Not Tolerating Intolerance

Where is the line of what is funny and what is bigotted bullshit? See, I suspended an employee for calling another employee a "nigger" last week and I have been deemed the unreasonable one. The weird part is, think about it , in a group of people who are all the same race as each other, who calls the other out for racism on a regular basis? Do you just sit there and laugh as long as it is in the company of everyone who is the same color, creed, etc? Is racism OK behind closed doors? Have we all become Dave Chappelle and feel we can get away with picking on a group for the sake of a good laugh and as long as everyone is equally picked on? I've had to deal with some weird racial shit this week and anyone who knows me knows that I have never been a fan. The odd part is that I have become the odd one out. FYI: I was told this employees use of the word is a joke. So, in that case, I would say I dare him to make the exact same statement in front of the other employee and go for the laugh....or ass kicking as that would probably be the response. It's kinda like introducing two friends of mine to each other. one reaches over and touches the others hair and says, "oh my God, it's so nappy!" there are just some things that are not appropriate.
I don't know why I am so upset over all of this, but I am over having to explain to my people what is not ok to say. I am over "the cracka crackdown" on TAN's website. I am over being called white girl in every language at the bar as the appropriate name to get my attention. I am over Burger King's and McDonald's target marketing that is all but short of being clips from some really bad blacks-ploitation mini films. I am tired of taking it seriously and looking like the bad guy because I don't get the joke. here's my thought. Whatever the joke is, find the group it makes fun of. Tell them. If they all have a whooping belly laugh with ya, go for it you racist, sexist pain in the ass. if you get your ass whooped, maybe I am not the sensitive whistle blower of the group. I have the same level of tolerance for this stuff as I did in high school with my skinhead friends. So yes, I am solely trying to combat this type of crap. Hell, I'm going to school in the hopes that some of the lobbying I do will end it on the macro level. Until then, I am fighting it on a micro level. And yes, my boyfriend is black. And yes, he has pulled some fucked up shit, but if you have the nerve to link those two together, I will probably swing at ya. Not because I think I am black. Not because he has brainwashed me of my whiteness, but because you are an out of line idiot. I am mad and sad and amazed at the level of intolerance I have been seeing of late. I left my small town with the idea I would escape these attitudes, but if that is not the case, I will fight it. I stand by the decision i made. I told the employee who was called the name that, three weeks ago when a bar regular called him the same thing and spit in his face, my job as a fellow employee with some say, is to protect him from that. And I meant it. maybe some others did not.
So, will I get in more trouble for writing this? Probably. But this blog is at least as honest as I get for those of you who read it on the regular. So, consider my stand taken. and, if anyone out there has some ideas about it let me know. I just can't pretend I am over it and OK with it.