Black woman to white friend of over a decade: " Of course you're a racist!"

originally posted by: yuppa
a reply to: Quetzalcoatl14

white privledge huh? Got examples? Ive been passed over for things because im white plenty of times.That privledge dont exist Its just the one percenters who actually have that. the rest of us are just as bad off as anyone else.

There are a lot of implicit racism peer reviewed psychological studies showing that people still harbor a lot of racism, against people of color and in favor of white people.

Also, there is a legitimate argument that one of the effects of historical oppression is a higher rate of inter-generational poverty for for people of color. This too is well studied and well documented. The stats are inarguable. Many people who don't have the training in social science think it is just due to "laziness" or a "culture problem."

It can be said that much of the wealth of the west is built on a pyramid of former exploitation, from colonialism to slavery. Hence this is a form of privilege as well.

If you note that white people hold the power in the US for the most part, including law making and policing power, and that there is implicit racism in some and overt racism in some others, and that historically whites did get favoritism in everything from employment to housing, then this represents "white privilege." For example, it is factual that across our history there were all kinds of housing laws prohibiting blacks from owning property in certain areas. It was even in Oregon's original constitution... So even though there are poor disadvantaged whites, they don't have quite the same hurdles historically.

It was worse historically to be a poor black than a poor white, due to these extra legal and systemic hurdles.

There are obviously exceptions, but you cannot judge a macro phenomenon based on your own outlier experience. Neither can I.

I get your hint about affirmative action. I actually have come to believe that while it means well, it can be very problematic in practice with individuals. I too have seen organizations put an overemphasis on hiring females and especially people of color, often turning down straight up white males. For sure. I work in international development, and because it's philosophy is so focused on human rights and ending oppression, the organizations often are the most bent on increasing representation of people of color and females.

I was told straight up by my female UN professor: "The United Nations is going to be hard to get a job at for you because they don't want to hire white males."

a reply to: Quetzalcoatl14

so those studies argue that whites think differently than others?

Or that people perceive whites differently?

Interesting. They could be signed by the pope and stamped by the IRS....common sense would still negate them. Same species, same brains.
CULTURE would shape how people think. Like trying to put white people into a context that facilitates the vengeance mentality in people out to punish them for crimes of the past....and in the process developing a culture meant to target them directly and question any progress and prosperity they enjoy as a "race". A term that science has proven to be non existent.

As far as affirmative action.....the need is gone yet the effort is doubled....justice? Fair? Sustainable?

Yes this school of thought wont breed the next 100 years of ignorance and conflict....sure. Divide and conquer morons right?

Sir you know very well that scholarly studies can be made about anything, even white supremacy. Without common sense and critical thinking we fall into the herd mentality.....entire volumes have been written about the shape of skulls and the impact they have on intelligence by the Nazis...peer reviewed the world over, very scholarly, and still outright RETARDED.

EDIT TO ADD:
Whites arent MORE racist. Humans are ALL retarded. Blacks are as racist as whites. Our brain structure as HUMANS may have to do with it, but our respective cultures are what breed idiots. Even today, arguing the tendencies of ONE RACE for a behavior over another...and the people arguing it....WTF.

We have learned NOTHING and deserve to repeat the past.

originally posted by: tadaman
a reply to: Quetzalcoatl14

so those studies argue that whites think differently than others?

Or that people perceive whites differently?

Interesting. They could be signed by the pope and stamped by the IRS....common sense would still negate them. Same species, same brains.
CULTURE would shape how people think. Like trying to put white people into a context that facilitates the vengeance mentality in people out to punish them for crimes of the past....and in the process developing a culture meant to target them directly and question any progress and prosperity they enjoy as a "race". A term that science has proven to be non existent.

As far as affirmative action.....the need is gone yet the effort is doubled....justice? Fair? Sustainable?

Yes this school of thought wont breed the next 100 years of ignorance and conflict....sure. Divide and conquer morons right?

Sir you know very well that scholarly studies can be made about anything, even white supremacy. Without common sense and critical thinking we fall into the herd mentality.....entire volumes have been written about the shape of skulls and the impact they have on intelligence by the Nazis...peer reviewed the world over, very scholarly, and still outright RETARDED.

