LTCC instructors tackle racial inequality
LTCC instructors, from left, Yasmin Sayyed, Scott Lukas and Albert Ponce, on May 19 discuss racial issues. Photo/Kathryn Reed
By Kathryn Reed
White privilege. It’s a concept that 50 years removed from the heyday of the Civil Rights movement is still hard for some people to grasp.
This was obvious by the questions being asked during a 90-minute seminar at Lake Tahoe Community College on May 19 on what would have been Malcolm X’s 90th birthday. The civil rights activist was gunned down in 1965 at the age of 39.
“When you watch the coverage of what went down in Waco it’s a system of privilege,” LTCC sociology instructor Scott Lukas told the nearly 70 people in attendance.
Had the deadly biker gang fight on Sunday in Texas been between blacks instead of whites, Lukas believes the response by police and the media would have been much different.
Albert Ponce, political science instructor, said, “Relationship today exist vertically. It needs to be horizontally. We need intercultural dialogue – and not be told what we should become. That is assimilation.”
He believes interculturality is the answer to people understanding and respecting one another, not multiculturality.
Yasmin Sayyed, LTCC sociology instructor, stressed the need for people to not lose themselves as they blend in with the majority. It’s about never losing your own story and not taking on someone else’s.
“If education means you lose your mother tongue, then it is a hollow victory,” Sayyed said.
Sayyed grew up in New York, where she knew Malcolm X. She met him in 1964 after she returned from Mississippi where she was getting people to register to vote. It was the summer before her 18th birthday. She said she returned to Harlem broken – having been beaten and sexually assaulted in the South.
She embraced much of what Malcolm had to say.
“Who are we to let our oppressors define how we fight our oppression against them. His words started having a different implication for me especially after my experience in Mississippi,” Sayyed said.
“We stapled our picket signs to baseball bats. It was amazing we never got spat on again,” she said. She never took a swing at anyone, but the gesture made people take notice.
From there the discussion in the Malcolm X camp became less about what drinking fountain blacks could drink out of, and more about moving away from protests and seeking political power.
Sayyed said the fight then and today is not against white people, but it’s against whiteness.
Meanwhile Obummer and his sidekick wife promotes “Blackness”.
Black pride = ok
Asian pride = ok
Arab pride = ok
Mexican pride = ok
White pride = racist
Discrimination tide has changed direction these days.
Kits Carson, You are saying the president and his “sidekick wife” are promoting “blackness”?
Are you really saying that or you are just being sarcastic and trying to make a joke?
Either way, funny or not, it makes you look bad. OLS
‘
White privilege? Really? Have you seen the poor kids of the old coal miners in Appalachia or Wales? Have you seen them in the white ghettos in England?
Did you know that there were thousands of Irish people sold as slaves? Did you know that in Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Asia, slavery is still common? And it ain’t the white people who are engaging in it.
If Waco hadn’t been a bunch of white bikers it would have been different? What color do you think the Banditos are? Does it matter?? It is an international biker gang.
Why is it that the people who accuse everyone else of racism appear to be the most racist of all?
Check YOUR privilege, Professor.
Being a person of mixed ethnicity myself (with ancestors from three continents), I find the whole discussion of race in America to be amusing. Our president, like him or don’t, is white and black — so what? He had no say over the matter when he was born and he is what he is. But like Mr. Spock on the Starship Enterprise he has elevated one of his ancestries above the other. I never understood nor liked this part of Spock’s personality and it does not work well for the President either. (Nor does it work well for “American Indians” who are 1/64 Cherokee.) Some of my ancestors came from Mexico and hid their Indian roots there. When they came to this country they were no longer Indians but Mexican. But calling someone a Mexican today is often considered an ethnic slur so people substitute Latino, Hispanic or even Spanish to be politically correct. I hear (less frequently now) people calling themselves Chicano – a name that my Tia hated deeply. (She would slap me on the side of the head just for writing it if she were still alive.) I suspect that, like California, the rest of the country will soon have no ethnic minorities because all ethnicities will compose less than 50 percent of the population. Like my own family, we will all just have to learn to get along — which is what happens when you see “the person” and not color or ancestry. I just hope the next president isn’t elected because of race or sex just because “its time” for them to be in the White House.
