Recently, I was shown a forwarded email that reminded me of the person I blogged last about, Bob. As I viewed this email I was in utter disbelief that images such as these are being passed around publicly. Call me naive, but I thought that Bob was the typical ignoramus. I did not realize that there is worse out there!

This stereotypical depiction is so offensive to myself, and so many others, whether a democrat or not. It is this kind of disgusting humor that not only hurts people, but pushes our country back decades.

This image is obviously targeted toward those people that are disadvantaged, that many view as "lazy", and those people that will "take money" from the "working people" and give it to the "lazy poor". That makes me sick. In this image, is everything we have discussed all semester. From the idea that the impoverished minorities are simply sitting around asking the government for money, to the idea that anyone willing to put time, effort, or funding, is to be shunned.

In class this past week, we discussed the uplifting book, "Comeback Cities", in which there are stories of people believing in hope, themselves, and their community, enough to come together and make a change on their own.

While this book was published in 2000, and many of these changes took place in the 1990s, I can only hope that they are still happening today, and that these people are stronger than myself and can ignore the terrible "comedy" that portrays all impoverished as poor and lazy.

I had an eye-opening conversation with someone, who I will name Bob, a few days before the presidential election. I knew going into this conversation, that Bob was extremely conservative in his views, but seemed willing to hear my point of view regarding my support for Obama.

In class, we talk about those people who are trapped in their "bubble"; people who have no concept of the tragic lives of those minorities living in poverty; those that think nothing is actually wrong, simply because they're so far removed from reality, even when these problems are occuring right in their city, town, or neighborhood.

Well, after a few minutes of letting Bob know that I was not only a democrat, but a huge Obama supporter, Bob said something that...well...just blew my mind with the ignorance that was being displayed. Bob said that he did not feel that his tax money should be used to help provide housing for everyone in America, especially since ALL of these people do not have housing because they are lazy and unwilling to work. I almost had a heart attack. My mind shot straight to the literature we have read in class that contain historical and factual information that has led to the slums and impoverished today.

I wish I could have given Bob these works, or at least had the guts to say something to him at that moment. I wish I would have explained the concept of covenants in neighborhoods and real estate, the "white flight" to suburbs, the increase of knowledge based jobs in the inner cities, the cyclical nature of the ghetto life, the lack of funding for education, and the fact that inner city minorities, at birth, are already 10 steps behind a middle class Caucasian.

I did not say anything, I simply nodded and grit my teeth. "These are the people we have been talking about in class", I thought, "that is one of them". I could not believe and I didn't want to believe that people this IGNORANT exist!! In the back of my mind I knew that they were out there, but had never spoken with someone, who I would consider to be an intelligent person, yet still held these beliefs.

I can only hope that it will be the younger generations, the people like myself and my classmates, and our new president (yay!) that will move our country forward, and begin to help with the problem instead of selfishly refusing to believe it exists.