an infinitely-sided die would be a sphere

As a kid, I sporadically watched Ready Or Not*. Never regularly - it was hard for me to pin down when it actually showed, but these two episodes stuck in my mind. The first was an episode about a black boy working for Busy's father, and Busy's father being racist and and stupid. My conclusion: Some people are racist and stupid.

The next episode I remember... Maybe it was just a piece of an episode, but I remember Busy going to some prom and her and her dad having a beautiful father-daughter moment. And, honestly, I was confused. Isn't this the racist dad? How can he be loving when he's so prejudiced?

Now, I'm not saying Ready Or Not is wonderful TV, way ahead of its time, but even now, it's hard for me to watch TV and buy that someone can do a really bad thing and still be good. Now, we have tons of TV and film where we justify the bad things that people do (murder, theft, adultery), so we don't think they're bad anymore, but we don't usually show that people can love people so well, and then hate for unacceptable reasons.

I don't think I like to see hypocrites because they're hard to understand.

I'm coming to a point in my life where there are people I don't like. For these people, I'm so willing to write off every good thing they do as attention-seeking or fake or needy. Also, for the people I like, I can't deal with the things they do that are bad - I justify them, so I can continue liking them. But then my own beliefs get muddled. It's too hard for me to allow people to have more than one side.

Maybe things will be easier once I come to terms with my culture.



*I read earlier today in a book called Why Do Men Fall Asleep After Sex? that studies have shown that television doesn't actually rot your brain. In fact, children who watch TV from an early age have the same or greater aptitude for learning, as compared to those who don't.