The libs are still trying to create a race war? All their mumbo-jumbo serves to do is make the races hate each other. Think about it: is telling some black person that their not “privileged” like whites really going to help race relations? No! It’s just going to make them mad at whites, and in turn, whites will get mad at blacks! If people would stop making up racism and talking about it, there would be no such thing! All the media does is aggravate the situation.
Send a black person to a white neighborhood in the deep South and he might get his butt kicked. Send a white person into a black neighborhood in Chicago or LA and he will get his butt kicked or killed. Send any race into the deep poverty-stricken Mexican areas of Santa Ana and he will get shot. Why is that? Does that have anything to do with the way someone’s great grandparents treated black people in the deep South 150 years ago.? why is it that somehow this is still hanging on my shoulders? I’m tired of paying the debt of someone else’s great grandparents. All races need to get over this including the blacks. Everyone has their ancestry. And Portions of their ancestry they are not proud of. I’m not happy with the way the English treated the Scott’s but I’m not sitting here complaining about it every day and throwing it in the Brits face. And actually I’m not from the south I’m Scottish. My parents came here in 20’s. And I’m white!! White as they come…. It’s a total inequity. And now I’m being discriminated against because I’m white. And I can’t even be proud to be white or I’m racist. And I’m almost a minority in my own state. And I don’t care and I’m not normally complaining about it even though I pay for everyone’s welfare and unemployment and support laziness of all cultures, races and creeds. Treat everyone equally and remember your cultural heritage if that’s what you want. This entitlement and finger-pointing from something someone else’s parents did 200 years ago is bs. And this comment from sayyed about being against whiteness is absolutely absurd. How would you feel if I said publicly I was against blackness? I’d be crucified on CNN because I’m white.
Liberals believe that constantly demanding that white people be guilty of something and anything they can invent or have something someone else doesn’t makes their party more powerful and they will have more votes. People are sick and tired of this lie and charade and the encouragement from the biggest racist in DC and his gang and the tax cheating loud mouth instigator and friend who should be in prison.
After reading the comments, I realized how tired I am of all of the progressives in Tahoe. You guys are way too educated, worldly, and progressive for me.
I don’t think any amount of education can fix most of the people who commented previously. This kind of ignorance is learned and runs deep.
Human, you make an interesting point, I read somewhere that in a hundred years we will be so intermixed that most people will be from 2 or 3 races. I wonder what we will fight about then. Will it be like the middle east where one sect fights against another over power?
Truth no matter the speaker, and justice no matter the recipient must have their day… When we are willing to speak from our lens of perception and willing to listen to the perceptions of others, when we are willing to sit in deliberate circles with no-shame-no-blame intentions, yet with full intent to create a society where all have honoured seats at the table of humanity, then voice wedded to agency and peacemaking wedded to justice mightn’t seem so threatening.
In my opinion, people like Yasmin Sayyed are not helping the situation. Simply being a different flavor of racist does nothing to stop racism. Dubliner’s first comment is the most poignant. How would a White Congressional Caucus be received? One must consider the consequences of why it would or would not be acceptable.
Tell me sayyed.., what do you mean by being against whiteness.? Please explain.,. This makes you appear racist in my opinion without any explanation. There is nothing peaceful about being against something that is so meaningful to others. I am full of white pride. Is that wrong according to you?
Ms Sayyed, Do not waste your time trying to educate the unwilling. These folks have no historical context and react emotionally to a perceived threat. They lack the ability do have an informed deliberate discussion.
So many smart people on this blog. Even if my IQ is not as high as yours AROD who cares, I have a right to ask a question. And I am not racist and I have friends that are black Mexican Arab and Oriental. I asked a simple question. And I’m completely willing. Sayyed.., what does it mean to be against whiteness?
I’m a proud white man trying to understand a misconception. It would be nice to get an answer. Is it along these lines.? http://www.surrealistmovement-usa.org/pages/revolution.html
Greetings From Bundy-ville!
Lordy lordy lordy…I am so disheartened by the horrible discrimination that my poor white brethren have suffered at the hands of the liberal media and that ‘not really American muslim mulatto president’ and his smug shrewish wife. How can you ever find the will to soldier on, carrying such a burden while avoiding the pitfalls of inherited sorrow amidst the contemporary threat of police retribution and MSNBC shaming?
