One of my pet peeves (be forewarned some offensive language is included in this post)

Ok ladies and gentelmen I have to disclose one of my biggest peeves that I have with the military machine. Now I know that I'm a soldier and I shouldn't be talking bad, but this peeve has gone on for far too long.

Now we being America's military and diplomatic envoys are suppose to be a shining example of all that America has to offer. But I wonder if one of the values that we are exporting is racism. Now your probably wondering how can the military be viewed as racist? Blacks, Whites, Asians, Pacific Islanders, Hispanics, and various other races are all in the military so there is no way we can be racist. Well I would say your right and wrong. Here's why. Since I've here in the Middle East all I ever hear from military members when it comes to identifying the Third Country Nationals (TCNs) is Haji. Now I don't know how they got this name and why it would apply to them, when many of them aren't from the Arabic peninsula. Many come from India, Pakistan, the Phillipines, and elsewhere.

This has been really getting on my nerves only because everywhere I go I hear this term. So hear is what I'm thinking of doing, jokingly of course but it may help people to realize how their actions are, I'm going to call each person who I hear that from a racist name. So if they are Black they will get nigger, White people I will refer to as either cracker or honky, Asians will get either slant-eye, or yellow boy or girl, and Hispanics will get wetback.

Now I'm not a racist or anything but you know if I was to ever really call someone by these terms they would get offended. So how about we go ahead and take a look inside of ourselves and figure out whether we should still be calling these TCNs Haji. And if you think so then you really need to get a grip on reality.

Now if you have any comments on this I ask you to post them. I think this is a discussion that really needs to be out there.

Oh and by the way I now know where the term Haji comes from. It refers to those Muslims who have made the trip to Mecca. Now I'm not sure if the Hindi, Filipinos, and others get this term.