What does being a racist mean? If I alter my behavior such as making certain my car doors are locked when I'm parked in poor predominately black neighborhoods make me a racist? What if the only place my car has been robbed was in a black neighborhood?

Originally posted by zarp3333
What does being a racist mean? If I alter my behavior such as making certain my car doors are locked when I'm parked in poor predominately black neighborhoods make me a racist? What if the only place my car has been robbed was in a black neighborhood?

Would you lock your doors also in a poor predominantly white neighborhood? Not asking rhetorically by the way....

What if I were walking in the same neighborhood and I saw a pick up game of basket ball and there were 5 black guys about to play 5 white guys? And what if somebody offered to wager? If I bet on the black guys knowing nothing about them other than their skin color, would that make me a racist too?

Originally posted by zarp3333
What if I were walking in the same neighborhood and I saw a pick up game of basket ball and there were 5 black guys about to play 5 white guys? And what if somebody offered to wager? If I bet on the black guys knowing nothing about them other than their skin color, would that make me a racist too?

You didn't answer if you'd lock your doors in a poor white neighborhood or not. I understand the point you're trying to make. But for the sake of dialog, can you answer my question?

I went to bed after my posts. The answer is no. The few times I was in a predominately white poor neighborhood I didn't make absolutely certain my doors were locked.
The point I'm trying to make is when does altering behavior due to personal experience make somebody a racist?
I spend an awfull lot of time pondering this question. I think the term racist is thrown around very casually without considering how often most people make decisions based on their life experience based on ethnic, race and cultural differences.
I've been wanting to start a new thread based on my theory that we as human beings have ethnocentric capacities for processing certain kinds of data and if we as a society, were to recognize that idea, we may be able to alter the way we present data to take best advantage of inherent differences.
Why, for instance do asians and indians hold statistically higher amounts of degrees in mathmatics than other races?
Why are blacks represented in statistically higher numbers in pro sports than other races?
If you consider our brains as computers, the processing power required to play pro sports is much much higher than making advanced mathmatical calculations. My telephone can calculate geometry. There is not a super computer in existence that could control the fluid motions capable of running a robot through even the most rudimentary game of basketball.
From that standpoint, NBA players are genuises. I believe that firmly and believe further that if we were to examine our differences rationally and alter our methods of education accordingly, we would find ourselves in the midst of a modern rennaisance.
Rather than facing drop out rates for black males reaching 90% in some areas of the country, we would see a new generation of artists, philosophers and scientists taking human kind to all new levels.
The same goes for all races. Why is it that Afgan men earn $1.25/day when most anglos earn many times that amount? I believe it has something to dobwith our different capacities to process data and the laws governing the competition for resources are biased towards a small minority of the world's population. Until we examine why the distrubution of resources around the world is so lopsided with respect to ethnic groups, we will continue to kill each other as we compete for resources.
If the United States would take the lead on this and address the issue, we would once again occupy the moral high ground.

MAny of you have ignored this little fact about GB:
Glenn Beck gets to ask dumb white-guy questions to a room full of black conservatives.
It is hard to explain to white people like Glenn Beck why their "innocent" questions about race actually just reveal their ignorance and their false assumptions about people of other races and the nature of race relations.

But Beck is so blitheringly un-self-aware that he decided to give it a go anyway yesterday on his Fox News show. As you might expect, it was a serial embarrassment.

Beck, you see, was careful to hand-select his audience, people "the media claim don't think exist" -- black conservatives! Not that he ever actually explains this to the viewing audience -- you have to figure that out for yourselves as the show goes along, like the moment when he asks the audience if they think we're headed toward socialism (they all raise their hands) or are accused of being not "black enough" if they are conservative (again, a unanimous show of hands).

And it let Beck lead exchanges like this, with Beck regular Charles Payne and talk-show host Lisa Fritsch:

Beck: How many people here identify themselves as African Americans? (About a third raise their hands) OK -- Why?

Payne: It's interchangeable.

Beck: But wait, wait. Why not identify yourself as Americans?