I know that facts and figures are of no help…since stats are a tool of scientists and researchers they have little use in helping us to understand or quantify your mistreatment unless used by such deft media masters such as Michelle Malkin, Bill O’Really, Rush Limbaugh or John Boehner.
Justice, Dogula, Kits, Greengrass, Dubliner-et al ….the not so veiled 10th grade anger behind the feigned naivete of your comments disproves the maxim that ‘ignorance is bliss’…ignorance is NOT bliss. It’s just plain stupid.
Im kinda like what human says with the mix thing. My whole family and i are but what dublinar says is spot on…hmmm, worthless race baiting trash (u deserve name calling on that comment above). Racism is alive and well and its not from common white folks hint hint. Meanwhile thug politicians up top grab more power and wealth daily. Get a clue people.
Hmmmmm, well said. The bundy-ville folk will be frothing at the mouth to over doo each other on replys to your comments. This should be funny, in a pathetic kind of way.
@ business owner, I respectfully disagree with some of what you say. I too agree with what ‘Human’ said, and would add that we are all moving towards gray, and I look forward to it, though I fear that people will look for and find other ways to create the loathed and mythical ‘other’…gender, religion, hair color, political stripe, etc. I don’t think calling racists on their **** is ‘race-baiting’, whether it is David Duke, Farrakhan, Sharpton, Coulter, Hannity or Dogula, Kits or ‘Justice'(now there is a prime example of an oxymoron).
My favorites, though, are the people who pretend they aren’t racist, that they have somehow magically transcended the argument, removed race from their entire mental emotional and social context(hint hint hint).
Truth is, given the cultural soup/swamp we all live in; our parents, our neighborhoods our school, our religions, our textbooks, our TV shows and movies and advertising, our understanding of the world we live in and our response to it all contribute to the realization that, if we are honest with ourselves is that we are ALL racist, because we are all trained to spot difference, not similarity. The real questions(and hard work) begin with that realization: what am I going to do about it? how am I going to grow through it to be a better person? What tools am I going to use to reassess my understanding of what I have been taught to believe? These are questions worth asking, and acting upon.
After all, I may be just a common white folk, and a nice guy most of the time, but I have been trained to be racist, and to not recognize it in myself-it IS the river I grew up in…but I’m trying to swim against the current.
I see …if we don’t agree with you then we are ignorant. You and the old Bat are two of a kind. Interesting you have zero to dribble about the white woman Police Officer who was killed by a black THUG. Nor does your race baiting liberal media. Talk about pathetic.
Like I said….
Many years ago blacks hating whites was called ‘reverse racism’. How stupid is that? Racism is racism no matter who hates whom. And it only seems to be getting worse. Why is it so necessary to pigeon-hole anyone into a specific ‘race’?
In the words of Rodney King…”why can’t we all just get along?”
No Kits, you are ignorant because of your viewpoints. In my opinion there are two types of ignorance…that generated through lack of education, information, lack of context and self reflection. And that generated through myopic clinging to narrow viewpoints.
You are ignorant because you want to be, not because I say you are.
Sleep well.
First things first.
Racism defined = a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human racial groups determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one’s own race is superior and has the right to dominate others or that a particular racial group is inferior to the others.
a policy, system of government, etc., based upon or fostering such a doctrine; discrimination.
hatred or intolerance of another race or other races.
Read Article 1, Section 2, Paragraph 3 of the United States Constitution and pay attention to “those bound to service” wording.
Service Defined = Anglo-French servise, from Latin servitium condition of a slave, body of slaves, from servus slave.
So the “idea” or “rant” that somehow Caucasians have been mistreated by “racism” in America is just completely false. Slaves were brought over here from Africa against their will… we had a Civil War… REMEMBER.
