Gran Torino Movie

Ok, I'm a couple years late, but this is about the movie Gran Torino. I'm watching it right now and it's really sad! The girl just came home, all beat up and abused. This is the second time I've seen this movie and while the first time I was not overly impressed, I'm really enjoying it this time. I mean, I'm not particularly fond of sad movies and, yes, there is a lot of cussing, but it's got a good story.

All the racial slurs are a little unnerving. They make me nervous. I've been trained to dislike any words that may offend anyone, of course, by the great U S of A, but more than that, insulting a whole race is just mean. Ok, yes, I've used some of those words before, but it was always in fun, with people I knew. Even that may be wrong, I don't know. It's not always the intent that matters.

It does bother me though when one race 'allowed' to use a racial slur and others aren't. The N word, for instance. I think, personally, that if one race is allowed to use a word, all races should be able to use the word. Isn't it racist for a race to be called racist for something that another race can do without being called racist? So, again personally, I think that if blacks can use the word, I should be able to, or if I can't use it then they can't either. Isn't that fair? Which is the objective for America, right?

I don't really understand racist remarks anyway. How can you be offended when someone insults an entire race? I think it makes the insulter seem ignorant since every race has its individuals so no one word can possibly encapsulate an entire people. Every race has its yay people and its idiots. So racist labels, when I use them, are more terms of endearment. I call David a coconut, for instance. I wouldn't if he found it offensive, but he laughs and returns an 'insult' as a sign of affection. My relationship was the same with Ryan, Veronica, Steven, and especially myself! I use racial slurs on myself all the time because there's no reason to feel offended.

Anyway, I don't think I could befriend an old guy who uses the words as a real insult. I would be offended. Eventually he started using the words affectionately, but that's not how it started. I'd be angry with him if I met a guy like that. ...Unless he was slurring against me. But if it were against any other race, I'd be irritated. Don't know why. Maybe I've bought into the whole, 'white people are bad' thing in some ways. I don't want to think like that though. I've never done anything against another race. I didn't steal land from the Native Americans, I've never owned a slave, I've never taken advantage of cheap laborers, nothing that I should feel guilty about. I'm no more racist, and no more guilty of racism than any other person of any color out there.

So, I'm wrapping up this incredibly self-centered blog now. Geeze, I feel like I tooted my own horn for this entire thing, but these are my opinions, my experiences, and so I wrote them down. If you don't agree with what I think, well then cool. You don't have to. Isn't that awesome?? And I don't have to agree with what you think. It just works out like that.

I do like a good debate though. So I'd be up for one anytime you think my opinion is wrong, or ignorant, or narrow minded in some way. Just throwing that out there!