I've been witness (and victim) to this before, but this weekend was an ugly reminder of how real this issue is.

A girl was a B-word to one of my family members.  Okay, great, yeah, the girl was rude and her behavior was uncalled for.  I get it.

After my family member voiced the maltreatment to the rest of my family, another family member proceeded to attack the girl's race. And after my temper rose to the point where I couldn't contain it any longer (which, those who know me, know that I am extremely patient and my temper rarely rises), I told my family member off by saying "Okay, great, she was a b****, but that's no reason to attack her race," and he proceeded to defend his racism by saying, "well, sometimes we make fun of people to make ourselves feel better."

Oh really? How about you grow a pair and actually address the issue, instead of cowarding in the corner by making fun of someone (which is downright wrong in itself), nonetheless making fun of someone for something that she cannot help AND for something that is totally unrelated to the issue.

(I was proud, however, because after that, he seemed to get my point to a certain degree - he did simply walk up to the girl, and told her that he didn't like the way she treated my family member, in a civil and polite manner. That made me proud of him.)

And this is just one thing that happened to me last weekend.  There were other accounts of people I love being racist and prejudice.  It broke my heart that people I look up to can be so ignorant.

My point is that racism is real.  Prejudice is real.  Ignorance is real.  And I am bloody sick of it.  When is the world going to wake up and stop being so stupid and ignorant?