Saturday, February 21, 2009

IS RACISM A DISABILITY?

hola, still seedy.

IS RACISM A DISABILITY?
bear with me, the ADA language is vague on this but if others recognize you as being disabled then you're disabled.my bipolar/Aspegers son does not Think he is disabled but he is recognized by doctors and other mental health professionals as so.
i was half asleep listening to NPR talking bout PTSD (Google PSTD SYMPTOMS, see Google bar below) and i noticed i had them,I HAVE ALL OF THEM.
i am an ACA (ADULT CHILD OF ALCOHOLICS) as are both my wives GriZelda and Soul Mate.my Dad was broken in WWII and my mother was a depressed codependent rageaholic from violent physical child abuse ,in rural Post Depression Texas,as were her siblings.
a short Google later i noticed there was a debate whether PTSD was transmitted genetically (sorry my sons) or via behavior mod in response to parental misbehavior ( a la Skinner).
just a tangent,
BF Skinner kept his baby daughter in a plexiglas box ( a Skinner Box) to shield her from aberrent human behavior, he hoped she'd turn out to be the Perfect Scientist, alas HO HO HO she became an artist).
so i'm thinking i recognize a lot of my life long behavior as cripplng and dangerous often to myself and others but the bedrock sanity of Zen Buddhism ( and 250+LSD,peyote,mescaline trips) plus the I Ching guided me thru the shoals. sez me...

RACISM AS BEHAVIOR MOD
what if the DSM # (whatever) defined Racism as a culturally transmitted disability? i'm not just talking White People here (altho imagine American History without racism-Native Americans,slaves,Latinos. my Soul Mate suggests SEXISM TOO but that is a much much longer blog.)

about the same time as my Cougar GFs (1970 NYC) i stumbled upon a Hungarian tourist in Central Park.one thing lead to another which lead to my mother finding her naked wrapped in a too short towel emerging from the bathroom the next morning.my Mother greeted her in English and got a reply in a foreign language...later my Mother would inquire how i'd 'tricked' a white girl into my bed who did not speak English.Mom was definitely pissed!

my Mother,despite all her flaws,went back to college after 30+ years to get a degree to teach Speical Ed but she never REALLY trusted white people or their motives.she did not believe that ANY WHITE PEOPLE WERE BORN WITHOUT PREJUDICE.
she is not alone,even today,in thinking this-but i know otherwise.my sons are proudly IRISH-AFRO AMERICANS (thanks GriZelda) and i have had too many friends of all colors and sexual traditions to count...but then i live in free range California and my mother was a product of hardscrabble Texas and ghettoized working poor NYC.
RACISM AS DISABILITY, THINK ABOUT IT... NOW THAT "THAT ONE" IS PREZ...
got Comments?

semper gumby
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