Ask Me Help Desk - Blatant racism in America

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Originally Posted by speechlesstx

Depends on who's underneath the dress ;)

No matter though, we can't help it if we're racist. Like homosexuals we were born that way.

http://www.theawl.com/wp-content/upl...babyracist.jpg

Oh come on! I really think that babies have no clue what racism is. It has to do with society and conditiong as a young child. It comes from the environment. I'm pretty sure a 2 year old white child would be happy to play with another "colored" child about the same age, and take absolutely no notice in the color of their skin. =P

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Originally Posted by silverfoxkit

;)

Bahhhaaahahhhhahahhaaaa!!

:))))))

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Originally Posted by ohsohappy

Oh come on! I really think that babies have no clue what racism is. it has to do with society and conditiong as a young child. it comes from the enviornment. I'm pretty sure a 2 year old white child would be happy to play with another "colored" child about the same age, and take absolutely no notice in the color of their skin. =P

Have you read the cover story, or are you just talking off the top of your head?

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Originally Posted by Wondergirl

Have you read the cover story, or are you just talking off the top of your head?

You mean there are still people who actually read Newsweek?

Why? :confused:

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Originally Posted by Wondergirl

Have you read the cover story, or are you just talking off the top of your head?

I took psychology and sociology classes last year. So I'm speaking from what I learned from those. Also, some off the top of my head. I didn't read the cover story until you asked. :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by ohsohappy

Oh come on! I really think that babies have no clue what racism is. it has to do with society and conditiong as a young child. it comes from the enviornment. I'm pretty sure a 2 year old white child would be happy to play with another "colored" child about the same age, and take absolutely no notice in the color of their skin. =P

Don't tell me, tell Newsweek. I would say I can't believe anyone could actually believe that - much less make it their cover story - but nothing surprises me any more.

My son never noticed race until he tried to get out of trouble by claiming he was depressed at being the only pick a color kid in class. I think that was third grade.

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Originally Posted by Silverfoxkit

Hell, we're so dang racist that black dogs can't even catch a break.

"It’s called “black dog syndrome”. Many loving dogs in need of good homes are being overlooked, under appreciated, and under adopted at shelters nationwide, and they all share one thing in common: their black coats.

There are no hard numbers, but informal surveys done at animal shelters show that black dogs are less likely to be adopted and that black terriers are the most likely to be overlooked and eventually euthanized.

Numerous reasons may result in the fact that black dogs may be adopted less than non-black dogs: superstitions, negative labels, fear, or even that people feel like they can’t read expressions from a dark-haired dog. Regardless of the reason, shelters are trying to be creative to get people to adopt black dogs and to stop this “black dog syndrome.”

And reasons like "black dog hair is more visible on furniture and clothing" just never come up when this is brought up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Catsmine

My son never noticed race until he tried to get out of trouble by claiming he was depressed at being the only pick a color kid in class. I think that was third grade.

Pick a color kid? Are you serious?

One more thing that has to go, very typical of the trend in white circles... white zinfandel.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ohsohappy

I took psychology and sociology classes last year. So I'm speaking from what I learned from those. Also, some off the top of my head. I didn't read the cover story until you asked. :)

Tsk, tsk.

I took psych (including infant development) courses in grad school. It's amazing what babies notice! The article pointed that out. The magazine might still be on newstands. If you're interested in human psychology, I suggest you buy one and read that article. Then we can talk.:D It might be online too -- will check.

P.S. We're in luck!

http://www.newsweek.com/id/214989

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Originally Posted by Wondergirl

I took psych (including infant development) courses in grad school. It's amazing what babies notice!

I took Developmental Psych as well, well before I even thought of having kids, and I loved that course. I found what I learnt there did apply while watching my own kids grow up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wondergirl

P.S. We're in luck!

Even Babies Discriminate: A NurtureShock Excerpt. | Newsweek Life | Newsweek.com

Ah, see this quote:

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More disturbing, Vittrup also asked all the kids a very blunt question: "Do your parents like black people?" Fourteen percent said outright, "No, my parents don't like black people"; 38 percent of the kids answered, "I don't know." In this supposed race-free vacuum being created by parents, kids were left to improvise their own conclusions—many of which would be abhorrent to their parents.

Kids watch their parents without the parents noticing it... they watch and listen.

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Originally Posted by NeedKarma

Ah, see this quote:
Kids watch their parents without the parents noticing it....they watch and listen.

The article mentioned what is unsaid by parents is usually more racially charged than what is said.

