First thing's first: KEEP. THIS. SHIT. CIVIL. If you can't talk about race without resorting to childish insults and rude generalizations or getting angry at people who don't see it your way, leave the thread.
With that said, I bring you to what can hopefully be the general thread about race.
First, a few starter questions.
- How, if at all, do you feel your race affects your everyday life?
- Do you believe that white people (or whatever the majority race in your area is) receive privileges simply because of the color of their skin. How much?
- Do you believe minorities are discriminated against for the same reason? How much?
- Do you believe that assimilation of cultures is better than people trying to keep their own?
- Affirmative Action. Yea, Nay? Why or why not?
Also, a personal question from me.
- Why (in my experience, not trying to generalize) do white people often try to insist that they aren't white? I can't count the number of times I've heard "I'm not white, I'm 1/4th English, 1/4th German, 1/4th Scandinavian 1/8th Cherokee, and 1/8th Russian," as though 4 of 5 of those things aren't considered "white" by the masses. Is it because you have pride for your ancestry, or an attempt to try and differentiate yourself from all those "other" white people? Or something else altogether?
edited 30th May '11 9:16:04 PM by Wulf
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
The ones with the eloquence and power don't do any mental gymnastics. They know the truth and they do their best to see it suppressed.
Again, this is not ignorance it's malice. I'm hesitant to use the word conspiracy because that makes me sound nutjobish but that's what it is.
The stupid ones actually don't do mental gymnastics, that's why they believe what they believe. If they'd sit down and do some they might realize how often they contradict themselves.
edited 7th Jul '15 1:16:53 PM by LeGarcon
Oh really when?
United Earth
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That's what I used to believe about religious people, but it turns out I was wrong. The smart ones do believe their own bullshit, to some degree. Otherwise there would be no genuine Randian billionaires.
edited 7th Jul '15 1:17:28 PM by TheHandle
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Relevant on why some rich and powerful will happily join racists even when they should know better:
edited 7th Jul '15 1:28:04 PM by Parable
TIL there's a city called Yazoo City.
edited 7th Jul '15 1:29:33 PM by Quag15
Collector Of Fine Oddities
@Handle, There's probably a million variations on that theme with little perplexities of their own depending on their background and history.
Certain relatives of mine who still believe the grand old tales of Antebellum South lore seem to be unable to accept that old uncle Lester was a dickhole for slaving. "Oh no, he couldn't have treated them poorly. He was different." The tone reminds me of a parent who can't come to accept that little Tropey isn't just "having fun" when he kicks around every other kid on the playground.
I wouldn't compare the attitude to outright malice per se, but malice really comes into play when thy cling to their delusions to such a point that they grow outright hostile to anyone challenging their view. In my experience with them, it's almost like trying to argue with a conspiracy theorist; at some point they'll just shut down and completely ignore factual evidence altogether.
edited 7th Jul '15 1:30:23 PM by carbon-mantis
The Mistress
Tell that to Yazoo.
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
Being reality proof is a big thing with the brand of far right that exists down here. Facts to them are subjective and the truth is just as personal.
When ignorance is deliberate, it's malice. It's not that they aren't educated in the truth, it's that they don't want to be and they don't believe in the truth.
Oh really when?
United Earth
Then surely they can't be allowed to win the education battles: I mean, there's no point in waiting for them to die out if we let them make their kids take up their mantles.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
Exactly, we gotta be proactive. It's like I said in the US Politics thread.
Things don't die out, you have to kill them.
Oh really when?
Party Crasher
Tell that to Disco.
It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane.
United Earth
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Jami is
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
As long as Jamiroquai is still playing Disco isn't dead.
Oh really when?
V
Kill every man, woman and child, white and black and other alike in the American South? Surely you're joking?
edited 7th Jul '15 1:45:14 PM by Greenmantle
Keep Rolling On
At least Disco was one of the first genres to successfully appeal to people of different backgrounds (racial, economical, cultural) in the US. And then the white racists/homophobes/rockists blew it up.
edited 7th Jul '15 1:46:54 PM by Quag15
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
No I mean like kill on a cultural level.
It's a metaphor. Come on man.
Oh really when?
V
Like you and rich people? 
United Earth
What he meant to say was: we have to kill racism, not racists. A genocide of racists is sort of self-defeating.
edited 7th Jul '15 1:47:05 PM by TheHandle
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
No rich people can get killed on a physical level. Eventually.
Hopefully it won't come to that but if it does I'm not about to complain.
Oh really when?
United Earth
Hey, I'm a rich person too! I just think everyone should be rich, together. Would make my life so much easier, for one. Wouldn't have to feel guilty about dressing fabuoulsy.
Wouldn't have to worry about people trying to burglarize my home, steal my car, or rob my self. Wouldn't have to worry about the people paid to protect me from the former people, and the people paid to protect them.
Which is why I'm moving to Sweden this August. There may be no sunshine, but at least there's social equality and abundant overall wealth.
Anyway, please don't Lavoisier me, I don't think I've done anything to deserve it.
edited 7th Jul '15 1:53:53 PM by TheHandle
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
V
Although I've heard there still is Racism behind closed doors — if you're not from one of Swedish Society's "favoured countries".
United Earth
Sure, but they're working on it pretty hard, which is to their credit.
Hey! This might actually be an opportunity to stop talking about the American example for a moment! Why don't we take it? I mean, it seems like that's all we ever talk about. Egregious, though it is, it's hardly the only example that's concerning.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
I haven't heard about any brown kids getting shot by police in Sweden.
So, possibly somewhat better than the US, maybe.
No longer a forum herald
For comparison, here's a 2010 article on the subject of textbooks and Texas. The most relevant parts:
News flash: reducing racism to multiple choice questions isn't easy. Kind of says that education reform would defang racism a fair amount, wouldn't it?
edited 7th Jul '15 3:06:46 PM by TotemicHero
Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)
But... not quite the same as Double Think? Er... okay then. How does the worldview of a Southern Racist work? Let's not take the stupidest of them, let's take the smart ones (Oxy-moronic though they may be), the apologists, the guys with lots of eloquence, coherence, and explicative power.
edited 7th Jul '15 1:14:35 PM by TheHandle
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.