Are You A Racist?
Since the election of President Obama, there have been outcries of racism. The Democrats say that the constant attacks on Obama from the Republicans are really just because Obama is a black man. Republicans say that the Democrats are trying to hold blacks down by making them dependent on the state. There are those who would say that only whites can be racists, while others contend that anyone can be a racist. Such discussions seem to bring a personal aspect into the conversation. Those agreeing on one side, will call the other side a racist. But let's just pause for a second and discuss what makes a person a racist.
We can all identify an out in out racist i.e. a skin head or a Klan member, a black supremacistlike Louis Farrakhan or the Black Panthers. Their vocal activities make them easy to spot. But what makes an individual a racist? I contend that it's what's in your heart and what's in your heart is programmed by genetics, nurture and experience.
I know that we have all been there. A party where a discussion comes up about marrying out of your race. Or a discussion about an act of violence, followed by, nosurprisethere. These types of discussions go on equally on both sides of theracialdivide. I have beenprivyto both, and I have to say that they are most telling, sometimes shocking. Even the back handed compliment like saying someone doesn't act like their race, is no compliment at all. It implies that they act like your race, which of course, must be better in that person's mind.
I guess the bigger question is are we programmed by environment and expericence to feel these feelings, or programmed by evolution? You know, the old birds of a feather thing. Yet, one has to ask, are we not the same bird? That depends. A Robin doesn't look at a Blue Jay as the same. So maybe we are just programmed that way, but our higher thinking tells some of us that it shouldn't matter. On the other hand, have we been carefully taught by our families to feel the way that we do? Is this an issue of nature vs nurture?
In a recent study of 9 month old babies, it was found that they prefer the faces of people of their own race. Now this could be explained as a stage, like stranger anxiety at 7 months old, or that babies see their parents more than other people and so that is the color that they are the most comfortable with. But there is no denying that something is going on in their heads. And nature vs nurture issue arises again.
http://now.msn.com/now/0504-racist-babies.aspx
But now to use as individuals. The question of if your a racist, can only be answered by you, since only you know what is in your heart and in your mind. Here are some things to ponder. Are you more comfortable around your own race? Do you trust those of another race? Would you be upset if your child married a person of another race? Do you refer tostereotypeas a basis of how you expect someone to act? Do you have friends of another race? Do you think that being of another race makes youfundamentallydifferent?
I have taken great care not to indicate either race. And for the record, I believe that any race, can be racist. It just seems to come up more in black and white relationships, probably due to this countries past. But keep in mind, that the Japanese thought that they were a better race than the Chinese.
Bet most of us just think of them as Asian.
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First of all, kudos Perrie. I know this is an issue that you take an interest in, but the inane conversations that sometimes surround it drive you crazy---so thanks.
I grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana. I vividly remember as a third grader running through crazed halls of kids at IPS #22 scared and looking for my little sister. Another riot between blacks and whites had broken out...busted windows and bricks, blood and screaming, running kids and cops. Running all the way home ducking into alleys and sprinting past mobs to make sure my sister was ok. Mom and Dad had no idea it happened so fast. We came in the house disheveled and wild-eyed, me with blood coming outta my hand cause I had fell in an alley (anybody remember cinder-block gravel?)
My mom freaked, dad was already on his way home. "damn niggers this and fuckin' coons that" yeah , I admit it both racist. As years went by we moved to the burbs, mom and dad got religion and they mellowed their stance some. By the time I was outta the house, I knew I wanted something better for my own heart and family and forced myself to face my own bigotry.
Many years later Arlene and I adopted two children, half Hispanic and half Native American. My mom and dad love them like crazy, but I still think that if we had adopted black children instead, we woulda had problems. Just so fucking stupid.
We have a ignorant old bag that moved into our neighborhood a couple of years ago. She asked our next door neighbor "who is the family with the black children?"---Jeesh! When I heard about it, me and the wife and kids marched down their with a welcome basket and she wouldn't let us in the door. We had some friends that aren't anymore because it became obvious they didn't want their kids hanging with ours.
So be it.
Whatever the cause, it's a choice to be hateful or not.
Don't people get it? Don't they realize that we are going to survive or die together?
Personally, i believe that if you question anything having to do with Obama, then you are a racist. Otherwise, i really dont care unless I'm trying to pick a fight with someone, at which time, their race becomes open season.
Depends on where you are for sure. I've seen it daily, and then gone a few years without much of a glimpse outside of subtlety.
Mine was a joke. I think the opposite of what i said about Obama. In my opinion, it is our obligation to look at ALL of his actions and inaction, and attempt to expose any secrets he may have. More to the point though, he has an obligation to do all that. Whether he does or not is a different question, and i would hate for Perrie to get mad all over again if was to say that Obama is an outright liar (of course, to say otherwise of almost any politician would be disingenuous given the nature and tendencies of the political machine).
