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Let's get through this with an open minded discussion, open to all who wants to talk about the elephant in the nation. The whole article is provided in the link below.
Quote:
Throughout your book, you emphasize that an acute, social denial of both historical and present-day racism has taken on pathological dimensions. You write that this country is “sick with the issue of race.”
The root of this denial for the dominant culture is fear, and fear mutates into all kinds of things: psychological projection, distorted and sensationalized representations in the media, and the manipulation of science to justify the legal rights and treatment of people. That’s why it’s become so hard to unravel.
Unfortunately, many European Americans have a very hard time even hearing a person of color express their experiences. The prevailing psychological mechanism is the idea, “I’ve not experienced it, so it cannot be happening for you.”
Truly, how can anyone tell me what I have and have not experienced? This is a very paternalistic manifestation of white supremacy, the idea that African Americans and other people of color can be told, with great authority, what their ancestor’s lives were like and even what their own, present-day lives are like. The result for those on the receiving end of this kind of distortion is an aspect of PTSS. People begin to doubt themselves, their experiences, and their worth in society because they have been so invalidated their whole lives, in so many ways.
Attempts to encourage European Americans to join in on a more honest, national dialogue about “race” and racism often results in defensive posturing and positioning. Common responses include “slavery happened a long time ago,” or people saying that they’re tired of being made to feel guilty about something they didn’t do. How do we respond to this detachment from the crucial issues of the legacy of slavery?
It’s irrelevant that you weren’t alive during slavery days. I wasn’t there either! But what we as a nation face today has been heavily impacted by our history, whether we’re talking in the gulf between the haves and have-nots; education gaps between white and black children; or the racial disparities in our prisons.
I don’t believe in making people feel “guilty.” We have to recognize that remnants of racist oppression continue to impact people in this country.
Much of my work really is about black people looking at ourselves and understanding how our lives have been shaped by what we’ve been dealt. I don’t want to wait for permission to examine this or to hear that looking back into our histories is somehow counterproductive.
Let's get through this with an open minded discussion, open to all who wants to talk about the elephant in the nation. The whole article is provided in the link below.
You toss out an article and want to have a discussion but provide no opinion yourself.
Fascinating.
Let alone a rebuttal....I feel if I comment it's going to be racist or just another person that doesn't understand the blacks. Seems theres blacks on here that see our nation has moved forward, then there are those that feel were still in the days before Jim Crow.
Sorry but this is getting as old as abortion topics.
Let alone a rebuttal....I feel if I comment it's going to be racist or just another person that doesn't understand the blacks. Seems theres blacks on here that see our nation has moved forward, then there are those that feel were still in the days before Jim Crow.
Sorry but this is getting as old as abortion topics.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bulldogdad
You toss out an article and want to have a discussion but provide no opinion yourself.
Fascinating.
Touche, I obviously agree with the article, I feel that since we are suppose to be a diverse nation the topics of race and race relations must be discussed so there will be no tension in the air when we all converse in person. Though I must say we are still facing racism and discrimination, and the fact that black Amerikkkans are told repeatedly time and time again to "Just Get Over It" is not a good way of straightening race relations out in this country.
@ 3~Shepherds: You may be called racist and I may be called sensitive in this discussion, that's why I said let's have an open conversation. You also say that some blacks on here say this country have moved forward, but for one there is a definite minority of blacks on here and most seem to be either foreign-born or parents of immigrants and are first-born in this country.
Let alone a rebuttal....I feel if I comment it's going to be racist or just another person that doesn't understand the blacks. Seems theres blacks on here that see our nation has moved forward, then there are those that feel were still in the days before Jim Crow.
Sorry but this is getting as old as abortion topics.
Fascinating.
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