Last week as I waited to pick up my son at the middle school i noticed two young boys were walking through the parking lot. One of these boys was a black boy and the other white. My window was down and these boys did not know I was listening to their conversation. The white boy was calling the black boy a ni@@€r, he said it several times in a very mean spirited way. The black boy pretty much ignored the white kid. They looked up and saw me looking at them and I told them that what I had just heard was disgusting and foul language, a bad word that is wrong to use, ever. It is my guess the white kid hears this kind of language at home and therefore thinks its ok to use at school. My son says he dosent hear that word at school but he hears alot of profanity. The “N” word is really a vile word (IMHO) that is only used by ignorant people. Its sad to think this middle school kid is already well on his way to being part of the problem and not the solution. Skin color is just that, the color of skin, not a determination of success or inteligence. Its sad to think that racial slurs are ever appropriate.
Rock: Thank’s for making the only factual comment on this story. Caucasians are mistreated because of their race, but buy and large, the occurrences are minuscule compared to incidents with blacks.
I’m not denying that racism does exist in some cases, however, I still think that all the media hype about racism is only rubbing salt in the wound. Hearing the same old racism story all day long just aggravates races against each other, thereby increasing racist tendencies. Everyone, stop creating racial warfare where there is none.
Oh, and why should I be demonized and called a “racist” just because by ancestors enslaved blacks 250 years ago? How am I to blame for that?
Hmmm: I sleep just fine knowing your types are blind to reality. My point of view is “ignorant”? You just proved my point. You think anyone who doesn’t see things your way is either racist or ignorant. Nighty-night
nature: The kid probably saw the thugs and vandals in Baltimore on TV and is only biased by what he witnessed by your liberal news media. The videos don’t lie….unlike the mayor of Baltimore. So typical. Why isn’t your liberal news following the black thug who shot and killed a white female Police Officer?
Funny, we whites are not burning our town and businesses down over it. I wonder why that is.
From the Liberals to the conservatives this conversation is hilarious. Why does every liberal out there think they’re so darn smart and everyone else doesn’t know jack. Your higher education is useless. The ones claiming to be the most peaceful are the ones out there talking the most trash. And outside their supposedly peaceful minds are probably the most conflicted. Because I have a white pride tattoo across my chest doesn’t mean I hate blacks. In fact I have a lot of black friends. But I’m proud to be white. My black friends know it and respect it . And I will fight and die for this country. Alongside with the blacks Mexicans Asians and Arabs brothers of this country. This country is full of lazy people of all races looking for handouts and free stuff. This reinforces my skepticism and my distaste for liberals.
Dubliner: Well said.
@Dubliner…personally, my ‘higher education’ is rather valuable to me.
Regarding your assertion that your ‘white power tattoo’ across your chest does not make you a racist, I agree. It only advertizes the notion that you might want people to think you are( If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck…it is probably a duck).
Hmmm: You say you are educated. It appears you haven’t the education to admit when you are wrong.
Kits-prove me wrong.
I said white pride not power. I’m no nazi.., Your education was a waste.
Sorry Dubliner for the misquote. I must say though, I have dealt with many who see no difference between the two terms. Still looks like a duck to me.
“.., Your education was a waste.”
You capitalize after a period, not a comma. You dunce.
Duke just verified that he or she is a arrogant, know it all, egotistical, opinionated charlatan. Your liberal arrogance smells like the duke you are and the prunes you ate. Sitting around a computer commenting on an article to defend your pathetic intentions. Intelligent.? More like moron. Go warm the globe with your wasted breath would ya… You could melt a glacier with your hot air. Save us all and hold your breath would ya.
but dubliner, you are illiterate. don’t sweat it: this country is largely illiterate.
There is no such thing as racism. Mankind started in one place. The people were dark skinned due to the environment there. As they migrated to areas where skin color needed to lighten due to ultraviolet light levels, evolution took over and made the changes. If you take a man with the lightest skin possible and mate him with a woman with the darkest skin possible, you do NOTget a different race. You get a human being.
We suffer in this world from TRIBALISM, not racism.
Interesting point Haddi…
“Why does every liberal out there think they’re so darn smart and everyone else doesn’t know jack…”
I can’t speak for others whom you would label ‘Liberal’ but I will address my own perspectives on the comment. First off, those who use hyperbole such as ‘always’, ‘ever’, ‘never’, etc. are ‘almost always’ shallow thinkers.
Second-those who aren’t educated tend to devalue the importance of being educated-because someone who IS educated-think Rick Santorum- is using said argument to manipulate them with an emotional or ideological agenda.
