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Comment on The False Positive by MO

MO — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:34:27 +0000

This is an all too familiar misconception of race and achievement. I am from a small town where the opinions of the locals are far from liberal and beliefs about minorities and immigrants are anything but positive. Fortunately, I can say that I was able to resist internalizing these stereotypes and consider myself to be a fairly racially-conscious person. However, I cannot say the same for my brother, whom I spent some time with over Thanksgiving break. He pretty much epitomized every ignorant comment and belief you spoke of. Despite my disgust and arguing with him trying to get him to realize just how uninformed and ridiculous he was acting he remained stuck in his redneck ways and refused to even listen to the facts I was laying out for him.

It is frustrating and disheartening to me that these misconceptions and stereotypes exist, but even more frustrating that so many people refuse to acknowledge the clear-cut statistics that exist about many minority groups and their subjective experience in the U.S.

Comment on Let’s find the racist! And then let’s shame the racist! by Faith

Faith — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:17:45 +0000

Trying to “find the racist” is something I have to admit I’ve been guilty of. I’ve found myself all too eager to chat with friends about teriable people who said or did racist things. I think this blog is right, that part of the reason we do this is so we can section off racism, deal with it, and then go back to our daily unracist lives. I would like to take the sentament further and say that “finding the racist” is as much about denying a system of racism, as it is about denying the privilege we (white people) gain from this system, and further denying the racism within ourselves.
I first began thinking about this while in a class of mine called Culture Ethnicity and Mental Health. Race is a fairly regular topic among the discussions in this class, and because of that, people have on occasion let some less than PC statements slip. During these times I found it extra important to raise my hand in disagreement, or to at least offer a very obvious eye roll. One day I stopped to wonder why I feel such a strong urge and derive such pleasure from pointing out and shooting down other peoples racist comments. Is it because I want to end racism? That may be part of it. But ultimately it was because if I call something else racist, I can’t be. It was interesting to read this blog and think about this as a social phenomena that applies to the way society looks at media as well.
In pointing out someone else’s racist ways it not only allows us to deny any possibility of racism within ourselves, but it allows us to blame those individuals for something that is not case to case, but in fact a system of oppression in which we all play a roll. It is imperative for this system to be ignored because the white majority benefits greatly. America, like me, is too eager to turn to individual situations to end racism, like having a black president or condemning a preacher. While these are important strides, to think they will end racism is a dangerous misconception. When something is ignored, how can it be changed?

Comment on Let’s find the racist! And then let’s shame the racist! by Hannah Scott

Hannah Scott — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 02:02:43 +0000

It’s interesting the Judges reasoning on the matter. It seems he is honestly attempting to spare a child from emotional damage for whatever reason he thinks it will be so. And as far as i have been taught thus far, muti-racial people do have certain extra stresses in their lives in regards to race, however, that doesn’t mean their stress in any grander than any other human being in the world, it’s just different. It’s something I will never understand as a white American, but I hardly believe that the stress it causes is not worth the life lead. And who’s to say this couple wants kids at all? The judge’s job is to marry two people in love who wish to legally bond their lives together…who said anything about kids? Even still, their kid is their choice, and they should know what’s to come in dealing with their child in the world regardless of race, let alone in addition to race.

So now what? Everyone is pissed off about this idiot in the south..were we really all that shocked? I’m amazed he could speak fast enough to deny them, before we all grew old and died. It’s true that it doesn’t seem that the world quite knows the amount of racism that still exists, and I agree that it would be a helpful thing for this kind of information to become more mainstream. But it seems hardly possible at this point to have the media present things like this. When we can’t even see truth of what’s going on in in our own war from our own News station, what makes anyone think we can make a change via our media? I’m not sure the solution…it’s a frustrating topic. But we have to keep at it and find a way to make a change. Be active. Spread the word.

Comment on Let’s find the racist! And then let’s shame the racist! by Joey LaBadia

Joey LaBadia — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:22:51 +0000

I remember when this event broke out in the news and Bobby Jindal made a big fuss about this. At first I thought this was all fake. The reason for this is that right around this time Foxnews recently called Obama racist and compared him to Hitler. When this happen I thought Bobby Jindal was trying to assure people that the republican party wasn’t racist, and who better to stand up for the interracial couple than Bobby Jindal who is of Indian decent. After a day or so I realized this wasn’t just a set up by the Republican party, but stuff like this continues on in the south. What struck me as even more odd was the fact that whatever church the couple wanted to get married in denied them their rights. How can a religion do that?

It is easy today for anything to get in the news. I feel the news in America is a joke, but I do think this was one of the few stories that deserves to be in the news and earn all the attention. But it will not last long in the news and most have already forgotten about it. But the point is that blaming someone of being a racist is almost a very harsh remark this day and age. This event supports the claim made against Bardwell. But racism doesn’t make the news anymore like it used to, and I think if it did it would show people how messed up our country is. In the 1960s when the civil rights act were going on, race issues made the news all the time, and now I think a lot of people assume nothing is wrong. But look at everything that has happened recently. As soon as Obama became president, he is accused of being a racist by foxnews, we’re any of the other recent presidents ever called a racist by any news network? No, and why would race come up? Oh, because he is the first black president. The only time race seems to make the news is when Al Sharpton speaks out against race and most people I know don’t take him serious. I don’t take him serious most of the time and I think the news puts him on as a joke. If the news would show more events like this I think more people would realize the actual problems of this country.

