# Rant about Racism. Don't worry this is only the internet.



## PowerShell (Feb 3, 2013)

muffinsplanned said:


> As long as *racism* is a problem *race* will be an issue that neds to be discussed and paid attention to. Racism is still running rampant in the US, as seen with the creations of ghettos, the stereotyping and hypersexualisation of black women, and the demonization of black men as violent criminals. Black people are more likely than white people to go to prison, and black men are shot to death everyday by the police while white criminals who literally shoot AT the police get arrested without a being shot.


Could it be there are actually statistics to back the violent stereotype?



> In 2008, the off ending rate for blacks (24.7 off enders per100,000) was 7 times higher than the rate for whites (3.4off enders per 100,000)


Source: http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/htus8008.pdf

So a black person is 7 TIMES more likely to commit a gun crime than a white. Ever wonder why cops are on the edge? A cop would have to deal with 7 whites to assume the same risk of dealing with 1 black. Maybe if it was a closer ratio, the stereotype would not exist but until those numbers go down, statistically speaking, there is some evidence behind it.



> Talking about race is important because ignoring the racism issue is not going to do anything. Not talking about a problem won't make the proble go away. People need to be loud, active, they need to be active on forums, they need to be active around friends, they need to be active on the streets, and in every part of life to highlight that_this is still an issue_. Not talking about it will be a feasable solution when racism isn't prevalent anymore.
> 
> Race may be a social construct, and that is also something we all have to know; but we have based our whole society on that construct.


So if race is a social construct should we change that social construct to ignore it and treat people as people? That's what I have been saying the whole time. Let's stop grouping people and dividing them up to create an us vs them mentality. We shouldn't talk about race in that respect because it's not productive. Putting up artificial barriers only causes resentment and fuels the fire even more.

Think of it like this, if you go to the doctor, you want a qualified doctor. With programs like affirmative action, I bet you'd have it in the back of your mind if your doctor is qualified if they go through via affirmative action. Why should we even put a system in place that entertains that thought? How about we make it so the most qualified get in and everyone who comes out is competent and not questioned if they were given special privileges to just eke their way through? 




> Now as for *fix those schools*
> 
> They're trying to but districts surrounding don't want to share capital needed to build up the schools, teachers, education etc. They've been trying for decades.


Or you could be like Wisconsin and allow open enrollment where anyone can enroll their kid in any public school district regardless of where they live. In addition, there are private school vouchers. Basically you let public schools compete against each other and also compete with private schools. When there is competition, everyone wins.



> Now as for "*police them"*.
> 
> They are already being policed. In Chicago the police are arresting two-three people per trip out, and their "trips out" are constant. Phones are ringing off the hook. Neighbouring police won't help.


Why are phones ringing off the hook? Could it be THEY ARE COMMITTING CRIMES? To arrest someone, they have to be accused of committing a crime. As I pointed out with the homicide statistics, they are disproportionately committing the crimes. What do you expect? If they are disproportionately committing the crimes, obviously there are going to be more of them arrested.



> Throwing people in jail for petty crimes, for non-violent crimes also won't help the situation, because you are going to have a group of people who are already disadvantaged, who are already disproportionally targeted by the police, and they get arrested. If you live in a neighbourhood that is heavily policed then chances are tha you're not going to feel that good about yourself. Low-selfesteem won't translate into good grades, but it will most probably translate into hopelessness and anger which is a bad combination because who are people who get into gangs? People who are angry. Who are people who follow others? They have low self-esteem.


Didn't you just say the phones were ringing off the hook before? Obviously there's a disproportionate amount of crime being committing in those areas otherwise the phones would not be ringing off the hook.




> You think that because other people fights harder that translates into that I think you didn't fight hard. Is this what this is about? You want to know that you're struggling equally hard as others? Well based on the information you've given here... you haven't. That's not a bad thing, that's a great thing. You didn't have to fight tooth and nail! You fought hard, and you deserve where you came to. No one should fight tooth and nail to have to get anywhere, but you have to acknowledge that there is a systematic bias which disfavors certain people.


No, what I'm trying to say is dividing people up by race and giving each race different privileges or advantages over another race makes people resentful. Resent fuels racism. It's creating an us vs. them mentality when we need to unify each other and work together. The systematic bias has turned the tables and made laws in place that put a bunch of landmines in place if you're white.


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## Cheeta (Apr 7, 2013)

Adding to what PowerShell said: see attachment. 

There's feelings about socalled police 'racist killings', and then there's facts. 
Problem is the feelings do not match up with the facts.

