Reverse racism (please read this) - Page 6

LadyLucretia · 09-02-2007, 10:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lonelygirl17

It wasn't easy growing up here as a black girl and being rejected by my own race just because I didn't " act black". I had "good" hair. I hated rap( mainstream. underground is okay) with a passion. I was quiet instead of loud and obnoxious(sp?) like my previous peers which they mistook for being stuck up. I took my education seriously instead of caving into the pressure that it was "uncool" to be smart. I chose to speak the English language instead of incomprenshive slang that involved ( and forgive me for saying this) the word nigga in every other sentence. The fact that I happened to have more white friends than black friends didn't help either.

And because of this I had to endure years of bullying and constantly being called a "sellout" or " acting white" by my own people when we are the ones who should stick together after all our ancestor have been through for decades.

It is really sad the that qualifications for "acting black" mainly involve listening to misogynistic, violent, homophobic music, using improper English and offensive slang, being loud and obnoxious, not caring about school, and having difficult hair. If this is the ideal that black people are supposed to be striving for to fit in with their community, is it really shocking that test scores for black students still lag behind those of white students? Or that so many other inequalities that still exist?

I'm not blaming black people exclusively for their situation - obviously institutionalized racism played the larger part. But it's like now that no one is formally trying to oppress black people, they're making up for it by oppressing themselves.

Granted this dynamic exists in many cultural communities (i.e. ungrateful, pampered white kids who still live with mommy and daddy at thirty despite their pricey private school educations). But your story is something I hear over and over, and it makes me sad. On rare occasion I'll overhear some black academics discussing the issue with sadness and frustration in their tone, but the laments of a few academics aren't going to spark the grassroots change that needs to happen on the community level.

Ultimately it's sad when potential is squandered regardless of who is doing the squandering.

BLEED REBELION!!! · 09-02-2007, 03:53 PM

OHHH no please don'y bring up Condeleeza Rice. She is not on good list.....

Rizash · 09-15-2007, 02:50 AM

Topic is self fulfilling.... Racism is always backwords and disruptive.... So is talking about it... I'm not racist (though I am oddly uneasy around people of other races because I'm so damn white washed (the term I use for raised around, always lived around 99%+ white people of european heritage who go from indifferent to intollerant of different races)). Until probably 4 years ago I can honestly say I never had any derrogatory words come into my head about any race... but the more you hear them the more it just loops through your head and annoys the hell out of you.... Then when you do get annoyed it springs into your mind like a splinter burried deep under your skin that you just happen to disturb. Its one of those things that I believe it SHOULDNT bother people (words are just words) and if people MEAN things like that about other people based on race, etc... that type of person isnt worth dealing with anyway.... But I feel every person on this planet is opinionated... and in SOME respect judgemental..... We all like to think of ourselves as pristine and perfect and innocent but were not. The more we realize this is EVERYONES fault the sooner the pissing match ends for good. Just so you know look at the Don Imus thing... his phrase "nappy headed ho's" is now in EVERYONES mind when 99.9% of people I know would never have heard/said that term in their entire life without him.... Sure it was bad taste, but it was a bit of old school humor at someones expense(not acceptable, but 20 years ago it wouldnt have made ANYONE think twice) Fine, thats over and done with. BUT the stupid basketball team makes THEMSELVES look bad by following up with some frivilous lawsuit.... anyone who does that is a total and complete loser. Yes, you were hurt, embarassed, annoyed, frustrated, and are angry.... Thats fine... the guy lost his job for doing his job... But to sue him and make yourself look like a complete idiot and a person who really is just greedy and trying to take advantage of a situation that ALREADY was blown out of proportion is just bad taste.... Bottom line I brought this stuff up to say how I look at it....

Prejudice is like a snowball fight... EVERYONE has some bias (potential to throw snowballs)
The more you see it/hear it the more you think about it (packing snowballs)
The more you get hit with snowballs the more you want to throw one back (even if it is just stuff like my absolute dispise towards the racism that is affirmative action) in one way or another (yes, I'm saying that stuff like that makes people frustrated with the system)

The more you hit people the more people come to the defense of them....

Right now we've thrown so many snowballs there is a mountain of snow behind both sides.... many more snowballs get thrown the entire mountain of snow is going to come crashing down and cover us in one big avalanche of hatred!

Why this analogy? its fluffy... (bad pun) and its true... because its human nature... experience something and you ponder it... experience it negatively and you'll either cower from it and hate it (run/hide/reject society) or you'll embrace it in your own way (take counter-measures) and start to use it as your own weapon/defense. The bottom line is it is our nature to copy others.... The more we see/hear/talk about this stuff the more it contaminates us. If only 100 people saw the "N" word as bad ... it would not be bad to most people. If people would stop using the racism card for such minor things then people would stop assuming that every time the racism card is played it is being abused or used to cheat the system.... The bottom line is we all just need to grow up I dont have the answer for this but I'm sure as hell sick of hearing words in my mind that I NEVER would say.... Things have gone too far and we all just need to vent stress and ignore all our natural human stupidity/flaws.

