And another thing, I think quite a few doper’s “rushed” to judgement because you said: “The story goes: (A) a white father’s telling her daughter to study hard to be a lawyer and (B) a white father’s tell her daughter not to marry a Black.”
What sort of message does that send? Why did you say “a Black”? Why didn’t you say “a black person”?
Then you said:
"Some people here told me already that (B) is racist; I reasoned, if (B) is racist, then (A) must also be racist because first, the daughter may not want to be a lawyer but a hooker, secondly, the father is discriminating the profession of hookers by telling so. "
What’s the message here?:
A.Father wants daughter to be a lawyer, because lawyer is good/better than a hooker. (hooker is bad).
B.Father wants daughter to marry any “race” other than “a black”, because “a black” is somehow not as good/equal to any other “race”.
The message here is that the father is a racist. (on the surface he is seemingly a classist). Why? the father knows that lawyers made up mostly whites, hookers made up mostly blacks. He wants his daughter to marry whites, and he doesn’t want a black son-in-law. Therefore he asks her daughter to become a lawyer.
Do you honestly believe nothing in what you just wrote is racist? The assumption that hookers are mostly black doesn’t sound racist to you? Where do you get this, do you have any proof of that assertion?
How about “he doesn’t want a black son-in-law”? Why not? Are they any less human/less good than a non-black son-in-law?
There are reasons to want your daughter to avoid becoming a hooker that have nothing to do with race. You are making some very tenuous connections here.
The vast majority of all professions in the US have a majority of white workers, since the US has a majority white population. It seems like your father’s argument is that he wants his daughter to not associate with blacks in any way, on the off chance that somehow she’ll end up marrying one.
The basis for this is that he doesn’t like blacks, plain and simple. You’ve provided no base motivation for the father’s actions other than he doesn’t like blacks. The biology argument (preserving the breed) is baseless. No other motivation has been given. Care to supply one?
Well um…except for Derek Jeter and Mariah Carey, I can tell you what would happen: Less trees being destroyed, because I wouldn’t need as many tissues:D
Surely the answer to this question is, why is the father saying this? Suppose the daughter asked, “Why shouldn’t I marry a black man, daddy?” and the father said, “Because most people are racist idiots and will make life unhappy for both of you”. He might be wrong, or lying about his real motivations, but that’s not a “racist” answer.
Nice first post, Doug1943.
This reason is more a condemnation of society than those who suffer the “racist idiots.” It is sad that racist baggage from the last several centuries gets in the way of kids trying to date. Meatros, you must admit that Mariah Carey and Derek Jeter would probably have some attractive children. I think the four I named are multi-racial* and almost universally accepted as, um, shagable contingent on sexual preference, etc.
Seriously, what’s not to like about Halle Berry or Alicia Keyes? They would make the top ten of “most want to be stranded on a desert island with in 2003.”
*Not wanting to get involved in a technical discussion of what a “race” is, DNA, whatnot. I think race may be an archaic concept in the modern world. Observed collections of genetic traits in populations are much more precise and useful than old notions about race.
I wasn’t trying to imply that their children wouldn’t be attractive or anything of that sort. To me though Mariah Carey just doesn’t do it. It could be because of the perception of her that I have, I don’t know.
I have a question for the OP. Is the purpose of this thread to determine what is and what isn’t racism, or is it to take an existant behavior and come up with an excuse to justify it?
If it’s the former, that could have been handled in the first response.
In verybdog’s defense, I’m certain that “his own kind” doesn’t mean “white people” (as one would naturally assume seeing as how no additional information is given about his daughter’s potential husband other than his skin color), since that would be definitively racist and verybdog has clearly stated that the father is not a racist in any way shape or form.
He probably meant to say “Let’s say that the reason the father doesn’t want his daughter marrying a black guy who also sacrifices babies to a statue of Mussolini that he constructed out of his own feces is this:”
Doug:Surely the answer to this question is, why is the father saying this?
Right, and welcome to the SDMB! We’ve been asking that question for several dozen posts now, and repeatedly commenting that whether or not the father is racist depends on his motivation. This doesn’t seem to have sunk in for verybdog, who keeps insisting nonetheless that we are just rushing to the conclusion that the father must be racist.
Once again, verybdog, believing that any person of a different race is automatically “not your own kind” and doesn’t belong in your family IS RACIST. If that’s your hypothetical father’s motivation, then YES, HE’S BEING RACIST.
How many more times do you need this explained to you? Do you seriously not understand why racial separatism is considered a form of racism? Because it falls squarely into the category of the second part of the classic definition of “racism” kindly provided by Meatros above: i.e., “discrimination or prejudice based on race.”
If you don’t like the official definition of racism, please go complain to the compilers of the dictionary. Quit banging your head against the brick wall of trying to redefine the term to suit your own peculiar conceptions; you’re giving us all a headache.
I’m just baffled as to why the OP is trying to make the hypothetical father not a racist . The OP’s motives, in my mind, are either: It’s about her father, and she’s the daughter or the OP really doesn’t understand. If it’s the latter then I have to ask, is english your first language? Also, how old are you?