How does that follow? There is plenty to feel guilty about, even outside of being a white Westerner. If you want to live in happyland bully for you; I’ll just have to pick up the guilt where you leave off.
And I didn’t mean to say that people didn’t have pheromones, but they don’t in the way mswas said they do, i.e. some sort of homing device for specific potential mates. Which I don’t believe is true and I think science will agree. I was leaving work when I posted that so I just kind of tossed it out. Sorry.
davenportavenger So what you are saying is that we all are unique completely and totally except for scent, in which case we all smell exactly the same?
davenportavenger So what you are saying is that we all are unique completely and totally except for scent, in which case we all smell exactly the same?
Funnily enough, wikipedia doesn’t have an entry for phermones, but I found a good one for you.
The concept is a human creation, as are all concepts. The concept is defined by other concepts such as customs, skin color, phermones, etc…
There are a lot of factors that creates the “us” and “them” paradigm, and it has to do with proximal distance. How closely related to them we are, and those relationships are a combination of genetics and social acclimation.
So, you were claiming that there was a connection between pheromones and race.
But, as your most recent citation shows, no such link has been established. After all, if pheromones are “as unique to each of us as our fingerprints,” then it hardly follows that they are a reliable indicator of race.
Having more money than other people.
Having more information/education/access to information than other people.
Having power over other people.
Being represented to the world by a murderer, liar, and thief.
Knowing people in your family tree were responsible for atrocities.
Not being disabled when other people are.
Not having to work as long, or as hard, as other people.
Enjoying your life more than other people.
Having more civil liberties than other people.
Having access to more, and better, medical care than other people.
Not being prejudged as a criminal.
Not being at a higher risk of assault because of your sex.
Shall I go on? Not all these have to do with race; they’re just the first things that came into my head. So maybe I’m getting off topic. And no, I don’t know what to do about any of this stuff except feel guilty about it. I guess I’m just the classic guilt magnet.
This is my language as well. I don’t need anyone to force new definitions of perfectly good terms on me.
I’m sure many far-left race theorists use “racism” only to describe those who passively partake of racial advantage, rather those who believe in these advantages or those who believe other races are inferior. Most people do not this term this way. If you try to use it in the other way you will get many confused and angry people. That’s your fault for not knowing your audience, not their fault for not being unwilling to change the English language for you.
Furthermore, I’m sure there are many prejudiced people who try to use this term both ways, to imply that all those who passive partake of racial advantage ARE bigoted and prejudiced. I’m not saying you’re trying to equivocate here, Daven, but many people will see it that way. And it’s not their fault.
The fact of being responsible for the commission of an offense. See Synonyms at blame. 2. Law Culpability for a crime or lesser breach of regulations that carries a legal penalty. 3. a. Remorseful awareness of having done something wrong. b. Self-reproach for supposed inadequacy or wrongdoing. 4. Guilty conduct; sin.
Well given that I am not personally responsible for any of those circumstances you mentioned, did not commit a crime, did nothing wrong, it seems that your argument falls flat.
Well, given the definitions by some here I’m not sure which one I am now. Apparently I was born a racist and have nowhere to go but down from there. :rolleyes:
I don’t feel guilty for working harder/smarter than someone else.
I don’t feel guilty for working nights to pay for the school I went to during the day.
I have power over other people because I am a supervisor and they are my employees.
I have no idea what you are talking about.
Atrocities? Maybe my great aunt Helga. She was pretty weird.
Disabled is a race now?
Actually, If I wasn’t so lazy, I’d be richer myself. I’m only limiting myself by not working longer and harder.
If I feel miserable would that help?
I have the same liberties as anyone else…Well, I think Sihks are allowed to ride a motorcycle without a helmut, IRRC, so I am kind of hindered there. Damn racists, Sihks!
I live in Canada. We all have the same crappy medical care…Unless you are a hockey player or politician that is.
Yeah, I once helped out a security guard tackle a drunk native who was shoplifting. The native was bitching about how he had to put up with the oppression of all YOU people being over here. He was talking to the black security guard by the way (I was also a security guard at the time). I guess it is where you are on the, ah…, totem pole as to where your perspective lies.
I’ll cut my balls off if that would make you feel better? Actually, no I wouldn’t as the problems you have are yours alone and nothing to do with me. Take a pill, a shot of bourbon, or something. Maybe you’ll feel better.
To me personally, one of the most incredibly depressing and frustrating thing is when I see people who are more concerned with being labeled a racist than acknowledging the racism so that it can be combated.
I, for one, am racist. From what I’ve read, a helluva lot less racist than some of the people on this board.
I can’t bring myself to finish reading all the posts here, but thank you, davenportavenger.
Well, maybe it is just me, but I don’t appreciate being lumped in with the guys who wear pointy white hoods and burn crosses on people’s lawns. I’m kind of touchy that way.
