Prompted by my desire not to derail this thread.
Now I’m not upset. I’m just trying to make sure I understood the following statements:
Bolded text my own. So… what the dilly? Am I reading this quote correctly?
Are you saying that racism wouldn’t be a problem if people weren’t racist? Or are you saying that there would be no racism if blacks didn’t remember and talk about racism from the past?
Chances are I’m misinterpreting you. Please, unconfuzzle my confuzzled mind!
Psstt… his name is Gorgon Heap.
I told you I was confused!
Yes. [a-Hem] I mean the former. Sounds really stupid, I know, but that’s what it boils down to.
History, of course, is history and should not be forgotten, but holding grudges for things that have not happened in centuries is not the way to peace. Look at Isreal and Palistine.
I’m both American Indian and Polish Jew, but you don’t see me blaming racial prejudice for the way other treat me - I just say people are assholes and move on.
Now, I did mention in that thread that racism was not something I actually really understand. I have friends of every which way and how.
SOmething I have seen (albeit on TV) is something will happen between a white person and a black person and the black will get defensive, blaming racial issues. Besides actual biggots, few white folks would know what to do in that situation because “the white person must be racist”.
What we have are 15-year-old inner-city kids who are pissed at the “white man” for things that ended a hundred and thirty years ago. Hell, my Polish grandfather spent time in a Russian prison camp in the Second World War, but I can’t find in my body all that hate and bitterness to say the Russians are awful people who should never be forgiven for the terrible things they’ve done to my people.
Um. Discuss.
PS - Please keep in mind this is all IMHO.
I love ya like a son Gorg, but if you follow any of the many, many (many, many, many) race threads you would see that the problem is not that black people like to talk about racism. The problem is racism.
The unequal and biased criminal justice system. The lending biases. The renting biases. The overriding and ingrained attitude that blacks are somehow inferior mentally and morally. I supposed if black people didn’t talk about these things it would be easier for you to pretend racism isn’t a problem.
Educate yourself. Do a search in The Pit and GD. Hell, just look on the first page in the Pit. See what the non-blacks are saying and them come back here and say racism will be defeated if blacks just stop talking about it.
Not what I meant. However, I won’t say that I don’t stand corrected. My point boiled down to, to wreck the phrase, “Problems believed are problems achieved.”
Perhaps I spent too much time in imaginary utopian worlds like StarTrek and Star Wars. Maybe I’m just too nice. 
Does anyone else find irony in the fact that I’m drawing fire from my contemporaries on the SDMB by saying racism is fundamentaly wrong and pointless in the modern age?
No, I don’t want people to ignore it and pretend the problem doesn’t exits. My entire shpiel was that I just don’t understand the rationale behind it and don’t think it’s something that should exist.
That’s a far cry from pretending that it doesn’t.
I just wish it didn’t.
Oh, by the way; Sorry we can’t make it to dinner tomorrow. We should set up another one in a few weeks.