Best to think before you speak.

I like to think of myself as a fairly politically correct person. In my day to day interactions I generally try to think before I speak and stay away from controversy. However, apparently my efforts have been in vain. I have been using racial charged language for years without even knowing it, and I bet you have too!

An article in the Portland Tribune tells us all about some of the terrible language we use when speaking from the position of "white privilege." My God! I bet at some point in the past several weeks we have all used such insensitive language as "peanut butter sandwich." Stories like this would be humorous if only there were not people who took these kinds of positions seriously. These are the kind of people who are educating our children. This woman may seem like an isolated example of foolishness, but she is not, perhaps she is an extreme example, but her line of thinking is not rare in our public school system.

Soft bigotry and the suppression of traditional values has been going on for years in our schools, the gospel of "multiculturalism" and cultural relativism has gained wide acceptance in our houses of education. I had an insight into this world, as my late mother was a school teacher. In fact throughout her career she worked as an ESL or bilingual teacher. My mother was extremely proficient in Spanish, yet throughout the over two decades she taught, faced constant discrimination and put downs because she was not a native Spanish speaker. This of course did not come from her students or their parents, but from fellow "educators," many of which did not like the idea of an "Anglo" woman teaching Hispanic children because she was not "one of them," and "did not share in their experience."

It meant nothing to them that she cared deeply for the children she taught, saw them for who they were as people, not as ethnic stereotype, and wished above all to equip them with the tools they would need to succeed in America. I have met many people who hold views like Ms. Gutierrez and have no place for them. He story is all to common in our nation today, a person who is so fixated on race and ethnic identity that they can see nothing else. I could describe to her what I had brought for lunch that day and she would chastise me for displaying my "white privilege." I thought in the year 2012 we were past this kind of thing? At least is that not what we have been told? That we now live in a post partisan, post-racial society. I interact with a diverse population of people on a daily basis, there appearance, race, religion, political beliefs, lifestyle, etc... have no bearing on how I treat or feel about them and in general I feel I am treated similarly by those I meet. I know that we all come from differing backgrounds and I will not pretend that prejudice does not exist or is no longer a problem. But, a person seriously peddling "peanut butter sandwich" and similar descriptions, as examples of racism makes a mockery of those who are truly victims of racism and prejudice.