Or, maybe I’m upset about the fact that the term ‘racist’ is being used on people accused of taking abvantage of things that they may not have any knowledge of occuring. I don’t see why I’d be a racist because the waiter serving me is an kind to but an asshat to someone of a different colour than I am. That person is the racist, not me. And if he laid some bullshit on me about certain kinds of people not tipping as much as others, I’d say that it was probably more a reflection of his ability and attitude when dealing with different people and cultures.
You and davenportavenger should join an encounter group then in order to plumb the depths of your guilt for choosing to be born the way you are.
Blatant and violent racism is not the only form of racism. Nor to me, is it any longer the most idevastating form of racism we have to worry about now in the Western world.
Taking advantage of racism perpetuates it and denying so at the same time lets you enjoy it guilt-free. Do you want to know what’s so devastating for me when it comes to White privilege? When you see your little cousin pick the White doll over the Asian one because “it’s prettier.” And no, it’s obviously not just personal choice when it comes in repeated patterns that become so easy to predict. I don’t worry about my cousin being lynched or having a cross burned in her backyard or even being called a racial slur. I worry about her growing up in a world that subtly tells her that White = right, but at the same time to ‘ignore race,’ otherwise she’s racist which means she’s horrible.
I don’t feel guilty about being racist. Because I know what’s going on. I’m more concerned about being aware of my thoughts and actions and to help others do the same because that would be more constructive.
Nor do I feel guilty in partaking in White privilege, for reasons that would be obvious if you saw me.
The speed of light is not a human concept. It exsists as a fundimental part of the nature of the universe. As do the heat of formation of sodium chloride, the atmoic mass of potassium and the Krebbs cycle. Race is a catagorization that people made on an arbitrary basis, not based on genetic code or any rational, scientific means.
What is your obsession with pheromones? Good god man, people aren’t subdivided based upon a subliminal odor, but rather on their skin color, facial features and, for a rare few such as Jews and Gypsies, a culture.
Actually the speed of light is a man made concept that describes a fundamental part of nature. The concept and the thing itself are not the same thing. Your argument is silly.
Race is FAR from arbitrary. There are a lot of things that we think of as race that are incorrect, but it’s a way of classifying people that we have chosen to do so, in the same way that we differentiate different colors of light in the spectrum, even though the spectrum itself does not have actual distinct seperations but the colors change gradually as you go from one end of the spectrum to another.
We signify race based upon genetic and cultural differences. This is not a hard concept to grasp, it’s very simple, and quite simply, it is correct. Those genetic differences might be minute, but deciding whether or not the differences are important is completely subjective. However, even though we both live in New York, I have more genetically in common with someone from Europe, than with my black neighbor, and that’s simply the way genetics works. They have more in common with someone from Africa than I do. It’s about who our ancestors fucked, and how long ago it was that we shared a common ancestor. It’s not any more arbitrary than making a distinction between the color green and the color red. It’s a matter of subtle gradation.
The problem isn’t identifying the differences it is using them to oppress someone.
My obsession with pheromones is that I am correct quite simply. Pheromones are one of the signifiers of attraction. We are attracted to someone we want to mate with, this is a genetic imperative telling us that we believe we have found a suitable mate. There are other factors that weigh into it, but pheromones are not simply random. Our DNA is completely unique, but it isn’t random. People have a scent that signifies who they are, it is determined by their particular hormonal and chemical makeup, which is determined by DUH…DUH…DUH genetics and culture.
My obsession with pheromones is that I am not saying something in the slightest bit radical.
The animal (and thus human) mind is evolved to make such corrilations. My dog believes all people dressed in USPS attire (or airforce dress blues, which are similar) are likely to tresspass on his territory…because that is in fact his experience.
You ARE engaging in stereotyping. The PC view is that all stereotyping is a bad thing. It is in fact simply human nature. That doesn’t make you a racist unless you allow your stereotype(s) to adversly effect a racial group. Holding your opinion makes you a realist. Acting on them makes you a racist.
Please show me a scientific study backing this assertation. Then please show that individual pheromones are isolated in distinct populations. Then give historical examples of people who were discriminated against because of their pheromones.
You worry about her being labled racist while calling all of us the very same thing? So, only little asian kids (who make up a sizeable majority of the worlds population, if you hadn’t noticed, so they aren’t a minority by any stretch of the imagination) are deserving of something different of little white kids? Yeah, you are a racist, no if’s and’s or but’s.
Okay, so everyone is a racist (except for little asian girls), so what now? Join hands and sing ‘Kumbayah’? Or, maybe you realize that no one is perfect and don’t penalize them for not being the ones who perpetrate actual racism. Calling someone a racist serves no purpose other than to piss them off. That privilage you talk of mostly applies in the small portion of the world where whites are a majority or where the locals want to get as much money out of the western tourist.
Well, if you are not white then you can’t take advantage of white privilage because if you could then it couldn’t wouldn’t exist.
as to where your perspective lies.