8 ms·

I, Racist

29 points by kelukelugames 11y ago

andrewmcwatters 11y ago
Uh, this is like a blatantly reverse-racist article.
- osazuwa 11y ago
  Ironically, your comment is the reason the article was written.
  - radu_floricica 11y ago
    Still doesn't make it wrong. I didn't read the whole thing, but the bias was there. His aunt moved from a "black" neighborhood because it was worse - and yes, there is a correlation between bad neighborhoods and black ones. But this doesn't makes his aunt racist, it just means she doesn't want to live in a shitty place. I'm not american so I don't give a damn about racism, so I can say things which can't be said in public: black culture is inferior (muhaha... I trample on your cultural relativism) and has many toxic elements. It's stupid to blame race, but it's still fact that culture makes a hellof a lot of difference by itself, including more likely to have shitty neighborhoods and white aunts moving out of them. So yes, you could call overly "reverse-racist" a point of view which willfully assigns to racism what can be explained otherwise.
- mister_m 11y ago
  Feel free to explain why please.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - _blrj 11y ago
    What is there to explain? The sun shines, water flows, and racists make prejudicial statements.
    - kjdal2001 11y ago
      He is asking what about the article is racist, not why racism exists.
- cmurf 11y ago
  This is a transparent ad hominem attack, slandering the author as racist for the sole purpose to reduce his credibility, with the goal of shutting down a rational conversation on racism. I was at first attempted to call your statement hyperbole. But then I realized that's exactly the insidiousness of white privilege that I cut you some slack by thinking you're just being silly.
  - _blrj 11y ago
    No I mean, factually, it's reverse-racism. It's not an opinion, the author talks about racial issues and then makes prejudicial statements about all white people: > And White people, every single one of you, are complicit in this racism because you benefit directly from it. > every single one of you > complicit in this racism What else is this suppose to say besides, "all white people are racists"? Why is that okay for a black person who identifies as "Black" not black as a descriptor of skin color but Black as a part of community, a culture, not an individual, to say that all, that's all as in every man, woman, and child as a White person, not an individual, but all White people as a part of the white community, are racists? Why is this okay? What does this accomplish? What is the end goal of this conversation the author intends to have with his audience really about? If a message is conveyed here to the White audience, what are white individuals, and White people collectively suppose to do about it? Is the article just about saying White people are racist and that's it, rant over, end of story? What is the solution? > [...] it’s getting harder and harder for me to think about the protection of White people’s feelings when White people don’t seem to care at all about the loss of so many Black lives What? Are you serious? Lets repeat that back: > White people don’t seem to care at all about the loss of so many Black lives Excuse me? Says who?
    - scrumper 11y ago
      What else is this suppose to say besides, "all white people are racists"? Re: the complicit because we all benefit, I'm not sure that your argument holds. The author isn't calling all white people racist; he's saying that all white people benefit from racism. That is subtly different. You may have a case to build around whether we all directly benefit from racism, or whether we simply don't suffer because of it. The latter position is surely close to axiomatic but the former requires more thought.
- wangii 11y ago
  The phrase "reverse-racist" is racism.
scrumper 11y ago
Point is well argued and carries a lot of weight. It's uncomfortable reading. As a white person coming from the UK to the US, I noticed a stark contrast in black participation in society between the two countries. While not claiming Britain is perfect, my metropolitan southern experience included a lot of black people on an equal or senior footing on various axes of professional, financial, social, etc. That experience simply didn't carry across to the major east coast city I moved to. It is unusual for me to interact with black people at client meetings, in my middle class neighborhood, when I need professional advice from a doctor or a lawyer, really anywhere other than public transport or as a customer of a service function. While I can't discount that my ignorance of any racial tension around non white people in England was a simple function of youthful naivety, I'm absolutely more aware of 'difference' now I live in the US and I'm a lot less comfortable as a result. In short, it's obvious to me on a superficial level that the black experience in the USA is pretty bad, but this article is a deeper look at something that's quite hard to confront.
- jgroszko 11y ago
  I've noticed this in a few BBC shows vs. American shows. In a British TV show there will be characters that just happen to be black, but in an American show it's going to get talked about eventually. Admittedly they aren't the same genres, but the shows that immediately come to mind for me like this are Sherlock and Dr. Who vs. say 30 Rock or Community.
  - mercer 11y ago
    I really like how New Girl handled the issue. If my memory is correct, it didn't really mention anything about their relatively large black cast, until they was explicitly highlighted this fact in one of the final episodes.
bko 11y ago
