If you dislike unfair treatment of innocent people, why do you think in terms of groups rather than individuals, and why do you favor some ethnic groups over others? An injustice is an injustice, no matter to whom it is done.
Reginald Denny and Rodney King were both equally hard done by.
Second, you sound extremely patronizing. Since when are black people and Palestinians (or anyone else, for that matter)poor little lambs who need your intervention?
Third, if you dislike unfair treatment of innocent people, why do you wnat to hit any given Israeli in the face? What did the citizens of Israel do to merit physical abuse?
Don’t you think Goboy that we learn very early to think of people in “groups”. Not only do we think of others in groups but for the most part as we mature we often think of oursleves in groups. When we are children the groups often start out very simply, perhaps boys and girls. As we age then we become black, white, rich, poor, smart, athletic, etc. It becomes almost impossible not to identify people in groups. But most of us become very good in our personal relationships as thinking of each other as individuals regardless of the “group” they might fall into. Can’t we all be grouped? Often by more than one thing. I’m a 40ish white woman, a divorced single mother, a Virginian, an American. I’m a brunette with big tits. (I’m so Heinz 57 in ethnicity that it’s hard to group me in that one.) See what I mean?
I try not to give people too hard a time about making generalizations about predjudice. It’s hard to come to some of the realizations of how it permeates our everyday lives. The only that really gets me is when it ISN’T recognized at all. I think we need to realize that we do often think of people in groups but we need to treat each other as individuals.
So true. My first job outta college (1990) had me working at a non-profit. Most of my co-workers were ex-60’s hippy types (whom I generally love), who were now working for change within the system. Most of our clients were minorities, and I soon discovered that many of my co-workers couldn’t tell the difference between liberalism and paternalism - they kept wanting to make our clients’ decisions for them.
Ah, completely true. However, I imagine that it’s possible to get past this “ingrained” attitude with only a little bit of effort… but I see no point in going out of your way to avoid “grouping” people.
But I don’t think that was the point of the OP. The way I read it, Mr. Boy was venting his annoyance at those who claim to avoid classifying people in groups, yet act contrary to what they say.
It’s like the whole “racism vs. reverse-racism” argument… saying that black people should get more advantages than white people is just as discriminatory as the reverse, and does even less to fix whatever racial divisiveness may exist in people.
The fact remains that there are hundreds upon hundreds of ways you can classify people, and each group has it’s own version of shit dumped on them. Some have more, some have less. The goal should be to eliminate as much shit as possible, not to try to add to others in order to equalize things.
I won’t hijack this thread but I’ve argued before and still maintain that giving black people “advantages” is not giving them advantages, it’s giving them a fighting chance. That’s where so many non-blacks are in a state of denial. Just because things like Affirmative Action and minority set asides are not always interpreted, applied or managed correctly does not make them racist or completely ineffectual. Like so many other iniciatives based on good intentions they are often mismanaged. I also maintain that it only creates racial divisons among white people because they are not seeing clearly the subtle unearned advantages they have always enjoyed that black people do not.
I posted to this OP because I’ve seen a lot of “so-in-so is a racist because”…I’ve been guilty of it myself. I don’t intend to classify people this way anymore. Well intentioned people often need to sort through and fine tune their attitudes. It isn’t easy to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes sometimes. Particularily when race or culture is so very different than your own. Most people will hang onto sterotypes and preconcieved notions about many different groups of people. Yet they will argue against them in debate and ignore them in their interpersonal relationships. It takes a great deal of open-mindedness to monitor “ideas” particularily when they have been ingrained since childhood and reinforced everyday by others around you.
I say let’s cut each other a little break on this subject. Let’s fight ignorance and not fight each other about it. It’s an important enough subject.