This graph from NYC shows:
1. Firearm-violence per racegroup
2. Police firearm-usage against racegroups
3. Firearm-violence per racegroup against police

Statistics show:
1. Blacks only form a little over 20% of NYC population, but are responsible for over *70% *of criminal shootings
2. Almost 70% of firearm-violence against police is from blacks, the remaing 30% from hispanics, 0% from whites
3. 'Only' 50% of NYPD firearm-usage is against blacks, ~15% against whites

Concluding: a disproportionate amount of *WHITES *are being fired upon by police, at least in the NYC-area. I wouldn't at all be surprised if other states show similar statistics.

And before we're going there: I'm colored myself. But I do enjoy facts over non-factual emotions.


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## Derange At 170 (Nov 26, 2013)

People too often get their panties in a bunch about every day, small time racism. It's dumb, it's bad, but it's also a reality. Like there being liars, people who cheat on their partners, shoplifters, etc and so on. The only real problem is institutionalized racism. And while both types go hand in hand, I'm so fucking sick and tired of blowing people saying something racist out of proportions: there's many ways in which people can be immoral. Stop putting racism in this separate category where every time someone is being racist, the whole fucking world has to hear about and every fucking person has to prove to the whole world exactly how anti-racist they are. Don't like racist people? Don't hang out with them. And keep the self-righteous rants to yourself.


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## I_destroyedtheuniverse (Jul 24, 2014)

Twisted Mind said:


> If you hate on a certain race, you're a racist.
> 
> So if I hate on a certain piece of _art_, does that make me an _art_ist?
> 
> I'm not really sure what my point is.


I had to laugh at that. In a good way...


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## Cesspool (Aug 8, 2014)

Race. Space. 

We need to start colonizing space.


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## HAL (May 10, 2014)

Personally I think a bigger issue is cultural differences.

We just prefer people who do things the way we do.

In the UK there is massive anti-Muslim sentiment these days (mainly because of the media), and it's all because of how Muslim communities want to live differently from traditional British communities.

It's not a basic case of, "Oh man Muslims are just stupid.", it's more about the fact that they simply are different in many aspects of their living.

And so I'm becoming more willing to accept, or even argue, that some people will indeed have feelings of hostility, because their way of life is not being followed or tolerated by the newcomers around them.

It's all good and well to say that we should tolerate everything and embrace everyone with open arms, but it can probably be quite difficult, lonely, or even scary, when, for example, the local community and way of life you grew up with diminishes to only a handful of people, while next door a bustling mosque has opened and the local school is now teaching classes in Urdu to make sure the kids can all understand.

That's an extreme example and sounds like something straight out of the Daily Mail (Britain's worst newspaper), but it is a fair depiction of things that have happened, albeit slowly, in parts of the country. Note how I used the Muslim example, but I could have used any other common British immigrant - it just happens to be that Muslims are the current hot topic. My birth city had a lot of Caribbean immigrants in the 80s and 90s and I'm surely that was similarly hard for some.

The place where I mainly group hasn't been too harshly affected by such things, but, as this is the topic of the thread, I would like to say that I can entirely understand why some people may grow to have certain xenophobic thoughts, which may sometimes border on racism, in those circumstances. It's not that they're bad people, they're just... human beings having their natural culture altered alarmingly around them. That's not good for any creature.


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## muffinsplanned (Aug 28, 2010)

PowerShell said:


> Could it be there are actually statistics to back the violent stereotype?
> 
> 
> 
> ...



All of this is ignoring the systematic powers at play which reproduces each generation, and which are continually being aggavated through social and economic isolation of communities which make them especially vulnerable.

Crime is not a race problem, it's a socioeconomic problem.


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## nevermore (Oct 1, 2010)

Oh god I have a rant alright.

What is there to say? Anyone that anyone would take seriously knows it is bad, that it is subconsciously ingrained into us and it takes a lot of emotional self-awareness to fight. People who give into racism and xenophobia are weak...slaves to primal fears. 

But then there are white people who can't handle admitting to that and who try to say they are not white somehow. Not that I don't understand them; no one wants to take responsibility for something they didn't cause personally (and none of us caused racism consciously or deliberately). I know a Jewish girl whose ancestors were from Northern Europe but who claims to be a person of colour because the female ancestors of Jews were raped; she says that is why European Jews look white today.