And this was involving the study with 5 to 7 y/os, I believe (not babies).

Yea, I know. 5 to 7 year olds start processing their own ideas about the world - fascinating to watch.

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Originally Posted by ETWolverine

You mean there are still people who actually read Newsweek?

Why? :confused:

You probably don't read Better Homes & Gardens either. Or the Mensa Bulletin.

Racism runs rampant down here in the Deep South. If you don't believe it come on down. But be forwarned , don't bring any idiotic comments like that have been made here, and removed, rightfully so, with you.

With time, and patience, racism just might get a little better one day. But ignorance will be with us forever. As we can see.

This started as a childish attack on excon, yet an entire race, and a religion have been insulted.

Maybe they should make the computer a little HARDER to use.

PC

Quote:

Originally Posted by ETWolverine

In honor of excon, I have spent this weekend doing some introspection, trying to find my inner racist and get rid of it. This was, after all, the weekend of Rosh Hashana, the beginning of the 10 Days of Repentance in Judaism. So I looked hard and deep... and I found that there are indeed strong and blatant forms of racism in the USA that I have been a part of and accepted for my entire life.

Therefore, I propose the following changes to American culture.

1) We need to stop using "K"s to indicate a strikeouts in baseball. The use of KKK to indicate a pitcher's effectivness in the game is clearly racist and harkens back to Major League Baseball's long connection with the Klu Klux Klan.

2) On every shelf of every paint store in the USA, white paint and black paint are kept sepparate from each other. Segregation ended in the 60s and 70s, and we should not be segregating our colors that way.

3) The term "Black Bear" for the Ursus americanus, a very large omnivorous animal that lives throughout most of North America, is racist. The next time you are being chased by an angry or hungry bear of this type, know that your fear is race-based, due solely to the name that WHITE scientists gave this bear. Stop being such a racist and try to make friends with the bear.

4) Watching TV shows like Dukes of Hazzard is racist, since they use the Confederate Flag as part of the show's symbology, and such symbols are racist by nature. The next time you admire a cute girl in a pair of Daisy Dukes, know that you are admiring a racist form of clothing associated with a racist flag.

5) Archie Bunker.... nuff said.

6) If you like the TV show The Jeffersons (the spinoff from Archie Bunker), you are as much of a racist as if you like Archie Bunker. After all, here's the story of a Black man who managed to get out of the ghetto and move into a nice apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan... the high rent district. But what does he do for a living? He owns a dry cleaning business. Even though he managed to get out of the 'hood, he's still doing Whitey's laundry. That's racist. If you call yourself a non-racist, you should stop watching that show in reruns.

7) If you are a white person who has ever eaten a Ritz "Cracker"... good for you. You are self-effacing enough to be called a non-racist. But if you have ever eaten a "Black and White" cookie... watch out. You're a segregationist. Keeping the white and black frosting apart is racist in the extreme. Avoid these cookies at all cost.

8) Ditto for Oreo Cookies. Call your senator and have them start an investigation of Kraft Foods, makers of the Oreo Cookie, on charges of racism.

9) If you have ever worn black to a funeral, you are clearly racist. What you are saying is that you associate "black" with death and that you want to relegate "black" to the cemetaries. This practice must stop. Instead, everyone should dress in bright colors to go to a funeral. At the very least, it would make the event more festive, and would keep the racism to a minimum.

10) If you have ever referred to the Plague as "The Black Death" you are a racist. Especially since most of the people who died of the plague were WHITE... it should have been named "The Whitey Death". Naming this deadly disease "black" is an insult to Blacks and an attempt to psychologically instill fear of the Black man in people. Therefore, all historical references to "The Black Death" should be purged and replaced with something more benign... like "The Great Pestilence" or "The Really, Really Bad Disease That Killed 60% of Europe's Population In The Fifteenth Century".

11) Black & Decker tools... nuff said.

If we all make these little changes to our lives, I'm sure we can properly eliminate any traces of racism from the American mindset in short order. We'll even be able to satisfy the most sensitive members of our culture, like excon, Maurene Dowd, and Jimmy Carter.

Elliot

What a load of blatant krap, it is not even funny, I won'tdignify it with further comment

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Originally Posted by ETWolverine

Actually, NK's comment illustrates the problem. Some people can't seem to see where the line between racism and normal behavior is drawn.

Hello again, El:

Bingo!

excon

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wondergirl

Tsk, tsk.

