“Why don’t blacks just get over it already, and quit being so sensitive? Nobody who’s alive today had anything to do with slavery. When are African-Americans going to stop living in the past, and start taking care of the present?”
“If making it as a black person in America is so hard, how do you explain people like Colin Powell, Clarence Thomas, and Barack Obama?”
“All kinds of foreigners, of every color, come to this country and make it. Why do so many blacks fail, when so many Asians succeed?”
“God forbid we should ever do or say anything that’s not ‘politically correct.’”
“When I look at a person, I don’t see the color of their skin: I just see a person. Why do we have to be so hung up on color all the time?”
“What about reverse discrimination against white people?”
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Related post: yesterday’s “If My Wife Were the NAACP, and I The Tea Party.“
![John Shore on The Huffington Post](http://johnshore.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/huffpost.jpg?w=120 "John Shore on The Huffington Post\")
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i dated a man a few years ago who was very free with what he thought of certain segments of the population. Most of the people he hung out with felt the same. They bandied the "N" word about in casual conversation with both blacks and whites and none of them batted an eye! Personally, I was offended, and I'm white!
Now, had I done that with my friends, I'd be called a racist. The man I dated and his friends didn't always have the same advantages I did growing up. I had both parents until well after I moved out on my own (my mother is still living, my father died 9 years ago), but this man lost both parents before he was 10 years of age, then was placed alternatively with a much older sibling and in foster care.
I don't know if that has anything to do with the attitudes towards race that we have. I'd never use any of the words I heard my ex boyfriend say in conversation, regardless of color. So, does that make me a snob or a racist?
BTW, I don't believe I'm racist. Someone else may think differently. Are there any truly non racist people (regardless of what race they are) out there? I don't think there is, IMHO.
Back in February I wrote a poem for Black History Month Unsettling Fear. In response, an African-American friend sent me this email note: I would call you but I am so filled with emotion that I am crying as I type this email. At first I didn’t think I would get through it because I was so moved by it. It generated so many emotions in me. It took me back to the 60s and how I longed to be white because it was so terrible to be black. It took me back to the cross being burned on our lawn because we were the first black family to move into a white neighborhood.
I, like Christian, realized some time ago that I have lived a very privileged life.
Ridiculous!
I agree with most of the posters above, and they make their points well. These questions are not indicative of racism. It makes me wonder if John – funny, brilliant John – is tossing something out here to watch the response as a preamble to another blog.
Except for #4, which is a little hard to imagine someone asking, as a previous poster said, it's good that people ask these questions. Even better if they care enough to research the answers to them.
Christian, nicely put. That's what I wanted to say! (Comments #25 and #27.)
Nope – no guilt. Guilty of what?
But maybe some empathy. Maybe some understanding that not all of our accomplishments are due to our hard work, skills and abilities. That even though we all may be running in the same race most of us (in the US anyway) got a good head start.
I understand the ripples, but does that mean that I need to have a sense of guilt for something far removed from me personally, just because I am white?
Ever see the movie,"Remember the Titans"? That took place just 40 miles from my home, while I was in high school. It's not just about the 6 years of the Civil War or the period of unrest during the Civil Rights Movement. It's about 200 years of slavery, then another 100 years of official John Crow and then what's been going on under the covers since then (see, I didn't say 'under the sheets' – too inflammatory).
I always hear this; "My family never owned any slaves. I'm not responsible for any of this." This applies to my family as well. But we (all of us who are of European descent, particularly the men) have benefited from a system that has been founded upon and fueled by injustice. The stone may have sunk to the bottom of the pond but the ripples; they just keep passing on by.
I might be considered outcast for saying this, but I do believe there is a double standard as to what is accepted. I feel as though had a white pastor got up and said anything using the term "blacks" negatively, exaggerated due to culteral differences or most likely not because of being white, He would be under far more scrutiny because of it.
Do you remember when Halle Berry was on a late night show and there was a faux picture of her offspring or something with a big nose? She said.. "looks like my Jewish uncle" in a joking manner and she had to formally apologize. Had the picture depicted thick eyebrows and she had an italian uncle she made a comparison to, it would have been all for sh*ts and giggles and everybody would have moved on. Maybe I'm simple.. but in order to move on, we really do need to forget. Germany erased WWII from their history books. I don't believe so much to "forget" but to move on and stop stirring the pot. Could we benefit from erasing the Civil War and the 60's from ours? I don't believe in forgetting that people were oppressed, but you need to realize that the more you pick a scab, the chances of it healing are crappy.
Taryn! Could it be? Are you that long lost sister I have been told about?
I can't remember how many times my Dad embarrassed me in public settings, talking loudly about the problems we have with "lazy blacks"
My mom used to remind me that many of the slaves were better off before they were freed – readily available food,shelter and clothing. They were often like family.
Once she was telling me about a dress she bought at Macey's. Fortunately it was on sale. She couldn't imagine anyone affording the full price, but you know, she whispered, the store catered to J-E-W s. I think she spelled it out quietly because our German Shepherd was in the room. (Sorry, sorry. I'm of German descent so I hope I can get away with that.)
