When you hear people calling somebody else racist, do you find yourself thinking that you’ve said or done the same thing that other person did?
Oh, here is one of the prime examples of “Everyone does it!” and “I hold these same opinions therefore they can’t be so bad!” on this board.
You’re right. It does get old. There is something wrong with you, but you don’t want to see that. You want to defend racists like Donald Sterling and Anthony Wossname because by doing so you defend yourself.
You’re wrong.
Sure, it gets old—for people who don’t have to live with the burdens of racism. If you benefit from racism, then it’s perfectly understandable why you don’t want to hear about it.
It also gets boring for people who near the burdens of racism, for a different reason. However, shutting up about it is just going to help perpetuate it.
Encourage people to stop being racist and you won’t have to deal with this oh-so-boring topic.
You didn’t answer my question. You must be a saint if none of these goofy questions you asked has never applied to you.
No, not at all. That’s kind of a bad sign for you.
I can see how you can think that. But, no, it’s surprisingly easy to go through life without running into any if that.
In discussing things I do sometimes seek to define those terms with whom I’m speaking. The same way I seek to define “atheist” in discussions about belief, spirituality and God. I think that words have meaning, ofttimes multiple meanings, and sometimes very similar words mean similar things, but not the exact same thing, so it helps to make sure we agree on definitions before a discussion can happen.
Of course, there is an alternative: to use words fast and loose and not have to define anything and conflate things massively. After all, “We all know what we mean, right?” And other pitfalls of circle-jerks on the SDMB and elsewhere.
So, I take it you’re for doing the latter.
And, really, who hasn’t smacked their GF around a bit, right fellas?
Thing is people will always find one way or another to group themselves and be different from others. Racism wont go away because of the obvious physical characteristics that we cant help but notice. Plus we cannot forget the sins of the past.
It’s one thing to agree on a definition that meshes somewhat with popular usage. It’s a different thing to require an extremely specific definition that many users will not identify.
If you can only be described as non-racist by carving up the definition within a whisker of it’s life… you’re just kidding yourself.
And therefore we should…
Oh, I agree with that. But that’s not what I’m talking about. I do think people have a responsibility to be accurate with their definitions. But what I was primarily alluding to is the conflation between “racist” and “racial”.
…chill out?
If you don’t want people to call you a racist, magellan01, just stop saying racist shit. It’s a lot easier than this mixture of begging and nitpicking you try to execute in thread after thread.
It’s nice that you are so considerate of yourself to give yourself such a break.
Selfless, really.
Why?
Even if it’s true that racism’s never going to entirely go away, I don’t see why that should be considered a reason to downplay or ignore it.
You only date/marry inside your race.
All your friends outside of work are your race.
Your neighborhood is overwhelmingly your race.
And the school you send your kids to.
I was speaking of a relative of mine, but I see from the link Really Not All That Bright provided once again people can’t help but look stupid in public too.
As to if any of these apply to me . . . at one time yes. Many years ago when I was younger and lived at home I . . . was a young republican. I got all my political thoughts and opinions from my parents.
Then I went to high school and college and started thinking for my self. Sorry, Mom and Dad.
So if you live in a mixed neighborhood, your less likely to be racist? cmon have you ever lived in such a neighborhood because if you have then you would think differently.