EDIT TO ADD:
Whites arent MORE racist. Humans are ALL retarded. Blacks are as racist as whites. Our brain structure as HUMANS may have to do with it, but our respective cultures are what breed idiots. Even today, arguing the tendencies of ONE RACE for a behavior over another...and the people arguing it....WTF.

We have learned NOTHING and deserve to repeat the past.

I agree with you that all humans have the potential for all human things, including racism. Yes, people of color can be racist. Some are.

Where you are wrong is thinking that real peer-reviewed research, subjected to rigorous methodology, is just "made up" or can just be chopped up to another opinion. Those cranial studies you mentioned were not peer reviewed the world over and accepted. In fact, peer review in the science world has REJECTED those concepts...

Second, rigorous research, utilizing scientific methods, peer-review, etc etc, often flies in the face of "common sense" or what many people think. Sometimes it doesn't.

That is the whole point, a lot of what we believe as a culture is not accurate, which is why many solutions and laws end up not working. Gradually, policy for example is realizing this and we are moving away from "folk knowledge" towards rigorous scientific review of anything we can.

The implicit racism studies show that for whatever reason, there is a lot of unconscious bias for whites and against people of color.

You also need to realize that the "hardware" potential for racism in all humans is not the same as the "software." If hardware is nature and genetics and all of that, then the software is the cultural downloads, nurture, experiences, and so on. The implicit racism studies are not studying genetic nor inherent racial differences, but psychological or socio-cultural constructs that for whatever reason, still seem to be embedded in many people.

a reply to: tadaman
www.youtube.com...
I have always thought this was funny.

a reply to: Quetzalcoatl14

I am not saying that Nazi studies are currently accepted. THEY WERE in their day. Nazi Germany had MUCH support the world over in many of its endeavors. Their theories of a super race were entertained by some interesting movers and shakers, even in the US and the UK. The fact is that rigorous study is only geared towards the mindset of those that perform it. If you think that you are a super race for example you conduct rigorous study collecting all evidence that supports your idea.

Common sense alone is not enough, and you are right in saying that what we learn sometimes defies common sense. What I am saying is to use common sense when choosing your path of study. Trying to prove that certain races are more prone to certain sociological behavior is RETARDED. There is no MORE tendency in one race over the other. Common sense would tell you that since we KNOW after rigorous study that we all have the same damned brain.

CULTURE, as I said and you repeated as "software", is learned. There is no cultural tendency for any "race". Again, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS RACE. Rigorous study has proven this.

Here is an example. Sierra Leone civil war, was much like the Rwandan conflict. Two BLACK peoples that plunged the country into war over physical differences between them. Their perception of their people changed because the single culture divided into two separate cultures. One feeling privileged, the other feeling disgruntled...all basing this off the misconception that their racial differences were the root of it all.

In 1992, a military junta called the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) seized power. During the four years it ran the government, its soldiers exemplified power and wealth in the country. Its soldiers were well-known to prefer light-skinned women. THEN, Nigerian-led peacekeeping forces from the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) were seen to be wealthy as well by women from Sierra leone, having a secure job that paid well coupled with having power. As a result women began bleaching their skin to appear light skinned in 1992 and continued to do so up until even now since it was seen that the wealthy soldiers prefered light skinned women. Today, women from the capital, freetown, are almost all light skinned from over the counter beauty bleach treatments.

Is this a WHITE effort making black people want to be whiter? Is this a white effort that makes far off African peoples dislike their color? Are whites pushing this onto them? NO.

It is a CULTURAL phenomenon that is rooted in the already existing circumstances that led to the civil war in the first place....humans noticing slight differences in physical appearances and proceeding to think they THINK and are different because of them.

I am sorry, but humans are all equally racist through and through because our cultures are. Whites arent MORE racist. Whites arent prone to racism more than others nor do they push that crap on others in greater measure. You could write the equivalent of the Nazi libraries and collections of studies proving the supremacy of the master race but arguing WHITE RACIAL TENDENCIES...just as lengthy and extensive, and I would still disagree.

The examples we have to prove this go into EVERY age of man and into EVERY "race" of us.....OR as I like to say, every peoples of the earth....

Blacks and whites are prone to racism because our cultures are.