I took psych (including infant development) courses in grad school. It's amazing what babies notice! The article pointed that out. The magazine might still be on newstands. If you're interested in human psychology, I suggest you buy one and read that article. Then we can talk.:D It might be online too -- will check.

P.S. We're in luck!

Even Babies Discriminate: A NurtureShock Excerpt. | Newsweek Life | Newsweek.com

I'll be interested in reading that article specifically. Some I might agree with, others maybe not, We'll have to see. :) Thanks!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wondergirl

Tsk, tsk.

I took psych (including infant development) courses in grad school. It's amazing what babies notice! The article pointed that out. The magazine might still be on newstands. If you're interested in human psychology, I suggest you buy one and read that article. Then we can talk.:D It might be online too -- will check.

P.S. We're in luck!

Even Babies Discriminate: A NurtureShock Excerpt. | Newsweek Life | Newsweek.com

Even babies discriminate? - I certainly hope so :eek: If my child can't tell the difference between races, or genders, or age, or size: there is a problem.

Go to any school yard, kids always discriminate. Woe to the child is "different" - a different skin color, or hairstyle, or body type, or fashion. This is not new.

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The spontaneous tendency to assume your group shares characteristics—such as niceness, or smarts—is called essentialism.

Is this not something evolutionists would say is an adaptive selection? Noticing a difference in your environment could mean the difference between life and death.

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Moody found that the more diverse the school, the more the kids self-segregate by race and ethnicity within the school, and thus the likelihood that any two kids of different races have a friendship goes down.

Moody included statistical controls for activities, sports, academic tracking, and other school-structural conditions that tend to desegregate (or segregate) students within the school. The rule still holds true: more diversity translates into more division among students. Those increased opportunities to interact are also, effectively, increased opportunities to reject each other. And that is what's happening.

Notice that it is each group that segregates itself, it is not just one group. This leads to a question of whether a society that has a clear ethnic majority and many other ethnic minorities would be better integrated and actually more racially tolerant, than a society with multiple ethnic minorities and no dominant majority?

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All told, the odds of a white high-schooler in America having a best friend of another race is only 8 percent. Those odds barely improve for the second-best friend, or the third-best, or the fifth. For blacks, the odds aren't much better: 85 percent of black kids' best friends are also black

See, black kids self segregate themselves as much if not more than white kids.

--------------------------------------------------------

All this being said, I think the focus should be more on what we have in common rather than on our differences.

BTW : We Need to Talk About Death | Newsweek Health | Newsweek.com

G&P

Quote:

Originally Posted by inthebox

Even babies discriminate ?! - I certainly hope so :eek: If my child can't tell the difference between races, or genders, or age, or size: there is a problem.

The article showed that they discriminate by saying that black people are bad. That's the problem.

You read the first page? One study with leading questions.
The article goes on to say that "diversity" did not change things, is essentialism bad?

I'm of Asian descent, and have adopted my wife's kids whom are white. Whenever, I pass by Asian kids, adopted, by white couples, it is the Asian kids that look at me more than the Caucasians around them. Are these kids racist ? Or are they merely noticing the similarities.

G&P

Quote:

Originally Posted by speechlesstx

Pick a color kid? Are you serious?

One more thing that has to go, very typical of the trend in white circles...white zinfandel.

Fill in the blank, speech, if you're being serious.

Nothing wrong with noticing differences and similarities. I think kids innately judge (and they do) other kids as individuals not as groups of colour, age, language, etc. I think that racism (thinking that a group as a whole possesses negative traits) is a learnt behaviour. That's why this study is odd for me. I agree with you that there is nothing wrong with acknowledging our differences, my daughter recently said "why are they called black, they're more brown". I love the innocence in kids. We have an influx of Korean and Chinese immigrants in our little city and my daughter gets invited to their birthday parties, she's enjoying learning how different cultures do things a little differently.

OK here's a real life example . It goes right to the point of Elliot's sarcastic parody .

Dallas City Hall Blog | The Dallas Morning News

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special meeting about Dallas County traffic tickets turned tense and bizarre this afternoon.
County commissioners were discussing problems with the central collections office that is used to process traffic ticket payments and handle other paperwork normally done by the JP Courts.
Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, who is white, said it seemed that central collections "has become a black hole" because paperwork reportedly has become lost in the office.
Commissioner John Wiley Price, who is black, interrupted him with a loud "Excuse me!" He then corrected his colleague, saying the office has become a "white hole."
That prompted Judge Thomas Jones, who is black, to demand an apology from Mayfield for his racially insensitive analogy.
Mayfield shot back that it was a figure of speech and a science term. A black hole, according to Webster's, is perhaps "the invisible remains of a collapsed star, with an intense gravitational field from which neither light nor matter can escape."
Other county officials quickly interceded to break it up and get the meeting back on track. TV news cameras were rolling, after all.

