What annoyed me most about a recent column in the Washington City Paper by a white woman who blames the cat-calling Latinos and blacks in her neighborhood for her illicit racist thoughts? How much time do you have? The writer is misguided and wrong. Her honestly is not refreshing. It makes her look stupid.

They're coming in here and disrespecting a good American woman, just because that's how their culture is? So I'm allowed to hate them, right?

I can't hate them for any reason connected to their race. That makes me no better than people who say shit like, "Go back to Africa!" I can, however, hate them for the way they disrespect me.

White men don't do this to me with the same frequency, so when I pass a group of them on the street, I don't clench my jaw, tense up, and walk faster. But when I pass Latino men, I assume the worst. Black men, too, sometimes, since after Latino men, they harass me the most. Hell, if you're at all brown, I'm gonna get worried. So I have this conflict every damn day.

Please. This is not a new problem, nor is it one that she alone experiences. It happens to me and every other woman who walks down the street looking half-way decent. In fact, no matter how many annoying comments she may get on the street, I don't think it can even compare to how many black and Latina women get from their own men. And they're probably worse. That said, the video that accompanies the groundbreaking essay on misogyny in black and Latino culture is truly hilarious, and shows how half of the street harassment problem could be solved if ignorant young men got jobs and stopped loitering on corners waiting for something interesting to happen. Because, despite what he says, I'm almost positive the "you dropped something" line has never worked on anyone worth dating.

[WCP via TAN]