"WHITES" arent more racist. SAYING SO IS RACIST. Use that common sense.

originally posted by: tadaman
a reply to: Quetzalcoatl14

I am not saying that Nazi studies are currently accepted. THEY WERE in their day. Nazi Germany had MUCH support the world over in many of its endeavors. Their theories of a super race were entertained by some interesting movers and shakers, even in the US and the UK. The fact is that rigorous study is only geared towards the mindset of those that perform it. If you think that you are a super race for example you conduct rigorous study collecting all evidence that supports your idea.

Common sense alone is not enough, and you are right in saying that what we learn sometimes defies common sense. What I am saying is to use common sense when choosing your path of study. Trying to prove that certain races are more prone to certain sociological behavior is RETARDED. There is no MORE tendency in one race over the other. Common sense would tell you that since we KNOW after rigorous study that we all have the same damned brain.

CULTURE, as I said and you repeated as "software", is learned. There is no cultural tendency for any "race". Again, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS RACE. Rigorous study has proven this.

Here is an example. Sierra Leone civil war. Two BLACK peoples that plunged the country into war over physical differences between them. Their perception of their people changed because the single culture divided into two separate cultures. One feeling privileged, the other feeling disgruntled...all basing this off the misconception that their racial differences were the root of it all.

In 1992, a military junta called the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) seized power. During the four years it ran the government, its soldiers exemplified power and wealth in the country. Its soldiers were well-known to prefer light-skinned women. THEN, Nigerian-led peacekeeping forces from the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) were seen to be wealthy as well by women from Sierra leone, having a secure job that paid well coupled with having power. As a result women began bleaching their skin to appear light skinned in 1992 and continued to do so up until even now since it was seen that the wealthy soldiers prefered light skinned women. Today, women from the capital, freetown, are almost all light skinned from over the counter beauty bleach treatments.

Is this a WHITE effort making black people want to be whiter? Is this a white effort that makes far off African peoples dislike their color? Are whites pushing this onto them? NO.

It is a CULTURAL phenomenon that is rooted in the already existing circumstances that led to the civil war in the first place....humans noticing slight physical appearances and proceeding to think they THINK and are different because of them.

I am sorry, but humans are equally as racist. Whites arent MORe racist. We arent prone to racism more than others nor do we push that crap on others. You could write the equivalent of the Nazi libraries and collections of studies proving the supremacy of the master race...just as lengthy and extensive, and I would still disagree.

The examples we have to prove this go into EVERY age of man and into EVERY "race" of us.....OR as I like to say, every peoples of the earth....

Blacks and whites are prone to racism because our cultures are.

I think you misunderstood what the studies mean. They mean that in THIS culture, there are cultural psychological artifacts found at a statistically significant amount in samples, artifacts that are basically racially biased lenses.

No, no race is more prone naturally to racism.

That doesn't mean that their software doesn't have a negative download or "virus" which IS different from another group. This is what needs to be addressed.

Just like, if you go to China and Japan they are definitely biased against darker skin people, of their race or other. Does that mean that Chinese people are inherently more racist? NO. But it does show that there is a false construct deeply embedded psychologically or culturally.

As to research studies, things have come a long way since the 30's and 40's. The process of review is much more rigorous. Psychology was in its infancy in those days.

Yes, all people are biased including scientists. But there are also a whole host of methodologies used precisely to counteract that, which is precisely why the scientific method still trumps other forms of thought, beliefs, and hypothesis making. Sometimes the evidence shows what it shows.

"When you take a look at the emerging science of what motivates people to behave in a racist or prejudiced way, though, matters quickly grow complicated. In fact, if there's one cornerstone finding when it comes to the psychological underpinnings of prejudice, it's that out-and-out or "explicit" racists—like Sterling—are just one part of the story. Perhaps far more common are cases of so-called "implicit" prejudice, where people harbor subconscious biases, of which they may not even be aware, but that come out in controlled psychology experiments.

Much of the time, these are not the sort of people whom we would normally think of as racists. "They might say they think it's wrong to be prejudiced," explains New York University neuroscientist David Amodio, an expert on the psychology of intergroup bias. Amodio says that white participants in his studies "might write down on a questionnaire that they are positive in their attitudes towards black people…but when you give them a behavioral measure, of how they respond to pictures of black people, compared with white people, that's when we start to see the effects come out."

