bitch.

[life_long_dem]

10. Make sure you point out that pResident Bush is white and he

totally fucked America over.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

11. Did you remind

the ignorant racist that as an employee you take fucking umbrage with his tangent about Democrat = Welfare recipient?

Yep... I worked for 30 years. Never even got unemployment. My father and stepfather fought in WWII and the Korean War. I put myself through college and so did my democratic husband who has worked for 30 years at the same job - He has a graduate degree and came from second generation American farmers who came to this country with NOTHING.

We are in our 50's and are raising little kids who are both under 10 years old.

Our car is 10 years old.

We pay a mortgage and property taxes.

We are white and embrace our neighbors of color and those who have different sexual orientation. So do my young children.

Fuck those people who label us as lazy because we "want to spread the wealth."

Assholes.

[HEyHEY]

12. No, in a couple years they'll come around

[sandnsea]

13. Ridicule and intimidation, that's how this happened

They beat people into silence and we can't let it happen again.

[noamnety]

14. You are surrounded, but here's the thing:

The ignorant bigots who are surrounding you are themselves surrounded.

[AndyTiedye]

15. Not All That Surrounded, Your State Went BLUE

Those guys are just sore losers.

[whatdoyouthink]

17. I had one today myself

and try-ed to get a few other going too- i just smiled and said "if bush-ee would have giving US a bone or two, after they were done eating all the (red) meat - his buddy mc bush might have picked off one or two more states!"

To be honest - i think he got it (a little) something about red meat - might have been the trick, forget logic 30% will never ever change - and I mean ever - but we still got a ways to go to reach that amount - there hope for some....but not all.

Be ahppy now - this will go on for a while...until they settle down at least

[patrice]

18. I don't really know what that's like, but . . .

There is a small possibility that, given a chance, Obama will gradually win many of them over (overtly or covertly). Just like my head-strong daughter, many will need "room" to change their minds.

For the possibilities to be possible, something different MUST happen.

I live in a red state. My natural temperament helps people to like me. They know I am un-alterably opposed to War. They also know whom I support politically, because they've seen the peace symbol which I wear. I don't make an aggressive point of it, unless someone "attacks" me.

Some of them are pretty edgy now, but I trust that their regard for me personally and for my work will help them reconcile to the changes, especially when they see that their exaggerated fears are unfounded and untrue. In order for them to see that, I must avoid fulfilling their predictions about who I am, what I think, and how I will treat them. The absolute last thing I want to do is prove them right.

:hug: Be well, angrycarpenter. :hug: