MellowDem
MellowDem's JournalNo "race" has "the problem"...
it's more of a human issue. While your daughter ran into no trouble, quite a few white people have run into trouble in black neighborhoods, or they have heard stories from those that have, or they most certainly have seen nightly news reports/crime shows that all tend to effect how they perceive the world and pre-judge those that live in it. And the statistics don't help either. I go to a college that e-mails reports of crime that happen on campus. The campus is in an urban environment. I've gotten around 20 e-mails so far this year about muggings of students around the campus, and in every single case, the suspects were described as young black males. Gotta wonder how that effects people's perceptions when they're walking to their cars late at night.
I have gotten some trouble for being white in a black neighborhood, but it was few and far between. I have had friends get mugged in a black neighborhood. Now, this is the point where some people will take one of two different approaches to it. One is to overreact to these sorts of things and become very fearful and paranoid and quickly prejudge regardless of context. The other is to understand the context of the situation and learn from it and move on. It's very human for people to categorize danger, and doing it based on not just skin color, but age, dress style, location, time of day, etc. is second nature to everyone, whatever race (or sex) they are.
When I'm walking down the street at night, and some woman is walking alone towards me, I understand that she will likely be apprehensive of me, given the context of the situation.
Of course, this kind of pre-judging comes at a cost, that being that people can indeed be wrong when they pre-judge. Depending on the situation, and the amount of prejudice used without any sort of context, the cost can be very high indeed, as was the case in Florida. And of course, there is a larger societal cost of prejudice, as history bears out as well.
The issue with categorization and prejudice becomes acute when logic is thrown out the window in favor of fear and paranoia. Obviously, experiencing threatening situations directly can make a person throw logic out the window, and this happens. Many times, though, societal percptions aren't shaped by personal experiences but rather by larger societal narratives (provided by media) that in some ways are much worse than personal experience. I have gotten in trouble for being white in a black neighborhood. Once. I've also walked through black neighborhoods many times with no trouble, and even friendly hellos and smiles. I have other experiences to counter that one. Other people who have little to no experience with other communities at all can only rely on what they see in the news. And what they see is usually awfully one sided.
Even worse are those politically inclined to an inherently more fearful and paranoid ideology, one that thrives on it actually, and has radio shows that spout it every day. That makes people draw clear distinctions much quicker and much more radically without context. It's an easy, even attractive mindset, because it allows for quick, clear answers to most situations, even if it means little or no accuracy in how a situation is assessed.
I agree...
and so you can imagine for people who have never experienced much prejudice or bigotry towards them, it can be very hard to see or understand their own prejudices. To them, they are simply basing their beliefs on logic. And they are. It's just poor logic. But there are many types of prejudice, and where it may be easier for someone who experiences racial bigotry to understand racial prejudice in themselves more readily and its bad effects, the same may not transfer to bigotry based on religion or sexual orientation.
That is part of the reason people accused of racism will bring up what Zimmerman's parents did. They'll say they themselves are a minority and therefore cannot be racist, which is simply based on a misunderstanding of definitions and some poor logic, or that they have friends of the same race and therefore cannot be racist. It's a logical idea to a degree, if racism is indeed what was going on.
Truth be told, there was probably more at play in Zimmerman's mind than just "black". How old the teen was and the fact that he was a male played a role as well most likely. They are all sorts of prejudice, some are just not thought of as often as others. And it's quite possible that Zimmerman has black friends but is prejudiced towards blacks he doesn't know given the right circumstances. Which is why the whole "but I have friends" defense is seen as disingenuous.
Yep, bigotry and prejudice at its finest...
Ignorance, fear, and paranoia seem to be much of the cause.
But it's not racism. I don't say that to quibble a point or to "be technical". I just think it's useful to use the correct words to describe these things so that the correct solutions are looked at.
Showing Allen West the ample proof out there that racism as a theory is complete crap will not change his bigotry and prejudices towards Muslims, which are not based on a discarded scientific theory about a made up social construct, but which are most likely based on his personal experiences, anectdotal evidence, and general worldview. This is what creates prejudices in many people's minds, and it's far more powerful than the theory of racism nowadays, and far harder to get rid of as such. It's part of human nature to make assumptions and to categorize. So it must be addressed in a different way.
There can be no real concrete proof...
on the percentage of "racists" in the US, unless there is a poll question somewhere asking a person if they believe in the basic tenets of racism, and even that will have some room for error.
I think there is plenty of proof that there is a lot of racial bigotry and stereotyping still in the US. Studies showing how people with black-sounding names have a much tougher time getting jobs/renting places etc than white counterparts with same qualifications.