"How do we know implicit biases exist? In a number of classic studies, research subjects are asked to complete a seemingly simple task, such as watching words pop up on a screen and quickly categorizing those words as either positive, like "happy," or negative, like "fear." But right before the word appears, a face, either black or white, flashes on the screen. "What we find over and over again in the literature," explains Amodio, "is that if a black person's face was shown really quickly, then people are quicker at categorizing negative words than positive words that follow it. Versus if a white face was shown really quickly, people are usually quicker to categorize the positive words, compared with the negative words."

www.motherjones.com...

I want to be clear that I agree with the majority of what you are saying about all races having the potential for racism.

All I am saying is that we need to recognize that there is evidence still that there is racism in many white people towards people of color (and between people of color). I too get downright angry when people attempt to characterize racism as a "white thing" that only "white people do."

I don't buy that argument at all. Racism is rooted in a host of things, from human's innate in-group out-group bias to ignorance and lack of education to outdated cultural teachings that can and have embed themselves in anybody's mind. The latter being false beliefs.

There is a true point that the social justice people say though, that racism right now is worse for minorities only because they don't really hold the reigns of power. I do buy that argument.

a reply to: Quetzalcoatl14

So we can agree that Race has no predisposition to social behavior built in. That RACE is an outdated terminology with NO scientific backing.

Ok.

Lets then examine culture. Where is this "white" culture in the US? I will not say that pockets of ethnicities grouping together do not develop a culture unto themselves or reinforce a possible shared culture.

What I am saying is that the overall culture in the US is not dependant on one single sub culture and ESPECIALLY not so of a single "race". The fact is our country was founded by and is populated by every cultural sub group and "race" on earth for the most part. You can not argue that a sub culture in Georgia or in Harlem is indicative of the whole country.

There is no WHITE culture in the US. There are white sub cultures, like black and other "races" have sub cultures, but they are transitional and do not exert greater pressure on the macro culture or nations ethos in any meaningful measure.

Sociologists are following trends like the UN is where culture is being overwritten in the name of progress and under the guise of grave threats from specific sub cultures or regional identities. This is done to center government and make populations easier to govern. You could say mass, but this is still why its being done.

While there may be instances where a specific sub group and its corresponding culture are in fact racist prone, that is not indicative of the vast majority of "white" people in the US.

Even within white people we have MANY denominations of race. From proto European peoples and their many genetic expressions to indo-European peoples with their near infinite genetic expressions, to other light skinned people and caucasians the world over from other populations.

WHITE is as simplistic as BLACK or brown.

What you are arguing and supporting the arguments of those studies, is like:

If we say that Mexican native BROWN people are more racist than American Native BROWN people....because their culture is inherently different and thus produces more racism in them culturally. Which is not the case as the culture is similar....like in the US...Racist white people and non racist white people share the same macro culture....

Why even mention their COLOR or perceived race? BROWN people should not be mentioned. NATIVE PEOPLES should and then the argument should delve into the different cultures they have.

So we should say AMERICANS are racist because of our culture, not WHITE AMERICANS are MORE racist because of their culture.

I dont agree but that would be the argument.

What is offered is dark logic justified by "rigorous study".

SAYING WHITES ARE MORE PRONE TO RACISM IS RACIST!!!

You are making a generalization and basing it off OUR RACE!!!! THERE IS NO SUCH THING!

The problem is you are misconstruing the argument and my argument.

My point nor the studies not that whites are more prone to racism, at all.

The point it that due to some kind of cultural/European history going back perhaps to colonialism, there is a embedded social construct that is NOT inherent to Whites but appears to be present in a lot of them. That seems to be lessening over the years. It is a social construct, just like other cultures have good and bad constructs.

And yes, there are OTHER races, ethnic groups, social groups, who also have a form of this exact same social construct, such as East Asians.

Your argument isn't working because for example let's move on to Saudi Arabian sexism towards women. Arabs are not genetically nor mentally more prone to sexism. However, there is a cultural and social construct that leads them to oppress women more than let's say Americans do. It is that which needs to be addressed. See what i mean? You keep going back to "but Whites aren't more prone" but that is not really hitting the crux of the argument.

a reply to: Quetzalcoatl14

Yes Saudi sexism is different than American sexism. Quantifying it, it is less apparent in the US.