> White people do not think in terms of we. White people have the privilege to interact with the social and political structures of our society as individuals. You are “you,” I am “one of them.” Whites are often not directly affected by racial oppression even in their own community, so what does not affect them locally has little chance of affecting them regionally or nationally. They have no need, nor often any real desire, to think in terms of a group. They are supported by the system, and so are mostly unaffected by it. This explains why some are moved deeply by things that occurred to strangers. The obvious solution would be to help all people view themselves more as individuals rather than belonging to this or that cultural identity. This includes less personal identification with any group as well as viewing others as individuals. Unfortunately, the power players that make a living off racial tensions would prefer to keep it that way to maintain their influence.
- jrs235 11y ago
  Divide and conquer works.
- rabbyte 11y ago
  It's not that the oppressed are unwilling to view themselves as individuals, it's that they are safer and better supported when they think as a collective. So saying they should just view themselves as individuals isn't so much a "solution" as it would be a sign that a solution was found. Also, is it an unchecked white default bias to believe it's better to view yourself as an individual?
notacoward 11y ago
White people have the privilege to interact with the social and political structures of our society as individuals. You are “you,” I am “one of them.” I had never thought of this relationship between individualism and privilege before. Thanks, OP.
jrs235 11y ago
What I have been noticing is that a large number of people seem to be redefining "racism" and "racist". "Or even worse, we’re told that we are being racist (Does any intelligent person actually believe a systematically oppressed demographic has the ability to oppress those in power?)" People are adding the requirement that to be racist or racism that an oppression element must coexist with the thought or behavior[1][2]. That's not completely true. An element of superiority or inferiority must exist. An oppressed person can still be racist is they believe they are superior to their oppressors. The comment from the story above turns people off and away from hearing what is being said because it is offensive and a fallacy. EDIT: formatting EDIT: Clarification "(Does any intelligent person actually believe a systematically oppressed demographic has the ability to oppress those in power?)" No. But you're conflating two issues; thinking of oneself superior to another based on race and oppression. One can be racist without [directly] oppressing others. In fact, that's what the article is trying to point out. [1] https://www.google.com/search?q=racism https://www.google.com/search?q=racism the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races. [2] http://archive.adl.org/hate-patrol/racism.html http://archive.adl.org/hate-patrol/racism.html
mplscoder 11y ago
If whites were 1) running the country and 2) racist then the immigration policies of this country would have kept the USA as a white majority country. Instead, white people are becoming a minority in the USA and European countries. "As Of Today, California No Longer Has A White Majority" http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2013/07/01/2238421/california-latinos-equal-white-population/ http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2013/07/01/2238421/cali...
- JoeAltmaier 11y ago
  Sure, but that's couched in racist ideology: you are black (or non-white) if you have any fraction of not-white blood. As the great melting pot processes along, its inevitable that 'pure white' folks will disappear. And that's a problem, why?
  - mplscoder 11y ago
    You are just arbitrarily defining whites to mean nonsense and accusing me of being a racist which I am not, I am a Catholic and I believe racism is illogical, but I still get annoyed reading about how all us whites are supposedly racist or secretly racist, and couch everything in our secret racist ideology. I didn't say it was a problem for a country to be non-white. I said that it simply proves that white racists are not running everything, which it does. The WASP elites are not running everything anymore - its not the 1920s.
    - JoeAltmaier 11y ago
      Don't go overboard, there. The idea that 'white people' are disappearing is a racist notion. Because of an ancient notion that if you are 'polluted' by even 1% 'black blood' then you're not white. On the face of it, that's nonsense. Why not say that even 1% 'white blood' makes you white? Then the USA is almost entirely white. And half a percent of the USA are running the whole country. I suspect they are all old white guys. We're more than halfway done proving the "they are in charge" accusation, right?
      - 11y ago
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
- irishcoffee 11y ago
  > "Racism is so deeply embedded in this country not because of the racist right-wing radicals who practice it openly, it exists because of the silence and hurt feelings of liberal America." I think the author acknowledges that.
GoldenHomer 11y ago
I can understand his anger and frustration, but come on. http://www.jamesmaystock.com/essays/images/InterracialMurders.jpg http://www.jamesmaystock.com/essays/images/InterracialMurder... Source of image: https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/expanded-homicide/expanded_homicide_data_table_6_murder_race_and_sex_of_vicitm_by_race_and_sex_of_offender_2013.xls https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/...
- VeejayRampay 11y ago
  What about the fact that there is a system of ghetto-ization that ensures that a huge chunk of the black population is marginalized and ostracized? What about the fact that the worst areas (where said crimes are committed) of the densely populated urban swaths are disproportionately inhabited by African-Americans? What about institutionalized educational and police racism? What about the presence of drugs and the lack of social workers cause God forbid rich people pay higher taxes for the well-being of others? What about the absence of fathers leaving innocent children to grow up without good role models because daddy is in jail for an egregiously long "drug offense" sentence (i.e. toking on a blunt)? That stuff is systemic, showing out-of-context bar charts from the FBI doesn't make it right.
