Hate and Ignorance is alive and well....

Social networking has been many things to me. It's been a way to reconnect with old friends, a way to meet new friends, a way to kill time when I'm bored. It has also been a way for me to see the hate and ignorance that is still alive and well in many people. These people I'm talking about are not old, they're not from a time when schools and businesses were segregated. They're not from a time when women couldn't vote. They're from my time. My age. An age where we should have grown up open minded and accepting of people....even if they're different from us.

 I've seen comments and posts and pictures easily using the N word. Joking about it. Laughing about it, and defending it when I've said something. I've seen comments about Muslims. Nasty comments. Comments no person would easily utter from their mouth in mixed company, yet speak so freely when they feel safe, tucked away behind their computers, posting it for all the world to see. Comments about Mexicans. How they're the ones abusing our system by getting Medicaid, Food Stamps, and WIC. How can you say its all Mexicans. I'm sure there are more than a few Caucasians abusing the system. And I know there are lots of them NOT abusing the system, simply utilizing what is available to them in their current situation. Just because you see someone using food stamps getting into a nice vehicle doesn't mean anything. Maybe they borrowed that vehicle to get to the store. Perhaps they paid for it in full when times were good, before losing their job.

When did my generation become so quick to judge? When did a switch flip in our heads saying its ok to hate people that are different from you? When did it become ok to say whatever nasty thing you have on your mind about people and then the acceptable response is "Oh I have friends that are black, I have friends that are Muslim, I know people on Medicaid". Get a grip people. Those black friends you have, they don't want to be friends with people that freely use the N word. Especially when used in a way to mock black people (not that any way of using it is acceptable). No Muslim wants to be a friend with someone who goes on the internet and expresses disgust for Islam. Or speaks about how all Muslims hate Americans, or how all Muslims beat their wives, etc. And no one who is using Medicaid for the right reasons is proud of it. But they do it. Why? Because they have to. They have to get their kids to the doctor. They use Food Stamps so their kids don't go hungry. So don't react to me that you're free to say what you want because "I have a friend who_________". If that's how you treat your "friends", then rest assured, you are no friend at all.