I hate that. I really do. I make it a point to nod and smile (not nervously, clutching my White Woman's Purse) at black men (unless they give off a serious skeeve vibe, which, I note, NOT RESTRICTED TO BLACK MEN, DUH!) and it's not from white liberal guilt; it's I'm like fuck this paradigm of thr Scary Black Man, and I'm gonna jack with it, and I hope this makes up a little for every jackhole who's given you the stankeye, locked their doors, called the cops ("There's a BLACK MAN IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD OMFG!") or crossed the street becaue Black Men Must Be Violent.

Fuck that shit. I mean, I was raised to be polite to all people, and I'm a smiler and a nod-politely-er, but especially having worked with so many young black (and Hispanic) men, I'm just like, ARRRRRGHHH.

this is why Black men are far more likely to be stop and searched, pulled over while driving, arrested, etc.

Driving/Walking While Black/Hispanic.

Yeah, I heard horror stories from my kids all the time. And it makes me want to stab a bitch.

So, I was at my inservice meetings this morning. The first speaker was fine. The second one? Dude, he needs my class. Lesson the first about public speaking: don't alienate large portions of your audience in the first minute.

He knew he was speaking to all of the junior high teachers. All of us. He asked people to raise their hands if they taught math? Science? Language Arts? Social Studies? And then he started to move on and heard some grumblings. And said, swear to god, "Well, what else is there?"

Really? Well, thank you so much for just ruling out silly subjects like: music, art, band, orchestra, Spanish, health, PE, first aid, and drama. Wanker. I figured if he thought so much of my subject, he didn't need my attention.

"Chrysler gave its entire work force the day off to Vote Today!"

That's a tweet from the President of Chrysler, who's apparently a bit miffed at Mitt for the whole Jeep bullshit lie.

From the interviews I've seen with him, he's way more than miffed. It's nice to see at least one of Romney's lies bite him.

Those, by themselves, are not sufficient differences to cause this huge divide.

Yeah, it is, for me, because all those differences come from self-imposed ignorance, and I can't respect that.

They are if you belong to any of the marginalized groups being marginalized by their politics.

And that, too.

You guys, I just sent my first work-related tweet. I feel terrible about it.

You guys, I just sent my first work-related tweet. I feel terrible about it.

Why? (see above work-related rant)

I don't tweet, so is there something bad about tweeting about work?

Also, I think our country is suffering from lack of politeness and manners. And I blame the internet and cable news. My extended family includes some Republicans, and I think they are genuinely thoughtful and not all that knee-jerk and probably also a little racist, but I don't know any of that for a fact, because we don't talk about politics.