Liberal holds a racist sign at pro-Zimmerman protest to make them look like racist

Fine, but maybe you should try thinking for yourself some as well, and taking that into account as well as just "listening to your elders". Everyone who has the old crazy racist grandparent knows what I'm talking about here.

If everyone only listened to what "their elders" had to say, nothing would ever change.

 

"Elder" isn't simply somebody older than you. Just because somebody is old and they are talking to you, that doesn't mean you respect that. "Elder" is a title that must be earned.

My grandmother has earned that title.... growing up and surviving in 1930s-40s American and thenraising 7 black children in 1960s America by herself (after her husband was murdered).

If we didn't listen to our elders.....we would have perished long ago.

 

I don't think he has said he hates white people. He doesn't trust them completely as a group. He is "judging" his expectations of his interactions with white people. I think of racism as being more about thinking one is superior and hatred and all that.

I have always understood them to be different and do not think I am playing semantics.

You people are seriously upset and obsessed with amaru having an opinion.

 

The dictionary definition of racism is the act of ascribing certain characteristics to an entire group of people/race and/or belief in the superiority of one particular race.

Amaru, by regarding all white people with a certain caution, is categorizing all whites as inherently racist or incapable of treating black people fairly. Thus, he is technically being racist.

That said, the label "racist," at least the former kind, is not necessarily a bad thing. As humans, we all partake in cognitive heuristics out of necessity. Can you imagine how difficult life would be if we had to start a blank slate with each and every person we meet without any simplifying assumptions? The real problem starts when one is unwilling to change those assumptions or those assumptions lead one to regard another as an inferior human.

Furthermore, I've explained the difference between minority and white racism earlier in this thread; namely, that the former is mostly powerless in the US, while the latter has very real systemic consequences on minorities.

 

So....if a white guy said that black people cannot be trusted, he's a racist. If a black guy says that white people cannot be trusted, it's just his opinion?

 

Some Black people have a mistrust of white people because of prior human rights violations. Not saying it's justified but it's less ridiculous than White people mistrusting Black people because of some sort of inferiority.

 

So she is prejudiced, probably with good reason. She has had many painful experiences. Those experiences are hers. I wouldn't begrudge her her pain. It's not your pain (yes, I know it was your grandfather, I'm talking about going through the experiences themselves). What good does it do you to try and co-opt it? Feel her pain, yes, feel bad for her, yes, but it's hers. What good would it do her for you to take it on? Do you think you're doing her some favor or service in that?

What parent or grandparent wants their child to go through the worst of what they went through?

What good does it do you to judge people neither you nor your grandmother have ever met (and who might not have even been alive in 1960s america?) based on the fact that they're white? What good does that do anyone?

I can see why you might do it, but I wish you (and other people who do the same) wouldn't.

How would you expect anything to change if everyone kept the same prejudices their parents had?

 

If you talk to a decent number of white people, it's not for inferiority why they mistrust African Americans. They believe that the group in general is predisposed to committing crimes, being uneducated, and "welfare queens". The media they consume only reinforces that.

They also refuse the argument for 'prior human rights violation'. Because of our impatience and inability to comprehend time, most humans cannot accurately weigh several hundred years of slavery against the passage of time from the 1860s/1960s till now. Enough time has gone by for the former slaves to pick themselves back up, they believe.

The African American issue will take several decades to resolve. With the influx of immigrants including non-American Africans, and a globalized economy requiring advanced education, skills and human capital, African Americans will be left far behind socioeconomically. I believe having an attitude like Amaru's only hinders when a time for rebuilding has come.

 

Personalizing the historical wrongs of another are like a coping mechanism when you have no identity. I studied this in undergrad, but cannot right now remember the exact idea so forgive me for generalizing this. Many African Americans feel disconnected from the world around them because they've been uprooted from their ancestral home. They also feel confused growing up at how the world perceives them and their relatively low socioeconomic status. Thus, they latch onto the immediate history of their parents and grandparents as a foundation on which to stand. By internalizing it, they can survive, they claim.

I agree with them. However, there are many ways to survive. One of them is letting go of the past and recognizing it for the artificial, social construct it is. Good Bye Lenin (2003) is great movie which explores this phenomenon of what the past means for a group of people.

 

Agreed. If they maintain their self-destructive culture, they'll continue to get lapped by every immigrant group that arrives at our shores. I've tried to help amaru but he's not receptive.

 

I understand that in essence you are agreeing but being predisposed to committing more crime and being uneducated is basically believing they are inferior.

