racism in reverse

[miffed]

Simple.

We stop trotting out that same old tired justification everytime it happens and say 'look, this is wrong, period, knock it off'.

If that worked then there would be world peace and we wouldn't be having this discussion about racism. You can't just tell a criminal theft is wrong and expect them to listen to you and straighten out. They have to be rehabilitated. And that's almost what has to be done with society, its views have to be changed and reconstructed, and that's not a simple easy task.

[Zyanya]

If that worked then there would be world peace and we wouldn't be having this discussion about racism. You can't just tell a criminal theft is wrong and expect them to listen to you and straighten out. They have to be rehabilitated. And that's almost what has to be done with society, its views have to be changed and reconstructed, and that's not a simple easy task.

You can however, stop making excuses for the criminal like 'oh, you had such a hard childhood, here is a lollipop and please don't do that anymore'.

[miffed]

You can however, stop making excuses for the criminal like 'oh, you had such a hard childhood, here is a lollipop and please don't do that anymore'.

Are you even reading my whole posts? I am not making excuses or justifying anything. Like I have previously said, you have to know the problem before you can solve it. You have to know why a problem occurs so you can stop it from happening again. I explained why society behaves a certain way, and now that we know why that behavior occurs, we can work towards a solution to change that behavior. My posts are more like "oh, you did that because you had such a hard childhood, but that's not right and here's why."

Minorities can get away with racism because the majority isn't affected by slurs in the same way. Some people tend to think that the majority almost deserves it because of past occurances. That's the mindset of society, now how do we rectify that? Getting rid of the concept of race seems like a good start. Show everyone we are all the same, create a sense of community between cultures.

[aniwahya]

I think that there is no such thing as reverse racism, it is just racism plain and simple.

I have had several experiences where I have been accused of racism by another employee trying to retaliate against me because they got in trouble for something I was vaguely involved in. In one case I was 16 working as a sales associate and had a dark skinned manager who referred to herself as our store's "spot of color". Since people were hired on merit that I could see. I and the last associate hired are classified Caucasian, but I was hired because a long time employee knew me well and the other girl was hired because she lived 1/4 of a block from the store. So I thought of the manager referring to herself as "a spot of color" was just a cute phrase. Lo and behold I repeated it once, meant absolutely nothing by it and had at any point it been explained to me that it would offend her I would have avoided using it on the grounds I didn't want to offend anyone. Just two days before the main manager had caught her doing some things when she was manning the store by herself that were very much against policy, and since I was the associate who was working with her that day I was blamed for her getting in trouble.

What bothers me about this experience is how devastating an experience it was, to have my job threatened and to be accused of being something I consider to be vile. I realize that denial is a powerful thing, yet I truly make an effort to treat everyone equally. Experience has led me to believe that treating people equally is the problem. Racists don't want to be treated equally, they have expectations for interactions with other people that are unreasonable, especially interactions with people perceived as being lower in status than them.

My mom married an immigrant of an Asian country who was one of the most racist people I have ever met, except for his close family members. At one point his uncle started telling me how he thought Native Americans were a dirty, worthless, savagely barbaric people. I have never had so much joy in telling someone that he was talking to one (though I have no official connection to a tribe thanks to a deadbeat biological father, I am genetically 1/4 cherokee). It warmed my heart cockles to see his face go completely white and to see the sheer terror wash across his face (he was well aware that despite being only a girl I could life his bodyweight and crush him with no problems).

It was also an experience to go gatherings of people who had zero respect for American culture. I was told repeatedly that Americans are a "bastard" people with no culture. They had similar views of any nationality other than their own. It was appalling, to put it mildly.

I hate when people use "reverse racism" since in my experience people respond to it with an eye roll and seem to think of it as a lesser form of racism.
People accuse "white people" or "crackers" of being racist and then being incapable of experiencing racism against them selves.

