Saturday, September 18, 2010
Not surprising
After reading about everyone else's experiences I realize mine wasn't out of the ordinary at all. I had very few people post on my wall and the only one's who did were trying to be funny. For example one friend said (pardon the french) "Hell yes! Damn proud of it too! I want my country back!" Although this is clearly a joke, it sheds some light on the fact that everyone is indeed aware of a certain degree of racial discomfort and they'd rather laugh about it than address it. The most interesting thing about my wall, however, is that the only friends who addressed the post at all were all racial minorities. The author of that quote is Korean, another who posted is Mexican, and another is Indian. It seems that of my friends, people who might be victims of racial prejudice are a lot more inclined to talk about it.
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14 comments:
My experience was really similar. People who posted obviously recognize racial discomfort and didn't try to deny it. Most people tried to keep it light too by making jokes. One person wrote, "YES!!! I know I am :)But at the same time, I would totally marry a black or poly:)" so I thought that was interesting.
I had a similar situation where one of the people who commented on my status felt lie a victim of racism.
I had a similar experience as well. My post wasn't taken seriously at all- which I think is similar to the way in which people handle this issue; it makes them uncomfortable so they avoid it, or use sarcasm or humor to brush it aside.
I think that racial minorities are more able to talk about it because it seems that any white person talking about race has to be so careful as to not offend anyone. Racial minorities a can be more vocal and outspoken with out getting in trouble.
Yep... no one can take a question posted over facebook very serious. But I think that's why it's a good place to ask the question. We find out more about the racism of our friends when they think we are just joking around.
I think that people who have experienced some form of racial prejudice are more likely to respond to a question about it. I found that my friend who had a bad experience was more vocal than those who don't know what it's liked to be judged on the color of your skin.
I definitely got some of those "French" comments as well. But the person who was the most outspoken about his racism is hardly that. His best friends are Persian and Armenian, and he dated a girl from Japan. His point (I think, I was treading through the sarcasm) was that this question was stupid because it was poorly posed. And inappropriate as a facebook status.
I got a lot of not very serious responses, people thought of it as more of a joke rather than a real question. Even though most people were just joking with their comments, it shows that people really do have feelings towards this topic even though they aren't talking about.
I think even the most sarcastic of statements has a little bit of truth behind it. A thought would never enter into our mind if we didn't feel that way just a little bit. Think about it...
I think that racial minorities are more able to talk about it because they go through things. It's just like a subject in school, if you're knowledgeable in one subject your inclined to be more outspoken. If I don't know much about the subject I wouldn't raise my hand to participate in a discussion because my lack of experience/knowledge. This isn't to say that caucasian people don't experience racial discrimination either, I just think people talk about what they know...
All of the people that responded to my question were minorities as well. Do they just notice racism more than anyone else?
I think they more inclined to talk about it because, if I am not wrong they probably live in the U.S., and have had to deal with racist comments or experiences as they are part of that minority.
Other people observed the same response: more people who are victims of racism responded. Perhaps the people who are guilty of racism (blatant or silent) felt better not making any comments at all on the subject.
A comedian once said that when it comes to race white people are the most mixed of any other race on the planet. I found that statement to be interesting. How he came up with this conclusion was when he would ask a white person what his race was they would give him percentages of different countries that would never add up to 100.
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