Fritsch: Well, people can look at you and tell you're black. You can't escape that.

Beck: Yeah, but I don't identify myself as white, or a white American.

Will Brown of the New York Republican Community Coalition points out, adroitly, that "African American" is an "evolution" from the "N word" -- and certainly is preferable. Moreover, it wasn't black people who invented the "N word" or the segregation from enjoying the full fruits of American citizenship it represented -- it was white people. "African American" represents the recognition of their dignity and their rights as Americans.

But this point sails right over Beck's head, because he's too ignorant to appreciate the implications. Had Beck even a smidgen of American history, particularly pertaining to civil rights, he'd know that white Americans for most of the decades of the past century used the word "American" and "real American" almost exclusively to refer to white people -- and that this motif lingers even today (see, e.g., Sarah Palin's references to "real Americans" during the campaign -- speaking before small-town, all-white audiences).

This historical and cultural ignorance just kept manifesting itself:

Beck: Because one of the problems that I have -- and I have to tell you, as a white guy, as a white guy, I'm just being real honest with you, as a white guy, I think white people are uncomfortable sometimes saying, 'You know what, Martin Luther King' -- and then quoting Martin Luther King, because, it's almost as if society says -- 'No no no! That's our guy! Not your guy!' And it shouldn't be that way. And so Martin Luther King, wasn't the dream that we're all judged by the content of our character?

Beck doesn't understand why it's idiotic of white people to quote King -- namely, King was speaking in defense of black people whose civil rights had been systematically and violently denied for over a century, and his words were spoken in that context. They weren't intended to be spoken in defense of advantaged white people who want an excuse to keep stereotyping black people.

The black conservative talkers he had on weren't a whole lot better. Perhaps the most outrageously ahistorical remark came from Fritsch:

Fritsch: The only way black people were ever able to triumph is because of conservative values, which is directly linked to Christianity. Had we been liberals, during the Civil Rights movement, nobody would have done anything!

Um, Ms. Fritsch, you need to avail yourself some history books too. It was conservatives who argued for maintaining slavery before the Civil War.

Nothing wrong with a hand picked panel? Like GWB did at most of his Q7As? Well, let's continue:
Fritsch: The only way black people were ever able to triumph is because of conservative values, which is directly linked to Christianity. Had we been liberals, during the Civil Rights movement, nobody would have done anything!
Um, Ms. Fritsch, you need to avail yourself some history books too. It was conservatives who argued for maintaining slavery before the Civil War. It was conservatives who insisted after the war that blacks be denied the full rights of citizenship, and who erected the system of Jim Crow, who led rope-bearing lynch mobs that crucified thousands of black people. It was conservatives who erected "No Black After Sundown" signs at the city borders of thousands of American towns.
And most of all, it was conservatives who fought the Civil Rights movement tooth and nail. And it was only from the ceaseless efforts of liberals -- many of them indeed Christian liberals -- in opposition to conservatives, many of them Christian conservatives -- that anything was in fact achieved during that era. Somehow, you've managed to get your history completely upside down.
This idiocy reached its apotheosis, though, when Beck played for his audience that audio tape of black Detroiters turning out for welfare assistance funds, originally promoted by Rush Limbaugh, which was nothing more than a nakedly racist bit of ugly stereotyping on the part of the radio talker, Ken Rogulski, who produced it. As King Crimson observed:
The conservo-talk reporter cherry picked through the audio booty until he found the absolute best soundbite that would most perfectly frame the city as one filled with Obama-fawning morons, black Sambos, and greedy welfare grabbers - precisely, as Limbaugh would later argue, the kind of rank idiots who would vote for someone like America's first black president.
And if you listen to the woman making the "Obama money" remarks, you can hear that she's cracking humorously on the humorless, stereotype-dependent white guy asking. He -- and Beck and Limbaugh, by extension -- are the butt of the joke and they don't even know it.
Well, we actually know where Beck thinks this talk comes from:
Beck: All right. These are the people who have been abused by the system. They've been taught they needed the government. They've been taught to be slaves, and their master is Washington! Both parties!
For some reason, those weren't the words he used yesterday. Hmmm. Wonder why not, don't you?
This is just vintage Beck, gorging himself on dumbass white stereotypes of black people and then fobbing himself off as just a colorblind white guy. As we noted before, this is his way of race-baiting:
It comes prepackaged with built-in plausible deniability, of course. It's just a coincidence, we're sure, that so many of the targets of Beck's smear jobs -- Van Jones, Valerie Jarrett, Mark Lloyd -- happen to be African American. It's just a coincidence that those videos of ACORN, one of Beck's biggest targets, primarily are of African Americans. It's just happenstance that Beck finds scary black people under every rock -- even when they're just dance troupes.
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Fron crooksandliars.com
You might as well defend Limbaugh for being a racist also, good luck with that!

