The racist police sergeant Crowley of the Cambridge Massachusetts didn't give damn whether Professor Gates was a distinguished Harvard Faculty member or just some ordinary Black utility worker. He was just a"Nigger" to him and that's why he invited Gates outside to further provoke him into a possible physical confrontation. Many Caucasian cops and other law enforcement officers all around the United States are of the same racists mindset as Crowley, and the society by in large is in denial about this persistent malignant disease called white racism. The media frenzy about the Gates and Crowley incident will go away after two more weeks of warped misplaced discussion about the issue of race in the context of racial profiling and we won't have any more productive dialogue or action on the subject until another incident involving a high profile person of color is victimized by the racist oppressive police in this country. Men of color are routinely and daily victimized by racists cops and other law enforcement officials but those incidents never get reported by the main stream corporate sponsored media.
Boston Massachusetts,like Philadelphia Pennsylvania have been historical hot beds for overt and covert direct racial conflict,and both towns appeared to be far more racist than a place like Philadelphia Mississippi.
It is very unfortunate that the so-called first African American President,Barack Obama does not enough heart or the will to tell white parents that they need to raise their children to become non-bigoted and non racists,and that those white parents need to practice the Golden rule and to love all thy Neighbors as thyself. Prejudice is a learned behavior and children that are taught to hate and despise others grow up to be bigoted and racists and less tolerant of people who are different than them or the dominant group.Children are the bearers of life in its simplest and most joyous form.Children are color-blind and still free of all the complications,greed,and hatred that will slowly be instilled in them by a racist society and parents through out their lives. Bigoted parents produce bigoted children who carry those bias and prejudices in to adulthood and that's where we are in America in the year 2009. Some whites who voted for Barack Obama for President helped to superficially relieve them of various degrees of white guilt relative to the treatment of all people of color in this country particularly to African Americans, but many fail to realize that we are still stuck in 350 years of brutal on-going systemic and individual white racism. And the election of the first African American President didn't change any of the various institutions that have perpetrated over 350 years of the present effects of on-going naked and blind racism from those institutions.
Indeed racism is alive and flourishing very well in the United States of America,and since the favorable Ricci vs. DeStefano ruling by the United States Supreme Court it appears to be open season on people of color which was evidenced by the racially charged Senate Confirmation Hearing involving Sonia Sotomayor.
Can America afford nationally& internationally to have this overt and structural systemic white and individual white racism on its back going forward in the 21TH. Century ? How can the supposedly great American Empire lecture anyone about human rights,racism,self-determination, tolerance or good governance when we simply don't practice remotely any semblance of those ideas at home,and to say that we do is dishonest and hypocritical.
12 comments:
Barack said last night that the cops acted "stupidly", so he did stand up for his boy Gates. He's taking a lot of heat for it, but I'm on his side on this one. It goes without saying (but i'll say it anyway) that only a black man would get arrested on his own property for disorderly conduct. Usually, a disorderly conduct charge is for conduct that happens in a PUBLIC place. Not on one's own property! This could only happen to a black man in this country.
This is my response to billy1007.
In my communication,fact and statement of fact should remain paramount while subjectivity may remain or be relegated to a position of secondary consideration.While pedestrian in nature,billy1007 first two sentences begins with error and he continues to build his whole comments upon this tenous foundation,for example....billy1007 says"A charge of racism,in the absence of racism,is racism".
Are you ready to go school billy1007 ? Let me give a brief overview of American Racism 101.Are you still there billy1007 ?
Let's begin ?
What is racism ? Any attitude,action or institutional structure which subordinates a person or group because of their color..Racism is not just a matter of attitudes:actions and institutional structures can also be a form of racism. Are you still there billy1007 ?
billy1007, racism is different from racial prejudice,hatred,or discrimination. billy1007 racism involves having the power to carry out systematic discriminatory pracitces through the major institutions of our society. Are you still there billy1007 ? billy1007, "Power+ Prejudice= Racism." That's what White racism is billy1007.
"In the United States at present,only whites can be racists,since whites dominate and control the instituttions that create and enforce American cultural norms and values. Professor Gates, billy1007 isnt a racist and its absurd to suggest that but now are becoming educated I expect you to refrain from using such terms for people of color. Are you still there billy1007 ?
Lesson 1 continues with billy1007,and now that you are becoming educated I really don't expect you to use such terms as racism is context of people of color.
Let's continue with Lesson 1!
Blacks and other Third world peoples do not have access to the power to enforce any prejudices they may have,so they billy1007 cannot by definition,be racists.
Are you still there billy1007 ?
