too slow

let me leave a record of my being here.
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jay.luis.vela@gmail.com
September 29
“ i want to tell him about my dad, who came to America in 1985 and has spent the last 25 years realizing that discrimination in America exists just like it does everywhere else in the world but there are laws against it here so it has to be really subtle. my dad wants to leave America and move to Europe as soon as he can, where he hopes that people there will at least drop the pretense of being post-race. the “Das” in Das Racist rhymes with “pass” and is supposed to sound like “that’s racist” but it first brings to mind Das Boot, the movie about the German U-Boat in WWII, which is a movie that my dad watches because he is obsessed with the holocaust. i want to tell Himanshu that to me, Das Racist is a project about immigrant disillusionment, about realizing that the possibilities for immigrants in America are not as vast as they appeared from outside it, and when i listen to Das Racist it helps me understand my dad because sometimes it is hard for him to be direct about why he wants to leave. but it is weird to tell someone something so direct and personal like that so i skip it

Das Racist: “We’re Not Racist, We Love White People: Ford Trucks, Apple Pies, Bald Eagles” - The Awl 

This guy’s dad sounds like a yuppie art school drop-out. “Oh…I’m disilussioned with the opportunities America has to offer…I want to move to Europe as soon as I can.”

Talk about first world problems.

Western capitalism breeds isolation, and at least you’re not dead broke living in a trailer or a government project or a peasant eating bush meat in a thatch hut. You want to experience real disillusionment? Hang out with people for whom there is no “I’m moving to Europe,” option. Hang out with natural born Americans who will spend most of their lives in the same state and only see the world if it comes in the form of a tour of duty. Or better yet, go to a native reservation and tell the locals about your eurotrip plans and how you’re all “disillusioned.”

(cue the world’s smallest fiddle.)

(via douglashaddow)