  - happyscrappy 11y ago
    Inner cities — cities often overwhelmingly run by minorities — have different standards than those elsewhere, we can then ask why and dig deeper to the root of the problem. We can ask cultural questions and compare the percentage of intact nuclear families across races. We can do surveys on parental attitudes about the importance of education or examine voting patterns. We can ask if it is possible for a city like Detroit — run for decades by progressives, many of them minorities — to be the “victim” of “white privilege.” Did white privilege clouds from Orange County, Calif. make their way east until they dumped fiscal malfeasance and out-of-wedlock births on Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia?
  - GoldenHomer 11y ago
    I am sadden that you are justifying black murderers.
peterhadlaw 11y ago
I'm so sick and tired of the race card. My parents are immigrants. They didn't have the language privelage that [non-white] natives have. It's such a sorry excuse blaming your failure on others. There will always be inequality in the world. Somehow against the odds my parents worked their asses off and put our family in a favorable position. It took working two jobs, going to school for 8 years but somehow they did it. I can't stand hearing racial this or that. But to appease the racists out there, Morgan Freeman has many times been asked if it's impossible to be successful as a black person, to which his response was 'look at where I am now, that is evidence that you can be successful" [paraphrased]. You have to want it, not whine about something else.
- peterhadlaw 11y ago
  Don't understand why the down vote.
  - random28345 11y ago
    > Don't understand why the down vote. Because you're weighing in on a complicated subject without considering your inherent biases. You're conflating the success of individuals with equal opportunity. Having a black president doesn't mean we're in a post-racial society, being able to point to black athletes and movie stars doesn't mean there's no disaprites in educational funding or discrimination in employment. But worst of all, you've decided that because your advantages of birth are invisble to you, they must not exist. This is like deciding you don't have a cornea because you can't see it directly. Look in a mirror, and instead of dismissing the idea of privilige, see if you can actually see it in your life experience. Perhaps you can look here as a starting point. https://www.uakron.edu/dotAsset/1662103.pdf https://www.uakron.edu/dotAsset/1662103.pdf
    - peterhadlaw 11y ago
      > There will always be inequality in the world. I'm not dismissing inequality. I'm saying that b!tching about it gets you nowhere and even worse, is a sorry excuse. There will always be people with more and with less. If you want more, you go out and get it, for yourself, by yourself, against all odds. And what advantages are you talking about? Because I was referring to my parents who grew up in communist Poland, where my mom as a kid dragged the entire stores worth of butter home after rations were lifted. As a kid, in complete innocence, bought all the butter in the store because she was afraid of there not being more butter in the future. Or my dad, who to this day, still has bread soaked in milk as his ingrained go to food when hungry.
slackstation 11y ago
I am black and I'm with him on this but, he loses me at this quote: "Racism is our acceptance of an all white Lord of the Rings cast because of “historical accuracy,” ignoring the fact that this is a world with an entirely fictionalized history." What does Lord of The Rings written by a white author in a fantasy setting of his own imagination have to do with racism? Furthermore, how is this racist? Shoehorning a character into the story inauthentically without knowledge of that culture would be just as bad if not worse. It's like Hollywood trying to put "Hacker" characters into their storylines without having any idea of what programmers actually do or actually act. The author makes so many more powerful arguments in piece, this small point just sticks as a thorn in my side. In the broad scope of things, an 11 year child playing with a toy gun being shot to death within seconds of being seen by the police (in a state with open carry laws, no less) is a much more clear, poignant and serious issue. Harping that there aren't black people in Lord of The Rings just waters down the argument and takes credence away from the other more worthy points.
- DanBC 11y ago
  > What does Lord of The Rings written by a white author in a fantasy setting of his own imagination have to do with racism? Lord of the Rings the books doesn't have any connection to racism. LotR the films does - black actors were excluded for bogus reasons. When we have "blind audition" or color-blind casting we see greater representation of non-white talent in orchestras or film or tv.
- contravert 11y ago
  Fantasy has disturbingly racist undertones if you examine it closely. For example, why is it "authentic" that all humans in Warcraft are lily-white Europeans, and all other ethnic counterparts are fantasy humanoid races.
louithethrid 11y ago
My honor is all i care about. I want respect, i see insults in every lower task i have to fullfill. So they are not done, and society crumbles away. Most insulting of all, is that any ideology can be put to test. One can make a colony, a island, a rapture and see how far it goes. Not far, by far. The biggest insult though is that the web is annonym. There is no gender. There is no colour. There is no countrys. There is only mind. Thus, if one puts his mind and dedication into the web, one is equal. I ve seen to many excellent black speakers at conferences. The Wall has holes, and one can step through them. Of course there is racism. And its beeing fought by now. With cameras everywhere- beneath every gun, on every drone. This will not stand, this will end. One is free to change what one can change, or to sit and sulk about the things one can not. Years of social paintjobs have archieved nothing.

