Sun Devil
Death and Taxes
***Disclaimer***
My intent in this thread is for it to be a productive discussion on the subject of how people ought to respond to sensitive social issues, especially issues dealing with ethnicity and culture. Although I don't like to discuss racism on the internet due to the amount of trolling, baiting people do, I feel the discussion is necessary since racism still effects our society even today.
The reason I wanted to discuss this subject because I notice a lot of trends on the internet, most specifically forum websites such as this where whenever the subject of racism comes up for example the discussion of Al Sharpton people immediately start discussing how racist he is. Ok fine. But then, it seems that the topic of discussion seems to transition into talking about crime statistics and the percentage of blacks along with who commits the most crime. Now, crime statistics and demographics had nothing to do with discussing the actions of Al Sharpton, but it seems people felt it was necessary to make it a point about Al Sharpton's antics regarding certain social issues to point out that "hey why speak out against racism when you're own people kill each other?" Seems logical right?
What angers me with situations like that are two things:
1) Deflection
2) Making two wrongs a right
When discussing subjects like Sharpton often times people tend to use the deflective model of mentioning another point which is not related to the current point (e.g pointing out black crime statistics while discussing an issue not related to ethnic demographics). I think most times people think why one individual prioritizes one point when he or she ought to look at this point. The other point (point #2) is also evident in people using the two wrongs making it a right model. For example I notice on Yahoo during the Jaime Foxx movie Django unchained, over 10,000 people commented saying racist things, but the most common was "well Africans sold their own into slavery too....." When I took African diaspora studies in college that was one of the first things my professor had told the class:
"In encountering people discussing slavery you will see countless people comparing the Trans-Atlantic slave trade with North American slavery as if there was some kind of trade-off. Most people will often times get their information from either racist websites, separatist websites, or merely use google to get their information. Not one will approach the situation regarding tribalism in African slavery in a scholarly approach...."
In other words one evil justifies another evil......
I think what bothers me is the lack of maturity in discussing sensitive topics especially if the people who are bothered by the antics of one mperson have to resort to the same kind of antics just to make themselves feel bad. I remember during the Sharpton issue regarding boycotting barneys people were making all kinds of racist remarks--mind you this is on Yahoo (I'll explain why I'm on Yahoo so much in a minute). I remember making a comment to the likes of:
"If you're going to call Sharpton a racist, why resort to the same tactics of racism that you accuse this man of?"
Oh boy did I get so many thumbs down for that, but I felt that this was evident in the nature of people in the internet because quite frankly, the fact that there is anonnymity, people feel comfortable espousing their racist feelings. I currently work with someone at my job who is Half white and Costa Rican (I believe) and he I believe has internal racist feelings. I notice whenever we discuss the gang members who are shot that get admitted to our hospital he refers to them as "animals" or he references their gang area as a "zoo" or when a Hispanic comes in he mocks stereotypical Hispanic (Cholo) attitude with a specific voice in jest. I personally feel is is one of the many that come on forums like this or on yahoo and espouse racist rhetoric while in the face of people of color, as if he is not racist.
For me, I don't give into the racist garbage nor do I subscribe to the idea that "we all are a little bit racist...." Whoever believes that is thinking backwards. I believe in a lot of cases we all exhibit some prejudices based on our experiences and social stereotypes that have been pressed upon us, but to be racist is entirely different. To get above the belief of certain racial stereotypes it takes intelligence about cultures to understand that although there are those that exhibit stereotypical behavior, that behavior is not typical of that culture. We all must exercise some sort of distinction between behavior and culture. Just like when people say "he talks black" there is no scientific study that backs that idea up. Blacks vary just like whites and asians. There is a way to speak in an english dialect that relates to a specific culture exhibited by a type of genre of music (e.g rap) however there is no way to talk "like" an ethnic culture especially one that is so diverse.
I see this a lot on Yahoo and so which brings me as to why I'm on yahoo so much is because these social media networks give me a partial idea as to how some people think. If you don't believe me go on yahoo everyday and look around for topics discussing race or subjects discussing Jay-Z, Kanye West, etc. People on yahoo often complain about yahoo baiting people in race but logic shows if you complain about race-baiting while in a thread discussing race baiting then obviously you bought the bait because you're participating in a thread that you know is race baiting but you're buying the bait just by your participation....Doesn't make sense.
But ultimately people need to shy away from the need to make two wrongs a right. As I recall someone who once said "the more I see Sharpton the more I feel like I'm getting closer to being racist." One individual does not make one racist. If you have internal racist feelings those feelings were presented there long ago suppressed in the depths of the subconscious. There is no such thing as spontaneous racism there is only an evolution of such a behavior and it was planted there long before you became interested in Sharpton or whoever. Despite that I personally feel people need to address those issues not allow a subject they dislike bring that out of them.