They have different cultures so culture can be explained as the root.

In the US there is no two separate groups like the US and Saudi Arabia. Not among whites. There is no distinct white culture and there is no distinct groupings of whites.

Your argument makes no sense for the fact that you have white Americans with a common culture that are not racist and whites under that same common culture that are racist.

If the same factors that made white Americans more prone to racism existed then they would exert the same pressures on one group as the other.

What I think is happening is that there is an artificial focus in blowing up Georgias racism or Harlems racism and then trying to make it appear as a nation wide problem. The more concerted efforts to be taken take the form of bigger more intrusive government and social engineering....what a novel idea that will surely fix things.....

There is no discerning thread between a racist in the south and myself, a yankee from the north. YET we share a common culture.

The problem is OUR SUBCULTURE. In my ethnically diverse neighborhood we learned from many peoples. My sub culture is one of progressive America, mixed America, modern America. The racist fellow in the south has his own sub culture that made him become what he did.

If we are to take global efforts like affirmative action to address HIS subculture that affects MY SUBCULTURE, then we have a problem.

I am not a racist. My friends, family, coworkers, community and everyones mother are not racist. We are also white. Dont you dare call us racist or take an intellectual BS road of justification arguing that we are....just because a SMALL minority group in the south or wherever else is.

Focus on them and NEVER use the term WHITE with a broad brush stroke. SAY, Georgians and harlemites are culturally prone to racism.

I am really a little insulted....like if someone treated me differently because of my RACE....Arguing my perceived evils or my cultures evil, just because a small group is chosen and exalted to represent my supposed vices.

I could make an intellectually sound argument as to why Puerto rican culture is more prone to laziness and lethargic behavior. That would still be damned RACIST, even if I focus on the culture of low income puerto ricans as being representative of the whole.

originally posted by: Quetzalcoatl14


The problem is you are misconstruing the argument and my argument.

My point nor the studies not that whites are more prone to racism, at all.

The point it that due to some kind of cultural/European history going back perhaps to colonialism, there is a embedded social construct that is NOT inherent to Whites but appears to be present in a lot of them. That seems to be lessening over the years. It is a social construct, just like other cultures have good and bad constructs.

And yes, there are OTHER races, ethnic groups, social groups, who also have a form of this exact same social construct, such as East Asians.

Your argument isn't working because for example let's move on to Saudi Arabian sexism towards women. Arabs are not genetically nor mentally more prone to sexism. However, there is a cultural and social construct that leads them to oppress women more than let's say Americans do. It is that which needs to be addressed. See what i mean? You keep going back to "but Whites aren't more prone" but that is not really hitting the crux of the argument.

And yet, post after post, you keep coming back to white people.

It's been established, and you agreed, that all races can be racist. So, why keep bringing up whites specifically?

I'm thinking that you don't even see your own bias.

a reply to: poncho1982

It's been established, and you agreed, that all races can be racist. So, why keep bringing up whites specifically?

Because this thread is set in an American bi-polar context of Blacks and Whites.

Apologies Quetzalcoatl14 I didn't mean to answer for you,and Poncho the question was not directed at me im just interjecting my 2cents.

originally posted by: poncho1982

originally posted by: Quetzalcoatl14


The problem is you are misconstruing the argument and my argument.

My point nor the studies not that whites are more prone to racism, at all.

The point it that due to some kind of cultural/European history going back perhaps to colonialism, there is a embedded social construct that is NOT inherent to Whites but appears to be present in a lot of them. That seems to be lessening over the years. It is a social construct, just like other cultures have good and bad constructs.

And yes, there are OTHER races, ethnic groups, social groups, who also have a form of this exact same social construct, such as East Asians.

Your argument isn't working because for example let's move on to Saudi Arabian sexism towards women. Arabs are not genetically nor mentally more prone to sexism. However, there is a cultural and social construct that leads them to oppress women more than let's say Americans do. It is that which needs to be addressed. See what i mean? You keep going back to "but Whites aren't more prone" but that is not really hitting the crux of the argument.

And yet, post after post, you keep coming back to white people.

It's been established, and you agreed, that all races can be racist. So, why keep bringing up whites specifically?

I'm thinking that you don't even see your own bias.