I, Racist

29 points by kelukelugames 11y ago

andrewmcwatters 11y ago

Uh, this is like a blatantly reverse-racist article.

osazuwa 11y ago
Ironically, your comment is the reason the article was written.
- radu_floricica 11y ago
  Still doesn't make it wrong. I didn't read the whole thing, but the bias was there. His aunt moved from a "black" neighborhood because it was worse - and yes, there is a correlation between bad neighborhoods and black ones. But this doesn't makes his aunt racist, it just means she doesn't want to live in a shitty place. I'm not american so I don't give a damn about racism, so I can say things which can't be said in public: black culture is inferior (muhaha... I trample on your cultural relativism) and has many toxic elements. It's stupid to blame race, but it's still fact that culture makes a hellof a lot of difference by itself, including more likely to have shitty neighborhoods and white aunts moving out of them. So yes, you could call overly "reverse-racist" a point of view which willfully assigns to racism what can be explained otherwise.
mister_m 11y ago
Feel free to explain why please.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- _blrj 11y ago
  What is there to explain? The sun shines, water flows, and racists make prejudicial statements.
  - kjdal2001 11y ago
    He is asking what about the article is racist, not why racism exists.
cmurf 11y ago
This is a transparent ad hominem attack, slandering the author as racist for the sole purpose to reduce his credibility, with the goal of shutting down a rational conversation on racism. I was at first attempted to call your statement hyperbole. But then I realized that's exactly the insidiousness of white privilege that I cut you some slack by thinking you're just being silly.
- _blrj 11y ago
  No I mean, factually, it's reverse-racism. It's not an opinion, the author talks about racial issues and then makes prejudicial statements about all white people: > And White people, every single one of you, are complicit in this racism because you benefit directly from it. > every single one of you > complicit in this racism What else is this suppose to say besides, "all white people are racists"? Why is that okay for a black person who identifies as "Black" not black as a descriptor of skin color but Black as a part of community, a culture, not an individual, to say that all, that's all as in every man, woman, and child as a White person, not an individual, but all White people as a part of the white community, are racists? Why is this okay? What does this accomplish? What is the end goal of this conversation the author intends to have with his audience really about? If a message is conveyed here to the White audience, what are white individuals, and White people collectively suppose to do about it? Is the article just about saying White people are racist and that's it, rant over, end of story? What is the solution? > [...] it’s getting harder and harder for me to think about the protection of White people’s feelings when White people don’t seem to care at all about the loss of so many Black lives What? Are you serious? Lets repeat that back: > White people don’t seem to care at all about the loss of so many Black lives Excuse me? Says who?
  - scrumper 11y ago
    What else is this suppose to say besides, "all white people are racists"? Re: the complicit because we all benefit, I'm not sure that your argument holds. The author isn't calling all white people racist; he's saying that all white people benefit from racism. That is subtly different. You may have a case to build around whether we all directly benefit from racism, or whether we simply don't suffer because of it. The latter position is surely close to axiomatic but the former requires more thought.
wangii 11y ago
The phrase "reverse-racist" is racism.

