As a white mom of two kids, the label *soccer mom * it rather irritating.
Soccer moms are the butt of jokes in TV, Movies and Books. Stereotypical vaccuous wafer thin like twits. Not true, that’s just Kathy, whom nobody really likes.
There should be a SMoA or something.
Sayeth JuanitaTech:
Absolutely. They never, ever show educated, non-racist, middle-class, non-old-stereotypical Southerners on the news, or any TV shows, for that matter. It’s always the ignorant racist committing a hate crime, the ignorant racist protesting some desegregational or sexual orientation issue or the ignorant racist who just got their trailer blown away in a tornado…
Okay, I guess I’m one of the few “honest” Black people up on here. Here comes shit disturber Vivian with her opinion:
YES!!! When I was watching the story on the news, my mind was saying “please please please please don’t let him be bla-DAMN!!!” Same thing happened with the sniper shootings in D.C.
As CRAZY as this might sound to those who aren’t Black, alot of us DO think like that. Now, I’m not speaking for ALL black people, but I am speaking for the ones I DO know, and I know alot of them. But anyways, its a damn shame that some of us do think like that, but we do…
I’m sorry, perhaps it’s just me, but I cringe whenever I watch the news (which is rather infrequently) because of what PEOPLE do to EACH OTHER, regardless of tint. Hate crimes, arson, babies dumped in the trash, random shootings, theft, pain, fear, sadness, white on white crime, black on black crime, orange on purple crime, the whole thing sickens me. When I hear a crime was commited do I expect them to be a certain ethnicity? No. I expect them to be caught and punished.
I guess I just see all of us as people.
Fair enough, but maybe I should have specified that it’s a response to people who have made an issue of Blair’s race. The commentator blasts people who use the case to criticize affirmative action, then goes on to call the New York Times racist. I don’t agree with all of his points, but I linked to it as an example of how people with very different viewpoints are making an issue of his race.
What about Southern presidents of the United States? Say what you want about Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton, but only people on the tattered fringe would characterize them as ignorant racists.
You mean you didn’t believe all the experts who told us the killers were white? This was an interesting example of racial profiling.
But much of what people do to each other is done with regard to race or ethnicity, and recognizing that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Yep, I’m right with you Juanita (btw didn’t you use to live in California?) .
What bothers me worse are TV inteviews. There could be a hundred people there, and the clip they show is always the the person who sounds as if they’d just finished drinking, and hasn’t seen the inside of a text book.
As to GKWno I don’t, like Juanita I guess I’ll have to think about it.
I’d like to hear more about that.
Not in the slightest. Even when it’s some dumb-ass beating up a minority. Many times the individual fits to a white sub-grouping to which I don’t belong. For example, I might hear about yet another Italian mobster (yeah, Sopranos is really great for Italian Americans :rolleyes: ); or the dragging death of Byrd by some southern crackers; or another accounting scandal by yet another rich guy. But even if it is a middle-class WASP, I don’t think anything of it. It’s just some guy. For everybody else, it’s some [insert ethnic/social/sex/sexual orientation/whatever classification here] guy.
Suprisingly, that the recently disgraced NYTimes reporter was black didn’t click with me. I some times cringe when I see a minority do something bad because, for whatever perceptual reasons that I can’t even begin to explain or justify, I feel like any given minority is automatically a representitive for her race, religion, culture, sex, or whatever. While cognitively I know that is silly, it is more of an intuitive feeling that I get. Maybe it’s like first impressions: we all know that we are unfairly judged by them, yet we still act as though they matter. So maybe I think all the other whites will view that person as a representitive while I, all high and mighty, won’t.
A good example is the designer Kia on the TLC show Trading Spaces. She has an addiction to kitsch, Captain Kirk sideburns, and a fetish for wallpaper borders along with a taste for design that takes tacky to whole new levels. She also happens to be black. I always cringe when she outdoes herself, thinking to myself, “Couldn’t they find a black designer with some taste?” I can just picture a couple of whites watching her saying, “I told you black people always go for gaudy.”
