Race Relations in the US

[thetruepandagod]

But really none of this would be a problem if

Spoiler: show

jews would just ship blacks back to africa mirite?

[Brill Weave]

Could we though?
I legitimately do not believe very many people on this site have the insight to say anything meaningful on the subject.

Problem is that those who want to have legit discussion will be shouted down by the racebaiters and people not contributing anything other than troll posts.

[Ksandra]

why would you even make this thread

Because I foolishly thought republicans weren't THAT stupid.

Don't pretend like you don't hear people say it a lot.


Sometimes I can't handle the stupid explaining the stupid, so I come to BG to find out. I couldn't think of any logical reason for the statement. I thought maybe they were referencing some law or some shit Obama passed.

[Roranora]

Because I foolishly thought republicans weren't THAT stupid.

Don't pretend like you don't hear people say it a lot.

If your thinking was so GOP-focused, the same OP with a different thread title might have went differently. BG (and Bane) don't seem ready for this.

[Ksandra]

If your thinking was so GOP-focused, the same OP with a different thread title might have went differently. BG (and Bane) don't seem ready for this.

I don't mind it turning into a legitimate discussion on how to improve relations, but I just wanted the OP answered for myself. Which I got. So it's all good for me.

It's not like we haven't taken hot topics and worked out threads for them.

[BerenTebogo]

Because I foolishly thought republicans weren't THAT stupid.

Don't pretend like you don't hear people say it a lot.


Sometimes I can't handle the stupid explaining the stupid, so I come to BG to find out. I couldn't think of any logical reason for the statement. I thought maybe they were referencing some law or some shit Obama passed.

I can't think of a single time in recent memory where I've heard people say this. That said, I don't talk to idiots or allow them to talk at me, so that solves like 99% of potential problems.

[Ksandra]

I can't think of a single time in recent memory where I've heard people say this. That said, I don't talk to idiots or allow them to talk at me, so that solves like 99% of potential problems.

I see it in a lot of fb comments. But yeah, articles pop up a lot, too.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...er-obama-poll/

[Lucavi]

I can't think of a single time in recent memory where I've heard people say this. That said, I don't talk to idiots or allow them to talk at me, so that solves like 99% of potential problems.

I'm sure some of it's trollbait (some of any viewpoint on the internet is trollbait), but there's a lot of legitimate conversation about it in some circles. Its a real thing.

[Sho]

Ehh, this thread.

[BaneTheBrawler]

Eh, I'll mod it if it's not generating dozens of reported posts/week. Also, no more thread bitching. At all. Seriously, I'm playing nice right now but from now on kid gloves come off.

Anyway, to contribute and hopefully move the thread along, one thing I like to point out anytime the subject of racism comes up is that we have people alive and in congress right now who grew up in a segregated America. My dad vividly remembers going on a road trip down south and stopping at a park or something, and they had a nice porcelain drinking fountain for whites and a pipe in the mud for blacks.

I feel like people don't really appreciate just how much history still affects us.

[Milkster]

Eh, I'll mod it if it's not generating dozens of reported posts/week. Also, no more thread bitching. At all. Seriously, I'm playing nice right now but from now on kid gloves come off.

Anyway, to contribute and hopefully move the thread along, one thing I like to point out anytime the subject of racism comes up is that we have people alive and in congress right now who grew up in a segregated America. My dad vividly remembers going on a road trip down south and stopping at a park or something, and they had a nice porcelain drinking fountain for whites and a pipe in the mud for blacks.

I feel like people don't really appreciate just how much history still affects us.

Right? It's kind of fucked up to think that most of the world holds beliefs similar to those of the 40s and 50s in regards to black people. Even other POC take shots at each other. It's always fun to hangout with someone and watch how racist they become when someone of a different color pisses them off.

Avoiding racism and race relations and hoping it gets better is like ignoring that your child has a terminal disease and will get better if you don't pay attention to or look for solutions. There is a middle ground that needs to be found though, Not everything is racist and Everything you do isn't cool and complaining that you're a victim when someone calls you out on your bs.

[Zetanio]

It's always fun to hangout with someone and watch how racist they become when someone of a different color pisses them off.

Having lived in the south for a period of time. This happened an amazing amount.

[Cream Soda]

lol reminds me of the time I went to visit Poof in Pikeville TN (middle of fucking nowhere) Stopped by McDonalds and everyone was just staring at me and Poof goes "What's the matter? You guys never seen a nigger before?" I died laughing

[Xno Kappa]

It's always fun to hangout with someone and watch how racist they become when someone of a different color pisses them off.

I don't necessarily think that makes them inherently racist. Sometimes people just want to spew the most hateful shit they can think of when they're mad.

[Sho]

lol reminds me of the time I went to visit Poof in Pikeville TN (middle of fucking nowhere) Stopped by McDonalds and everyone was just staring at me and Poof goes "What's the matter? You guys never seen a nigger before?" I died laughing

This happens on both sides. Ignorance on the level of not knowing how to act around a person of color (happens with African-Americans & Hispanics as well). People live in communities that aren't diverse and pick up on every popular stereotype for a certain race and project said stereotypes (or aversion to) as soon as they are placed in a situation.

[Psion]

I don't necessarily think that makes them inherently racist. Sometimes people just want to spew the most hateful shit they can think of when they're mad.

"goddamn stupid black gangster kid" "my black friend in college" etc... sure, it's understandable to cuss someone out when they do something to piss you off... but why even mention the color of their skin? wth does that have to do with them being an jackass? it just tells people that you associate race with something bad, which to me is a definite cue someone is racist, whether they admit it or not. same with saying black friend or whatever... again, why does the color of their skin have to be mentioned unless someones asking you what they look like? heck, i usually just describe someone as dark skinned instead of "black" because theres a lot of people from south america and other parts of the world with dark skin as well.

i just think its telling when people put in the color of someones skin alongside more "colorful" (haha) words like bitch and jackass.