Third-I AM educated, and not just because I went to college. Education starts a questing mind, with wondering and paying attention. Many with little ‘schooling are educated. But I did go to college. I worked my way through, taking loans only when I needed to. I went to the classes, read the books, wrote the papers. I asked questions, I listened to others. I thought about what I read, and what I had been told. I formed my own opinions and argued with the profs. I stepped out of the box of ‘what I’m sure of because it’s what I was told as a kid’ and wondered who doesn’t get to sit at the table. I asked ‘Why’ and ‘Who’. I looked for the money trail and the information spin. I attempted to put the theory into practice (praxis) and still continue to evaluate the results and change my perspectives as needed. I study history lest I fall into the pitfalls of the past. I’m not perfect and I’m okay with that. I do strive for perfection though. I graduated with honors.
Fourth-Education is a tool; it helps the components of the mind function. This is important, because not all ideas are equal, and without critical thinking skills it is impossible to evaluate the bullpuckey from the beef. The mind goes where it’s pointed. An educated ideologue is a dangerous thing, if given an army and a cause-think Hitler or Stalin, Netanyahu or bin Laden.
I take pride in my skills and abilities and my humanity, not my color.
Perhaps therein lies a clue in figuring out the ‘whiteness’ that was referred to as something to be against. I trust (snicker here) that your white ‘pride’ has prompted you to spend some time looking up the term and you are aware of the term ‘whiteness’ as a historic, social and economic construct describing from an outsiders perspective how the First World societies have treated those whose liberty, land, bodies and destinies they have appropriated. I’m hoping what you ‘know’ is not getting in the way of understanding the task that may, if you choose, be in front of you.
Enjoy you coffee (fair trade organic I’m sure), or tea, or Guinness or baby’s blood or whatever it is you drink in the morning.
Haddi, interesting concept. I think the environment has alot to do with it as well.
Hmmmm, well said..it shows that you are educated in life as well as the class room. Two very good things to have achieved.
Dog. Sorry, but people of the poor kids from Appalachia or Wales were/are not slaves/property. S e x Slavery is a problem on every Continent, including North America.
gGrass. You say “Libs” made up, created and enforced “Whites Only:” bathrooms, railroads, buses, drinking fountains, schools, motels, restaurants, professional sports, etc. I think not.
Dub. I grew up seeing signs that read “Colored’s Here” or “Whites Only.” This is not from 200 years ago. The last black person lynched in Alabama by the KKK was in 1981.
We all know Just@ss is racist, nothing new there.
First official Black Man declared a Slave in America in 1654.
Virginia establishes a “Slave Code” in 1705.
Number of Black Slaves in America 1862 (150 years ago), about 4 Million.
That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free… “That Liberal from Kentucky” Abe Lincoln, Executive Order in 1862.
13th Amendment US Constitution 1865 (end of slavery).
Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction…
14th Amendment US Constitution 1868 (end of 3/5ths clause).
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed….
15th Amendment 1870 (restores former Slaves right to vote).
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
24th Amendment 1964 (end of Poll Tax in the South).
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax…
Civil Rights Act of 1964, “outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, required equal access to public places and employment, and enforced desegregation of schools and the right to vote.
Civil Rights Act of 1968, “provided for equal housing opportunities regardless of race, creed, or national origin and made it a federal crime to by force or by threat of force, injure, intimidate, or interfere with anyone … by reason of their race, color, religion, or national origin.”
R4T
I never claimed that Appalachian kids were slaves. I was calling into question the idea of “White privilege”.
And you can look up Anthony Johnson if you want to know the history of black enslavement in America.
Dog. I am aware of the Johnson, Casor, Parker, Scarborough slavery story; that was my first point.
Segregation is segregation as is/was apartheid. I am also well aware of “Whites Only” from my early travels as a kid. “Whites Only” is by definition White Privilege.
Well, if you define white privilege as whites only, it no longer exists in this country, so quit harping on it.
Reading comprehension quiz of the day: Did rock define ‘white privilege’ as ‘whites only’?
No.
GED denied.
Who’s wages, in what town, do you pay for Dog?
By your own admission you live somewhere in the State of Nevada.
Do you think we never get tired of YOUR B.S. about government being the root of all evil?
