Revellian

Thoughts and Fiction of Bobby Revell

Archive for category racism

All Races & Religions – All Welcome Here

Jan 15

Posted by Bobby Revell in critical thinking, racism

So we’re born as pure innocent children–blank slates with eager minds and sparkling eyes, filled with wonder and astonishment (if we’re lucky). Then we go to school and make friends. We don’t care what race, religion or whatever our friends are; too young to know anything, but smarter than any adult where it counts most.

We get a little older and the separation begins–the division, partition, divergence forked into endless segregative paths. The black kids hand separate from the white kids; geeks divorced from jocks and so forth. A little older and we are driven further apart by religion, more distance by race, body size (fat, skinny, ugly, weird, hot, fine, etc.) and then . . . we grow up. We learn to drive a thousand more asphyxiating wedges between us based on class, sexual preference, who your family is, how much money you have–by the time we’re into our early twenties we become “mature” separatists conforming our lives to every ridiculous form of separatist identification possible.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , ,

41 Comments

Political Hatred and Racism is Everywhere

Oct 22

Posted by Bobby Revell in issue awareness, politics, racism

This has been an extreme week for me and I just need to vent.  Three days ago I was talking to some guys while waiting in line at the post office. We started talking about the upcoming election which was a mistake. The guys (who were both white) said some horrifying things that made me want to puke. One said, “I hope Obama gets his head blown off.”
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: ,

27 Comments

Help Fight Modern Day Slave Labor

May 24

Posted by Bobby Revell in issue awareness, politics, racism

Like most people, I thought slavery ended in 1862 with Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. The 13th amendment of the constitution was implemented a few years later in 1865, supposedly ending slavery once and for all.

The 13th amendment states:

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime where of the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

I am certainly no expert on modern politics and learn more everyday about how little I truly know. I do know what happened to me and my firsthand experience with modern day slave labor. During the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, thousands of homes needed new roofs, among many other repairs.

I hired a local contractor to replace my roof and surprisingly, got a really good price. At the time, I thought the good price was the result of stiff competition between contractors. I remember being woken up by what sounded like a herd of stampeding water buffalo on the roof. I walked outside and saw 24 Mexican men feverishly working as if they were going for a world record. The entire roof was replaced in three hours – I was astonished. None of the men spoke English, so I was unable to ask them any questions. They piled up in a few work trucks and went to the next job.

At the time, I suspected they were illegal immigrants, but the contractor assured me they were not. The telephone services, including cell phones were still out of order and I couldn’t call anyone. When you have massive holes in your roof with animals and hordes of mosquitoes coming into your house, the last thing you’re thinking about is illegal slave labor. It was several weeks later when the horror stories started, mostly by word of mouth. Stories of how these Mexican workers were promised paychecks week after week spread like wildfire. The contractors promised them money, dangling false dreams of a new life before their eyes. In most of the cases I heard, the contractors waited until the workers became so suspicious of being ripped off, they finally refused to work. At that point, the contractors disappeared with all the money, leaving these battered, hungry men alone without pay. These illegal workers spoke no English and were not American citizens. They had no rights, no one to complain to and no where to go – a disgraceful and horrific crime against humanity.

There are numerous types of modern day slavery from many third world nations, including sex slaves. Last week, I happened to catch an interview with John Bowe on C-Span Book TV talking about his fantastic new book, “Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy” read the full transcript here.

Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy

In the interview, he said he believed the census statistics are incorrect and the percentage of illegal workers in America are as high as 20% of the entire workforce. I tend to agree with him because I have seen it in action – right here on my own property. I strongly urge you to read his book (I’m only half way through it), and check out his websites. One thing he talks about is how it’s very likely all of us may become slave laborers ourselves. Here’s a quote from his website, “Globalization means that soon, we, too, might be working for pennies an hour. It’s like Adam Smith in reverse: trade with people less free than you, and your own freedom is threatened,” a frightening prospect indeed. Go read John Bowe’s wordpress site.

I applaud him for doing the right thing and bringing this issue to the forefront. One thing is for sure, this information is not popular and John Bowe is not getting the attention he deserves. When people do things of monumental importance, they are often buried in the rubble of mainstream political fluff and irrelevant information – like which pastor our presidential candidates use. Situations needing the most attention are almost always considered irrelevant as tiny blips on the media radar.

Why isn’t this subject being covered in the media or under heavy fire by politicians? The answer is simple: money. They are not being paid to cover it. It is up to all of us, as citizens, to get the ball rolling.

Now to the most important part of this article: Please sign the petition to end slave labor – it only takes a minute. It is in our own complacency and laziness that nothing is ever accomplished. The next time you eat a tomato or buy a pair of shoes, think about who actually grew it or manufactured those shoes – they are likely the products of modern day slavery. I proudly offer the popularity of my web site to help with this extremely important cause – it’s the least I can do.

