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there are alot of double standards nowadays when it comes to being white and asking the same things a black or hispanic asks..
if a white person says they wished there was an all white tv network they would be looked at as racist....or if a white person gets mad at a criminal who robbed him that happens to be black then the white man is a racist.....
well i am tired of the stereotypes......not all white people are richer than all blacks and not all whites have been through less of a struggle in life than any other race
i am a white boy who grew up in Miami and had many friends of other races, so i am used to being around others but when i moved to places that werent as diverse i noticed that the blacks would be more judgemental of white people in everything they did....lets say for instance......
it is night time and i was looking at a black person because i thought it was my friend from work, but i couldnt see his face so clear in his car so i looked a little longer to see if it actually was him....well the black guy in that car would see me and say im a racist because i was looking at him and i have white skin....
well these are the kinds of misunderstandings that happen everyday but whites get called racist for it.....
or another example....i work at a pizza place and i am in a not so good mood and a black person calls to order food .....well he thinks i am being racist to him on the phone because he senses frustration in me.....little does he know that my boss just chewed me out about something, but now i am also a racists to because i wasnt like the white folk on television.....
i just think people need to sit back and think if we are really treating them a certain way for thier race or if it is really something else that is going on in the situation
I understand where you're coming from. I grew up in Tolland, CT, a very white suburb, and moved to Darien, CT, the center of the WASP universe, when I was 18. I went to college in NY, and like a lot of top private universities, there was a good amount of diversity. I can recall times where some black students began to argue with myself and my other classmates in a PoliSci class. You see, the second I say that I'm from Darien, CT, automatically, this means that I've never seen a real black person or that I've never had to struggle to do anything. In actuality, race has nothing to do with this. In my highschool, granted there were only about a half dozen minority students, but that didn't mean that I never knew anyone with the so-called "African-American struggle". Let me say right here, that I think the idea of a monofocused struggle is ridululous anyway, but for argument's sake, of course I knew kids that were less fortunate than myself. Darien is right near Bridgeport, possibly the "worst" city in CT, but to these students, Bridgeport wasn't a real city compared to NYC or Newark, and that for some reason, the people there weren't hard like they are in NYC or Newark.
Getting somewhat back on topic, there will always be people who feel that because you are part of the majority, that you are for some reason out to get the minorities. I have to assume you're doing the best you can, and that you are simply getting unlucky with the people you encounter. I feel that sometimes, for instance, black people can be raised to believe that whites are out to get them, and this can be made clear by the phone order conversation. For all practical purposes, how could a person on the phone automatically tell that the person on the other line was black and therefore was rude or frusterated. It makes very little sense to me.
One more thing...never use the phrase..."You people", regardless of what context.
As far as the media goes...well...we live in a country that is only 66% white, yet 90% of the media focuses only on whites while other races are ignored. Most television shows and movies have all white casts (with a minority to two thrown to be politically correct, which I think is insulting to minorities), commercials and advertissments have this same problem. I can understand why blacks have BET and hispanics have Telemundo and Univision. Also, interracial couples are never shown what so ever. Why? Does the media think that if it's too controversial?
I think the term "racism" is thrown around too much, people have forgotten how serious the term is in a country with a painful history of slavery and segregation. Now, whenever someone from a different race isn't nice to a person, they start yelling "that's racist". But what can you do?
i am a white boy who grew up in Miami and had many friends of other races, so i am used to being around others but when i moved to places that werent as diverse i noticed that the blacks would be more judgemental of white people in everything they did....?
I agree with your premise that stereotyping and racism can occur on all sides. It is interesting you mention that when you were surrounded by diversity in Miami, racism was not as much of an issue, but when you moved to places less diverse people became more judgmental. This is also my experience. I think when people grow up and work with people of other races and colors, color really becomes less of a deal than when people grow up with their own and are scared of Others.
When people don't have the capability to argue their position (with facts to back it up), against an opposing position, they resort to calling you names to shut down the discussion. These are the same people that cluck on and on about the first amendment and their right to say what they want...as long as you agree with them. If not, then you are called names or shouted down in a public forum.