Dallas - a perpetual sad comedy,

Quote:

Originally Posted by inthebox

I'm of Asian descent, and have adopted my wife's kids whom are white. Whenever, I pass by Asian kids, adopted, by white couples, it is the Asian kids that look at me more than the Caucasians around them. Are these kids racist ? or are they merely noticing the similarities.

Did you know that Asian-Americans had the "sharpest drop in home ownership last year?" There's got to be something racist about that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeedKarma

Dallas - a perpetual sad comedy,

Yes, ever since it was taken over by liberals... :D

Hellooooo:

No really, HELLOOOOOOO. Is there anybody home?? Do you NOT get the difference between discussing race and being racist??

Are you really THAT DENSE?? I think you need a death panel.

excon

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Originally Posted by speechlesstx

Yes, ever since it was taken over by liberals... :D

I actually wasn't aware it was a bastion of liberalism, the new San Francisco if you will. There I've learned something today.

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Originally Posted by Wondergirl

You probably don't read Better Homes & Gardens either. Or the Mensa Bulletin.

But I acknowledge that both print articles that have value, whether I read them or not.

But... c'mon... Newsweek? :confused:

Elliot

Quote:

Originally Posted by paraclete

what a load of blatant krap, it is not even funny, I won'tdignify it with further comment

Yep. Right about on par with excon's accusations of racism, don't you think?

Which was exactly the point.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeedKarma

I actually wasn't aware it was a bastion of liberalism, the new San Francisco if you will. There I've learned something today.

Actually the bastion of liberalism in Texas is Austin. Dallas is moving that way but that doesn't mean the rest of the metroplex is following suit. It's a huge area with Ft Worth and all the many suburbs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by excon

No really, HELLOOOOOOO. Is there anybody home??? Do you NOT get the difference between discussing race and being racist????

Uh, yeah. But tell me, how do you discuss race with people that see racism in every perceived slight imaginable and are convinced you're racist?

Quote:

Originally Posted by speechlesstx

Actually the bastion of liberalism in Texas is Austin. Dallas is moving that way but that doesn't mean the rest of the metroplex is following suit. It's a huge area with Ft Worth and all the many suburbs.

Actually, I have experienced a similar leftward trend in Houston in recent years... it must be Houston's proximity to New Orleans and the influx of NO "refugees" from Katrina to Houston...

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Originally Posted by ETWolverine

Actually, I have experienced a similar leftward trend in Houston in recent years... it must be Houston's proximity to New Orleans and the influx of NO "refugees" from Katrina to Houston...

You're absolutely right. But pointing that out is racist. ;)

Please tell me the name of the place that has no racism?

I'LL tell YOU, it's called heaven.

Every city of every state, has a certain element of racism. If you don't believe that, you're blind.

It's our job to break the cycle. Or ATTEMPT to anyway.

Don't judge a man by the color of his skin, but by his actions.

This is such a sensitive issue. It's so very easy to offend someone by joking about it.

So, again I ask, WHY?

This is no joking matter.

Quote:

Originally Posted by speechlesstx

Uh, yeah. But tell me, how do you discuss race with people that see racism in every perceived slight imaginable and are convinced you're racist?

This thread is not serious. It's a joke to point out how extreme people take it. That's all.

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Originally Posted by ohsohappy

This thread is not serious. It's a joke to point out how extreme people take it. That's all.

ohsohappy, I ohsogetit just fine.

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Originally Posted by speechlesstx

ohsohappy, I ohsogetit just fine.

Okay that's good! No need for sarcasm.

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Originally Posted by jmjoseph

It's our job to break the cycle. Or ATTEMPT to anyway.

Can't be done as long as people in high places incorrectly and inexcusably indict large portions of the American public as racist.

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Don't judge a man by the color of his skin, but by his actions.

That's what we've been saying.

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This is such a sensitive issue. It's so very easy to offend someone by joking about it.

So, again I ask, WHY?

This is no joking matter.

Elliot was illustrating the absurdity of race-baiters like Jimmy Carter and Maureen Dowd with absurdity. When some of the highest elected officials in the land impugn the American public because they've run out of answers for own failures, that's no joking matter either.