Tags: , , , ,

27 Comments

The Insanity of Stereotypes, Labels and Generalizations

Apr 29

Posted by Bobby Revell in Humor, politics, racism, thought

I was filling out a job application and couldn’t help but feel violated because of the detailed information required. I’m going for something much higher paying than I have now which is understandable because of the collapsing economy. One thing on my mind is how people are stereotyped, labeled and categorized in modern society. Like many places, this one had me sit down at a computer to fill it out the application; there was no person to talk to, just an impersonal machine.

The collection of demographic information makes me feel uncomfortable. They first ask you to check a square by your race. Am I African American, Caucasian, Latin American and so on. I’m wondering what difference does it make? It was incredibly detailed – even asking if I had a tattoo and if so, where on my body it was as a picture of it would need to be taken. They required a highly detailed 12 year job history and required I give them permission to check my credit. I feel that is a violation of my constitutional rights. No employer has the right to peer into my private credit history. I had to give them permission to also do a criminal background check which I understand, but for this particular job, I felt was quite unnecessary.

Finally of course, they required a hair shaft drug screen, where they pluck several hairs from your scalp for spectroscopic chemical analysis. By the time I was done, I felt like I had been molested. You may be wondering what kind of job I was applying for. Surely it was to homeland security, the FBI or something extremely sensitive…right? No. It was a bartending job at the Beau Rivage Casino…hahaha! That is unbelievable isn’t it? Yes, it is an incredibly high paying job, but the requirements are ridiculous.

Modern society is based on shallow attitudes and ratings. We have learned to stereotype and rate people based on different criteria. We are being psychologically conditioned by mass media entertainment: she’s beautiful, he’s an asshole, those people are black, they’re racist, he’s a fundamental Christian bigot, she’s an atheist with no heart or soul and so forth. It’s so ingrained into our lives – we have become slaves to entertainment, religion, patriotism and many other labels.

I talked about how we do not realize how much power we truly have in my previous post on aikido. You live your life, do the best you can and become a slave to society itself. People have this take care of your own backyard mentality because there is nothing you can do to change anything. That’s true and exactly what our leaders want. They want you enslaved and helpless, watching TV, noodling on the web and on and on – all while a handful of super rich individuals have and own everything.

Think about this: You are a Christian parent with a five year old child. Religion and Jesus is everything to you and you’re teaching your child the same thing. Your neighbors are an atheist family with a five year old child. The atheist family believes that Jesus is a myth and never actually existed. They believe the bible is just a bunch of mythological stories plagiarized from other works that predate Christianity. Would you let your Christian child play with the atheist child? Would you be friends with the atheist family? What if the atheist parents told your young impressionable Christian child that nothing in the bible is true? Would you be upset? Of course you would, and chances are, you would not be friends with them. The point is, when religion or any view causes such a deep division among people, it ceases to be good. There are even fundamentalist atheists who think all religion should be outlawed. They are both wrong. I am part of no group and choose instead to be a free thinker, which is also a label and causes division. Isn’t life fun?

Some people think a possible second American revolution is coming. I fully disagree with that. We are far too lazy and just don’t care enough to do anything about it. Have you heard the phrase, divide and conquer? That’s exactly what is going on in this world. We are all divided, not just geographically, but by race, religion, class and other means. The world is filled with problems, but at the heart of every single one of them is this division between us all.

Stereotypes-Labels-Generalizations

Stereotypes-Labels-Generalizations

These labels, stereotypes and shallow generalizations will never go away, but we have to live together and get along. We shouldn’t generalize anything. Some people generalize about Muslims which is ridiculous. They are all different depending on where they’re from and many other factors. It’s just like there are many types of Christians. People think Jewish people are tight with their money, Mexican people steal cars, British people have bad teeth, people from the southern United States commit incest – it goes on forever. Young girls feel ugly when they don’t fit the image of what popular magazines say is beautiful, which is so unsettling it makes me sick. In France, I believe “stick” models are banned from magazine commercials if I’m not mistaken. In America, such a law would be considered a violation of our freedom…hahaha! Go figure.

I don’t have the answers, just some observations. None of this stuff stresses me out any more, it doesn’t help anything, especially me. I was thinking about what could help me and my blog. Here are some ideas:

On The Lighter Side

  • I need to get in the Oprah Winfrey studio audience or do something wrong and get sued on Judge Judy’s TV show. As soon as the mike got near my mouth I would say, “Revellian dot com…that’s r-e-v-e-l-l-i-a-n dot com,” over and over. I wouldn’t shut up until they arrested me gaining me national headlines. While basking in my 15 minutes of fame, I would go streaking down the streets of New York City screaming my website name. Following that, I would get a book deal and a spot on some sitcom. Hey…it’s a plan.
  • If I could be spotted alone with Hillary Clinton and get someone to snap a photo, I would tell everyone I had sex with her. When asked by the media, I would say something smart like, “She was walking with a limp on cloud 9 when I got done with it.” I figure this site would get 10 million hits the day it happened. With 15 year old Miley Cyrus getting tons of attention because of her new racy pictures, I could do something similar. People don’t realize that her ploy was engineered specifically to garner massive press. Vanity Fair magazine got 5 million hits yesterday because of this. After all, isn’t any and all press, good press? Sorry to get off topic towards the end, but I didn’t want to end this post on a sad note. :twisted:

* The picture is How to spot a psychopath! from Dan’s Data
* I actually wrote this post several months ago, one of many sitting unpublished. I added a little to it this morning so it would be better and more current.