As far as the media goes...well...we live in a country that is only 66% white, yet 90% of the media focuses only on whites while other races are ignored. Most television shows and movies have all white casts (with a minority to two thrown to be politically correct, which I think is insulting to minorities), commercials and advertissments have this same problem. I can understand why blacks have BET and hispanics have Telemundo and Univision. Also, interracial couples are never shown what so ever. Why? Does the media think that if it's too controversial?
I think the term "racism" is thrown around too much, people have forgotten how serious the term is in a country with a painful history of slavery and segregation. Now, whenever someone from a different race isn't nice to a person, they start yelling "that's racist". But what can you do?
WHAT ABOUT ALL OF THE BLACK SHOWS ON TV WITH ONE OF TWO WHITES THROWN IN TO BE PC..Have you by any chance missed those?
I watch Comicview and some other majority black shows and i laugh at the jokes but afterwards i realize that whites wouldnt be allowed to say black jokes like that on tv....and thats the difference on the white shows compared to the black shows....on the black shows it is always the majority black cast trying to "teach" a white person what "no" whites know about and that is discrimination or struggle, but they do it making the white dudes look stupid as hell....in the white majority shows the black guy or girl is a token but they are basically just put there to color up and make the show politically correct and give it more flavor.....i rarely see them crackin jokes about how the black character cant dance or how the black character grew up with a silver spoon in his/her mouth......i know for the most part that we see blacks as having more discrimination and struggle and whites as not having a clue about being poor, but for me i was poor and i am white....its just that most whites that are poor dont live in a housing project or anywhere that they feel outnumbered or in a bad place for crime.....
as a kid we were poor and lived in a karate dojo and in our car at on time ....so it doesnt mean i didnt know the feeling of going without a couple meals or without a tv or my own room....it just means we werent exposed to a housing project in an innercity.......i was homeless as a kid and we did live with other families that took us in from time to time and lived out of a car and as i got older things got better then after the divorce things went back down ....so i dont understand the jokes personally when blacks say i dont understand any struggle from being poor...but i am smart enough to understand the humor having seen the discrimination they go through in some situations but sometimes they take things too personal like the phone story i told you or some other situations......
Racism does occur on both sides, still doesn't make it right though. The "whites" have been historically much more successful at keeping other races down so far but does this mean we should carry on judging people by what colour or ethnicity they are ? It seems just really narrow minded when we have enough reasons to dislike ( and even like) other human beings to add race to the mix. People are people, as humans we will always have prejudices about "the other" but let's at least try to gather our most primitive urges, rise above them and behave and think like civilised human beings. Racism is wrong and stupid whether black on white, white on black or any other combination and permutation you can come up with.
Don Imus, while I don't support what he said, excersized his right to free speech. FREE SPEECH. But since it offended people, all of his sponsors were basically forced by the public (boycotts and picket signs) to drop him. To save face, the company he worked at for like 30 years -FIRED- him. From what I saw, just about every black person that got on TV technically said that "an apology is not enough." While just about every white person said, "If black people can say it, so can white people."
What would have happened if a black person were to have said it. In fact, watch the Barbershop and BeautyShop movies (not on TV, because they cut a lot out). If I were to say HALF of the things said in those movies... I'd be called a racist.
I'm almost surprised that this quote actually got put on TV "Halle Berry brown or Beyonce brown?" By the way, that came out of House's mouth.
But. You also have to think about how black people are racist against their own. Take a poor black person and a rich black person and put them in the same room. It's not a pretty sight. The successful white collar black man/woman is called nasty names, worse than white people at times. They are treated like backstabbers because they are successful.
In my opinion, a lot of the "racism" of our society isn't really "racism." It's a small group of people that dislike others, not really for their color, but because they perceive that somebody may have more green in their life. Money-ist?
As far as the media goes...well...we live in a country that is only 66% white, yet 90% of the media focuses only on whites while other races are ignored.
I don't know where you got your figure of 66%, but the 2005 Census says that the U.S. is 74.6% white. Your figure of "90% of the media" sounds pretty scientific. You sure you didn't make that number up?
And anyway, another perfectly valid perspective is: "If African Americans make up only 12% of the population, then why are they so frequently represented on TV?" It appears to me that blacks are overrepresented on television, and hispanics are underrepresented.
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You sure you didn't make that number up?