That is a little too much to keep up with, except the anti-human part, which i am also. Of course, just because we agree doesnt mean we can get along. After all, you are human and i am opposed to your type.
If i wasnt already in the mountains....
OMG... I didn't mean this to be about Obama. I really was asking the question about us, as individuals. I just happen to think that since Obama has become president, people have been calling each other racist, even when it doesn't apply.
Peter,
I could never really be mad at you. It would be like being mad at Mike. I believe that you don't trust him for political reasons, and after all these years, I would never question your motivations.
But racism has been on everyone's mind and I thought it would be an interesting topic to explore, without the political ramifications.
LOL... Good one Max. Gotta agree with the above.
But seriously, this article was not supposed to be about politics, and more about ourselves.
That sounds about right.
Obama.
Question:
How many of those different types of people do you come into contact with?
I have heard everyone of those words and you forgot some, cracker, honky, whitie. Have heard them all. But maybe that is because there is more diversity where I live, hence more interaction.
What about saying some hateful racist things to evoke a specific reaction?
Oh... you got to the answer before I did, Peter. I do think that it's locale.
Thanks Larry. I like to ask ethical questions and get beyond the the noise.
As a child, I had a very different experience. My parents saved a young black kid in NYC, who had been stabbed and banged on the car window and begged to come in to get away from the boys running after him. My parents did let him in and took him to the hospital. The cops that took their story, said that they were nuts to have done what they did, since my sister and I were also in the car, but my dad said that he couldn't have lived with himself had he left him there. It was black on black crime, and my parents talked about how they could do this to each other.
Then we moved to Amityville, NY (yes the one of the movies Amityville Horror and Jaws). Shortly after we moved in, there were race riots. I had a little friend who's dad would pick her up after school in his cab. I would wait with her, until my mom could pick me up, since she could only do that during her lunch brake. One day she wasn't there. I found out that a gang of white kids had pulled her and her dad out of his cab to beat them up. The cops came, the kidspanickedand they ran over my school mate killing her.
Shortly after that, my parents moved, to a hovel of a house in Wantagh. No more black kids, and 2 Chinese ones and it was a bit of a culture shock for me. It was ethnic bigotry I encountered there, as each group didn't like the other. Left me feeling very out of place.
But then again it was the 60's and people just spewed their hate at free will. The only good thing I can say is that you always knew who was what. No fake pretenses.
I think that some do. I think most don't stop to think about it. It's always just in the backgrounds of people's lives until something comes along to make them think, if they think at all.
Those are amazing stories John. I am amazed that you were able to rise above the hate. Do you think it was your upbringing ( you never mentioned how your parents felt about this) or maybe your faith?
twat did you say, i cunt here. gotta ear infuction...cant hear shit. It's probably all crap anyway.
balls.
Actually, there was a "What Would You Do" about this, in Hobokin, NJ. Most of the white people stuck up for the black people.
n----r.
nutter?
In reality, or conceptually?
true dat.
no comprende...yo no habla anglais. En espanol porfavor.
I wish I could see your face as you typed that, Max. I think you must have had an evil grin on.
then they would just hate on their own...better to aim that hate at somebody who looks different.
Sounds like the school I worked in.
I had amazingly wonderfulexperiencesthere and amazingly horrible ones. Watched drug deals go down. Had a gun pointed at me and the school psych as they robbed the cabbie that was coming for her. I was attacked by a student. I also saw students of mine go off to college, or the army. Girls who decided to break the chain and not get pregnant, because of what I taught them.
I guess life is what you take away from it.
True.
That is also true. But to make the jump that we have a lot of racist here, well, that I am not sure I can support. I think that we have a lot of partisans here. They would have been just as critical of Clinton, too.
Only one's self can know what is in their heart.
Lo siento, yo no comprende. Si habla espanol?
By "rib", do you mean black behavior? Because i can cotton to that.
The ones you are referring to were sold off by their conquering black neighbors.
Chingate tio! Comprende? Si no? No comprende, como se dice COC en espanol?
Then no, i have no problem with that. Unless you are white.
Which goes to show Max, that even when we are among our own, we still find reason to hate.
Look at Nazi Germany. Everyone was white, so religion, andethnicitybecame the thing to hate.
Gotta agree with that, too.
yep.
Callate la boca gringo! La rasa, la onde guero. Donde es tu cabesa tio? Si comprende? No? Viva la Mexico!
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No. That would be the other place. Here we allowforeignlanguage.
Hablar espanol maldicin! Pince gringo's!
Max,
Ich denke, Siebraucheneine Tracht Prgel.Du warst einsehrbser Junge.Sie solltennicht soschwren
Rich!
I wouldn't take that from a white man!
What about the other 4%? 42+2?