Now I am no expert in history and am not saying that didn't happen. But white is a social construct...there is no such thing as a white ethnicity like there is a Swedish or English ethnicity. The Irish are probably the palest of them all and they were once considered non-white. And of course there are white passing people from the Middle East with very pale skin and not one European ancestor. It is disingenuous to claim you are anything but white when you have European ancestors and enjoy all the benefits conferred on you by your white skin. Some of my ancestors were from India, distantly (I am part Romani) but everyone would laugh at me if I called myself a person of colour and rightly so.

You have the same thing with the cultural appropriation debate...there are people who think they have the right to wear a certain outfit just because their ancestors were of a certain culture. It's descriptively untrue that culture is primarily passed from parent to child, and by itself culture has nothing to do with race.

And speaking of conflating culture and religion. There is also the irony of people who are afraid of Middle Easterners as a group and act like it is justified. Like the people who think that ISIS is interchangeable with mainstream conservative Islam, which of course is _eeeeevil_ and that all Middle Easterners follow (and I am not saying it does not have teachings I disagree with, nor am I saying that any religion is above criticism). These people were usually trembling at their knees when it first made headlines. You could _hear_ the terror in their voices! And how they would use words like "barbaric" in loud voices to stress the Middle East's "backwardness" (another word they love), as if that word, which means "foreign-like", were really necessary - as if it were not obvious that cutting off people's heads just to get a reaction was clearly morally repugnant.

This sounds horrible but it got to the point that I almost wished some of them were sent over there. Did they have any idea what relative security being in the West affords them? How unlikely it is that ISIS is going to take their lives, or the lives of their friends and family? Don't they realize that their frustrations are caused by the very same political domination that GAVE us that security?

Predictably, no one they knew died because of ISIS, and barely and handful of Westerners living in the West did - I told them as much. But they hold onto their weak, unbecoming xenophobia, which both makes them look like idiots and advances the cause of the people they claim to despise.


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## PowerShell (Feb 3, 2013)

nevermore said:


> But then there are white people who can't handle admitting to that and who try to say they are not white somehow. Not that I don't understand them; no one wants to take responsibility for something they didn't cause personally (and none of us caused racism consciously or deliberately). I know a Jewish girl whose ancestors were from Northern Europe but who claims to be a person of colour because the female ancestors of Jews were raped; she says that is why European Jews look white today.


Because it's like I'm saying, it's an "us vs them" mentality along with the victim attitude and what's in it for me. Obviously if you just say you're white then you can't play the victim card and demand special treatment.


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## Grandmaster Yoda (Jan 18, 2014)

People are still racist. Neighbors still self segregate and that's just fine by me. No one is forcing them.


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## PowerShell (Feb 3, 2013)

Grandmaster Yoda said:


> People are still racist. Neighbors still self segregate and that's just fine by me. No one is forcing them.


It's interesting that the most segregated cities in the US never actually had legal segregation. Milwaukee is one of them.


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## Grandalf (Jun 7, 2014)

Race is a lie. And to those idiots claiming INTJ's are 'most racist'....





This is the OFFICIAL racial view of the INTJ community. On average we have the (second?) highest IQ (yes, I know there's exceptions) so it is NEXT TO IMPOSSIBLE for us to judge based on race. Comparing this type analogy to racism is BS as type deals with HOW YOUR BRAIN WORKS. Skin color can't tell you shit about that.

There is NO black culture. There is NO white culture. 

RACE =/= culture, values or customs 

Immigrants MUST assimilate when entering a first-world country. That's how the country prospered in the first place: their culture allowed it to. Certain ways of life ARE superior; our task is to spread these ways to all corners of the earth and allow MERIT ALONE decide who succeeds and breeds. 

END BLACK/HISPANIC/ASIAN HISTORY MONTH. REMOVE THE RACE PORTION ON ALL OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS.


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## Grandmaster Yoda (Jan 18, 2014)

JA Grey said:


> Race is a lie. And to those idiots claiming INTJ's are 'most racist'....
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I think colorblindness is ideal but it ignores the existent cultural values of other people. It's like being the first vegetarian. You're good because you don't eat meat from tortured animals, but that doesn't actually stop the problem. It's like trying to be lightyears ahead of everyone else. But the way it's going I will doubt that people will stop being judged by their skin or culture because in recognizing it to defend it, people are validating its significance.


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## Grandalf (Jun 7, 2014)

Grandmaster Yoda said:


> I think colorblindness is ideal but it ignores the existent cultural values of other people. It's like being the first vegetarian. You're good because you don't eat meat from tortured animals, but that doesn't actually stop the problem. It's like trying to be lightyears ahead of everyone else. But the way it's going I will doubt that people will stop being judged by their skin or culture because in recognizing it to defend it, people are validating its significance.