Sorry for the rant but I'm maybe the only human thats sick of this topic yet cares enough about it to realize that if no-one ever said anything about racism (INCLUDING saying racist remarks/doing racist acts) that most racism would gradually fade. Yet society would never accept this sollution.....

I give up on trying to understand humanity as a species... I cant even understand myself.... I just wish I knew what the hell causes people to think up NEW ways of hurting each other.... its so pointless.

-- End rant and frustration

-Riz

Rizash · 09-17-2007, 01:52 AM

Two days later and not one person responds.... Was hoping to get more bite from the community :-/ I wanted to get you guys to realize that racism... in fact all forms of judgement are natural IF you're raised/live around them.... We need to change peoples minds and need to fight this stuff on a person by person basis.... Some people need to NOT have it pointed out every two seconds, others need to have the realities of it thrown in their faces to wake them up.... C'mon guys

Sheesh... from a group of people who gets stepped on/discriminated against frequently you guys sure were too quiet about this :-/

Anomander · 09-20-2007, 05:47 AM

Riz, I think the post was rather long.... and people found it difficult to read, talk less of respond to.

LadyLucretia · 09-20-2007, 06:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anomander

Riz, I think the post was rather long.... and people found it difficult to read, talk less of respond to.

Yeah, I saw giant blocks of text comprised of run-on sentences and just skipped to the next post. It doesn't matter how valid your point is if you can't express it clearly.

Rizash · 09-21-2007, 12:40 AM

I'm even harder to understand in person.... I speak quite quickly and dont think/speak in a linear manner..... Get used to it :-p

I usually have like 4-5 lines of thought going on at once so I end up jumbling everything together. :-p Blah...

Heretic · 09-28-2007, 06:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by raineofblood

As Jilly said blacks and hispanics do have a large amount of political power. To name a few in the American political system: Colin Powell, Condeleeza Rice, Alberto Gonzalez, and Barak Obama (Extremely popular and influential). So to say they have no political power is a flat out lie.

Um...try re-reading those posts. BLEED said Blacks and Hispanics "do not have much" political power. Jillian said they do have political power. Why would you then post that Jillian said they have "large amounts" of political power and claim that to say otherwise is a lie?

What your are alluding to boils down to the amount of power minorities in this country have, that is to say, how much control they have over the political, social, and economic segments of American society. The obvious answer is very little.

Women and minorities have finally been recognized as indispensable to the success of all kinds of organizations. But do they gain positions of power in those organizations? Rarely, and even when they achieve those positions, they do so as individuals. There are never enough of them to represent a "group" that can impose it's will or vision on other groups.

Your contention that the individuals you mentioned as part of the American political system represent the vast political power wielded by Blacks and Hispanics is incorrect. Those individuals represent exceptions, not the norm. Going by the numbers, Hispanics and Blacks combined only represent 22% of this country's population. Even if the current socioeconomic conditions for this segment of the population were even with that of the general population, there aren't enough of them to constitute a "large amount" of any power, much less political.

And don't start in with pointing to the major political parties courting their vote as proof of their political power. This is done because every vote counts. Those political parties also court the teacher's vote, the teamster's vote, and the Christian vote. Important segments of the voting population, yes, but individually they are hardly representative of huge political power. And the parties receive more in perception than they give in concern for the issues important to any of those segments. By courting the Black and Hispanic votes, politicians can appear to be concerned for "every citizen", something that helps them strengthen their hold on other voting blocks, just as they can appear "tough on crime" when they court the police officer's unions.

The idea of "political power" is more complicated than it might first appear, although who controls the machine is crystal clear. How much of an impact minorities have on that machine is obviously not enough to challenge those who control it.

- Heretic

CountSixstring · 09-28-2007, 09:12 AM

Bleed. I feel your pain. I am ALL black and I still feel sympathy. Even before i was goth, black people treated me like shit. They call me fag because I don't wear my pants below my dick and string every word together like a beatbox. They feel like I'm a satanist because I refuse to recieve their bullshit in church. It isn't fair for any of us, you especially. A lot of the times it gets physical, and no matter what, that never ends well. If I do whoop some ass, people cower and think I'm about to make another Columbine. They say that "Only white people play guitar" Ed knows that I hate this shit. Also a lot of blacks laugh when I walk by and I just make them look bad by making simple and logical comments. I'm not racist. I just hate plain ignorance. When most whites see me, they don't know what to think. I like in Tennessee, and it's very divided here most of the times. Music unites us though. Sometimes I consider myself a "better" black person than them because I refuse to be defined by the media and I put my roots in true music. I honestly think I am the youngest black blues player around here now. Blues is also becoming a white art because blacks feel like rap, money, and buttsex are more imortant. and for the record. I think mixed girls are hot as hell. It's my only racial fetish.

Wormboy · 09-28-2007, 02:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rae Ven Rae

I recall one time slipping up and using the word "elated" during a conversation with, I'd say, more project types. They gave me a hard stare and one of them said "Why you gotta be using all them hard words.."
..

I get so absolutely infuriated at shit like that. I use my vocabulary, and yet some people have actually said, "Why do you use all those big words, it's disrespectful." I went positively ape shit. Disrespectful? Because I assumed they WEREN'T ignorant morons? Cacophony isn't that big of a word anyway....