No reality. It's a really interesting show. It was in a mostly white diner, and they wanted to see if the white patrons would stick up for aninterracialcouple and they did. Then they tested it on a lone black woman and then a man, and all three times, whites stuck up for blacks to a fake white bully.
And Mike, I know that you didn't read the article and jumped right in, since you referrenced the same study that I had in my article!
DO YOUR HOMEWORK!
Interesting. In my own personal experience, most white people seem afraid of black people and stay ominously silent when anything crazy happens....but now that i think about it, they are only silent when a black man is acting crazy. Do you remember my recounting of events surrounding my encounter with "James"?
That is a particularly frustrating type of racism, in that they dont realize they are racist and wont acknowledge it when it is pointed out to them.
Brown people usually refers to people who are not black.
Black is just fine. African American just came out of everyone being a something-American.
I have never met aHispanicwho got upset for being called aLatinoor vise versa.
Chicanos are only Mexicans.
No, chicanos are mexi americans you racist. La rasa, la onde.
I object to the whole "..." American. Either you are or you arent American. No qualifiers necessary.
.01%
Sometimes the distinction between racism and separateness is made clear :
meet a black person
I have met that type in some other venue. You can always smell the BS, if every comment and every post always revert back to their bias.
So....we're basically talking about Michael Jackson.
"I didnt lose any chocolate, i just added vanilla....shamone"
That's just you being a cynic. No one needs to vote for a person of a different race, since we vote in secret. If they vote because someone is of a certain race, then that is something else.
Yes I do.
Here in NYC, we stay away from anyone acting crazy, usually followed by a 911 call. And most def on the subways. We got crazy every color of the rainbow.
By crazy, i really just mean rude, tasteless, or anything else that would normally merit a comment and/or a dressing down.
Nah... people always have some reason to hate.
Where I used to work, the Caribbean Blacks didn't like the American blacks, and the Nigerian Blacks didn't like the whole lot of them.
In the town I grew up in, almost everyone was white, but the Italians, Irish, and Germans, talked smack about each other.
Then you better not move to NYC. Qualifiers are a big thing here.
But go abroad, and they think of us as just Americans.
Deep throat bigotry if you will.
It's probably the same mechanism that gives babies "stranger anxiety" at 7 months. Still, an interesting find and yes I am going with thefamiliarityconcept. My kids were raised with black kids since the crib, and I never saw them being racist, LOL!
I totally agree. But imprinting is being used in the wrong way. Infants imprint on what they see first as their caretaker. That is why baby ducks who see a human first that cares for them, will act as if they are their "duck" parents
That's about it. That and Vitiligo.
Hey, I thought you guys liked that stuff. Now I am confused!
OK, then if I say that I didn't vote for him ( which I didn't) I feelabsolutelyno need to defend myself against being a racist. I didn't even feel the need to explain why I didn't vote for him.
That is because I am sure of what I feel in my heart.
John,
Sometimes apartisanis just a partisan. I remember the same thing about Clinton. He was white.
I do feel that there is a small minority of people who dislike Obama just because he's black, but hey, there was a small minority who disliked JFK for being a Catholic.
For any given group, I do think you will find 10% of it not liking another group. It's not great, but it's just the way things are.
John,
It is hard to prove these things, either way. But I am sure that there are just as many blacks who don't like whites as vise versa, presidents aside. They are subject to the same things in life that makes bigots out of any of us.
Ahh.. talking about da Bros who are members of the Republican party and the grief they get.
Hey, to each their own.
Well for a change, I'm not going to disagree with you.
Except for the last part
Because you are now accusing Obama of the very thing that you are decrying about.
When I read this story I noticed it was about a mother with 15 children . I immediately jumped to the conclusion that she was black . Does that make me racist ?
The story did not mention her race but there is a video ...
Mike, your comment, ditto with a sledge hammer.
These are great posts. Really a lot of thought has gone into them.
Robert,
The Jewish question about the Republican Party, is onlyrelevantin states that have a Jewish population. Jews make up about 2% of the US population, but areconcentratedin certain states, like NY, CA,FL, and Il. The factor that no one actually looks at, is that these tend to be more liberal states, and mainstream Jews tend to be more liberal, hence the lack of Jews. I don't find that shocking and I don't buy into the idea that Republicans areantisemitic.
Mike,
I'd like to address this:
There have been studies that have shown, that given this situation, a woman would never pick any man, white or black. And in reality, for some reason, a white man is more likely to be apedophile, than a black man. Most woman will pick any woman, who seems as you put it grandmotherly.
I think that is a small minority of people, that would act against their instincts. I think that when push comes to shove, that a person will act upon their instincts, and it is in those very moments, you do know what is in their hearts.
