Slight differences
 

We are all human beings with slight differences.

Be those differences skin color, sexuality, gender, or political leanings.

Why do we feel a need to divide ourselves into smaller and smaller groups?

Whoa dude. If this is about the other thread, that's a thread for people of colour to discuss the racially based attitudes that still definitely do affect them.

It'd be great if white folk didn't charge in there and derail.

Do you see any problem with your above statement?

Do you?

Spooky word count

The automatic assumption of my skin color.

Touche. I'm sorry about that, I didn't even take time to think about that. But, your original post is very discerning. It's over simplified and washes out the fact that different people are affected by many different things. Equality doesn't exist, no matter how much we really want it to.

Equality does exist. Getting there in a positive way is another matter.

The reason I say Equality in a positive way instead of leaving things vague at just "Equality" is because like everything else there exists two extremes.

Negative Equality= Digging a large grave for everyone to be piled into.

Positive Equality= Planning out and building a home for everyone to live in.

Both take a long period of time to accomplish, but only one is a worthwhile venture.

I kinda want you to try to explain your ideas a bit better.

On the other hand.

I kind of just want to write you off as incredibly and optimistically moronic.

Do as you please.

I was waiting for that. I was gearing up to apologise in case I guessed wrong - but in my experience it tends to be white people who breezily dismiss racism and frame its discussion as divisive.

Explain to me then how racism is not divisive.

Also I never made any such claim that racism does not exist (clearly it does as per your reply), I simply made the statement that we are all human beings given those differences.

Racism is divisive. PoC talking about how they're affected by racism isn't.

If I've got my wires crossed and your problem is with racism itself, I'll call off my dogs. But 'not seeing colour' actually isn't as helpful an approach as you'd think.

My problem is indeed with racism, even more so as it relates to your initial assumption of my race when it was never stated, nor was brought up as the main thrust of my opening statement.

How is a conversation solely about skin color the answer?

What is worse to only see someone as a skin color or to see them as an individual?

This is what I have said in the other threads. In context with the threads in question, what is the problem with my statements?

"To me the whole issue of race should be a moot point. We're all human beings no matter where our ancestors came from or with whom they fucked."

"Something I've noticed.

The most racist among us seek to make race an issue no matter what."

That's the thing... with certain skin colours comes a different set of experiences, and you are not speaking like someone who has had those experiences. Racism is fucked, but to just sweep it under the rug with 'colour blindness' and derail the discussion that PoC are having is not the answer.

Ok, I'm just going to step out and let others argue this. There are members on here that have got a better understanding and vocabulary than I do, especially on this subject, and I don't want to speak for people.

I hope you understand that I was not sweeping any singular individual experience under the rug by the statements I made. I am very sure that if my statements did such those involved in the conversations would have come forward and voiced their disagreements with what I said as well as the reason for their disagreements.


If the people agree or disagree with my statements, that remains to be seen. They are more than welcome to voice either of such sentiments as they choose.

Sorry guys Versus had to go to lunch as soon as he saw this and asked I post in his place.

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbamoaJr1N1qcjqew.gif


But seriously I smell a troll.

What do you mean by that?

What I mean by that is that you're not welcome to the conversation in my thread if you don't have any experience with the topic of it.

You did sweep our experiences under the rug. You marginalized them by specifically saying that they're moot. They are not. They're very tangible and they make our lives distinctly different from people who don't share them. I didn't say anything because I'm already exhausted from saying a lot of things - It's Black History Month - and I already have my plate full of dealing with this shit without the internet.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GxyqskhXtk...U/s1600/02.gif

But race is an issue. Just look at the Martin/Zimmerman trial as an example. While Zimmerman's like myself with a White name but clearly Hispanic, did you notice how fast they tried to make him seem like he was white? Had it been a white kid Zimmerman shot, they would have crucified his ass and called him a Hispanic.

The fact is, people will always look at it in a racial context, no matter how far we think we've come in combating racism. The people of European ancestry where I live still make racist terms, they just try to do it in a more subtle way as opposed to fifty years ago than calling Mexicans "Be@ners" and African Americans "N!ggers."

Thinking this is a moot point is ignoring the problem in the first place.

Please read the quote in question again.

I did not say that race IS a moot point, I said it SHOULD be a moot point.

I would like for you to do the same as the poster above you in reading the quote again as it was typed out.

I think that I read it right the first time. Unless you're being cute and have some mind blowing revelation that's inconsistent with everything else you've said about this.