Another good example would be a gay pride parade. At least, a stereotypical one.
I do wonder, since I have your attention, when you see a white person walking down the street, do you think “hey, there’s some guy,” or do you think “hey, there’s some white guy”? I don’t know if it’s because I grew up and have generally lived in mostly white environs, or if it is something else, but what goes through my mind seems to be “hey, there’s some [insert minority here] guy.” The only group I don’t do that for are east asians. It’s almost as if Japanese, Chinese, Korean, etc. people are whites in my mind. My brain makes no categorial distinctions for them. It’s almost as if I were describing a suspect to the police I would say “male, dark hair, dark eyes, 5’8’’, such-and-such clothes…” and never mention that he looked to be a Korean American.
My brain seems a little too weird sometimes.
I would have to say, white guy here, that I pretty much assume the criminal is white. But if he isn’t, it doesn’t really affect me. However I am very prejudiced against the criminals themselves. I always assume they are uneducated, angry meatheads (at least as far as violent crime goes). One thing that I do that a coworker pointed out that might be a bit racist that goes along with my first statement is, in reference to an embezzlement story, I once said “some scrawny white accountant running off with some old lady’s retirement” to which they said “so only white guys are smart enough to steal money”. But I just assume the white guy is dumb enough to break the law. (Even though my statement did wrongly paint accountant as scrawny.)
Honestly, when I heard “Some guy has been faking newspaper stories” the first thing I did is cringe and think “please don’t be a reputable news source, please don’t be a reputable news source.” Then I heard it was the NY Times and was relieved. I associate their “journalism” with the local rag they own “The Boston Globe” which is, to put it mildly, slanted. Then I thought “how right-wing of me” and felt bad.
This is perhaps only vaguely related, and something of a tangent, but I’ve never really shared it.
When I was a kid, I was a supporter of the Serbian army during the Yugoslavian civil war.
I guess I better explain how this came to be. You see, in elementary, we would study current events every now and then. One day, a Serbian invasion of Bosnia, or some such, was mentioned. And internally, I sincerely hoped for the Serbs. Why is this? Well, I was aware that some of my relatives (about three generations back) came from Serbia. Therefore, I felt a connection to these Serbian troops in their battle against their neighbors and NATO. Of course, at this age, I was naive of the atrocities perpetrated by their army, but I felt a connection. To a lesser degree, similar feelings occurred when learning of Germany’s participation the First (but not Second) World War.
I’m not a Black Man, nor do I play one on TV, but JuanitaTech, I’ve always been touched by the honesty and integrity of your posts, and I felt compelled to reply here.
I experienced what you’re describing when the the Byrd murder came to light. Just like you describe it - a sort of shudder for the collective sensibility of the race, if you will. Not to sound callous, but when it was first reported, my reaction was sort of “ho-hum”, but as the as the specifics came out, and the races of the perpetreators and the victim, the whole TV desensitizement-thing fell away fast, and I was left with
“Holy shit. Those f’ing bastards. How could anyone do something like that?!?”
F’ing shameful. On a lot of levels. I commend you for the OP, JuanitaTech. You have been one of my favorite posters since I came on board here, and my regard for you grows every day. I’ve remarked in other posts that I don’t think there’s a “Black Consciousness”, but I guess to some degree, there is. Good OP, as usual.
a little more on this…
I guess what I’m getting at here is that we see violence every day, and it’s all so senseless that for the most part that it sort of filters through the consciousness before it can do much damage. But some things catch, and they stick, and the reasons vary from person to person and incident to incident.
When I first heard the reports of this particular crime, it just flowed throgh the net. Then the specifics came out - the race of the victim and the perpetrators - and what the did to that poor man…
and why…
and it caught in that drag net of consciousness, and the horror of their action became all too real. And then one of the men conviceted on Mr. Byrd’s murdwer was on one of the Prime-time news shows last weekend describing what happened.
Horror.
'Nuff said.
Well, that was a fun moment’s confusion. Thought I’d doubled up on my medication or something, for a moment.