Now it might be more complex a process than either A or B. Let's take your scenario, and you have in front of you, a black grandmother type, and a both a middle aged white and black man. I know your going with the black woman, just as I would. Now throw in the white grandmother type, then I'm interviewing,unofficially. Why? Because where I live, the best caretakers are the older black woman. So to a degree, I have used my common sense, and my experience. Now if my choice is only the middle aged black or white man, you better believe, that I am going to leave the car and take my kids.
Robert,
I totally agree with you. There is the reality though, that having a child in foster care, can sometimes be just as bad as having them with these parents. Still, I have seen personally, some terrible choices made in the courts regarding this. The duty for teachers to report, often puts them in this very situation. If we report, is the kid going to be better off? Foster parents can be brutal, as many of them do it for the money. So again, are we bringing our personal experiences to the game? I know that I am.
IDK. I think that it's a matter of your experience. My thought would have been white trash. Look at Octomom. So I would have thought white, maybe Hispanic, since I know that they tend to have larger families.
What's not even close?
?????
I am unclear to who/what you are addressing your comment at.
Oh. OK, now it makes sense. Thanks!
Did I ever say otherwise?
And in public no less...
Dang Max, it's been good nite!
[[Look at Octomom]]
I'd prefer not to ...
Bruce,
This required a bit more personalintrospection... not politics.
That is pretty catchy.
No way! You suck it up, cowboy!
Just sayin......
Racism is alive and well in America. 93.5% of our black voters voted for Obama last election. When a group of people vote along lines of color so flagrantly clearly they are voting based on color. That's racism. Clear as day. Argument?
Note that the white vote was split unremarkedly along party lines with no indication whatsoever race had a bearing on their vote. White America elected a black president. The black vote, however, raises eyebrows.
Agreed.
Welcome Bozo to NT...Nice to see you jump right in
You seemed to have found an oldie of mine.
Yes.
Huh, why is that "racism?"
I don't get this. Voting FOR X, doesn't mean you necessarily despise Y.
Which, of course, is why blacks are so off base with their cries of racism.
Here's why
Even IF a black guy voted for Obama because he was black STILL doesn't mean the black guy is racist. He just wanted a black guy to get elected.
Racism implies not only a favoritism for your race/ethnicity but a hatred for the other.
At least it is so in my own mind.
Now, on the lefty side it is not so. But, then again, they are strange creatures, ill suited to survive in this world unless supported and fed by curmudgeon conservatives.
That's racism.
You have a good point there.
Also a good point.
Which at the end of the day, is the purpose for discussion. Points I hadn't considered. Still, it did make for a funny SNL skit.
Not sure I totally agree with that. But as Mikes article points out, the left tends to be more reactionary, then proactive.... at least from my POV.
Thanks Bob! Don't worry about being late. This seems to happen often here, that an old article pops up, due to an ongoing issue.
Your post was very honest. Are you a racist? I guess the answer isn't whether you have blacks as friends, due to life, but rather would you choose not to have a black person as a friend, based on the color of their skin.
I have black friends who have admitted the same thing. I think that has to do a lot more with crime stats than anything else. Also I think that your reaction would be different to a black man in a business suit, then one with pants down to his knees, starring downwards.
Would you mind describinghow male WASPs have victimized people?
Hey, some would say that the male WASP is a dying breed.
As for your comment to the woman lib lady. There is nothing wrong with empathy. Attempting to try to put yourself in someone else's place is far better than not giving it any credence. And while you I am pretty sure that you have no idea of what child birth.... I am also sure that I have no idea of exactly what it's like to have erectile dysfunction... but I can still try to understand.
Which is very unnecessary. One can make a point without belittling another person.
Perhaps it was too general a question.
Describe WASP victimization as it relates to you personally feeling some kind of empathy/guilt for that other person's/persons' action.
I agree. That is what I meant by empathy.
And in fact, no matter how hard we try, we ultimately go through life alone. That's how we enter it, and that's how we leave it. So I will never fully understand anyone, but myself.
Why?
Is wanting an IRishman to win the US Open racist?
That may be true, but is not indicative of racism. They aren't saying they hate McCain because he is white, necessarily, only that they want Obama to win because he is black.
Kind of like Spaniards wanting Spain to win the World Cup, etc., etc.
Good distinction!
Well, not to become too bizarre, but isn't that true of EVERY emotion, every thought, with every person.
As we are all little islands, none of us absolutely UNDERSTAND how another (the same race, age, whatever!) actually feels, eh?
It's just the cosmos we were born into! We are not like the Morta!
wmolaw wrote - "Racism implies not only a favoritism for your race/ethnicity but a hatred for the other."
That's ridiculous. So, I don't hate black people at all. I am responsible for hiring thousands of employees. I hire all whites, all the time, nothing but whites- simple 'favoritism'. Not racism?
I'm absloutely sure that I didn't say or imply that you did. I did essentially ask what it is/was that would lend to your personal guilt/remorse based on the actions of another born of similar origin to you.