Why do so many races hate African Americans? I feel the hate. (Nice: price, bill)

[FilmCutter]

I did it! I am no longer Invisible. Thank you JerZ. Thank you all for seeing me. Cheers!

[JerZ]

FilmCutter, what a fabulous name. Brava!

[mover007]

hi filmcutter~
that's the best name for you!

i read your advice to the hopeful editor (because i have editor friends moving here) and noticed WOW! You seemed like a different person when you were talking about something you love and feel confident about. (but you weren't a DIFFERENT person...you were letting your true spirit shine.)

This proves without a doubt that your strength is within you...no one can take it away...when you feel down, from the petty actions of others, you should pull this shining part of you out into the open. Give it a polish whenever others seek to tarnish it. It is yours and no one can take it away.

Another thing i realised Re: the ugly actions of others... (and i have some horror stories of bullies, too.)
They may or may not choose someone for race... bullying in and of itself is not a race issue. How many of you have been bullied by someone of your own race? (i've seen it many times when working with others--adult or children)
Get this: People pick on others because they are attracted to them.

That's right... attracted! You stand out for whatever reason...like i said in another post it could be they resent what you have (happiness in jerz's case, perhaps), confidence in another or difference (an accent, or style) or it could be they like hurting people who seem vulnerable. I've gotten attacked for both reasons...you can't win.

Sometimes i've wondered if i'm a bully magnet! But i'm not...i attract love and generosity just as much. People like us, simply attract others...good and bad. That's my theory, anyway. And it also proves that we are NOT invisible.

[baygirl]

Well put JerZ. I am an African American female in my mid thirties and I have to say that my teenager and many of my younger friends have helped me to see that we as African Americans of a somewhat older age-group may be overly suspicious of many white, asian, and other peoples biases. I'm going to have to say that it is due to being reared in the 70's and 80's when integration wasn't quite what it is now. I am not in denial that racism exists in many subtle and not so subtle forms, but I have been made aware that my assumptions about what people may or may not be thinking of me are not always right. I think we could learn alot from our youth, who for all intents and purposes are doing a relatively good job of judging people on character versus color. I'm generalizing, of course. As the original question posed in this thread suggests, I am not the only one with that paranoia...and I wouldn't call it a paranoia exactly, but I do tend to wonder if people are suprised by my normalacy. Are they suprised when I open my mouth and sound "educated"? Are they suprised that I am "educated", are they suprised that I am married with children as opposed to single? Are they suprised that I could be considered the quintessential "soccer mom"? These are things that I wonder on a frequent basis and I can't say that I wonder this because of anything that someone has said or did (not for a very long time anyway). It is a preoccupation that I hope to not pass on to my children and one that I hope to get over. I do think the assumptions are largely due to our misrepresentation in the media. Hollywood and the Hip Hop culture that is represented in the Music Videos would have everyone believe that the "black story" begins and ends in the struggle to remove ourselves from the ghetto...that every story is some hardluck story...and the sad thing may be that we are probably just a generation or two off of that being the case. What I and others need to realize is that "times they are a' changin' ". We shouldn't forget the past, but we should acknowledge, accept, learn from it and move on.

[FilmCutter]

Originally Posted by mover007

hi filmcutter~
that's the best name for you!

i read your advice to the hopeful editor (because i have editor friends moving here) and noticed WOW! You seemed like a different person when you were talking about something you love and feel confident about. (but you weren't a DIFFERENT person...you were letting your true spirit shine.)

This proves without a doubt that your strength is within you...no one can take it away...when you feel down, from the petty actions of others, you should pull this shining part of you out into the open. Give it a polish whenever others seek to tarnish it. It is yours and no one can take it away.

Another thing i realised Re: the ugly actions of others... (and i have some horror stories of bullies, too.)
They may or may not choose someone for race... bullying in and of itself is not a race issue. How many of you have been bullied by someone of your own race? (i've seen it many times when working with others--adult or children)
Get this: People pick on others because they are attracted to them.

That's right... attracted! You stand out for whatever reason...like i said in another post it could be they resent what you have (happiness in jerz's case, perhaps), confidence in another or difference (an accent, or style) or it could be they like hurting people who seem vulnerable. I've gotten attacked for both reasons...you can't win.

Sometimes i've wondered if i'm a bully magnet! But i'm not...i attract love and generosity just as much. People like us, simply attract others...good and bad. That's my theory, anyway. And it also proves that we are NOT invisible.

Thank you Mover007 and JerZ,
I had never thought of myself in that light. I will take your advice and give myself a polish when small-minded people try to put me down. My mom tells me all the time that I don't give myself enough credit. Thank you so much for the positive reenforcement. And about bullying, I used to feel like a bully-magnet, too! Sometimes I still feel that way because I'm nice and willing to help people, so some people try to take advantage of my kindness. I think it's a great way to look at the situation as being the kind of person who attracts people, both good in bad. And that makes us not invisible. You all have made my day.