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## Grandmaster Yoda (Jan 18, 2014)

JA Grey said:


> View attachment 273818


I think that you are actually a Typist and you want to destroy ENFPs


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## Grandalf (Jun 7, 2014)

Grandmaster Yoda said:


> I think that you are actually a Typist and you want to destroy ENFPs


dafug??


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## Grandmaster Yoda (Jan 18, 2014)

JA Grey said:


> dafug??


Just the answer I expected. Good day sir.


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## nevermore (Oct 1, 2010)

PowerShell said:


> Because it's like I'm saying, it's an "us vs them" mentality along with the victim attitude and what's in it for me. Obviously if you just say you're white then you can't play the victim card and demand special treatment.


You get the best of both worlds, all the advantages of being white and a get out of jail free card from the painful conversation of race. Luckily people (of all ethnicities) are not always going to buy that crap.

You see that all the time, people who are really not that disadvantaged trying to claim that they are, usually because they are oversensitive and can't stand being criticized for something they didn't do personally. They feel it is unfair somehow. And I get it...but it really almost proves the point...anyone who has had to deal with real prejudice wouldn't be so thin-skinned.


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## muffinsplanned (Aug 28, 2010)

JA Grey said:


> Race is a lie. And to those idiots claiming INTJ's are 'most racist'....
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Race is a social construct, and while it is not real in the biological scientific sense of it, it is a real in the way we operate in society. Until that way of operating in society is changed we need to be conscious of race and the experience that they entail. Colorblindness does nothing to stop racism, it only silences the discussion, which does nothing either.


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## Ninjaws (Jul 10, 2014)

I don't judge people based on believe, culture, color, language, etc. 
I do judge people based on performance. If there is a job that needs to get done and you are wasting time, we are not going to get along.


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## Old Intern (Nov 20, 2012)

public libraries where I live, have public computers and most people even if poor - on food stamps and other situations - still seem to prioritize having cabel TV.

I grew up in a neighborhood that had some mix of races, My second grade teacher was black, kid up the street from me black, his dad was the chief of police. Lots of cuban immigrants. But it seems to me like black culture is going backwards. Jewish people, irish catholic, hispanic - I don't think you can blame all the black discontent I see on TV to be all about whitie keeping you down.

I think there is bias that white cops expect trouble from blacks and expect whites to have excuses for questionable behavior - or more willing to cut some slack to whites. But slavery was a long time ago now. If England is more integrated why aren't we?

Part of this is a problem with black leaders and cultural influences within black communities? Where are the black people (Leaders) making big proposals or big ideas to improve HighSchools and graduation? I know small business exists for blacks, but not like proliferation of Mediterraneans businesses around where I am.


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## herkapernikis (Apr 27, 2014)

It's easy to give up and not try when you have been told from the beginning that you are at a disadvantage. This simple message is so powerful because it plants the seed of doubt in your own abilities and offers an easy escape from responsibility and from the fear of failure. I feel like I've experienced this somewhat in school, always blaming something that happened in the past for what I couldn't be bothered to do in the present while not thinking about the future. I was terrified that somehow I wasn't as good and that if I truly tried then I would be disappointed with my results. 

It isn't some giant conspiracy from the white man to keep the black man down, it's just a victim mentality that devolved into some unproductive culture. There are real slights directed towards the black community but really against any unfounded ignorant views of the race on the whole based on the actions of the few, all that can be done is the forward progression of black people as a whole. 

Won't be a walk in the park but you might be putting the wagon before the horse by trying to end racism to bring up blacks as a whole, not the other way around.


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## PowerShell (Feb 3, 2013)

herkapernikis said:


> It's easy to give up and not try when you have been told from the beginning that you are at a disadvantage. This simple message is so powerful because it plants the seed of doubt in your own abilities and offers an easy escape from responsibility and from the fear of failure. I feel like I've experienced this somewhat in school, always blaming something that happened in the past for what I couldn't be bothered to do in the present while not thinking about the future. I was terrified that somehow I wasn't as good and that if I truly tried then I would be disappointed with my results.
> 
> It isn't some giant conspiracy from the white man to keep the black man down, it's just a victim mentality that devolved into some unproductive culture. There are real slights directed towards the black community but really against any unfounded ignorant views of the race on the whole based on the actions of the few, all that can be done is the forward progression of black people as a whole.
> 
> Won't be a walk in the park but you might be put. ting the wagon before the horse by trying to end racism to bring up blacks as a whole, not the other way around.


It's that and also imbibing in a culture that is counterproductive to getting ahead.


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