This free online air hockey game is addictive!

Link via Something Awful forums.

The way a commenter twisted the meaning of my last post around really fucking pissed me off (see comments).

I think people of latin descent everywhere would all be offended that my stance against violent jail riots caused by a lack of Telemundo time can be twisted and misconstrued as not being sensitive to “multiculturism”. Most hispanic people I know would not consider property destruction and violence over not getting their way with the TV remote a part of their culture.

But it did remind me of a story I posted in a blog a long time ago, in a land far, far away.

Some of you may have been visitors to my old blog and did not read this entry there. So I thought I’d re-post it here, so you could not read it again.

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Patient walks into an ER. Older white man. Hasn’t been able to pee for over two days (that pesky prostate)!

I walk into the room, smiling and friendly, and introduce myself as his nurse. I ask him how he’s feeling.

He says: “What the hell are you supposed to be?”

Taken aback, I say: “What do you mean? I’m an RN.”

He says accusingly: “No, I mean, what RACE are you? Mexican? Indian? Eskimo?”

Me, smiling: “Well, I don’t know sir. Which race do you hate the most? Because THAT’S the race I am!”

Sure shut that bastard up!

In reality, I’m caucasian. I’ve always WANTED to have some sort of ethnic culture, but I’m just a caucasian girl with brown hair, small brown eyes, who sometimes goes tanning too much.

In reality at that time, I was ALSO the woman who would be faced with the difficult task of 1) finding this guy’s penis to begin with (he had “innerpenis” or something; I’d never before seen anything like it), and 2) shoving a catheter up it so he could pee. It was MY call as to what size catheter to use. It was MY call as to whether to use lidocaine (numbing) or not. Really, if I was hispanic or whatever race he thought I was, was it REALLY a good idea for him to start insulting me at that particular moment in time?

I say, if a person is so racist that they come to an ER and start picking and choosing their caregivers based upon the color of their skin (or in my case, fake tan), then THEY ARE NOT SICK ENOUGH TO BE IN THE ER.

I left the ER back in the late 90’s. One of my favorite doctors to work with was Dr. F. He was of middle eastern descent, and had emigrated to our country. I thought of Dr. F after Sept. 11 happened. That sweet man (well, as sweet as doctors tend to be). I could only imagine the patients in the ER who bitched about the wait one minute, and refused to be seen by Dr. F because of his race the next. I wondered about how people treated him on the street when he wasn’t wearing his stethoscope and scrubs. People who probably would go their whole lives and never come close to giving the amount of help to their fellow man that Dr. F gave in ANY ONE MONTH of his life. These same people would be the people who would look down on him and treat him like crap because of his race. I’m not talking about “getting extra attention in airport security” treatment. I’m talking “throw a brick through the front window of his home” treatment. I hope Dr. F didn’t have to through any of that.

It can be hard not to be prejudiced. For example, I have a prejudice against the “males who seek out female bloggers and troll their blogs because their mother didn’t breastfeed them as a child or some fucking reason like that” race. That’s just wrong! I shouldn’t stereotype like that.

Bottom line: no one has to be racist. It’s totally unnecessary. Do what I do and hate people based upon their INDIVIDUAL MERIT.

Get to know people on an individual basis. They’ll give you plenty of reasons to hate them soon enough. You do not need to go and hate based on race, class, education, gender, or religion. Save your hatred and use it wisely, that’s what I always say. Just some advice from Auntie Mary.