"Yup"
"Not everyone in the world, but everyone you and I know"
"That would depend on your definition of racist"
"Umm yes, the broadway play Avenue Q even has a song about"
"My definition of racism is being intolerant of differences. We all recognize differences and that is necessary for understanding others. I have never in my life, when something bad happened to me, thought in my head "oh, its because I'm white" but my husband has thought on more than one occasion that some injustice he was experiencing was because of his color. and some of the time he was right. But no matter if he was right or wrong about it, that is just something he lives with that I don't have to live with and something my children will have to live with also. Attempting to understand differences is not racism. But we all have stereotypes about everything because of how we were socialized. But we not only have stereotypes about race, but about gender and religion and blonds and geographic location etc... Using the very word racist is in fact being racist most of the time. The more you scream about injustice because of race, the more you are yourself being racist. I think more of david's family doesn't like me because I'm white, than my family doesn't like him for being black. But because I am white, I automatically have a higher capacity to be racist than he does. There is a lot that can be said on the subject. and excuse the pun...but on this matter, there really is no black and white answer."
9 comments:
It's interesting how passionate some people are about the subject. I think it's hard to know how difficult and frustrating racial discrimination is until you've really experienced it.
I absolutely agree. I have never felt singled out or attacked because of race. It was sad to read the stories that a lady posted on my wall about experiences that she and her kids faced on a regular basis.
I married a Japanese girl and my kids are going to be part Japanese. I think it is going to be interesting to see how they're treated in school etc. I'm glad people aren't as racist as they used to be.
Very interesting post. I like the different perspecitve. I agree with Ashley that until you read stories and put yourself in other's positions you can't really understand the experience.
Kate is right, the passion comes from the experiences in someone's life. I am Japanese, Chinese, Hawaiian and Samoan. My dad is a large 6 foot 4 inches tall, very dark skin, and drives around in a beat up car. He's from Carson, California so he listens to the old school hits of snoop dog and doctor drey. The number of times that my dad has been pulled over for no apparent reason are too many to count. He's been selected and apprehended at the airport for a drug bust because of the way he looks. All of this suspicion for a person who works at a nonprofit organization for troubled youth. Regardless of his character he gets treated differently.
You were not raised to think, "it's because I'm white." Is it possible that minorities associate negative things that happen with their race and begin to blame their problems on being a minority?
There seems to be a fine line between noticing differences and stereotyping. Sometimes I feel being white can be a disadvantage. A common stereotype perpetuated is that blacks are better than whites at sports. Also, in higher education, people of other races have a better chance at scholarships and admission into more prestigious schools. We all know that the typical white male does get passed up for people of more diversity at times.
I have a friend that had an interesting experience. While filling out paper work for the census she was told she could not put down hispanic. She always considered her race as hispanic since here mom is hispanic. But she was told that is not a race but an ethnicity. She was then told she was white, because her father is white. So according to the USA standards she's white not hispanic.
I agree that the ones who care the most about it and complain are definitely the most racist.
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