Oftentimes I feel disconnected from this community, and question why I do more than just read. The metapocalypse over the surveillance state makes me question whether it's worthwhile to contribute, and the vitriol has quashed a few diary ideas in the making.
And then someone comes along and reminds me that I do have some friends here, because they're so nice to me when I go and do something ignorant and stupid and, well, probably somewhat racist.
Ack! Liberal hackles go up. Racist? Well...it's about a word I won't be using to mock anymore. Because if my friends are going to be that sweet to me about it, the least I can do is listen and learn.
So, in my little piece of work from yesterday I found something out late in my day, and didn't have time to do much more than make a quick edit. It could have easily been missed, and I suppose my friends would be nice enough to let it go at that; but they deserve more respect than that.
I don't know what's worse here, that some bunch of conservative morons would pass off a racist picture so approvingly; that they would get busted for using an image that was photoshopped to make the racist point; or that they would misunderstand what the offense was.
I can't help a little bit of morbid amusement at my offense now, considering the subject matter. Bit of an own goal. Anyway. That read 'conservative
maroons' until I found that in need of fixing. And sure, I got that from Looney Tunes but that's not the point. This is not a word I should be using to refer to conservatives when morons will do. And that is because it is offensive.
Here's why! Some history that was never in any of the books I read...
Maroons (from the Spanish word cimarrón: "fugitive, runaway", lit. "living on mountaintops"; from Spanish cima: "top, summit") were escaped slaves in the West Indies, Central America, South America, and North America, who formed independent settlements. The term can also be applied to their descendants, and the same designation has also become a derivation for the verb "to maroon".
It gets better, or in my case, more cause for shame...
Beginning in the late 17th century, Jamaican Maroons fought British colonists to a draw and eventually signed treaties in the 18th century that effectively freed them over 50 years before the abolition of the slave trade in 1807. To this day, the Jamaican Maroons are to a significant extent autonomous and separate from Jamaican society. The physical isolation used to their advantage by their ancestors has today led to their communities remaining among the most inaccessible on the island. In their largest town, Accompong, in the parish of St. Elizabeth, the Leeward Maroons still possess a vibrant community of about 600. Tours of the village are offered to foreigners and a large festival is put on every January 6 to commemorate the signing of the peace treaty with the British after the First Maroon War.[3][11]
So in my supposedly enlightened mindset I was unwittingly associating some courageous, unconquerable folk with a commitment to freedom from slavery with...conservative morons. Well, damn. And here I was feeling all proud of myself. So much for that, heh.
The Maroons, on the other hand, have much to be proud of. Take this fellow for example, Dutty Boukman:
Dutty Boukman (Boukman Dutty) (died ca. 1791) was an Haitian slave who was one of the most visible early leaders of the Haitian Revolution. According to some contemporary accounts, Boukman may have conducted a religious ceremony in which a freedom covenant was affirmed;[1] this ceremony would have been a catalyst to the slave uprising that marked the beginning of the Haïtian Revolution.[2]
I'm told that Boukman was a Maroon commander, who went over from Jamaica to Haiti when the Haitians were inspired to have their own revolution by the
Maroon example.
Boukman (also Boukmann, Dutty Boukman or Zamba Boukman) was a leader of the rebellion in its initial stages, he is reputed to have led a vodou ceremony together with the mambo Cecile Fatiman at Bois Caïman on August 22, 1791 which signaled the start of the rebellion.1 He had come to Saint-Domingue by way of Jamaica, then to become a maroon in the forest of Morne Rouge. Giant, powerful, "grotesque-looking man... with a 'terrible countenance', a face like an exaggerated African carving." (Parkinson, p. 39) Fierce and fearsome, he was an inspiring leader.
If I were not busy trying to make up for being a fool yesterday, I would consider at length the tie-in to
Pat Robertson, who blamed the 2010 earthquake in Haiti on a "pact with the devil," in a reference to the Bois Caïman ceremony that inspired their slave revolt. But that can wait for another day.
It is my privilege, of a sort, to not know any better, to not know history very well, and to periodically offend folks I like with my ignorance. I'm sorry about that, and will try to not repeat it. Hopefully writing this will help to burn the memory into my neurons, heh.
It is also my privilege of a much more genuine sort to know some nice folks whom I offended, who were generous enough to not lash out in offense as would be entirely justified. Thanks for the reminders -- to correct my ignorance, and to be nice enough to not call it racist, although you could certainly argue the case; and that even on its worst days, this community is still worth sticking around for and participating in.
I'm led to understand that I can still use "morans". :)
3:21 PM PT: Well, someone's definitely having some fun with this, heh. Rec listed? I'll almost certainly remember this, now. Admittedly I am a forgetful sort. Just shine some more of that sunlight on my brain. It's a disinfectant.
http://tvtropes.org/...
Mr. Horse: All right, so I MADE a mistake! ONE MISTAKE! Can't a man start over?! Do I have to keep on PAYING?! HUH?! Maybe I should make another mistake! Maybe TWO more!
Ren: Please sir! I think one mistake is plenty! Just let me show you what's inside here!
Mr. Horse: throws hands up Don't do it, man! I'm not armed!
Ren: We really just want to sell you some rubber nipples! See?
Mr. Horse: Oh...it is a nipple. laughs good-naturedly Oh, what you must think of me.