I suggest that you guys actually look up the studies, a summary of which I posted.

Psychological research in the US shows that not only Whites but also Asians showed a bias in favor of whites and negativity towards blacks, mostly unconscious. You guys seem to be having trouble actually reading or understanding the very detailed and deconstructed arguments that I have presented.

It's simply nature versus nurture. Nature means we are all capable of the same, including racism.

What you guys quite obviously are not educated on is the research on implicit racism.

It would seem that due to NURTURE, in the form of embedded cultural or social constructs, not only do many whites (note I did not say all) show psychological manifestations of racism towards blacks, but so do other races. There is even research that blacks themselves have often internalized such racism, towards themselves!

You guys seem not to like it, and it makes you uncomfortable. Remember, this is not necessarily about you, nor me.

By the way, I am a white male.

And, if you had read my earlier posts I had stated that to say that either all whites are racist OR that only whites can be racist is racist itself, and wrong.

a reply to: Quetzalcoatl14

I did look them over. The focus is on perceived racism towards blacks. That in and of itself makes them flawed. If it was geared towards weighing racism in the US for example concerning the entire population in relation towards racism that all are subject to and perpetrators of then I would value the insight provided. This is not the Dominican republic where colonial history and social constructs still carry weight. This is a globalized nation the size of a continent with constant and increasing influx of new populations. Arguing that somehow we still carry a stigma from colonial times is absurd.

I am not uncomfortable by this subject. I am outright insulted and offended. IMO it is cowardly soft racism directed towards whites and meant to create a culture of criticism and scrutiny about any possible prosperity whites may enjoy.

I am sure that if the focus of study was on racism directed between all racial groups that it would show that blacks are prone in the same numbers to prefer blacks over Asians or whites....Asians would prefer Asians over blacks and whites, and so on.

The argument you still provide is that WHITES are prone to racism and you argue that social constructs are to blame, but ultimately you say that blacks are the victim of racism by and far over other groups.

Its not that we dont understand. We dont agree is all. I assure you that is possible and that our argument against yours could be well founded in solid reasoning and life experience from living among the general population.

Much like you argue that we lack the education in race studies necessary to understand your "complex" argument as though that would deprive us of a valid argument against your own, I say you are too far removed to understand this issue. Do you live among minorities in general population? I do.

I have worked in low income areas where minorities are the majority my whole life. I have Hispanic family. I am ethnically white and culturally Hispanic.

Do you even realize that Hispanics consider blacks to be racist in the US more than whites? Your average bodega in NYC likes a white cop coming in beyond a black cop because they feel the black cop is quicker to give a hard time out of racism. Whites assimilate Hispanic culture while blacks avoid "losing" their cultural identity to the new minority. I have heard black community activists argue that Hispanics are benefiting unjustly from the civil rights THEY fought for.

Hispanics prefer a Hispanic cop over a white or black cop....is that racist? or just part of common sense. Who will understand them better? That is their main concern.

You may need to hit the bricks some if you are going to contest that my life experience in low income areas is lacking the foundation necessary to counter your argument based on some BS psychological studies you cherry picked to strengthen your argument here. Then you counter our rebuttals with the age old argument that "you are not part of the technocracy and so can not contest anything they say or do.". I disagree with this too BTW.

Blacks are just as prone to the same behavior you say whites have a tendency for but towards Hispanics. Is that a product of social constructs left over from colonial times?

I would say the entire premise of your argument and school of thought you endorse is to blame. It creates added social stress while alienating both whites and blacks by entrenching them against each other over non issues of preference.

It is classic social engineering....interestingly enough, left over from colonial times when serfs and slaves were divided over race issues so as to avoid a stronger population that governing bodies would struggle to govern with ease.

originally posted by: Hoosierdaddy71
They need something to blame for all the problems they have, might as well be whitey.

Who are you referring to when you say "they" ? The persons in the story or black people in general?

