Michael Jordan admits to being racist as a teenager

We need to move beyond the idea that one kind of racism is better than others. It's ALL bad.

 

I agree that it is all bad, but some types are more harmful than others.

 

Or you can have a different interpretation. One sort of racism is a CONSEQUENCE of the other, and that consequence is a natural human reaction.
I believe if one of those types of racism was completely erradicated the other would be soon to follow.

 

I guess it depends on your perspective. OP will never create a thread which will negatively impact his position. Somehow, MJ being racist as a kid is more important to him than Perry or Bundy.

 

Its good to know you see everything black and white. If you would like to debate why someone is a bigot, that is fine. To imply one race is a bigot for one reason compared to the other, that would be ignorant.

 

No. It would be the truth.

 

Well, since I've been outed on this board as a "race-baiter" on numerous occasions...
...or at least seduced by them...

...the idea of an "equivalency", as it purports to racial harmony and/or reconciliation here, is often misstated, in my opinion.

As Michael Jordan's mother (and my own mother, and many such mothers have and continue to do) pointed out to him, two wrongs essentially don't make a right.

Often times, they don't even make things equal.

I don't think "racist" when I hear bigoted or racially disrespectful language from anyone, white or black or brown, personally. I tend to think "ignorant" or "stupid", mostly, if it's outside the confines of satire. My favorite T.V. character was the late Carroll O'Connor's "Archie Bunker", by the way...I never thought of him as a racist so much as a bigot (and a HILARIOUS bigot at that)....

Sticks and stones, after a fashion. In this day and age, we are all of us a lot better able to overcome or withstand or ignore anything like a racial bias and/or prejudice in our public lives.

But when I think "racist", I think of something a lot more structural and overarching in our public lives. It's not just a way of thinking...or even behaving...it is a set of spoken and unspoken rules that are both endorsed and codified into being the equivalent of "just" and "right" and "fair"...that cause undue harm to people across the spectrum of its implementation (through legislation, primarily)....

My (ex)wife and I were grocery shopping one day a few years ago, when we encountered a lady who was also shopping with her elderly mother. My ex-wife had no problem at all striking up a conversation with anybody who had a pulse...and the young lady and her were both about the same age (early-to-mid-thirties), so being women, they chatted for a little while. Soon, the lady's mom joined, and after a few minutes, said matter-of-factly, how delightful a colored girl the ex was.

(I'm inclined to give the sweet old soul a pass on that just because, but before I digress)...

The younger lady looked as if every blood vessel in her face had burst at the same time. The ex and I barely noticed the comment...we took it as such and expressed that to the young lady...the old lady reminded me of my mother, who was probably the same age (early 80's at least).

I was more sympathetic to the young white lady's feelings than I was to my own, I remember. She didn't have, it seemed, any sort of racial bias or prejudice toward us at all. But her mother seemed to be an unpleasant reminder (innocently and unintentionally, in this instance) of a time when things were not so for a lot of people.

It won't ever be easy to erase decades of institutionalized racism (that created classes of people and schools of thought) from our society without progress, no matter how haphazard or clumsy that process may be. A guess a good Christian (which I'm not) comparison would be the nation of Israel having to wander around in the desert for 40 years, waiting for the older generation of doubters and cowards to die off before they could move forward into a better future.

I think that the word "racist" is hurled around a bit too cavalierly. Unfortunately for some well-meaning white people, the system that created the mindset that indoctrinated and ignorant Negroes like myself have to forgive and forget, may still for a while brand a white person who has a business as being somehow covertly a racist. It's not a particularly good scenario, but as always, it seems, it's expected that the Negro (or the oppressed) has to be the bigger person and understand that that's the way people talk and think and they should have the freedom to talk and think any way they like...

The difference between a "racist" and a bigot, to me, is in how much damage a person can do to my life, and my ability to live my life as I determine it.

Anyone in a position of public influence and power is in danger of being a "racist", if they're unable to adapt (or even successfully hide) their prejudices, because they can consciously or unconsciously determine to hire or fire or blame or condemn a person or people that they don't particularly care for.