Comment on Let’s find the racist! And then let’s shame the racist! by Emily S.

Emily S. — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 01:11:48 +0000

This is an interesting piece on how we view and criticize racists in the 21st Century. It seems that it is much easier for mainstream media and the public alike to grasp onto stories, such as the one involving this Justice of the Peace, than to deal with the subtle racism that shapes all of our decisions and actions today. To turn on the news, and every night shine a light on and discuss instances of subtle racism that we permit in our daily lives would frankly become depressing and perhaps cause many to resent the issue completely. So, it is easier for us to make an example of and shame members of our collective community that act out racial prejudices that “cross the line” of acceptability. Does this public task of teaching-a-lesson help convert this man and others to be more aware of their racial prejudices? I’m not sure, but I agree that it does draw away from the important issues of how such prejudices are bred and carried on throughout our Country. While I admire the efforts of blogs such as this to shine a light on the more important and more difficult to answer questions regarding race, how do we get the mainstream culture to care and bother to think about these issues? Is it only the sensationalizing (and then unfortunate dormancy afterwards) of such individual characters that causes the average American to care at all about that status of race today? Surveys show that most Whites wildly underestimate the threat, disadvantages, prejudices and inequality caused by racism today; how else are we to open their eyes to the fact that in 2009, despite electing Barack Obama, racism is still a serious issue?

Comment on Let’s find the racist! And then let’s shame the racist! by Joel Arken

Joel Arken — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:06:33 +0000

The real issue here is aversive racism. Of course obtrusive, obvious forms of racism still exist, but they are not longer defining racism; they aren’t new, fresh, idealistic forms of racism like King Leopold’s version of fair trade. When these old-fashioned versions of ourselves are viewed, the closed-minded bigot of a preacher, the school bus driver, the old woman that mumbles “spic” as she buys groceries, these are examples that break the status quo of racial silence.
The hip way to be is colorblind. You can still grab your purse when you walk in Queens or North Portland, you can still not hire a black man that is as qualified as a white candidate, you can really do anything you want, AS LONG as you blame your action on something that isn’t racism.

Well, it’s dark out and I would have been afraid of anyone,
but it wasn’t anyone, it was a black man,

Well, he was just not what we were looking for as a student,
but the skin tone of the white candidate was?

The lines are arbitrary but the racism is clear and present. There is still white privilege and there is still ignorance. It’s just as deeply rooted as it was, but now it is quiet and subtle.

I don’t think change will come from accepting that there is a world that surrounds the smaller world in which we congregate, change will come from acknowledgment that there are problems today by Every Person, and trying to rectify those together.

Yeah?

Comment on Let’s find the racist! And then let’s shame the racist! by Friday Connections – 13-11-09

Friday Connections – 13-11-09 — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 06:27:20 +0000

[...] Let’s find the racist! And then let’s shame the racist! – A very considered, thoughtful response to the news regarding the Louisana judge who refused to marry a mixed-race couple because, well, he didn’t think it right. Jen Chau pushes us to think beyond the knee jerk “that’s so racist” response, and look at things a bit deeper. [...]

Comment on The False Positive by Leotis Martin

Leotis Martin — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:49:54 +0000

I guess I have difficulty understanding whether those who acknowledge academic success are truly being sincere or patronizing. This stems from my experience in NY independent schools where there was a certain exoticism attached to an “articulate minority” (a little less extreme than in public schools in terms of isolation, but the disbelief was more pronounced). I understand that some people are just expressing emotions based on limited cultural interactions, so I guess the key is respecting an acknowledgment as just an observation, with the implication of an insult simply based on the context of the conversation…

Comment on The False Positive by black hattitude

black hattitude — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 07:39:53 +0000

Hi, thanks for the great quality of your blog, every time i come here, i'm amazed. black hattitude.

Comment on The False Positive by JS

JS — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:18:56 +0000

I don’t know it you can quite assume that Acquaintance means #1 or #2 actually. I think they might be recognizing all the obstacles a member of a disenfranchised minority would be up against perhaps even including the need to direct most of their skills toward survival versus say gaining acceptance into [insert institution of private learning here.]

Basically, I don’t think that ALL the people expressing this kind of sentiment are trying to articulate that, but perhaps some are. What would be a better way to acknowledge the accomplishment of academic success (specifically academic success, since I definitely agree that’s not the only success to be had!) to someone who had more obstacles to overcome than most people for their degrees that DOESN’T insult the people and the communities that they came from? This is part of a conversation that comes up a lot in my own personal life, so I’m honestly wondering how someone could communicate that.