Talk about an anonymous internet tyrant!
Never even a suggestion on how to fix anything, just WOOF, WOOF, WOOF, all the time.
Dog. Whites Only Clubs were operating as late as 2009 from a quick search.
Some Harping from this thread…
“Meanwhile Obummer and his sidekick wife promotes Blackness.”
“White privilege? Really?”
“The libs are still trying to create a race war?”
“This entitlement and finger-pointing from something someone else’s parents did 200 years ago is bs.”
“Liberals believe that constantly demanding that white people be guilty of something”
“Racism is alive and well and its not from common white folks”
“we whites are not burning our town and businesses down over it.”
“Your liberal arrogance smells”
Now go back to the actual definition of racism.
R4T, don’t put words in my mouth.
Kits, although I don’t agree with him, hmmm’s education does show over some other people on this blog. At least he uses capitalization and punctuation, and (usually) disagrees respectfully.
Kits – I would have guessed that Hmmm is a female- thanks for the fact. Whatever the gender, I hope he/she is in the teaching field. That was a great post.
You can’t deny good barbeque.
http://www.theonion.com/article/bigoted-*******-makes-the-best-barbecue-33467
Duke nice to know that you get your news from the Onion, I am now waiting for your famous two line zinger that are witty and smart only in your own mind.
gGrass. These are YOUR words, “The libs are still trying to create a race war… If people would stop making up racism…,” NOT mine. Again, I am old enough to have lived through extreme American Racism and Segregation and I am NOT 250 years old.
relo: The bet you can do is make things up about me?
” You say “Libs” made up, created and enforced “Whites Only:” bathrooms, railroads, buses, drinking fountains, schools, motels, restaurants, professional sports, etc” I never said ANYTHING like that. This is you putting words in my mouth. Liberals create the racism, then everyone else believes it and runs with it. Check your facts.
gGrass. The French invented the word racism (racisme) in the later 1800’s. They had a “theory” about how the “Races” should be divided.
Interesting that the word racism appears in America in the early 1900’s by a Richard Pratt, who was against racism.
And yes you wrote…”If people would stop making up racism” (yes made is a derivative make)
Clearly, the cows have left the barn here.
clarify what you meant with: “Caucasians are mistreated because of their race, but buy and large, the occurrences are minuscule compared to incidents with blacks.”
duke of prunes: Whites HAVE been the victims of racism. That is undeniable fact. However, blacks tend to be victims or racism MUCH more often. Also undeniable fact. There are hard numbers to back up both of those statements. What don’t you understand about that? What is your reading comprehension level anyway? Your IQ must be about 80 if you can’t figure this one out.
R4T: ”If people would stop making up racism” You are 100% correct. I actually did write this. I did not write, “And by people, I mean all liberals.” That is the part you are making up. You can carry on about where the term “racism” came from. I don’t care about that. We’re talking about the concept behind the term here.
Don’t blame me for not understanding terrible writing. After I read the botched colloquialism ‘by and large’ the author lost credibility. I don’t think the second comma was needed. Now that author wants to question my intellect. If my IQ is 80, the author…
gGrass began with “The libs are…?” So, I don’t understand your splitting hairs now.
Racism is not a “made up” concept, it is very real.
The “concept” of Racism has always meant to Segregate people.
Racism clearly did not end 250 years ago.
ttfn
DOP: Ad Hominem much?
I never said that racism isn’t real. My point all through this thread has been that all the media hype and talk about racism only makes the situation worse. IMHO, if everyone would stop making a big deal about it, 99% of it would vanish. Yes, the “concept” of racism has always meant to segregate people. Yes, racism didn’t end 250 years ago. I don’t see the point you’re trying to make.
greengrass
gGrass wrote, “Why should I be demonized and called a “racist” just because by ancestors enslaved blacks 250 years ago?” I am NOT demonizing or calling you anything. However, my point is that Racism along with Segregation had to be addressed (as this article mentioned) in the 1960’s due to abusive and destructive Jim Crow policies.