I 've known many people, some of them very young, that will make bigoted remarks, often with a nod and wink, as if we belong to a secret brotherhood that has had to go underground. So this is not merely a generational problem.
I still love my parents dearly and neither one of them are monsters, even though they have said monstrous things. The people who trafficked and owned slaves, the guards who manned the towers at Dachau, the suicide bomber in Palestine – they aren't monsters either. They weren't that much different than you or me. But as Burke said; ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph [of evil] is for good men to do nothing.’
So we shouldn't be so self satisfied with ourselves or our churches since we detect no overt forms of racism. We delude ourselves into thinking that it is not hiding behind closed doors.
My understanding is that because we all descended from Adam and Eve, we are all from the exact same race…discrimination is not a matter of color as much as a matter of perception.
When you see a a young black man wearing his pants properly, speaking with a modicum of politeness and you see a white man with a shaved head, a seven inch goatee (Pharaoh’s beard, I believe its called), piercings in his face and sexually suggestive tattoos over every exposed part of skin there will be automatic judgments made about both people.
I experienced constant racism simply because I was a first generation American whose parents emigrated from ______ and I came of age during the cold war.
Maybe it’s my social-economic background, however, these are the top 5 racist comments I hear most often:
5.chink
4.commie
3.spick
2.cracker
and the #1. if you don’t like it here…go home
… three of these have been directed at me on quite a few occasions…
Racism is one more tool Satan uses to divide and conquer. How will we ever “Love our neighbor….” if being a neighbor is what causes the hate…
I’m not white, just melanin deficient
as usual john you are right on!! and i say to thee: ”rise, walk!” thats good for us all. good one.
Actually, Ross, I don't answer 90% of the comments on my blog. And this time, at any rate, I just got back from a long day spent out of the house.
Actually Shell, if you've read the man for any time you know he is quite the funny guy. Sure some of his past posts have bewildered me from time to time, but I never deleted the blog out of my blog folder in IE as I enjoy a good laugh from time to time. But now that I've discovered my true identity as a modern day racist, I need to go find me some good Klan blogs I guess.
So many victims.
I don't even know how to respond to many of the posts here, so I just won't. Instead, I'll tell you what it's like to grow up in a "secretly rascist" family. I grew up knowing all the slang words for every race, not just black. One of my first memories is my dad saying the "clowns just drove by" and me being so excited because I was 2 or 3 and thought I had clowns living down the street from me. My mom told me as I went out to look that they weren't really clowns, but the black family down the street. Looking at my family, you wouldn't think my parents were rascist. I had black friends growing up, but never invited them over (even in elementary school), for fear of what my dad might say. Last Easter, we were sitting in church and he leaned over to my mom and whispered, "look at those monsters…its just horrible." about an interracial couple in our church.
I have heard The Top 5 many times over from my parents, and even more. I always struggled to sit in class when teachers would teach about how rascism is a thing of the past…I knew it wasn't, because it wasn't in my own family. You want to start making things right, start with kids. Sometimes kids will surprise you in their wisdom, and will show others the right way.
Or maybe he's asleep? I'm suprised you're here if you don't like him.
Interesting how the author of the post usually replies to just about every comment, but hitherto hasn't been heard from. Might the whole post just be a way to irritate those who don't subscribe to the gospel of racial victimhood and then see what comments come back? Blog something assinine and see what happens? Perhaps there's some bitterness that in the span of a week the Obama candidacy has gone up in flames?
You forgot one of my favorites, “what about reverse discrimination against white people?”
And philagon: I like the fact that he left it un-elaborated, I had to stop for a moment and think, “I’VE said some of these things, my extended family is multi-racial, I’m not a bigot!” and then I realized that the fact that racism can be so subtle and so easily glossed over is one of it’s greatest dangers. I think there’s a part of every one of us (no matter WHAT color we are) that’s just a little racist, even still.
From Merriam-Webster's:
Racism: 1) a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race 2) racial prejudice or discrimination
There was political and economic imperialism which propelled and tried to justify slavery, exploitation, disenfranchisement and injustice. People told themselves that they deserved to do this to blacks because they were supposedly inferior. Those attitudes were once prevalent.
A lot has changed but we can't be complacent. The legacy of "classic racism" is educational and economic inequality and maybe some subconscious attitudes white and black people have about each other and themselves. This legacy continues. The attitudes, though, have shifted; they have improved somewhat. There is the white person, for example, who says, "I'm not racist but…" and will say in effect, that they would rather not live near a lot of black people or have to associate much with them. It seems to have more to do with the natural human tendency, which many have noted, for us to prefer those who are like us. The outright belief that one group is superior to another has become socially unacceptable. I don't believe I was socialized into those kind of attitudes, but I was socialized into "I'm not racist, but…", into the cultural clique-ism if you will. Studies have shown, for example, that black applicants for mortgages, with the same qualifications as others, get turned down more often.
Let's examine ourselves, try to understand where others are coming from, get out more and get to know people who are not just like us, realize that a group should not be judged by the actions of a few. Most of all lets let the Holy Spirit transform us; let's let the love of Christ fill us.