[Blubbartron]

Eh, I'll mod it if it's not generating dozens of reported posts/week. Also, no more thread bitching. At all. Seriously, I'm playing nice right now but from now on kid gloves come off.

Anyway, to contribute and hopefully move the thread along, one thing I like to point out anytime the subject of racism comes up is that we have people alive and in congress right now who grew up in a segregated America. My dad vividly remembers going on a road trip down south and stopping at a park or something, and they had a nice porcelain drinking fountain for whites and a pipe in the mud for blacks.

I feel like people don't really appreciate just how much history still affects us.

History affects us, and at other times, it doesn't. We literally put Japanese people in concentration camps. The propaganda we had for Japanese and German people was just as obscenely hateful as stuff we had for blacks. So what's the difference? Why do we seem to have effectively zero lingering hatred for some groups, but not others?

Personally, I think it comes down to two distinct things, both of which are super important when it comes to functioning in society (even among your own people):
1) Forgiveness (maturity? maybe there's a better word). You aren't going to get far if you keep constantly bringing up the wrongs that were done to you in the past. There is no way to truly fix something that happened in the past. At some point you just have to get over it, and accept that people are trying. Constantly pulling out the race card (otherwise known as the "you hurt me in the past" card) anytime something doesn't go your way only causes people to distance themselves from you.

2) Integration (aka: conformity). Part of getting along with society is being in the society. If you're intentionally doing things to put distance between yourself and other groups, of course you're going to be perceived as an outsider. All through our history, immigrants were treated like absolute dog shit, but they did the things that were required to integrate, and that got them accepted by the majority of people in a fair amount of time. They gave their kids common names instead of their own, they learned the language people spoke, and they learned about and engaged in the culture of the place they lived in.

[Arelian]

History affects us, and at other times, it doesn't. We literally put Japanese people in concentration camps. The propaganda we had for Japanese and German people was just as obscenely hateful as stuff we had for blacks. So what's the difference? Why do we seem to have effectively zero lingering hatred for some groups, but not others?

Personally, I think it comes down to two distinct things, both of which are super important when it comes to functioning in society (even among your own people):
1) Forgiveness (maturity? maybe there's a better word). You aren't going to get far if you keep constantly bringing up the wrongs that were done to you in the past. There is no way to truly fix something that happened in the past. At some point you just have to get over it, and accept that people are trying. Constantly pulling out the race card (otherwise known as the "you hurt me in the past" card) anytime something doesn't go your way only causes people to distance themselves from you.

2) Integration (aka: conformity). Part of getting along with society is being in the society. If you're intentionally doing things to put distance between yourself and other groups, of course you're going to be perceived as an outsider. All through our history, immigrants were treated like absolute dog shit, but they did the things that were required to integrate, and that got them accepted by the majority of people in a fair amount of time. They gave their kids common names instead of their own, they learned the language people spoke, and they learned about and engaged in the culture of the place they lived in.

I'm at work and posting on my phone so I can't pull up cited examples, but it's asinine to think that racism and hatred towards Asian races has died out.

Has it become less physically harmful? On a societal level, yes. But it's not like we're putting anyone in concentration camps in the US anymore (at least not "official ones").

But there are still stories of people targeting people of Asian descent and beating them. There are still stereotypes that are perpetuated out of sheer malice that have no basis in reality other than confirmation bias.

Look at Europe right now if you need a good example of why "ignoring the problem" doesn't work. Syrian refugees are literally being assaulted by people because they aren't "welcome."

Integration is all well and good, but we live in a culture that's slowly growing more and more globalised. Expecting people to conform to YOUR standards so you aren't inconvenienced by way of having to view them as an actual person is gradually becoming an antiquated notion.

There are still a hundreds of thousands of Italians living in America that embrace their Italian heritage. Same with Scottish, Irish, Spanish. They didn't change to fit American culture. They didn't stop having names that came from their homelands. How many grandparents still barely speak English? Asking someone to leave their culture behind isn't an answer.

[Enkidu]

Quibbling about the specifics of his question doesn't really get to the actual question. Sure racism exists on all levels for all groups of peoples, even white people, but the point of his question, I think, was based on the perceived weight of racism towards certain groups. You certainly cannot argue that the weight of racism towards Asian/Indian/Irish/German/etc... groups has not wained significantly more then racism towards black people in the last several decades. The question is why?

And since the most considerable effort in race relations is focused on racism towards black people - not other races - one can surely pose the question of whether or not our efforts are hurting more then they are helping. Not really in the vein of the OP, however.

[Churchill]

I'm at work and posting on my phone so I can't pull up cited examples, but it's asinine to think that racism and hatred towards Asian races has died out.

Has it become less physically harmful? On a societal level, yes. But it's not like we're putting anyone in concentration camps in the US anymore (at least not "official ones").

But there are still stories of people targeting people of Asian descent and beating them. There are still stereotypes that are perpetuated out of sheer malice that have no basis in reality other than confirmation bias.

Look at Europe right now if you need a good example of why "ignoring the problem" doesn't work. Syrian refugees are literally being assaulted by people because they aren't "welcome."

Integration is all well and good, but we live in a culture that's slowly growing more and more globalised. Expecting people to conform to YOUR standards so you aren't inconvenienced by way of having to view them as an actual person is gradually becoming an antiquated notion.

There are still a hundreds of thousands of Italians living in America that embrace their Italian heritage. Same with Scottish, Irish, Spanish. They didn't change to fit American culture. They didn't stop having names that came from their homelands. How many grandparents still barely speak English? Asking someone to leave their culture behind isn't an answer.

Incredible.