a message for undecided white voters

[$tevie]

LOL, Pam, yes I did! Oh well, he's batting 1.000 then.

[rjmacs]

cbelt3 wrote:
I had one expert tell me that 'Racist only counts when you're a white person discriminating against a black person". I calmly asked him if that was discrimination. And he said no.

Discrimination goes both ways, but racism does not. A member of a racial minority can absolutely act with prejudice and bias against a majority member simply because of race, and that is wrong. It's as wrong as someone in the majority discriminating against a racial minority because of race. However, the system of racial categorization is in itself biased against the 'lower races,' and is grounded in a theory of racial stratification and superiority. Race itself has no basis in biology or nature, as we all know. It's a particular historical construct that wasn't politically neutral when it was created, and isn't politically benign now.

As a result, though discrimination and prejudice are abhorrent no matter the race of the perpetrator, acts by majority members against minorities, on balance, convey greater damage and cause more harm than acts in the other direction. Perhaps this is what your 'expert' was trying (albeit poorly, it seems) to express.

Thanks, as always, for your many anecdotes. I would that my life and family were so colorful (pun somewhat intended)!

[decay]

you're born with your skin color.

how you behave is under your control.

how you think is under your control - reject the crap that you are taught if you don't believe it.

we all bleed red. i'm tired of excuses from everyone, all colors and creeds.

i saw a friend of my wife's the other night, he's a gym trainer. i joked with him when Bon Jovi came on the stereo, "white people music." he laughed and said he liked the song; he's not white. we had a good laugh together.

we have to be able to laugh at ourselves.

[swampy]

:agree:

[August West]

we have to be able to laugh at ourselves.

Amen, brother!

[hal]

$tevie wrote:
[quote=hal]
BTW, the youtube thing is about how white Barry Obama is

"The third whitest name on earth". :-)
but what about Barry White?

[(vikm)]

Anyone not voting for Obama is clearly a racist.

[decay]

hal wrote:
[quote=$tevie]
[quote=hal]
BTW, the youtube thing is about how white Barry Obama is

"The third whitest name on earth". :-)
but what about Barry White?


or Jack Black? or Black Francis?

[Janit]

cbelt3 wrote:
I had not considered that view. I had always felt that 'color neutral' was a good thing, and that cultures were to be celebrated as part of everyone's unique heritage, which comes together to make this nation very interesting and fun.

The problem though, is in the practical issue of how to define what 'color neutral' actually means. There is a lot of difference of opinion around this issue, and people with different views are all too likely to call each other 'racist' based on the belief that their own view furthers racial justice and that other views inhibit racial justice. It is a thorny issue. The majority culture tends to regard itself as the norm and to assume that judging people against that norm=neutrality.

It is always worth asking oneself what things do I do that alleviate racial injustice, and what (largely unconscious) things do I do that perhaps unintentionally perpetuate racial injustice.

The song from Avenue Q (Everyone's a little bit racist) is outrageous, provocative, and worth taking to heart.

[Speedy]

cbelt3 wrote: My whole family have been staunch Republicans for generations. Do not imply that political affiliation equals personal racism.

As has been pointed out on this forum any number of times and bears repeating, all Republicans are not racists but all racists are Republican. All one needs to do is compare the Republican vote in the Deep South to the white voting population.