Tags: , , , , ,

30 Comments

Promoting Racial Unity

Apr 30

Posted by Bobby Revell in life personal, racism, thought

A great martial arts master once said, “The world doesn’t change for anybody. I don’t care if you are a woman, I don’t care if you’re a baby. The world doesn’t change.”

The Master I speak of is Steven Segal. He is an actor and whether you you know it or not, he is a man of great wisdom. The truth is, is the world truly doesn’t change for anyone. I would like to introduce those of you unfamiliar with the Japanese art of Aikido to one of its’ most important concepts; the concept of the circle.

All I see in the media are people fighting against what they oppose. These people hate Bush, these people hate democrats and these other people hate Americans, etc. The list goes on and on and on.
The techniques used by the majority are known in Aikido as “square” techniques. Meeting force head on with a more vicious opinion. Sometimes you’ll see a “triangular” technique where one group is setup and flanked from the rear or side, taking advantage of your oppositions ‘ lack of intuition.
You will rarely ever see the most powerful and useful of all these concepts– the circle.

Become your opponent, use their energy against them. This is actually a weak example of what circularity is. It is much more than that; it is actually nothing. This can be difficult to understand from a western mindset. The reason why is because it is not something one can understand. Are you thoroughly confused? Well don’t worry because this is far beyond the scope of this discussion. Go to you tube and type in Morihei Ueshiba and witness for yourself who in my opinion was the greatest martial artist who ever lived. Go read some books about him if you wish, as you will learn much. He was the greatest because of what his art (he was the founder of Aikido) is about– peaceful resolution of conflict.

Instead of all of fighting against what we oppose we should promote what is good! Do you understand what I am saying? Imagine billions of dollars spent promoting world unity and the entire human race as one people. This is a circular technique. This is true power. If you do not see that then you do not understand my point. I will end here as the point has been made and is plain and simple. It is also powerful; more powerful than any bomb or gun or hate group.
It is all about LOVE!

Tags: , , , , ,

9 Comments

The Human Animal

Apr 18

Posted by Bobby Revell in racism, thought


Are you afraid of a one world government? Imagine a place where all humans are equal on every corner of the Earth; whether you are American, a poor Iraqi dirt farmer or a scholar from Peru. American’s are afraid of losing our freedoms as we know them, but it is inevitable. It will not always be the same and eventually we will have to adapt to this rapidly changing world as one race; the race of mankind. I believe that if you base your beliefs on a political parties ideas that you are ignorant and just as bad as the terrorists trying to kill us all. How can an intelligent human being be a democrat or a republican? You have be extremely narrow minded to follow either party. If think I’m wrong then you are part of why the big changes coming in the future will probably be violent and very unpleasant. If a white man hates black people he is considered prejudice. Well, if you are a democrat and you hate republicans then you are just the same type of prejudiced fool. I believe that most people of this planet generally want to be free and eventually when all is said and done they will be free. We are all humans from the planet Earth and this I what I take pride in. I am proud to be a human from Earth! The main reason I blog is because it brings us all closer to being one race of people, and that is a beautiful idea. What mankind is really afraid of is mankind itself! We, the human race are animals and we show that everyday. Religion and nationalism divide us all more than any border ever could. It seems like only an attack from outer space could unite all people, and that is sad. I for one am not afraid of a one world government, as I am not afraid of anything even my own death. America needs to change its’ political system because it is not working! I am against both political parties in favor of one based on individuals. This change is also inevitable and it may take a war to change it. We are like dogs who growl when another drinks from our water bowl. Until we become more than greedy self righteous animals there will always be a reason for war!

Here’s a great article you should read

Tags: , , ,

No Comments

Racism: The Enemy of All Mankind

Apr 12

Posted by Bobby Revell in racism, thought

Recently I watched a movie starring James Earl Jones entitled “The Vernon Johns Story”. It was unplanned but happened to be on. I was gripped by the powerful true story of whom many refer to as the true father of the civil rights movement.

The church where Reverend Johns resided was actually the place where Martin Luther King Jr. started to become known as he replaced Johns after he left. I am from Mississippi, born and raised here and nothing ever made me feel so sick as the way the police and people treated Reverend Johns and his family.

Johns was a man of incredible intellect and his having to bow down to obviously lesser men was a central motif in the story. So right to the point– I have a few ideas that some people might understand.

Racism starts and ends on an individual basis. Lets say you’re white talking with five white friends and a black guy you all know walks up. After he leaves someone in the group may say, “Why did that black !@#$@@#$*& have to talk to us?”
Thats when you say to him, “Hey, thats James. He’s a really cool guy, and a friend of mine!”

Thats something you could do as on individual basis. Don’t add to the insult, stand apart and be the best example for your friends, etc. The same applies on both sides, blacks or whites or whatever. We are all humans from the same planet. The world may always have prejudice, but I WILL NOT.

Bobby Revell

Tags: , , , , ,

3 Comments