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Race as a lived notion is enormously detached from "race" as a genetic concept, and the racial categories we use in contemporary society have little to do with genetics. If you read up on the subject you can see the trajectory of the debates from the early 20th century (Agassiz and his ilk) to now leading further and further away from the base modes of classification used when racial science first began.
This is a derail now, but if you are completely foreign to the notion of race as a social construct, I suggest just looking it up. The best book on the topic I've read is Racial Formation in the United States by Michael Omi and Howard Winant.
The fact remains that you are born as a certain race and you can't change that. The definition of racism is that you believe people who are born a certain race are inferior. There, I didn't use the word genetic.
Moreover, it really doesn't matter, because the definition of racism only references the state of mind of the racist, who probably didn't read your book. You're taking my argument and using one single word to try and pick it apart, but my fundamental point remains.
This doesn't contradict what I'm saying. I'm trying to jettison genetics from the conversation because it is totally off-base. I think your reading is more or less accurate, but typically I find that racial stereotypes are divorced from historical context and reality. They orbit around the nebulous concepts of race and culture.
I agree but I imagine most people would consider what was presented in the video as more ignorance than racism. Most people are products of media and the black man robber is a common theme, in fiction and the news.
I don't know many people who would not talk with, befriend, even date blacks yet they still may be frightened of the stereotypical "criminal" looking minority.
I grew up in a predominately Hispanic area where gangs were prevalent, as a youth I had gangs shootings on my street. When a low rider, "gang looking" Hispanic drives by me I get uneasy, is this racism? I would say no.
Don't click it if you can handle the F word. It's pretty funny, though. Because it's true.
Long time ago, someone said to me, "You're standing at an ATM machine, and two black youths come up and stand behind you. How do you feel?"
Now, same scenario, 'cept it's 2 white dudes.
Now switch for two Asian guys.
And two Latinos.
Did you feel any different for any one of those scenarios? Yes? Congratz. You're a racist. You based your probabilty of getting mugged or accosted simply upon someone's race.
I didn't find it funny or true...I think the woman would have clutched her purse no matter what color the man was that entered the elevator....on the other hand I found the man to be very rascist, and downright rude...what a pompous ass HE is.
How is race not genetic? It is passed on from parent to child. It is in our genes.
If you go back far enough, we're all racially and genetically totally mixed. The differences between a white and black person are genetically negligible.
I didn't find it funny or true...I think the woman would have clutched her purse no matter what color the man was that entered the elevator....on the other hand I found the man to be very rascist, and downright rude...what a pompous ass HE is.
He's just crudely verbalizing what many black men who are often met with this behavior feel deep down. Being labeled a potential criminal threat by other people's body language due to your skin color is demeaning and annoying, especially if it occurs frequently enough for you to take notice. Similar to the way many women feel when they are condescended to and constantly made the object of sexual forwardness and impropriety by men around them.
If you go back far enough, we're all racially and genetically totally mixed. The differences between a white and black person are genetically negligible.
So what??? The fact is, we are born with a skin color. Does this fact change my original point one single bit?
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