Bigotry and stereotyping will always be around. Even if the concept of race had never been invented as a social construct, there are so many ways to create tribes and prejudices, and humans tend to do so unfortunately. I think it has gotten somewhat better though, through less isolation and education. Race is just one of the ways, and no doubt the history of racism in this country has influenced the bigotry of today.
As for Zimmerman himself, I have no proof one way or the other, but I think it's unlikely that the theory of racism motivated his suspicions IMHO. I think it's much more likely that it was bigotry and prejudices that did so, given all humans make assumptions and bigotry and prejudices are so very widespread. Of course, many have already called Zimmerman a racist, and few ask for proof of it. I think "racism" is used by many to refer to almost any sort of ethnic, religious, or racial bigotry anymore, or even stereotyping, that has nothing to do with the theory of racism. It's an unfortunate misuse that muddies the underlying issues and makes finding solutions harder.
It's why African Americans tend to get the worst of racial bigotry. The prejudices and assumptions US society makes about the black community are of a very negative sort for the most part. The way the white, hispanic, even Asian communities are stereotyped are in general less negative (eg: a cop that sees an Asian and thinks "bet he's good at Math" won't likely pull him over based on his prejudice).
They're wrong...
Oil companies do not set the price of oil. Neither does Obama for that matter. The American people, like on most subjects, are terribly ignorant when it comes to oil prices. Better that their ignorance is directed against oil companies than the administration I suppose, but ignorance is ignorance, and it allows people like Moon colony Newt to claim he can lower the price of oil to 2.50.
If the administration harassed her...
over an essay, then that's inexcuseable.
The essay itself, as described in the links, is not very good at all. Blaming the education gap on white teachers or even the education system itself is incorrect. The blame lies on much bigger issues, mainly concentrated poverty and a long history of discrimination and segregation. White teachers teach quite a few students who aren't white just fine, indeed, Asians tend to do better than whites in education, even with all the white teachers.
The fact that most of this student's classmates can't read proficiently by that age is indeed sad, but that's because of the failure to the student from the day they were born in terms of their home and community environment. The biggest determinant of how you will fare in life is with your parent's income. And if you are born in an area of concentrated poverty, that's an even bigger strike against you.
Schools with concentrated areas of poverty feeding them often have little to no parental involvement, especially compared to wealthier areas, for a whole myriad of reasons. Poverty takes a toll on family stability and opportunities obviously. The home environment and parental involvement are the most important aspects of education, and a school can never be a family.
I agree critical thinking isn't encouraged. Hell, it's not even taught as a subject at any public school, even the wealthy ones. But this essay isn't a good example of critical thinking. Just the opposite really. It's more a paper written out of frusteration and looking for a boogey man. Not that a 13 year old is going to have excellent critical thinking skills anyways. Most adults don't have critical thinking skills.
To expect teachers or the education system to be able to get the same results in areas of concentrated poverty as wealthy areas is putting the cart before the horse. The issue is the poverty itself, and until that is solved, you won't see equal outcomes no matter how much money is spent on education in those areas, or even if you put black teachers there to teach black students. Perhaps the idea is that having black teachers will bridge cultural gaps, but even that's not assured, as a lot of the culture gap is deeper than just race. A culture gap being closed won't solve the much larger issues of what's going on anyways, and is not practical or possible to do everywhere, nor even helpful for the students, who will have to deal with people from different backgrounds sooner or later in real life.
EU promotional video causes controversy
This video is potentially disturbing on multiple levels depending on how it is interpreted.
O'Reilly interviewing whacko Beck...
It's great. You can tell Billo can't stand him. Beck cuts him off constantly and berates him, haha.
Speak for yourself...
I don't owe Native Americans anything for past wrongs. What all of society owes everybody else is opportunity and the basics of life. No doubt we as a society (not "whites"
fail parts of our population at that. I do remember what the US did to Native Americans and understand that is why they are where they are now.
Also, Native American tribes warred incessently like every other group of humans before Europeans arrived, taking each other's land. When Europeans got here, Native American tribes allied with Europeans to take other tribes land or to win wars.
To speak in terms of "the white man" seems so retro as to be embarrassing anymore. Nobody has a natural right to any land.
Really?
And why is that? I think it's perfectly acceptable to criticize cultures, and I think it was quite called for in this instance.
Why, I've seen many a topic and OP criticize American culture on here every day. I even criticize American culture.
In other words, I think you are being hypocritical and oversensitive, as I doubt you care much to post when American culture is criticized.
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Member since: Thu Jul 24, 2008, 05:59 PMNumber of posts: 5,018