Originally posted by Walkswithfish
Glenn Beck is suffering from a very serious case of white guilt.

He is a racist, and to deal with the guilt he has to do a show about "black America"

His nervous laughter and snickers throughout that show are a dead give away.

Too bad the people involved didn't "get it".



Beck, you really are a pathetic piece of #!

Good thing you are around to tell everyone on his show they are unable to comprehend their own intuition and feelings. Glad you are here to tell them what to think.

Heaven forbid we make our own choices!

Glenn Beck is of a generation that is not racist as our parents and grandparents were. This does not mean he is not grandstanding and playing upon the desperation of hardworking American's who see so many people going under they are afraid they will too. He doesn't research or fact check but his show is not about facts it is about emotion.

The Glenn Beck Trainer or How to get away with anything:

1. Do X -X might be any number of scams designed to dupe the public, savings and loan scandal, bailout, state of the economy, Illuminati and Freemasonry symbols around Washington..whatever
2. Now be the first to BLAME YOUR OPPONENT FOR X
People tend to believe the first rumor they hear, true or not.
3. Now get BEHIND the angry mob and whip them up into a frenzy
4. Direct misguided mob toward your opponent
5. Now quickly proceed to the next OUTRAGE while angry mob decimates your opponent
A surprising number of people are stupid. He knows it. This works.

The truth doesn't matter. It is the perception of truth that matters.
Nobody is saying the man is not clever.

I understand this may be off topic but I will say this anyway. I watch Glen Beck time to time and don't put much thought into anything he says. However I find it interesting that he did a show focusing on the African Americans, so I lead into this question. First, I don't consider myself in anyway a racist, I like all people until they Piss me off, but I don't profile. that being said: Why does it seem that since Obama has been in office, the African american has a greater exposure in the media. Weather channel, news channels, commercials, movies and now there is even a African American that Stars in a Disney cartoon. Is there anything wrong with that ? no But Whats with the push?

Now I watched that, and ultimately what I got out of that program is the following:
It is not the country that is going to lift the community out of its being, real change has to start in the community and its way of thinking.
I think that would apply to all of the country and not just one group or the other myself.

Originally posted by travisirius
Nothing wrong with a hand picked panel? Like GWB did at most of his Q7As? Well, let's continue:
Fritsch: The only way black people were ever able to triumph is because of conservative values, which is directly linked to Christianity. Had we been liberals, during the Civil Rights movement, nobody would have done anything!
Um, Ms. Fritsch, you need to avail yourself some history books too. It was conservatives who argued for maintaining slavery before the Civil War. It was conservatives who insisted after the war that blacks be denied the full rights of citizenship, and who erected the system of Jim Crow, who led rope-bearing lynch mobs that crucified thousands of black people. It was conservatives who erected "No Black After Sundown" signs at the city borders of thousands of American towns.
And most of all, it was conservatives who fought the Civil Rights movement tooth and nail. And it was only from the ceaseless efforts of liberals -- many of them indeed Christian liberals -- in opposition to conservatives, many of them Christian conservatives -- that anything was in fact achieved during that era. Somehow, you've managed to get your history completely upside down.

