(no subject)

[heckers]

Confronting ethnocentrism and bigotry By: Chris Reardon, a Daily Collegian columnist. OK, I have something to confess here. Until very recently, I was one of those white people. You know the kind. The ones that think race relations are all hunky-dory because we live in a progressive society and because the civil rights movement started 40 years ago. I was too young to know anything about the Rodney King incident and the L.A. riots, and I didn't know enough about economics to understand how and why Hurricane Katrina was a disaster of racist policy. I knew that there was a problem, but I had been too brainwashed by white-controlled media and by disgustingly racist history lessons to realize just how deep the issue went. For a number of reasons (not the least of which being the fact that I finally cracked open my Sociology 106: Race, Class and Gender textbook), I've gone through a semi-enlightenment, and I am not happy. They say that those who do not learn their history are doomed to repeat it. I'd like to annotate that proverb a little by adding that those who muddle the truth of their history are doomed to continue those practices that they wish to forget. I'd like to start with slavery. As explained by Robert B. Moore in his article "Racist Stereotyping in the English Language," the fact that we still think of the African people who were kidnapped and exploited for centuries as slaves who had masters is clear evidence of white ethnocentrism in the history lessons still taught to our children today. "The term slave connotes a less than human quality and turns the captive person into a thing," Moore says. That we still refer to black people who were forced to work for no pay as slaves is simply a means of minimizing the damage done by aristocrats at the time. The psychological impact of learning about how slaves were beaten and raped is lessened because we still think of slaves as property, not people. I doubt you'll see a change any time soon, however, because our history is written by the descendents of the people who exploited Africans and by the people who are currently exploiting millions of overseas laborers. Sweatshops and child labor have a minimal impact on the lives of U.S. citizens - except the fact that the products that come from overseas are substantially less expensive than U.S.-made merchandise - simply because we don't have to see it. Near-slave labor policies of companies like Coca Cola and Nike get little attention in the media and are somewhat rare within this country's borders. So ignorant white middle-classers, like myself, don't ever have to think about the exploitation of these people. What if you or I had been born in a Third World country and forced to work 12 hours of backbreaking labor for 50 cents a day? (I should mention here that even the term Third World has racist connotations because the reason these countries are stricken with poverty is that the First World countries in the west exploited all of their resources). The next issue to be examined is that of Native Americans. Frankly, I'm disgusted by the fact that we have a federal holiday that celebrates a man who discovered a nation simply by paving the way for entire societies of people to be destroyed. Everyone knows that Columbus didn't discover anything. Why do we still celebrate his accomplishments, which amounted only to millions of lost lives and homes? Do kids in Germany have Hitler Day off from school? I don't think so. Again, this is a problem with the way our history is written, and here it's an even more blatant ignorance of the truth. As Moore explains, settlers who ravaged Native American lands are glorified, while those Native Americans who had the means to defend themselves are vilified. "Euro-Americans are not described in history books as invading Native American lands," he says, "but rather as defending their homes against 'Indian' attacks. Since European communities were constantly encroaching on land already occupied, then a more honest interpretation would state that it was the Native Americans who were 'warding off,' 'guarding' and 'defending' their homelands." These are just a sore few of the examples of racism present in modern day culture. I gladly offer up an apology on behalf of my race, though I suspect that my remorse will do little to change what has happened. While I'm not exactly sure how to actually fix the problem, I do know that the solution begins with education and ends with the truth. What happens in between will involve a veritable revolution in ethnocentric policies.



HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLY SHIT
thank you, mr reardon, for making my apoligies for me. i've been meaning to learn from the civil rights movement that i should be ashamed of the color i'm born and the people i am born to. clearly mlk meant: i have a dream that white people will feel like shit for all the things they didn't do
and!
while we're discussing "modern day culture" like slavery and the colonization of america (what the fuuuuuuuck) and as i know you're very into confronting the historyically accurate, i would like to point out that "the people who exploited Africans," who capture and enslaved them were black. and were african, you pussy-shit yuppie douchewad.
why don't you remove the minority dildo from your ass, pack up, and move to fucking uganda. go apoligize to them in person. go see how warm and cozy they are to white people over there and then read their editorials and see if anyone in africa, the middle east, china, fucking europe is apoligizing for all the white people they've killed. no? weird!!!!!
akiko's cure to the world for race: (or, stick this in your crotch and vibrate it)

stop. bitching. about. race.
fuck people who think they are so freaking special because of where their mom's vagina spat them, their godamn pigments, or anything else that they had NOTHING to do with!!!!!!!
i'm sorry you're sorry you're white but how DARE you, you balless motherfucking baby rapist, how DARE you apoligize for me.
suck my dick and fondle my balls. that should keep your mouth and typing fingers off my death list.