TWDuke, that was vivian’s comment about the DC snipers, not mine.
[sub]No big deal, really. Just thought I’d posted more to this thread than I remembered.[/sub]
In fact, right offhand, I can’t recall all that much about the case. Were most or all of the victims either white or black? Serial killers usually choose victims of their own… ethnicity, I guess the word would be.
If they were all (or by a large margin) white, I’d have suspected the shooter(s) were, as well. Black victims, black shooters, same same. This isn’t a universal truth, but statistically, the odds are in favor of this by a fairly large amount.
But IANACriminologist, just a guy who finds Douglas’ books interesting reading.
[sub]And since this is straying pretty far from the OP, lemme apologize for the hijack.[/sub]
Yup, JuanitaTech, I cringe every single time. I think bup hit it on the head when he said people cringe at anything that reinforces a stereotype. This may explain why white people don’t really cringe when another white person mugs someone, but they do when Joe Bob in a wife-beater commits a hate crime.
GKW, no. I suppose it’s because I assume no one will remember anything commendable a black guy did, but he will remember that white girl he raped. I cringe when I hear bad news, and I smile a little when there’s good news, and then shrug knowing everyone will forget.
Most black people share your experience, JuanitaTech. It’s one of the reasons why I hate watching the news in Atlanta.
It’s comforting to see that this phenomenon is not isolated to black folks, though. I guess it’s human nature to feel as if fingers are pointing at you when a member of your “tribe” fucks up in public, especially when they fuck up in way that validates stereotypes.
I don’t know if it is right or wrong to feel this way. Perhaps it’s just one of those things that just is. I try to keep my cringing impulse from blinding me to the facts, though. Just because I racially identify with a black suspect on the six o’clock news doesn’t mean I should feel it is necessary to defend him, to explain away his actions, to make them seem less wrong. I shouldn’t feel compelled to villify them more than merited by their actions, either.
So that’s where the Twilight Zone is! Atlanta! 
Skeezix, the thing about the DC snipers is that they got a pretty good cross-section. Some black, some white, some hispanic, some old, some young (one kid :(), some male, some female. That’s one of the reasons it was confusing at first–there was no rhyme or reason to it.
White guy checking in.
I’m from the south. I don’t cringe during crime reports, I cringe during the man-on-the-street interviews when the person with the dumbest opinion on earth always happens to have a southern accent. I also REALLY cringe during about every other movie, when all the stupid people have southern accents and the smart people don’t.
I once won a scholarship from Grumman Aerospace, on Long Island. I was the first person ever to win that didn’t live in New York or New Jersey. I took a huge amount of ribbing because of my accent, which in terms of southerners is an extremely mild one. I even got in the habit of changing the way I speak to avoid the hassle.
Most of us are actually not stupid down here. Or racist. I swear.
And to the OP, I agree, black people get a bad rap. I’ve never understood how, when a white guy does something it only reflects on him, but when a black guy does something it reflects on an entire race. What’s up with that?
My apologies. I didn’t mean to Blair you.
Thanks, Winston. You really perked up what was shaping up to be a crappy day. 
you with the face, I, too, am comforted to learn non-blacks share in this behavior.
I used to cringe. Not so much anymore. My skin is pretty thick by now, so I like to think I can’t be surprised by anything.
Growing up in the So. P. G. County -DC area, I could see plainly that poor black people were involved in a lot of violent crime, as victims and perps. Still, one of the most high profile violent crimes of that era, the Roper case, involved poor white guys torturing and killing an upper middle class white coed whose car had broken down.
I do find myself, in an admittedly twisted way, cheering when the perpetrator of the heinous crime of the week turns out to be white.
I’m also wary of the false identifications of black men as criminals that pop up from time to time. Susan Smith in So. Carolina, Charles Stuart in Boston, Atkins in Milwaukee. Kill your wife, kill your kid, blame it on an imaginary black man.
Six or seven years ago, when I was living in Madison, a white woman reported being raped and identified the perp as black. Then she recanted, explaining that she was trying to get her boyfriend to pay her more attention.