No offense buddy, but at a minimum what you just wrote is highly misleading and incorrect. At worst you are purposefully lying. Here is actual history:

Many people do not know that the civil rights movement was first started by Republicans. Professors and the media today gloss over the fact that when Republicans freed the slaves under President Lincoln, it was Democrats standing opposed. When the vote came to Congress on Emancipation Proclamation, every single democrat voted against it, while every republican voted in favor of it. It was republicans that lead the effort to pass the 13th Amendment officially making slavery constitutionally outlawed. It was the Democratic Party that stood opposed. Republicans passed the first Civil Right Act legally extending citizenship and equal right to all, regardless of race. The Republicans passed the 14th Amendment requiring all states to give due process of law, and equal protection of the laws to all races. Every single Republican voted in favor, while every democrat opposed.

Every single African-American Congressmen until 1935 was a Republican. The first African-American governor was a republican. Colin Powell was the first African-American National Security Advisor and Secretary of State. Condoleezza Rice was the first woman to serve as the National Security Advisor. The first Hispanic governor was a Republican. The first Hispanic US Senator was a Republican. The first Asian American US Senator was a Republican. The first Asian American Federal Judge was a Republican. The first woman elected to Congress was a Republican. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao amazingly was the first Asian American woman in any president’s cabinet. The first women allowed to be delegates to a national convention were Republicans. The first Republican Supreme Court Justice was republican Sandra Day O’Connor, who before that was also the first woman in any state to be the Majority Leader in the Legislature.

Republicans led the movement for women’s right to vote, and as a party the democrats opposed this right. Every leader of the early feminist movement were Republicans, including Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Two of the leading African-American suffragists, Ida Wells and Mary Terrell were Republicans, and also were co-founders of the NAACP.

It was Republicans that integrated professional sports. Brooklyn Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey was an outspoken supporter of race integration and Republican, as was Jackie Robinson. Those most outspoken to sports integration were southern democrats.

The Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision was written by a Republican Chief Justice appointed by Republican President Dwight Eisenhower. That Republican Chief Justice, Earl Warren, was a three-term Republican Governor in California, and was the Republican nominee for Vice President of the United States in 1948. Roughly three years after this Supreme Court ruling, President Eisenhower won passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957. The important thing to note here is that Eisenhower was the first Republican President in four administrations. Democrats controlled the White House for four administrations and did not pass a single civil rights bill. Not one. It was U.S. Senator Everett Dirksen that authored and introduced the 1960 Civil Rights Act. Individually he was the most responsible for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as he was the Republican leader who crafted the strategy that overcame long odds and tenacious Democratic opposition to the Bill. After all, it was entirely democrats that filibustered the Bill and it was Dirksen that overcame them. When the Bill was finally passed it received significantly more support from Republicans than Democrats.

In 1976 it was republican President Ford who repealed democratic President F. Roosevelt’s now infamous executive order interning 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. None of the numerous democrat Presidents before him felt it necessary and democrats role in the interning has been glossed over.

That, my friend is the actual history. I hope you were just mistaken in what you wrote and did not intentionally mislead.


[edit on 17-11-2009 by johnny2127]

I don't know if Glenn Beck is racist.

These videos, with hand selected statistical anomolies, seem to demonstrate an intent to mislead people into believing something that is not accurate. These people are not representitive of Americans as a whole or the African American Community as a whole, but rather a carefully screened collection of people with similiar views. I know there are conservatives of color, as well as a faction of the gay community etc. etc.

It does not absolve the Republican party or conservative commentators from taking responsibility for racist remarks and bigoted statements...or as most often the case...failure to rebuke those within their own party who put forth such rhetoric.

Glenn Beck infamously made the statement that President Obama was a Racist ...""[Barack Obama] has exposed himself as a guy ... who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture."

For someone that is that threatened by a POTUS of color that he percieves the POTUS as hating all "white people" and "white culture" (whatever that means) well he has certainly given people reason to wonder about whether he is racist.

Maybe he is, maybe he isn't. I don't care. I just think he is a dumb, loud man desperate for ratings...who cares?

[edit on 18-11-2009 by maybereal11]

[edit on 18-11-2009 by maybereal11]