scrumper 11y ago

Point is well argued and carries a lot of weight. It's uncomfortable reading. As a white person coming from the UK to the US, I noticed a stark contrast in black participation in society between the two countries. While not claiming Britain is perfect, my metropolitan southern experience included a lot of black people on an equal or senior footing on various axes of professional, financial, social, etc. That experience simply didn't carry across to the major east coast city I moved to. It is unusual for me to interact with black people at client meetings, in my middle class neighborhood, when I need professional advice from a doctor or a lawyer, really anywhere other than public transport or as a customer of a service function. While I can't discount that my ignorance of any racial tension around non white people in England was a simple function of youthful naivety, I'm absolutely more aware of 'difference' now I live in the US and I'm a lot less comfortable as a result. In short, it's obvious to me on a superficial level that the black experience in the USA is pretty bad, but this article is a deeper look at something that's quite hard to confront.

jgroszko 11y ago
I've noticed this in a few BBC shows vs. American shows. In a British TV show there will be characters that just happen to be black, but in an American show it's going to get talked about eventually. Admittedly they aren't the same genres, but the shows that immediately come to mind for me like this are Sherlock and Dr. Who vs. say 30 Rock or Community.
- mercer 11y ago
  I really like how New Girl handled the issue. If my memory is correct, it didn't really mention anything about their relatively large black cast, until they was explicitly highlighted this fact in one of the final episodes.

bko 11y ago

> White people do not think in terms of we. White people have the privilege to interact with the social and political structures of our society as individuals. You are “you,” I am “one of them.” Whites are often not directly affected by racial oppression even in their own community, so what does not affect them locally has little chance of affecting them regionally or nationally. They have no need, nor often any real desire, to think in terms of a group. They are supported by the system, and so are mostly unaffected by it. This explains why some are moved deeply by things that occurred to strangers. The obvious solution would be to help all people view themselves more as individuals rather than belonging to this or that cultural identity. This includes less personal identification with any group as well as viewing others as individuals. Unfortunately, the power players that make a living off racial tensions would prefer to keep it that way to maintain their influence.

jrs235 11y ago
Divide and conquer works.
rabbyte 11y ago
It's not that the oppressed are unwilling to view themselves as individuals, it's that they are safer and better supported when they think as a collective. So saying they should just view themselves as individuals isn't so much a "solution" as it would be a sign that a solution was found. Also, is it an unchecked white default bias to believe it's better to view yourself as an individual?

notacoward 11y ago

White people have the privilege to interact with the social and political structures of our society as individuals. You are “you,” I am “one of them.” I had never thought of this relationship between individualism and privilege before. Thanks, OP.