I can relate almost the same situation happened to me while serving in the Army. I was told I was automatically a racist because I was white! By people I thought were my black friends! Talk about judgments! I do not understand it. Don’t you have to act, be or think that way to be racist? Looks like as must as black people seem to HATE white people it is the other way around?

a reply to: xuenchen

I am a white woman in the deep south. I have been a lifelong supporter of the downtrodden, for whatever reason they are downtrodden. We are each born into a situation. I happen to have been born to a lovely, civil-rights-minded couple of parents. My father often, openly, vocally admired MLK Jr. I happen to have been born white-skinned, middle class, church-going. I had my parents' views by virtue of nurture. HOWEVER, lately I am asking myself questions like, why is it okay to have 1-race only groups? Competitions? Not to mention scholarships and the like. Why is it okay that in TV and other media, for example, is it okay to put out words that only impugn the white-skinned "race" without drawing critical fire? (I hear it a lot, it is undeniable.) Why is nearly EVERY mistake or disagreement involving a black individual or predominately black group and a white individual or predominately white group so often automatically interpreted as racist-motivated? Michelle Obama called it racism when a white person mistook her for a store employee when she was dressed incognitio at a Target store. I have done that myself several times to white persons and have experienced it myself a few times, and I am embarrassed when I make that mistake but could care less when it's done to me. Why do I so often move and work around black people and witness stranger courtesy between black persons and lack of an equivalent kind of courtesy toward white persons? I am and have always been very courteous to every person, except to someone who just obviously purposes to offend me. Why can, as I often witness, only a black person call another unrelated-by-blood black person "brother", like there is some kind of secret brotherhood? Black people want to identify with and support their "race" and people think nothing about it. But that knife should cut both ways, or that kind of practice should be jettisoned entirely. Yes, we are a racist society, and perhaps it is partly a hardwired thing THAT SHOULD BE OVERCOME by the thought and will and teaching of every individual. Yes, racism exists in America, but I deny that it is primarily a white problem. It is definitely a problem I see getting worse and worse. Part of it is aggravation by bad economic times. But no one should be surprised to see "white" backlash. And can we please not automatically call every conceivable thing racist?

BTW, thinking about what you think and why you think it and trying to improve yourself is called "growing up." I think the last US generation to do that in large numbers was my parents', "The Greatest Generation".

originally posted by: ThinkingMom
I am a white woman in the deep south. I have been a lifelong supporter of the downtrodden, for whatever reason they are downtrodden. We are each born into a situation. I happen to have been born to a lovely, civil-rights-minded couple of parents. My father often, openly, vocally admired MLK Jr. I happen to have been born white-skinned, middle class, church-going. I had my parents' views by virtue of nurture. HOWEVER, lately I am asking myself questions like, why is it okay to have 1-race only groups? Competitions? Not to mention scholarships and the like. Why is it okay that in TV and other media, for example, is it okay to put out words that only impugn the white-skinned "race" without drawing critical fire? (I hear it a lot, it is undeniable.) Why is nearly EVERY mistake or disagreement involving a black individual or predominately black group and a white individual or predominately white group so often automatically interpreted as racist-motivated? Michelle Obama called it racism when a white person mistook her for a store employee when she was dressed incognitio at a Target store. I have done that myself several times to white persons and have experienced it myself a few times, and I am embarrassed when I make that mistake but could care less when it's done to me. Why do I so often move and work around black people and witness stranger courtesy between black persons and lack of an equivalent kind of courtesy toward white persons? I am and have always been very courteous to every person, except to someone who just obviously purposes to offend me. Why can, as I often witness, only a black person call another unrelated-by-blood black person "brother", like there is some kind of secret brotherhood? Black people want to identify with and support their "race" and people think nothing about it. But that knife should cut both ways, or that kind of practice should be jettisoned entirely. Yes, we are a racist society, and perhaps it is partly a hardwired thing THAT SHOULD BE OVERCOME by the thought and will and teaching of every individual. Yes, racism exists in America, but I deny that it is primarily a white problem. It is definitely a problem I see getting worse and worse. Part of it is aggravation by bad economic times. But no one should be surprised to see "white" backlash. And can we please not automatically call every conceivable thing racist?

It's a sad fact that when Black people treat White people they way they THINK that White person would have treated them, they foster and grow racism.

It causes people like you and me, who never questioned equality, to now question our own ways.

I'm still not racist, but I'm not blind to reality anymore that's for sure.

They are desperately trying to make it that being a White male in today's society is just about the worst possible thing to be. Like we have secret "White Guy" meetings where we talk about new and different ways to stick it to the rest of the world.

I guess they forgot to send my invitation.