Oh, you mean "should" then I shall restate my opinion regarding "should" vs. "is" then. Trying to ignore racism isn't going to combat it since it's still very much alive and well in the U.S. and around the world. That's like saying, "I don't understand why we should bring up poverty, because I think that's a moot point" when it clearly isn't.

I will say again that yes racism does exist.

Here are a few questions for those that have been following along.

Who's race has been assumed ?

Who has been told to shut up based on assumed skin color?

Yes racism does exist, and those that were the victims of racism have sought to make another victim through their own hate.

The reason I said race should be a moot point is because it should not make any difference in how we as a species interact with each other.

But as we see it does.

The assumption of my skin color based solely on what I have said and the resultant reactions from the assumption is on display here in this thread.

Fixed that for you.

Listen. Nobody knows anything about you. You could be the disabled native muslim gay transwoman in the sky for all we know.

I can assume that somebody with a shared experience of race as me knows exactly the reason why we're "divided into smaller and smaller groups:" Because we're fucking put there and reminded of it every time somebody asks "what are you?"

I can assume that somebody without a shared experience of race as me understands the difference between color and race as it was discussed in that thread.

You say things that do not support that you share my race experience.

But go ahead and be coy; it's moot to you after all, isn't it?

Angry typo.

Understood.


Ask me what I am.

I might if I cared. I don't.

To finish this, I know what I am.


I also know what you are.

Skin color is not a value system as it relates to what has been discussed in this thread.

Though a few seem to think such is the case.


Those people show why racism still exists because they continue to propagate the notion that one person with a given skin color is different from another human being.

People like them seem to love complaining about how they have been affected by racism while they unleash their own brand of it on someone else. They continue to spread hate as a means to justify their own anger.

Those people deserve pity.

What is louder, a whisper, or a scream? Which one makes you turn your head to listen? What about if you were far, far away from everything in between you and them?

People shout, they get angry because they are tired of being stepped over and ignored by people that don't and refuse to understand their problems. People don't generally enjoy being used by an entire society and then treated like trash when they speak up. When you take all you think you can take, you get violent. Because, nothing else has worked. Nothing else does. Martin Luther King Jr. isn't remembered for his letters to kindly inform people. He his remembered for his speeches, his rally's, his protests. Malcom X isn't remembered for his ability to turn a cheek. He is remembered for his actions, his voice, his fight. Those two are the most prominent, but not the only, people to stand for equality. They did so in fervor, not passive acceptance.

People who are stepped on by an entire society, they don't brandish their own racism. They are ANGRY. They are TIRED. They are EXHAUSTED. Because, every time they defend themselves, they are told to get over it. Because, you tell them it is just complaining. Because, YOU wash out their pain.

If I were to attempt to silence someone in a conversation based on the skin color of that person what would I be called?

A dumbass cracker.

Here's another person that was in that thread chiming in to say I completely disagree with you.
So, personally I want you to stop with the ambiguity and tell me what you are in regard to race and ethnicity, since you keep hinting at it but the others don't particularly care.

Also, I'm really curious about your age.

Please tell me what you disagree with.

Okay, and if that person were to assume my skin color and call me a racial slur what would that make them?

I disagree with a lot of things, but I'm speaking up specifically due to the part where you said that you didn't make any sweeping generalizations and that if you had, the original commenters would have spoken up about it.
You totally are making sweeping generalizations.

So, tell me now a little about your background and context. Things like ethnicity and age, and maybe even gender.

Sweeping generalizations have not been the issue with my statements, what has been a point of controversy is that my statements swept individual experiences under the rug, which is what I have been showing is not the case.

And yes I have been discriminated against because of my skin color.

If I made my skin color known would those discriminations be swept under the rug ?

Man, stop making questions until you respond in kind to others. I've already answered your question and you've ignored mine twice.

I have full intention of answering that question.

But before I answer that question of my race, I would like to know if the discrimination I've experienced would be ignored or would it be addressed in the manner it deserves?

A person who sees through your shit.

I can't know what discrimination you've experienced in your life if you can't even talk about your life. So start at the beginning.

It was a question with a yes or no answer.

Would the answer of my skin color be used to deny any discrimination that I have experienced as an individual?

No, but now I'm beginning to suspect whether you'll have some non-laughable examples that you consider discrimination, so go at it. Tell us about your life and the discrimination you have suffered.

Constantly being called a racist because I am white.

Having racial slurs directed at me by others because I'm white and therefore an easy target of it to the point that I can't defend myself from attackers because my attackers are a different skin color.

Having every word I speak turned into a reason for racists to attack me.

Being shouted down and told to shut up because I am white and that my opinion does not matter and that I have no business in a discussion about race.