Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Things that are 100% Real American

I've tried my best to avoid politics in my blog but every now and then, I see or hear something that just gets my goat enough to say something. Lately, the republicans have been throwing the words "Real American" around as if it means rural, God-fearing, hunting on the weekends, and hard working blue collar, white men. In an effort to create an us against them type of attitude they've dangerously crafted an atmosphere of not-so-subtle racism and anti-intellectualism. I honestly don't know if they're just trying to fire up the base or if they honestly think that they can appeal to undecided voters with such clap-trap.

So, in a an effort to clarify what is indeed a real American, the following is a list of things that are completely 100% American.


Jazz

Movies

Blues

Rap

Comic strips and books

Square dancing

Disco

Cowboys

Rock N Roll

Peanut-butter

Mickey Mouse

Bugs Bunny

Fake Poop gags

Skateboards

Mohawks

Blue Crab

TastyKake

Coca-Cola

Democrats

Republicans

Grits

Hippies

EDIT: Baseball & Poker (sheesh, how could I forget my two favorite hobbies?)




I could go on, but my point remains the same. That's quite an eclectic list and it includes all ethnic groups and by nature all American culture is a mixture or melding of different cultures.

So, please, let's cut the crap and stop talking about "Real Americans" as if it applies to one distinct group of people. The last thing we need to do is to divide ourselves instead of what real Americans actually do best- which is work and live together while maintaining in our own diversity.

6 comments:

Chris said...

commie

David said...

Pretty sure it wasn't an accidental omission, so I gotta ask... why not baseball?

(One possible answer: what chris said)

Brian said...

whoops?

Brian said...

I forgot poker too!!

OMG, my brain must be fried....


time to edit...

David said...

I was actually wondering about poker too, but figured you likely knew something about its pre-American origins that I didn't--somewhat along the lines of those who say that baseball comes from some game the British Army played during the Seven Years' War, or that Egyptians actually created it 4,000 years ago.

Whatever. Good civilizations borrow, great civilizations steal...

Brian said...

The game of poker as it's played now is truly American but for sure there are some foreign roots. The French could also make a strong claim.