Rizash · 10-01-2007, 03:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CountSixstring

Bleed. I feel your pain. I am ALL black and I still feel sympathy. Even before i was goth, black people treated me like shit. They call me fag because I don't wear my pants below my dick and string every word together like a beatbox. They feel like I'm a satanist because I refuse to recieve their bullshit in church. It isn't fair for any of us, you especially. A lot of the times it gets physical, and no matter what, that never ends well. If I do whoop some ass, people cower and think I'm about to make another Columbine. They say that "Only white people play guitar" Ed knows that I hate this shit. Also a lot of blacks laugh when I walk by and I just make them look bad by making simple and logical comments. I'm not racist. I just hate plain ignorance. When most whites see me, they don't know what to think. I like in Tennessee, and it's very divided here most of the times. Music unites us though. Sometimes I consider myself a "better" black person than them because I refuse to be defined by the media and I put my roots in true music. I honestly think I am the youngest black blues player around here now. Blues is also becoming a white art because blacks feel like rap, money, and buttsex are more imortant. and for the record. I think mixed girls are hot as hell. It's my only racial fetish.

Thanks for speaking your mind and proving to me that that type of stuff DOES happen and that there are people within minority races trying to clean up their respective images.

Its weird living in a city where its around 2-3% blacks like 3% asian and the rest are mostly whites.... For a white guy to say this is probably a bit confusing to some of you guys but I'll try to explain....

Growing up my parrents did a great job raising me right... I'm not a racist and I try not to judge people. When I was in middle school one day out of the blue I was pulled into the principles office (I had NO clue why) and I was absolutely shocked to find out that someone had accused me of saying a racist remark of some sort to them. To this day I still dont know how/why this happened but this is one of two events that changed my life by making me absolutely be terrified of being accused of things I didnt do. When I was in 2nd grade I was pulled into the principles office and was warned about fighting in school.... I had no clue why/what was going on but someone had mis-identified me as one of two people who were fighting out on the playground.... Being warned/nearly suspended for something I had NOTHING to do with was bad enough, but they wouldnt even listen when I told them I had nothing to do with it. These incidents have changed my life in ways that I really dont understand.... I'm the type that tries to break up fights if they happen (I pull the people apart and stand between them, I've done this 3 times in would be bar-brawls) but every time I break something up/prevent something I'm afraid someone will file charges against me for tugging on their collar and telling them to knock it off or for standing between them preventing them from going to the other person....

As far as the race issue though... being accused of saying something vile to someone really hurt. To this day the only minority friends I've ever had were asians and those friendships usually didnt last (they got into trouble or ended up moving to different schools). Since this city is 92% white and only 64k people the chances of finding someone whos into the same interests as me and a minority a real problem. There is also this weird issue I have approaching minorities... there's always this weird feeling of fear of rejection. I just get this vibe of "is this person going to think "why is this guy coming up to me to start a conversation"" or something to that effect.... I'm just really lost these days as far as I'm not sure I'll ever be at ease around everyone -- thats one of the things I strive for.... I know I just need a few friends who are minorities or who are into different things to get me to loosen up, but thats far easier said than done.

I dont know... I'm just lost in life all around right now.

Heretic · 10-01-2007, 06:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CountSixstring

Bleed. I feel your pain. I am ALL black and I still feel sympathy. Even before i was goth, black people treated me like shit. They call me fag because I don't wear my pants below my dick and string every word together like a beatbox. They feel like I'm a satanist because I refuse to recieve their bullshit in church. It isn't fair for any of us, you especially. A lot of the times it gets physical, and no matter what, that never ends well. If I do whoop some ass, people cower and think I'm about to make another Columbine. They say that "Only white people play guitar" Ed knows that I hate this shit. Also a lot of blacks laugh when I walk by and I just make them look bad by making simple and logical comments. I'm not racist. I just hate plain ignorance. When most whites see me, they don't know what to think. I like in Tennessee, and it's very divided here most of the times. Music unites us though. Sometimes I consider myself a "better" black person than them because I refuse to be defined by the media and I put my roots in true music. I honestly think I am the youngest black blues player around here now. Blues is also becoming a white art because blacks feel like rap, money, and buttsex are more imortant. and for the record. I think mixed girls are hot as hell. It's my only racial fetish.

I would be very careful making such sweeping generalizations. You consider yourself a "better" black person than others? All other Black musicians think hypersexualized and consumerist lyrics are more important? I was embarrassed for you just reading that. It would seem that you have failed to see the diversity with the African American culture, just as those you condemn have.

I'm walking in your shoes, living here in Minneapolis, the second-Whitest metropolitan area in the country, next to Salt Lake City. I've had my problems with narrow-minded people within the African American community, to be sure, but I have never validated their ignorance by internalizing and projecting their particular brand of bias. Your post generalized and judged, mirroring the treatment you find so frustrating.

Words like that are like water for them, allowing their ignorance and hatred to grow and flourish. Just live and let live; be yourself and don't bother with those who don't care to understand. Internalizing and reflecting the hate only amplifies it.

- Heretic