jrs235 11y ago

What I have been noticing is that a large number of people seem to be redefining "racism" and "racist". "Or even worse, we’re told that we are being racist (Does any intelligent person actually believe a systematically oppressed demographic has the ability to oppress those in power?)" People are adding the requirement that to be racist or racism that an oppression element must coexist with the thought or behavior[1][2]. That's not completely true. An element of superiority or inferiority must exist. An oppressed person can still be racist is they believe they are superior to their oppressors. The comment from the story above turns people off and away from hearing what is being said because it is offensive and a fallacy. EDIT: formatting EDIT: Clarification "(Does any intelligent person actually believe a systematically oppressed demographic has the ability to oppress those in power?)" No. But you're conflating two issues; thinking of oneself superior to another based on race and oppression. One can be racist without [directly] oppressing others. In fact, that's what the article is trying to point out. [1] https://www.google.com/search?q=racism https://www.google.com/search?q=racism the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races. [2] http://archive.adl.org/hate-patrol/racism.html http://archive.adl.org/hate-patrol/racism.html

mplscoder 11y ago

If whites were 1) running the country and 2) racist then the immigration policies of this country would have kept the USA as a white majority country. Instead, white people are becoming a minority in the USA and European countries. "As Of Today, California No Longer Has A White Majority" http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2013/07/01/2238421/california-latinos-equal-white-population/ http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2013/07/01/2238421/cali...

JoeAltmaier 11y ago
Sure, but that's couched in racist ideology: you are black (or non-white) if you have any fraction of not-white blood. As the great melting pot processes along, its inevitable that 'pure white' folks will disappear. And that's a problem, why?
- mplscoder 11y ago
  You are just arbitrarily defining whites to mean nonsense and accusing me of being a racist which I am not, I am a Catholic and I believe racism is illogical, but I still get annoyed reading about how all us whites are supposedly racist or secretly racist, and couch everything in our secret racist ideology. I didn't say it was a problem for a country to be non-white. I said that it simply proves that white racists are not running everything, which it does. The WASP elites are not running everything anymore - its not the 1920s.
  - JoeAltmaier 11y ago
    Don't go overboard, there. The idea that 'white people' are disappearing is a racist notion. Because of an ancient notion that if you are 'polluted' by even 1% 'black blood' then you're not white. On the face of it, that's nonsense. Why not say that even 1% 'white blood' makes you white? Then the USA is almost entirely white. And half a percent of the USA are running the whole country. I suspect they are all old white guys. We're more than halfway done proving the "they are in charge" accusation, right?
    - 11y ago

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

irishcoffee 11y ago
> "Racism is so deeply embedded in this country not because of the racist right-wing radicals who practice it openly, it exists because of the silence and hurt feelings of liberal America." I think the author acknowledges that.

GoldenHomer 11y ago

I can understand his anger and frustration, but come on. http://www.jamesmaystock.com/essays/images/InterracialMurders.jpg http://www.jamesmaystock.com/essays/images/InterracialMurder... Source of image: https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/expanded-homicide/expanded_homicide_data_table_6_murder_race_and_sex_of_vicitm_by_race_and_sex_of_offender_2013.xls https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/...

VeejayRampay 11y ago
What about the fact that there is a system of ghetto-ization that ensures that a huge chunk of the black population is marginalized and ostracized? What about the fact that the worst areas (where said crimes are committed) of the densely populated urban swaths are disproportionately inhabited by African-Americans? What about institutionalized educational and police racism? What about the presence of drugs and the lack of social workers cause God forbid rich people pay higher taxes for the well-being of others? What about the absence of fathers leaving innocent children to grow up without good role models because daddy is in jail for an egregiously long "drug offense" sentence (i.e. toking on a blunt)? That stuff is systemic, showing out-of-context bar charts from the FBI doesn't make it right.
- happyscrappy 11y ago
  Inner cities — cities often overwhelmingly run by minorities — have different standards than those elsewhere, we can then ask why and dig deeper to the root of the problem. We can ask cultural questions and compare the percentage of intact nuclear families across races. We can do surveys on parental attitudes about the importance of education or examine voting patterns. We can ask if it is possible for a city like Detroit — run for decades by progressives, many of them minorities — to be the “victim” of “white privilege.” Did white privilege clouds from Orange County, Calif. make their way east until they dumped fiscal malfeasance and out-of-wedlock births on Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia?
- GoldenHomer 11y ago
  I am sadden that you are justifying black murderers.