 

And at the same time I think you should understand that a race that has been enslaved for 200+ years and then after being freed were segregated in schools that received merely 10% of the funding as a non colored school for another additional 100 years is going to need more than one to two generations to play catch up.

 

This is basically what I'm trying to say. I don't particularly begrudge him choosing his own way, but I wish he and others would maybe give letting go of the past (and particularly of a past in which neither they nor the objects of their mistrust were involved in or even alive for) a try.

 

1) What do you mean "take on her pain"? I know some of the tragedies she in her life....but there are MANY , MANY things she refuses to talk about. We can just see the pain in her eyes sometimes. We can see the depths to which European-American society made her sink too sometimes in her interactions with white people. The mistrust is there (and it is completely justified) but there is also this notion of 2nd class citizenship......sometimes she will go into this "shuffling and grinning" mode when interacting with whites, especially white males. I don't like it, but I understand it. It is a survival mechanism.....especially for black females who were often seen as mere playthings for white males depraved sexual fantasies. I don't think I have "taken on her pain"...how could I? I don't know what it's like to live in a racist and sexist world as a black female. What I have inherited....from my father who got it from his parents....is a mistrust of Europeans in general.

2) Our elders didn't want us to go through that. That is why many of them fought and died so that we could live a better life. In addition to that, they taught us. They gave us what they had been given...(survival mechanisms, church, stories, etc.) Their experiences influenced the way they raised their children. For example once my aunts hit puberty, they were not allowed to go outside of the house by themselves.....why you ask? The fear was that some white day laborer would take advantage of them or worse (this fear was WELL FOUNDED). My father and his brothers were instructed to stay away from young white girls....why you ask? The fear was that they would be either severely beaten or worse (once again a WELL-FOUNDED) fear.

Given that our elders have done so much for us, it is only right that we listen to them and heed their advice (obviously some of it has to be adapted for the times.) I know the notion of listening to your elders might be a strange one for some people because European-American society tells us that it is acceptable to dump our "old people" into "retirement homes" even if we have the means to support them because they might "cramp our style". Reverence for ones elders, doesn't seem to be a part of European-American society as far as I can tell.

3) It does make sense for African people, in general, to be wary of pretty much anything that comes out of a society founded on the genocide of one group (First Nation people aka "Indians") and the exploitation of another (Africans). That's not to say that EVERY single thing that comes out of that society is going to detrimental to us or our causes, but this suspicion is well founded. There are NUMEROUS examples of how this government has exploited our people for various reasons...from enslavement to eugenics and just about everything in between. There are black men and women walking around TODAY who cannot/didn't have children because of government forced sterilization programs. (See Margret Sanger, "Planned Parenthood" and the American Eugenics movement)

A people who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it.

4) I wish I didn't have to be on guard everywhere I went. I wish I could walk down the street without people automatically assuming I'm out to do them harm simply because I'm a young african male. Unfortunately that is not the world I live in. That doesn't mean I'm gonna roll up in a ball and cry myself to sleep, but it does mean that I have to be realistic about the world I live in and plan accordingly.

5) Sadly I don't expect things to change in the near future...or even in my lifetime for that matter. Race is a social construct and racism permeates almost every level of American society....and global society as well. War, Religion, Sex, Law, Education, Economics, etc. Things won't truly change until Europeans truly see Non-European people as their equals....in their heart of hearts. It seems that Europeans are a long way away from this.

I believe that there are things we, as Africans, can do to potentially expedite this process, but that would be going off on another tangent.

 

Tell me, bigtexxx...what is this "self-destructive culture" that you claim blacks ( I'm assuming you mean African-Americans) maintain?

 

I disagree and I will explain why if you're interested.

TBH I think most of the details would go over your head...

 

I sincerely think that you should seek professional counseling. You don't seem to be at peace and living in the past won't get you there.

 

baited and hooked.

sigh...

 

I don't recall making such an argument. I would say that if a white guy had a long history of black people messing with him that led to him mistrusting them then that would not be racism. He might still be wrong but it might not be coming from a position of racial superiority.

At the end of the day amaru is not out on the streets looking to kill whitey so I think he is just fine and the outrage in here is typical whitey funny. Preach on, protectors of the master race!

 

Thank you for your concern (I guess)

But I don't want nor need professional counseling.

I disagree that I'm living in the past....I'm simply a black man who understands that his people's past affects his future......and I intend to do something about it.