[mover007]

The fact that this thread was started by invisible yet is ending with FilmCutter, is proof that it is not a waste of time. ( or "hilarious" as some seem to think.)

A virtual community is not a substitute, but an extension of our live/tangible community. Sometimes it can be even more eye-opening...it widens our perspective, if we let it.

LA can be so distant...spread-out and clique-ish, but this forum is anything but.
love and cheers, mover

[Christine Joan]

After I visited the Holocaust museum here in LA that documents the atrocity committed against the Jews and others, I began wondering why there aren't any museums that document the atrocities committed against the slaves. Are we as a people still too close to the past to place all this hatred into a museum and leave it all there?

[JerZ]

Originally Posted by Christine Joan

After I visited the Holocaust museum here in LA that documents the atrocity committed against the Jews and others, I began wondering why there aren't any museums that document the atrocities committed against the slaves. Are we as a people still too close to the past to place all this hatred into a museum and leave it all there?

Here's one. http://www.usnationalslaverymuseum.org/events.asp (broken link) Google to find a list of other slave history museums across the U.S. (ETA: Or really, you need to Google slave exhibitions to see the extent of how people continue to rightfully mourn this awful period in history. Some are exhibitions that travel the country rather than stationary museums. But the one above is certainly a museum--like the Holocaust Museum. My DS visited the Holocaust Museum a few years ago and they gave everybody a passport and the reason the person was eventually taken to a camp--they were actual replicas of actual people who were killed--very eye-opening.) (Edited to remove wording that came off oddly snotty!)

[marilyn220]

Originally Posted by Christine Joan

After I visited the Holocaust museum here in LA that documents the atrocity committed against the Jews and others, I began wondering why there aren't any museums that document the atrocities committed against the slaves. Are we as a people still too close to the past to place all this hatred into a museum and leave it all there?

The Schomburg Museum in Harlem details slave atrocities, but not on the same level as the Holocaust Museum in DC.

Older blacks have told me that up until the 1970s blacks were treated worse than animals in the south. A white man could roll up in your house and rape your wife and daughters right in front of you with his boys looking on waiting their turns. THERE WAS NOTHING THE BLACK MAN COULD DO TO STOP IT. Beatings were a common occurrence and a "nightly" fun activity that black men were subjected to on a DAILY BASIS. Many young black men were gang raped. Yes, gang raped, but of course they couldn't report it to anyone, because many times law enforcement was in on these rapes.

You ever wonder why in many lynching pics why the black man's pants is off? Why would you take a man's pants off, unless...

Black women were raped by their employers and the wives knew about it, but like the black woman was helpless to stop it. Instead, she "pretended" she didn't know and would involve herself in all types of useless charity work.

Whites (both in south and north) were indeed upset about the final end to segregation because it meant they would actually have to treat black people like HUMAN BEINGS!! No longer could they beat, rape, torture, mutilate for no reason on a whim anymore. The only thing saving a "white trash" person from being a complete inferior to everyone was his saving grace - THE NEGRO. Once the negro had rights that were protected by the government, the "white trash" man would have competition. Also, rich whites would have to treat blacks with some type of respect. Many of them didn't even after the Civil Rights Bill was signed, but it didn't matter. The days of the negro house servant was coming to an end anyway (latinos began replacing us). Finally, whites would have to be held accountable for their actions.

These are things "today's" whites don't want to hear and wouldn't believe anyway. Why do you think Strom Thurmond's son doesn't acknowledge his older half sister? Deep down that boy KNOWS how she was conceived and it wasn't a "love" match either. But at least the old racist had the decency to financially take care of his offspring.

Racism (not feelings of superiority) will officially end when all of the racist baby boomers are dead and gone (which will be another 20 years or so), so their off-spring can finally love and hire who they want without fear of repercussions from some cast-offs from another era.

[Christine Joan]

Marilyn220, I know there is a lot of truth and pain in your message. Unfortunately, it takes time for an individual to change and even more time for an entire society to change. I also think that any group of people who holds itself out as having more "rights" than another group of people will find it hard to adjust to a new era where they don't have the same privileges that they had before. You might be right that true equality will only come into being once those who grew up with racism have passed from this earth; however, I don't think that their deaths alone will be enough. I think racism and hatred are passed down from generation to generation and people need to be educated so that they will form a new belief system that does not include racist beliefs or thoughts. Even in LA, one's friends tend to be of the same race. Unfortunately, I don't think racism will stop entirely until each person in this country can look inside his or her address book and see a variety of names there that match a variety of races.

JerZ thanks for the website. It looks like the museum will open this year, sometime in 2007. For those of you who are high school students, I hope you visit the website for the US National Slavery Museum because the museum is holding a writing competition for high school students.

Here is the address to inquire about the writing competition:

The US National Slavery Museum
1320 Central Park Boulevard, Suite 251
Fredericksburg, VA 22401