In light of Sally Kern and her “Proclamation of Morality” which is nothing more than a shameless fear tactic and more gay hate mongering, this has been an interesting week… Oddly enough, I had planned on doing a discussion with my youth on how they felt about what Sally Kern said in this proclamation, particularly regarding should Christianity be the only religion of the US? Is our economic crisis because of women getting abortions, same sex couples wanting to be married, heterosexual couples wanting to get divorced? Which, if you think about it, all of those things cost money so don’t they actually help the economy?
Well, I love my youth but they are not morning discussion people. So we ended up just chatting about 4th of July, the massive thunderstorm that roared through Prague last night, and how tired they all were. To be honest, I don’t remember what sparked this comment but at one point, one of my youth, jokingly, said so and so is a “jewface.” Initially I thought he said duffus (which I know is spelled wrong but I have idea how to spell it) but to double check I asked him, “What did you say?” He said it again and to triple check, “You said ‘Jew – Face’?” And he affirmed that is what he said… Now, I had never heard that term before but I knew from context he was using it in a derogatory way and I called him out immediately on it. I simply said, I don’t want to ever hear you use that phrase again, that is discriminatory and anti-semitic and would be ever more highly offensive if it was ever said in the presence of someone who is Jewish. Normally, I don’t ever really get mad with my youth, and they know this… They also could tell what was said had really offended me, and I’m not even Jewish, but I do have friends who are. I did feel bad to call my youth out in front of everyone but honestly, if I could do it again, I wouldn’t change what I did. Yes, it would still probably be better to pull him off to the side after Sunday School and say, hey that is not okay but, at the same time, my youth really need to learn to watch what they say…. More often than not they will make gay jokes, hispanic jokes, immigrant jokes, etc and I know that I haven’t done enough to call them out on it and put a stop to it. Well, that’s changing. Prague may be a small town but sooner or late they will all be going out and experiencing the world outside of Prague, one that will not be so tolerant of their intolerance and ignorance towards people who are different from them. Much of their attitude is because 1. They live in a very conservative small town. 2. They live in Oklahoma 3. For most of them its how they were raised and what they’ve grown up around.
The most disheartening thing about the incident this morning was when the youth I had called out told me that I would need to talk to his mom then because apparently she says that all the time… This is why racism still exists, this is why there is so much hate still towards people who are different races, ethnicities, or religions. Parents continue to pass it on to their children who have yet to find an adult who tells them differently… I’m going to be that adult, I can’t just sit back and let this go on. It may make me unpopular with them but anti-semitism, racism, discrimination, homophobia – none of those things are okay.