Bigots don't usually have that kind of influence. At least not anymore, by and large. But sometimes, if you get enough of them together, it can sure get some laws passed and changed and reinterpreted. And that's a much bigger problem, to me, since no amount (or lack) of legislation will do anything for the human heart.

If the prejudice is there, it has to be dealt with long before it gets entrenched in any sort of public arena now. Because even going to whatever lengths one might in order to hide or obfuscate it, if a discriminatory tone or tenor is set in public practice, it's going to get looked at with a lot of scrutiny.

Contrary to popular (or unpopular) belief, there are a lot of white folks who don't want to be lumped into "racist" boxcars, just like there's a lot of black folks who want out of those selfsame cars themselves.

And I like that. We're all in this thing together. But we have to understand, I think, that's it's not about who's a "racist" or who isn't.

It's about what we're going to tolerate and abide by as a society, particularly from "successful" people, whose material influence and positively or negatively impact every one of us, if we're committed to this course of racial reconciliation.

Although, if anybody's setting a watch to this stuff...
...it's been 60-some-odd-years and counting...

Heck, they didn't take this long to get things moving in old Israel...:grin:

 

If you have to say you aren't a racist does it mean you are one?

 

I'm with Texxx, racism is wrong in all contexts. Not sure why everyone is killing ya here. Props to MJ for recognizing it and sharing it.

 

Are you a racist?

 

I have it on good authority that MJ f-cking hate blacks. Black men in particular.

 

.....

 

Although for some people racism may be a result of cause and effect, like someone previously posted, ALL racism is equally bad. You simply cannot make an excuse for it. Likewise, although an extreme example, a rapist should not be excused for his crimes (or get slap on the hand) because he is a victim himself.

 

Being a racist isn't a crime. Owning a business and discriminating is a crime. It's easy to recognize the difference and scope of influence between a teenage kid and an elderly, wealthy adult business person.

 

It was more of an analogy. On the other point, I agree. My comment wasn't directed at Jordan, I was speaking in general terms.

 

God I think something might be wrong with me, because outside of Rocket's fandom I found another thing I agree with you on.

 

He's not really saying anything racist. You people don't read the context of the article. He was bullied and laughed at for being black, so at the time, he didn't like white people because he didn't know any better.
like the oldest saying in the book - every action has a reaction. this comment was a reaction to the action he described before it.

 

There are no good excuses on why a person is a racist and it's all bad.

But it isn't all equally bad. Those who are holding on to power and are racist and discriminatory have a much more profound and worse effect than those that are historically oppressed, impoverished and out of power.

I'm not saying there is an okay reason for anyone to be racist, but the effect of one type of racism is definitely worse than the effect of another type of racism.

 

I didn't realize ignorance and poor circumstances were a defense. So if a kid grows up in a household with white supremest parents who indoctrinate him into the culture is also not a racist?

 

I have to qualify this by saying it has to be one of the dumbest things I have EVER heard on this bbs. That's saying a lot btw.

So-
When a white man is racist it can't be because of animosity of previous atrocities from black people?

I mean it's all because white man thinks of superiority huh?

Your definition of how/why someone is racist is so far off base it's laughable. It's like you are being racist in your statement of how you define racists? Hilarious or troll.

Please tell me you are joking and this is a troll comment. You are deciding why people think a certain way about another race based on what? How do you know why a person is racist? please tell me.

fwiw I know people that were not racist then BECAME racist against xyz race. Not sure how you might reconcile that? Your comment sucks (unless you were trolling then good job)

Heck I don't like people from boston after having lived in southern california where there are tons of boston people.. with their lame ass green monster shirts, talking about the patriots all day and being generally lame. I used to not care one way or another yet when around them I grew to dislike people from boston. In your wolrd it would be because previous atrocities or that I am thinking I am superior, when the reality is I just think boston people suck.

Sometimes there is not always a hidden agenda or meaning when xyz group thinks another xyz group sucks.