Why do people focus on African slavery and then exclude other cultures, like the Japanese who were forced into concentration camps here in America during WWII. Citizens of this country were taken against there will and locked in camps watched and patrolled by armed guards for no reason other than they were of Japanese descent. Many people lost everything they had because of it. No one cares that Native Americans have been largely ignored and neglected as a people. Or what about the Chinese who helped build the railroads that first spanned the country? The Irish who were the working backbone of old New York, that were considered second and third class citizens? Russians, Germans, everyone has experienced racism. Hell, there is still slavery going on today. An astonishing number of young girls are abducted and sold into sexual slavery in every country including the United States. The majority of them are "white". Yet because I am classified as "white" I am automatically racist? Grr.

Oh, does anyone else get annoyed when all Caucasians are lumped into the same group? As though "white" is one big country we all are a part of, and that there is no difference between someone who is say Irish from someone who is German, English or French?

Sorry for the length, this subject just burns me up. People are people, what the hell difference does it make what shade their skin is, or whether they have an accent? ><

I think there's something in the argument that non-whites don't see many role models of their own colour, so I can see some justification for pointing to great achievements by non-whites. There's also the point that it is generally white history year - what colour are the people on the coins you spend, and what colour are the figures depicted in statues? What colour does everyone draw Jesus? I don't regard race-specific history months as reverse racism - I think they're a necessary evil that needs to be removed once they've achieved their purpose.

Rapscallion

I think your post definitely has a valid point, and I don't want to go running down bunny trails and derail the thread but there is one thing id like to point out. If you replaced minorities with "women" or "people of non mainstream christian faiths" it would read the same, and still be just as valid.
Kind of weird to think about since we have a whole slew of PC phrases for what is essentially the same thing.

I'm glad you have experienced success in your life, Tennessee Whiskey. However, statistically you still have a leg up, simply for being white.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...663841,00.html

.

I needed to comment on this. My great grandparents on my mom's side immigrated to America. They literally had nothing but the clothes on their backs. They didn't even speak English well. My grandfather worked hard growing up and started his own business. . My ancestors on my fathers side were literally forcibly dragged across the country by the US gov't in what is known as the Trail of Tears.
What advantage does that give me for being white?
Two years ago I became very ill, lost the ability to walk for almost a year, and because of a pain disorder I have been in constant excruiciating pain that is just now getting better due to treatment. Despite having worked since I was 15 years old, and have more than met the qualifications for state aid , I was literally told that they in order to get aid I needed to either be pregnant or not speak English.

So to paraphrase, it's hard all over. The grass is always greener on the other side. There may be a great many rich white men, but they've never done a damned think to help me. All I want is to be judged on my merits as a person, not the color of my skin.

*Note to mods if possible could you merge my posts? I wasn't sure how to edit a post w/ a quote.*

[AFPheonix]

I needed to comment on this. My great grandparents on my mom's side immigrated to America. They literally had nothing but the clothes on their backs. They didn't even speak English well. My grandfather worked hard growing up and started his own business. . My ancestors on my fathers side were literally forcibly dragged across the country by the US gov't in what is known as the Trail of Tears.

The operative word there was statistically. Some people are somewhere out of the bell curve on stats.
I myself am a second gen immigrant. My parents had to be on food stamps when the job Dad thought he had coming down from Canada disappeared.

[aniwahya]

The statistics are skewed in the sense that Caucasian Americans are seen as a solidified majority, when in fact it is a large body of people with the same skin color who come from multiple and varied countries and regions before coming to America. Also large populations immigrating from the same area can skew geographic statistics. For instance a huge number of German and Swedish immigrants formed the city that I am now living in. Their descendants now hold the majority of the wealth in my city, solely because they're families have been here for generations. If you compare them statistically with the large group of first generation Mexican immigrants who now reside here, of course those of Caucasian descent come out "advantaged", and while it can be argued that having seniority gives advantage, if the situation were reversed would those who are of Mexican descent (using my example) be considered "advantaged" and as racially privileged as Caucasians are now?

Does it bother anyone else that a lot of people seem to confuse acts of hate, that are based on their sex or age, for being acts of hate based on their race? It is a huge pet peeve of mine, and just wondering if anyone else feels the same about this specifically.