My intent in this thread is for it to be a productive discussion on the subject of how people ought to respond to sensitive social issues, especially issues dealing with ethnicity and culture. Although I don't like to discuss racism on the internet due to the amount of trolling, baiting people do, I feel the discussion is necessary since racism still effects our society even today.
The reason I wanted to discuss this subject because I notice a lot of trends on the internet, most specifically forum websites such as this where whenever the subject of racism comes up for example the discussion of Al Sharpton people immediately start discussing how racist he is. Ok fine. But then, it seems that the topic of discussion seems to transition into talking about crime statistics and the percentage of blacks along with who commits the most crime. Now, crime statistics and demographics had nothing to do with discussing the actions of Al Sharpton, but it seems people felt it was necessary to make it a point about Al Sharpton's antics regarding certain social issues to point out that "hey why speak out against racism when you're own people kill each other?" Seems logical right?
What angers me with situations like that are two things:
1) Deflection
2) Making two wrongs a right
When discussing subjects like Sharpton often times people tend to use the deflective model of mentioning another point which is not related to the current point (e.g pointing out black crime statistics while discussing an issue not related to ethnic demographics). I think most times people think why one individual prioritizes one point when he or she ought to look at this point. The other point (point #2) is also evident in people using the two wrongs making it a right model. For example I notice on Yahoo during the Jaime Foxx movie Django unchained, over 10,000 people commented saying racist things, but the most common was "well Africans sold their own into slavery too....." When I took African diaspora studies in college that was one of the first things my professor had told the class:
"In encountering people discussing slavery you will see countless people comparing the Trans-Atlantic slave trade with North American slavery as if there was some kind of trade-off. Most people will often times get their information from either racist websites, separatist websites, or merely use google to get their information. Not one will approach the situation regarding tribalism in African slavery in a scholarly approach...."
In other words one evil justifies another evil......
I think what bothers me is the lack of maturity in discussing sensitive topics especially if the people who are bothered by the antics of one mperson have to resort to the same kind of antics just to make themselves feel bad. I remember during the Sharpton issue regarding boycotting barneys people were making all kinds of racist remarks--mind you this is on Yahoo (I'll explain why I'm on Yahoo so much in a minute). I remember making a comment to the likes of:
"If you're going to call Sharpton a racist, why resort to the same tactics of racism that you accuse this man of?"
Oh boy did I get so many thumbs down for that, but I felt that this was evident in the nature of people in the internet because quite frankly, the fact that there is anonnymity, people feel comfortable espousing their racist feelings. I currently work with someone at my job who is Half white and Costa Rican (I believe) and he I believe has internal racist feelings. I notice whenever we discuss the gang members who are shot that get admitted to our hospital he refers to them as "animals" or he references their gang area as a "zoo" or when a Hispanic comes in he mocks stereotypical Hispanic (Cholo) attitude with a specific voice in jest. I personally feel is is one of the many that come on forums like this or on yahoo and espouse racist rhetoric while in the face of people of color, as if he is not racist.
For me, I don't give into the racist garbage nor do I subscribe to the idea that "we all are a little bit racist...." Whoever believes that is thinking backwards. I believe in a lot of cases we all exhibit some prejudices based on our experiences and social stereotypes that have been pressed upon us, but to be racist is entirely different. To get above the belief of certain racial stereotypes it takes intelligence about cultures to understand that although there are those that exhibit stereotypical behavior, that behavior is not typical of that culture. We all must exercise some sort of distinction between behavior and culture. Just like when people say "he talks black" there is no scientific study that backs that idea up. Blacks vary just like whites and asians. There is a way to speak in an english dialect that relates to a specific culture exhibited by a type of genre of music (e.g rap) however there is no way to talk "like" an ethnic culture especially one that is so diverse.
I see this a lot on Yahoo and so which brings me as to why I'm on yahoo so much is because these social media networks give me a partial idea as to how some people think. If you don't believe me go on yahoo everyday and look around for topics discussing race or subjects discussing Jay-Z, Kanye West, etc. People on yahoo often complain about yahoo baiting people in race but logic shows if you complain about race-baiting while in a thread discussing race baiting then obviously you bought the bait because you're participating in a thread that you know is race baiting but you're buying the bait just by your participation....Doesn't make sense.
But ultimately people need to shy away from the need to make two wrongs a right. As I recall someone who once said "the more I see Sharpton the more I feel like I'm getting closer to being racist." One individual does not make one racist. If you have internal racist feelings those feelings were presented there long ago suppressed in the depths of the subconscious. There is no such thing as spontaneous racism there is only an evolution of such a behavior and it was planted there long before you became interested in Sharpton or whoever. Despite that I personally feel people need to address those issues not allow a subject they dislike bring that out of them.
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