peterhadlaw 11y ago

I'm so sick and tired of the race card. My parents are immigrants. They didn't have the language privelage that [non-white] natives have. It's such a sorry excuse blaming your failure on others. There will always be inequality in the world. Somehow against the odds my parents worked their asses off and put our family in a favorable position. It took working two jobs, going to school for 8 years but somehow they did it. I can't stand hearing racial this or that. But to appease the racists out there, Morgan Freeman has many times been asked if it's impossible to be successful as a black person, to which his response was 'look at where I am now, that is evidence that you can be successful" [paraphrased]. You have to want it, not whine about something else.

peterhadlaw 11y ago
Don't understand why the down vote.
- random28345 11y ago
  > Don't understand why the down vote. Because you're weighing in on a complicated subject without considering your inherent biases. You're conflating the success of individuals with equal opportunity. Having a black president doesn't mean we're in a post-racial society, being able to point to black athletes and movie stars doesn't mean there's no disaprites in educational funding or discrimination in employment. But worst of all, you've decided that because your advantages of birth are invisble to you, they must not exist. This is like deciding you don't have a cornea because you can't see it directly. Look in a mirror, and instead of dismissing the idea of privilige, see if you can actually see it in your life experience. Perhaps you can look here as a starting point. https://www.uakron.edu/dotAsset/1662103.pdf https://www.uakron.edu/dotAsset/1662103.pdf
  - peterhadlaw 11y ago
    > There will always be inequality in the world. I'm not dismissing inequality. I'm saying that b!tching about it gets you nowhere and even worse, is a sorry excuse. There will always be people with more and with less. If you want more, you go out and get it, for yourself, by yourself, against all odds. And what advantages are you talking about? Because I was referring to my parents who grew up in communist Poland, where my mom as a kid dragged the entire stores worth of butter home after rations were lifted. As a kid, in complete innocence, bought all the butter in the store because she was afraid of there not being more butter in the future. Or my dad, who to this day, still has bread soaked in milk as his ingrained go to food when hungry.

slackstation 11y ago

I am black and I'm with him on this but, he loses me at this quote: "Racism is our acceptance of an all white Lord of the Rings cast because of “historical accuracy,” ignoring the fact that this is a world with an entirely fictionalized history." What does Lord of The Rings written by a white author in a fantasy setting of his own imagination have to do with racism? Furthermore, how is this racist? Shoehorning a character into the story inauthentically without knowledge of that culture would be just as bad if not worse. It's like Hollywood trying to put "Hacker" characters into their storylines without having any idea of what programmers actually do or actually act. The author makes so many more powerful arguments in piece, this small point just sticks as a thorn in my side. In the broad scope of things, an 11 year child playing with a toy gun being shot to death within seconds of being seen by the police (in a state with open carry laws, no less) is a much more clear, poignant and serious issue. Harping that there aren't black people in Lord of The Rings just waters down the argument and takes credence away from the other more worthy points.

DanBC 11y ago
> What does Lord of The Rings written by a white author in a fantasy setting of his own imagination have to do with racism? Lord of the Rings the books doesn't have any connection to racism. LotR the films does - black actors were excluded for bogus reasons. When we have "blind audition" or color-blind casting we see greater representation of non-white talent in orchestras or film or tv.
contravert 11y ago
Fantasy has disturbingly racist undertones if you examine it closely. For example, why is it "authentic" that all humans in Warcraft are lily-white Europeans, and all other ethnic counterparts are fantasy humanoid races.

louithethrid 11y ago

My honor is all i care about. I want respect, i see insults in every lower task i have to fullfill. So they are not done, and society crumbles away. Most insulting of all, is that any ideology can be put to test. One can make a colony, a island, a rapture and see how far it goes. Not far, by far. The biggest insult though is that the web is annonym. There is no gender. There is no colour. There is no countrys. There is only mind. Thus, if one puts his mind and dedication into the web, one is equal. I ve seen to many excellent black speakers at conferences. The Wall has holes, and one can step through them. Of course there is racism. And its beeing fought by now. With cameras everywhere- beneath every gun, on every drone. This will not stand, this will end. One is free to change what one can change, or to sit and sulk about the things one can not. Years of social paintjobs have archieved nothing.