"Racism and white racism mean the same thing billy1007,if we are referring to practices of major institutions and dominant societal patterns in the United States to day...White people are in the majority in the country....thus billy1007 the government.business,industry, unions,churches, educational and other institutions are almost always dominated by white people. when you combine power with racial discrimination the result is racism." billy1007 you just completed Lesson 1 are you ready for a pop quiz ? Now we will continue with Lesson 2. Are you still there billy1007 ?
Lesson 2 is a little more advanced billy1007 are you there ?
Racism is the assumption that psychocultural traits and abilities are determined by biological race and that races differ decisively from one another in this respect.1. This assumption is usually coupled with a belief in the inherent superiority of a particular race and its right to dominate others.Racism is a system of advantage based on race. Are you still there billy1007 ?
Racism is a social illness that is characterized by thinking,feeling and acting as if one race is superior to another. billy1007,the origin of racism is the belief that some people are not fully human threfore do not deserve to be treated like full human beings. The full human beings have supreme rights over the less human groups,and threfore have the power of racial supremacy to shape social relationships.billy1007,a good example of the above is the founding fathers or framers of the U.S.Constitution legally enshrined the famous three fifths clause to said document,which basically said that Africans were onlt three fifths of a human being or person.So you see billy1007, they the founders of this country legalized their racism with that three fifhts clause.
Are you still there billy1007 ?
billy1007,racism is clearly more than simple prejudice or bigotry..to be prejudiced means to have opinions without knowing facts and to hold onto those opinions,even after contrary facts are known. To be racially prejudiced means to have distorted opinions about people of other races. Racism goes beyond prejudice.
Racial prejudice is tranformed into racism when one racial group becomes powerful and dominant that it is able to control another group and to enforce the controlling group's bias.
Racism structures a society so that the prejudices of one racial group are taught,perpetuated,and enforced to the benefit of the dominant group. Are you still there billy1007 ?
Examples of Racism:
1. Teacher to a Native American and or Chicano child :"For your own good you will be punished if ever hear you using any language but English,"
2.A store clerk suspects that Black children in his store want to steal candy but that white children want to buy candy.He treats the Black children as probable delinquents and the white children as probable as probable customers. This happens everyday in America to people of color,bily1007.
3.A suburban community passes a zoning law prohibiting low-cost multiple dewlling housing. Its official reason is to prevent overcrowding,but the effect is to prevent minorities from moving to areas where industry is expanding and jobs are available. A good example of this action is when the Jewish residents in Forrest Hills New York attempted to deny open house priviledges to Blacks back in the seventies and its still going all around the good old USA.
4. A Black and white family both move and enroll their children in a desegregated school. Previous school records have not yet arrived. The guidance counselor puts the white child into an upper track class and the Black child in one of the low track classes. This happens everyday in America,billy1007.
5. Telling Black&Hispanics kids they can't use the Valley Swimming Pool in Philadelphia Pa. because they will change the complexion of the water.
6.A Louisiana state representative recenlty oppossed proposals to eliminate racial labels on blood plasma in his state's hospitals. He ignored the fact that Dr. Charles Drew,A Black surgeon,perfected the modern blood bank system.
7. Textbooks which teach: Columbus discovered America.. The pioneers settled the West...and have a chapter on the "Black Problem" "The Indian or Native American Problem" but never on the "White Problem "
8. Professor Gates of Harvard being arrested after showing proper ID because the cop in question didn't like a Black man acting and talikg back to him or acting uppity. Gates was in his own house which is his castle.
Are you still there billy1007 ?
billy1007 Race is a modern idea. Ancient societies like the Greeks,Egyptians,Kemetians,Cushite's.Elamites,Assyrians,Nubians,Hitties, did not divide people according to physical differnces,but according to religion,status,class or even language. The English word race turns up for the first time in a poem by William Dunbar referring to a line of Kings.
Race has no genetic basis. Not one characteristic,trait or evn gene distinguishes all the members of one so-called race from all the members of another so-called race.
billy1007 contrary to Darwin's flawed science of evolution; Human subspecies don't exist. Unlike many animals,modern humans simply haven't been around long enough,nor have populations been isolated enough to evolve into separate subspecies or races. On average only one of every thousand of the nucleotides that make up pur DNA differ one human from another. billy1007,we humans are one of the most genetically similar of all species.
