Happy Reading, You Racist Bastards

[images73]

This quarter I have discussed multicultural education a great deal in all of my classes, and I also had one entire course devoted to the subject. I don’t know how much the average white American thinks about racism--I suppose it depends on your location, attitudes, awareness, etc. Anyway, due to these classes, I’ve thought about it more than I

Comments

[squiddna]

So by "race" I'm assuming you mean something a little more than "skin color," and a little less than "inherited culture of the country of my ancestors." Exactly what, I'm not sure.

[images73]

According to my text, race is not a scientific but social reality dictated by the color of one's skin. There are no specific set of categories, and the categories have changed and will continue to change. For example, there used to be only three "races": caucasoid, negroid, and mongoloi. Obviously these have changed--not only terminology, but in number. When culture and heritage are considered, then that is called ethnicity. So, for example, someone's race could be black, but their ethinicity is Somalian. I think that colloquially we use the term racism to refer to views about race only but also some mix of race and ethnicity. It's a complicated issue with vague lines of distinction, so I'm sorry if I didn't answer your question satisfactorily.

Koppelman, K.L., & Goodhart, R.L. (2005). Understanding human differences: Multicultural education for a diverse America. New York: Pearson.

[tilga]

i know i started off on the list trying to figure out what applies to me b/c of my skin color

[images73]

I urge you to keep in mind that racism is not just about white people and black people. There are many other races as well, so while I will address your comments on your views about black people, I urge you to think about your ideas concerning other races as well (such as Asian or Latino

[tilga]

oooh... teach me, ms marcie

[images73]

I agree that sometimes tone or other things are hard to convey or interpret over lj--or even over AIM, but at least there you can clarify right away.

I think Michael would disagree with you that I am not ruled by emotions :) Still, I have do have a practical and reasonable side. Shut up Michael, I do so.

I had a conversation with Michael a little bit about this the other day after I made my initial replies. I don't think I realized before then how different things are racially in the south. I mean, I knew they were different and had experienced some of the differences briefly when we had visited his parents, but I guess I didn't understand what it was like growing up in the south as compared to the north...especially where I grew up, which was in a rural area. I think these differences in experience can maybe lend themselves to miscommunication or a difference in interpreting others' words or motives...and again, this is also hindered by the medium through which we're communicating. Now I feel like I'm babbling.

[virtuolie]

I disagree with 2 things from your post:

First, I don't think the steps of dealing with race are really steps--they're more like categories. I think it's overly idealistic to say that people will (or under the right circumstances would) evolve to be more accepting of other races and to reject racism. That may be a better attitude, but it's not necessarily a more adaptive attitude, and people's attitudes evolve based on their experiences. Someone could be raised to love all races and then hate blacks later on because the are gang-raped by blacks in prison.

Second, I think the privelage list is racist. To say that people of a particular race will necessarily have a different set of staple foods or will have their own music is making huge assumptions.

You can tell Andrew, Kelly, and I are all from the Deep South, as it is our inclination to be defensive about racism. :)

[tilga]

explain "defensive about racism"

[virtuolie]

You know, defensive: all 3 of us talked about either why it didn't apply to us or why it was flawed.

[tilga]

saying "defensive about racism", though, sounds as if we were defending racism.. like we actually condone it

[squiddna]

I am, for instance, still a little nervous around loud black teenagers on the train because two loud black teenagers punched me in the head on the train one afternoon on the way home from the lab. Large, sullen, muscular adult black males, while possibly more threatening to some don't really elicit any response from me. (The issue of skin color aside and more to do with the city, the people I'm most afraid of are beggars, mainly because I don't want to have to deal with the responsibility of judging them, and I somewhat resent them for putting it upon me. Or anyone with glowing red eyes. Or a gun.)

[images73]

Aha! A genuine response! I sincerely appreciate your honesty and sharing

[tilga]

Aha! A genuine response! I sincerely appreciate your honesty and sharing.

meaning that mine & michael's responses were *not* genuine?

[images73]

I did not at all mean to imply that, and after I typed it, I did realize that it probably came off as insulting. By genuine I meant more that it wasn't something that was a protest of the exercise. I apologize. I definitely feel that everybody's responses have been honest and genuine.