John! Once again you offend me. I am not a racist. In fact, one of my oldest friends is a (fill in the blank). He is a good man, honest, hardworking, patriotic. Now, if all of the (fill in the blanks) were like him there would be no racism. Sadly, that is not the case.
But before you get the wrong idea about me, I realize that there are some members of my race who are just as bad. And they don't have any excuse.
philagon: that was my point, actually- that all people are fundamentally equal, and that the differences most people ascribe to race (black people are brutes, Asian people are hard workers) can be ascribed to cultural differences, not fundamental differences between races.
Because culturally we ARE different, but THAT can be overcome. If I am not making myself clear, please tell me.
They've got some good stuff on this topic over at Sojourners today:
http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=sojomail.cur…
John, I noticed that 4 out of 5 of the 'sayings of racists' you listed were questions. But you know, I think it's good that people who are not black ask those questions!
I am latina, and I have often asked myself that 3rd question (why do so many people from other cultural groups seem to not face as many challenges as blacks in America?).
I think that if I were to try to answer that question on my own- without input from a black person, whether or not my answer puts black people in a favorable light- then that would be… maybe not racist but… presumptuous (sp?).
But when you have the bravery to ask those questions to your black friends, then you are doing a great thing- you are working at RECONCILIATION.
So, I disagree with your list John, because I think that if people have questions about these things, they need to be honest about that and ask people who would know the answers- black people. And in doing that, you open a door for honest communication.
Shush
Asians do X, group A does not do X.
Asians do well because of doing X, group A does not do well because they do not do X.
conclusion: group A, do X!
The successful repeatability of group A doing what Asians do is only possible by the underlying assumption THAT BOTH GROUPS ARE FUNDAMENTALLY EQUAL. Thus, I don't understand your point, and I regret that you did not comprehend mine.
philagon: the reason Asians do well is culturally based, not racially based. Asians raised with relaxed standards and without the sense of cultural pride that drives the desire to succeed won't score higher on any tests than the equivalent white or brown person solely because they are Asian. It thus can be argued that the reason black people average more poorly is also cultural, not racial, and thus discriminating against them as a whole (I.E: black people are dumb) is completely unjustified as one can blame the societal standards they're raised with, and white or brown people raised under the same standard would perform equally.
Studies that show that black people are "less intelligent" on average based off of IQ tests forget the fact that one can study to perform better on said tests.
It's not race, it's culture. There's a difference.
Courtesy of the University of Delaware:
“A RACIST: A racist is one who is both privileged and socialized on the basis of race by a white supremacist (racist) system. ‘The term applies to all white people (i.e., people of European descent) living in the United States, regardless of class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality. By this definition, people of color cannot be racists, because as peoples within the U.S. system, they do not have the power to back up their prejudices, hostilities, or acts of discrimination….’”
Courtest of WorldNet Daily:
"The education program also notes that “reverse racism” is “a term created and used by white people to deny their white privilege.” And “a non-racist” is called “a non-term,” because, the program explains, “The term was created by whites to deny responsibility for systemic racism, to maintain an aura of innocence in the face of racial oppression, and to shift the responsibility for that oppression from whites to people of color (called ‘blaming the victim’).”
The “education” regarding racism is just one of the subjects that students are required to adopt as part of their University of Delaware experience…"
philagon–nice post. I agree that a lot of people use race as an excuse.
Racists will always be among us. That does not mean we let them affect our goals in life, how we get there and/or how we support our families. My children are multi-racial and we raised them to NEVER use that (unalterable) fact get in the way of anything they wanted or needed to do. Nor were they allowed to use their race as an excuse for poor or sub-par effort.
And, yes, John, God forbid we should ever do or say anything that’s not “politically correct.” We, as Americans, are so hung up on making sure we understand all the underlying reasons why a minority is the way he/she is ("they are part of the history of race" quoted above), that we can't treat people as people. Just plain, good people, with no excuses, no hidden agenda, no care about what my great-great-great-grandsomethingorother did to yours that caused you to…. whatever. And maybe that's pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking (especially given that we were born sinners), but that's what I try to achieve and try to teach my children. Does that make me a racist? According to your list, it does.
6. I'm not racist! Blacks are racist!
"…and then I realized that the fact that racism can be so subtle and so easily glossed over is one of it’s greatest dangers."
so subtle in fact, that any rejection of "racial victimhood" in favor of responsibility and merit is the easiest way to be labeled a racist.
Perhaps we can agree that "racists will always be among you". If that is the case, what does that mean for those who inevitably will become the objects of racism? I think an investigation into the success of for example, Asians in universities, should be an opportunity for less successful ethnic groups to ask "Why?".
Did you see the Meyers editorial in the LA Times today, because he says #1 (but he's black).
I don't think these comments are necessarily racist, but they are part of the history of race that Obama was trying to explain. Most people don't understand why descendants of immigrants do better than black people, despite all of the sociological studies, etc. There are answers but they are complex and most people don't read enough. It doesn't make them inherently racist.
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