Race justified social inequalities as natural. The common sense belief in white superiority justified anti-democratic action and policies like slavery,theextermination of American Indians,the exclusion of Asian immigrants,the taking of Mexican lands,and the institutionalization of racial practices within the American government,laws,abd society.
billy1007 quit talking this non-sense about "parents need to raise their children to not see color .billy1007 boy,Colorblindness will not end racism. Pretending race doesn't exist is not the same as creating equality.
billy1007 I am very proud of my color and all my physical characterictics and you should be to. I want you to see a big Black burly man with thick lips and wooly hair,and it would quite disingenous on your part not to want to see for being a proud Black man. billy1007 the idea of a color-blind society is a pale imitation of a greater,grander idea: of living in society where our color won't be denigrated,where our skin will be neither a badge for undue privilege nor a sign of social stigma. Because skin,race and color have in the past been the basis for social inequaltiy,they must play a role in righting the social wrongs on which our society has been built. We can't afford to be BLIND to color when extreme color consciousness continues to mold the fabric and form of our nation's history.
Color-blindness is no virtue if it means denial of differences in the experience,culture,and psychology of Black Ameicans and other persons of color. These differences are not genetic,nor do they represent a hierarchy of superior and inferior qualities. But to ignore the formative influence of substanial differences in history and social existence is a monumenatl error. Your are 100% wrong billy 1007 talking this trash about color-blind.
The white psychiatrist who likes to think he or she is color-blind,may be as far off the mark as the psychiatrist who is blinded by color.
billy1007 There is only one human race and for the purpose of this dicussion Hipanics may come from any of the so-called racial groupings. My aunt who is Puerto Rican is more African than I. All those Black baseball players from the Dominican Republic are the descendants of the Black African slaves on the Island of Santo Domingo(Hispanola) Hipanics may come in all shapes, sizes,colors and hair textures,etc.
billy1007 most Blacks in this country are conservatives,and I'm a staunch conservative. Mostof my associates are conservatives but labels don't mean a damn thing billy1007.
Are you ready for your exam on an Introduction to Racism 101 ?
Hopefully you learned billy1007 boy and you know billy1007 lerning is a life long process and now maybe you can teach your kids to be non-bigoted and non-racists. billy1007 in order to trat the disease of racism you have to first acknowledge that you have the disease.. We can't defeat your disease if you stay in denial about having the disease.
America are you listening,Iknow billy1007 is.
Racism- a doctrine that claims to find racial differences in character.
Nowhere did it mention that only one group was capable of racism, so for semantics sake, we'll just say prejudice.
Aside from Ray, I seem to have stumbled into the forest that the proverbial tree fell in for no one to hear.
Teaching a child not to see color, would mean not ascribing character differences to a person for any outward appearance. "Don't judge a book by it's cover".
As to racism, go to You Tube and put in Barbara Boxer racist. She tries to talk down to Harry Alford, CEO of the US Black Chamber of Commerce. In a better America, He would be my President or at least Senator.
As to racism, I lived and worked in Mexico and Hispanic Mexicans were ALL much wealthier than the indigenous Indian population. They've actually killed them for not speaking Spanish.
One of the greatest days in American history was the election of a Black man to our Presidency, there are many others I'd have chosen ahead of him and would be more if not for racism.
My answer to racism, is not to become one.
By the way Ron, don't try to talk down to me with "pedestrian" and "boy". Though your writing shows intelligence, if you were so smart, you could hit SPELL CHECK with one of your bigoted little fingers.
billy1007 where did you get your defintion of racism ? It certainly wasn't in my course on an Introduction to Racism 101...billy1007, I think you looked up the definition of racism in Webster or Thorndike.Therefore you have failed to pass lesson one in my course tilted"An Introduction To Racism " 101.
billy1007 when discussing issues of racial equality,most Americans,Black or White,rely on the same words; their disagreements are about what the words mean,and that's what we have in the instant case billy1007 in your many noteworthy responses to my basic definition on racism you can't see or apparently comprehend my defintion of racism. billy1007,Power+ Prejudice=Racism.
billy1007,racism is a disease and to remain in denial about the disease of White racism means that you are not on the road to recovery for treating your illness.
billy1007 your like the junkie who has an addiction to hard drugs but remains in denial until they are taught to see the light.billy1007,white America by in-large remains in denial about its individual and institutional white racism.
billy1007 where did you work in Mexico ? billy1007 the vast majority of so-called Mexicans come from a mixture of Spanish and indigenous(Amerindians)tribes,mostly Mayas,Aztecs,Toltecs and Olmecs. These Mexicans are called Mestizo's. And other Euro tribes miscegenated with the indigenous peoples such as the French,English,and a few Germans and others.
Furthermore billy1007,African slaves fled into Mexico via Texas to escape from the nefarious conditions of the Antebellum South,and they also mixed with various native people and the Spanairds. Present day Mexicans may have many different ranges of skin tone and color. They could be pale white,yellow-white,yellow red,copper,Olive-Gold,dark red,reddish yellow,bronze,sand brown,or dark brown,or blue black.
Are you still there,billy1007 ?
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