There has been a lot of racist ideas and talk going on after the Zimmerman Verdict.
I personally do not believe that there are many races, The only race I see is the human race, people of different skin colors, sizes, hair color , weight etc. We don’t think because there is one obese or too skinny of a person if one does something wrong we don’t judge all people because of their size etc… Since I was not at the trial, I don’t think I can determine if the verdict was right or wrong, But I also see it as racist if because the Jury was considered white that they couldn’t make a fair judgment because the one person was colored and the defendant of Latino origin.
It’s a nice thought, but having been judged for my race enough times, “You’re Indian. Man, I knew this one Indian family, they smelled like curry all the time. They STANK! Do you eat curry?” I would certainly submit that race, while possibly a construct is very relevant.
But I do think it is racist to proclaim that they could not get a fair trial because the jury was white…however, it might also be true. I don’t think it is in this case. I think they just didn’t prove their case enough! But that doesn’t take away the fact of racism in this country.
I don’t either. But we do know that a lot of people feel differently and that many of them think different groups of people have inherently different qualities and worths. That’s what people call racism.
There are a ton of opinions about the case and how the killing and the verdict were related to race. I’m not sure it’s possible to take all of them in, and yes, there are explanations for the verdict that don’t involve race. But I do think it’s very hard to look at what happened and say it has nothing to do with the way people look at black people and young black guys in particular.
Racism has been replaced with a kind of neo-racism where it’s racist for the minority to bring up the topic of race or the accusation of racism. It’s a devilish piece of mental gymnastics but it’s done, I think, as a means to denigrate minorities into speaking out. Thus, allowing the majority to hand-wave instances of racism and injustices as “one-time occurrences” in a system that’s inherently just and non-racist. Bless their hearts. This is, of course, a fantasy and irreversibly distorts any conversation about race to the point where it cannot reasonably be had.
Where is the stereotyping and prejudice in that statement? I am seriously baffled. Asking an Indian if they eat curry is racism? Claiming that someone who ate curry smelled of it is racism? Seriously?
I am Jewish. I have been asked, on occasion, if I eat/like gefilte fish. I was born in Russia - and I have been asked, on occasion, if I eat/like borscht. Not once has it crossed my mind that it was racist to ask this question. Wow. Thanks for educating me on how many racists are around me.
I don’t know. Is this serious? Yes, people object to being stereotyped and to the assumption that everybody in their culture does the same things; yes, I think most people would object to being told ‘I knew some of you people and they stank.’
Okay, if you want to be strict, accusing Indians of eating curry isn’t racist. It’s an ethnic slur. Cuisine is not genetic.
If someone said, “Blacks should be kept off of public transportation because they smell bad; it doesn’t matter how much soap they use, they just smell bad,” then that is racism. It’s attributing a quality to the physical nature of the race.
When people claim that blacks are more criminal by nature than whites, that’s racism. It’s removing the social differences that lead to criminality, and attributing it directly to the person’s body.
Making fun of someone’s accent is ethnic bigotry. It’s bad, but it isn’t racist. Lots of white guys have accents too. (Henry Kissinger was about as white as a guy can get.) Making fun of a Japanese man’s eyes (“Hey, slanty”) is racist. It is directed at the physical body.
“Races” may not exist, but there are very large groups of people with reproductively persistent physical traits – skin color, the shape of the eyes, the shape of the jaw, height, etc. – and we refer to these as “races.”
If you selected 100 Hopi and 100 Navajo, at random, from all the people who self-identify as Hopi and Navajo (yes, I know, Diné) then, yes, there might be a few white-skinned, blue-eyed people in there that no one could visually distinguish from German or Dutch. But someone who’s lived in Navajo lands for a while could correctly identify most of those people, sorting the Navajo and the Hopi. The peoples are still sufficiently reproductively isolated as to maintain sufficient distinctions of bodily traits. This statistical distinction allows us to refer to discrimination on its basis as racism.
Or we could pretend Terr has finally debunked racism forever and just talk about how racism, back when people thought it existed, related to the Zimmerman verdict.
Race is a social construct. Not believing in race is like not believing in the British royal family. You may believe (as I do) that there is no biological basis for differing social status of commons versus royals, but Elizabeth Windsor is a real person with a real social position labelled Queen. And a dark skinned person who looks a certain way will be considered black. And that has consequences in our society even if you don’t think it should. You may be the one unique person who is either totally unaffected by cultural cues and messages you are exposed to, but I have my doubts. And research backs up my doubts.
People will always find ways to hate “the other”. The instinct isn’t really about race as much as it is about “us” and “them”. Some people require an “us” and “them”, some don’t. That need is what’s behind a lot of the tribal problems in Africa (same race, different village/language/culture/deities), and I think it is the root of much of the warfare in the middle east. Religious differences or racial differences or language differences are just the framework on which this us/them dichotomy expresses itself.
Roddy
Saying a person is black is not racist it is describing it’s skin color, Just as saying a blue eyed person has blue eyes.
I know a lot of Black people and they are just as good and in some cases better than me. I have grand nieces that are black and in reality the only truly white people are usually sick, Most whites are more tannish than white. Even some black people are not truly black but dark skinned. There is good and bad in all people. It isn’t because of their color etc..
We were robbed several times and it wasn’t by a black skinned person. Most serial killers are so called white. all American’s are not patriotic and some are bigoted, the same goes for all people of nationality, religions etc. because a label is put on some bad people regardless of their origin, doesn’t mean all people are bad.
I agree it is my beliefs, and I could be wrong about a lot of things, But it is my right to think as I do. I have read that evolution states were are all from a common ancestor.
I was sitting in a bar a few evenings ago, bullshitting with a group of similarly aged men (range = 45 - 65) of various races. We all agreed kids nowadays are asswipes.
I agree it’s not racist, but no, black isn’t just a description of skin color. It carries other connotations, and the fact that a lot of people are called black and almost none of them have skin that looks anything close to the actual color black is kind of a tipoff.
Race, as a biological concept, is not valid for our species. Race, as a social construct, is very much alive and well and any society can have as many races as it creates. I don’t think we will every become a color-blind or racelss society. The idea of classifying things, and people, seem too engrained in our very nature.
Platitudes like “there is only one race, the human race” sound nice, but don’t really help understand how society actually works IRL.