“The media” did not create Racism because it was created out of the ashes of the South after the Civil War. (If “the media” were to stop making a big deal out of War(s), would War really go away?)
gg that is what you get when you present your ideas poorly and then attempt to call out the reader for being dumb. Notice I asked you to ‘clarify’ what you meant, not that I didn’t understand it. And you call me dumb for recognizing a poorly put together sentence. You decrease your credibility daily.
Credibility? How can anyone be considered credible when they are anonymous. Ranting and raving like some self proclaimed intellectual big headed scientist you then turn the conversation snide with your belittling comments. Good thing you think you’re smart because it comes across to many others to the contrary.
Dubliner: Don’t forget that you’re anonymous too.
DOP: If you get what I meant, great, but you’re getting nowhere with the Ad Hominems. If you like, I’ll try to be more careful with my sentence construction in the future.
R4T: The media did not create racism. The media is aggravating and increasing racism. Wars and racism are two different things, so your comparison makes no sense.
holy commentary load Batman!
gGrass. To blame “the media” for aggravating and increasing Racism is just not realistic. Did “the media” keep Blacks out of Professional Sports, the Armed Forces, the front seats of public transportation or Whites Only bathrooms in the past century? No. It was the Racist culture of America.
It was absolutely impossible for a Black person to be Elected President of the United States just 50 years ago.
I would argue that throughout much of Human history, War and “Racism” or the fear of “other people” have gone together.
Wow. You are still missing my point? THE MEDIA IS AGGRAVATING THE RACIST CULTURE IN AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Actually, you probably get my point, you just are dodging it because you don’t want to admit that I was right.
I don’t know if you listen to the radio at all, but there’s an ad that goes, “donuts, donuts, donuts, donuts, donuts, donuts, donuts, donuts, donuts, donuts, donuts, donuts, now what are you thinking of right now?”
Just substitute racism for donuts in that ad and you’ve got mainstream media. Constantly talking about racism only makes the races hate each other more.
I am not going to accept you opinion as fact.
Let’s just not talk about it and it will just go away. The justice system, banking system, education, etc, will probably rid themselves of institutionalized racism if we stop pestering them.
I’m an ostrich.
Yipeee! Another misinterpretation of my comment! Stop hyping about it, start doing something about it. You people seem to think that dramatically talking about racism forever will make it go away. Another delusional liberal.
G.G.
Maybe if you stop labeling it would also be a step in the right direction.
Racism IS “made up” by people. So are the terms liberal and conservative. The sooner people stop looking at the things that make them different and look at what make them the SAME, the better off we will all be. Unfortunately the way we are wired makes that very difficult. Our brains are always looking for the traits that will perpetuate our species. We are very adept at spotting and categorizing differences in others. That and our pack instinct to be in like groups will be hard to overcome. There are also the outside influences of others who will use a “divide and conquer” strategy to obtain control over others.
Bottom line, too many factors to this problem for any hope of alleviating it any time soon. The first step just might be for all of us to stop pointing to made up categories when engaging in dialogue with others.
#STOPTRIBALISM
Haddi- Good points about our fixation with our differences. Our instinct operates without thought (good thing) and in a study where they gave college girls sweaty t-shirts from men of many different races, without exception, each girl picked the smelly t-shirt of the man who was most genetically different than they were, as being the most attractive smell. Genetic diversity wins every time. It tells us a lot.
Denial that there is an issue of racism in America today is absurd. There are several racist news sites. The Daily Stormer is one of who knows how many news journal sites, that promotes the idea of “white supremacy”. These sites are open to public view and the view of our children who also use the internet. These are the people who should be under scrutiny. Dr Albert Ponce is my professor. He does not promote racism, he promotes thinking on a higher level by educating yourself on current and past issues!
Sometimes to remember history becomes a dwelling upon the past and not a way forward as it is not grounded in present reality. The discussion of disparaging “whiteness” as somehow a current of present day thought at LTCC is pretty much what one could expect from a community college located in the boonies. It is absurd and at heart racist as disparaging of blackness or brownness In the past we had Jim Crow laws prohibiting free association today we have Jim Crow laws mandating associations. The problem is allowing government to curtail freedom.
Instead of promoting freedom, progressives promote victimhood and dependency and the softer racism of low expectations. Black and brown people will succeed or fail on the basis of their talents and when well intentioned but misguided progressivism makes a retreat, the hastier the better.