Ahhhh. I love the smell of debate in the morning! So my sister made a post over on her blog about "The current conversation of race in America". I largely understand this to mean, "What do people talk about when they discuss race, in America?". Which of course brings up all the wonderful questions about race and racism.
One of the points she brings up is about various ethnic groups getting riled up about stuff after "the hell they've been through". Now this is something I would argue vehemently against. Not that there were people of various ethnic groups that were put through very close to hell on earth. There is no denying that Africans were treated much worse than animals on their route to the colonies, or that they were treated much like animals at the colonies. And if you put some effort into it you can find that the romans raided various people and used them as slaves as well. And no one can forget the roughly 6million jews that died in Germany in the span of just a few years.
There is certainly no arguing those points. What I would argue, is that no black american (I don't see how they're any more african american than I am scottish american) today has any claim to being abused in the era of slavery, and a shrinking minority of them have any claim to the heavy racism that followed after. As for hispanics being treated as a sort of second class citizen, well I haven't seen any of it towards legal ones (but honestly I don't spend much time in circles where I would). And if illegal immigrants are treated as second class citizens, well, honestly can they expect any better?
Now I'm not saying that everything is lovey dovey and we should just forget the past. It's important to remember our heritage and know what made our ancestors the people they are, and thus the people we are. However, I also don't think that I should feel bad for something that my ancestors may or may not have been involved in (at this point I'd have to do some pretty heavy research to find out).
That's it for now, but please feel free to make comments or responses. Though if you're one of the non-existent people who read my blog and I don't know, please post your blog after you make a rebuttal.
~joe
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2 years ago
3 comments:
Uh...
Wow.
Lemme say this: if you think racism ended with slavery, you need to get out more. You know, maybe, that blacks and whites couldn't use the same bathroom less than 50 years ago, right? You know that blacks couldn't vote, couldn't ride on the bus where they wanted and couldn't in some cases own property. Go and sit and discuss your views with 80 year old black woman and see if that don't change your mind. Just because some people weren't DIRECTLY affected by the racism prevalent in the past doesn't mean they didn't hear the stories of their great-grandmother, grandmother and mothers... it doesn't mean they don't feel their pain.
"And if illegal immigrants are treated as second class citizens, well, honestly can they expect any better?"
YES. They can and should expect to be treated like a human being... and not like a piece of trash. You say you don't go in circles where you'd see that... well go DO THAT and then come back and write some more, Ish... because honestly, you sound very sheltered, ignorant and backward — and I don't think you are.
I'm not trying to belittle the pain of everyone. There are those who have plenty of claim to being abused by racism. I understand as much as I can the pain of your 80 year old black woman, I can't fully understand as I haven't been there.
90% of the people I've seen whine about racism are younger people, 20's and less. Where my anger at people raging about racism is 20 year olds who whine about "being repressed". While I don't doubt that they feel their parent's or grandparent's pain, they themselves have probably not been repressed.
As for illegal immigrants, I have met a few (my mom was friends with a number in Waco), and she can correctly if I'm wrong, but I don't think any of them have been treated as less than humans.
My reference was to them not getting all of the advantages of full citizens, which I don't think they should. Whether or not it's to hard to become a citizen is a different topic.
As for sheltered, can't argue much for that, hard to judge whether or not you yourself are sheltered. Ignorant? I don't think so much, but again, it's hard to judge yourself. I really don't think I'm backwards, but I have become somewhat jaded towards some people because of m time in the ER, something I'm working on fixing.
Really ... check out the Genome Project http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/home.shtml.
Apparently we all did come from the same group of people ... Do you remember the story of the Flood? the Ark? All the animals? It's a Bible story ... also just about every other historical cultural writing talks about it. Because we did not some of us come from monkey (who are nice and never bite) and others of us from tigers (who are mean and eat everyone)
One really important point is the definition of racism. Because if we're talking color then where do you draw the line ... when is a person no longer considered "black" and is now more "mexican" in color? or are they really "indian"? or are they "asian" because of the shape of their eyes? or is it the color of their skin? How much black do I have to have in me in order to be considered "black"? I know that my grandmother was 1/4 indian (Crow?) but alas no proper paper-work, so does that make me a repressed indian? I mean I have 1/16th indian blood ... which is sufficient to claim a whole-lotta indian stuff, like college freebies etc. but without that paper-work ...hmmm ... I'm feelin oppressed/repressed. And is it my fault that I was born with white skin instead of dark brown like my grandmother?
The problem that we have in America is that we really are a melting pot. Besides that there's a lot of new evidence with the whole DNA thing that the lines don't divide by "race" by which we here in America really mean by "color" and if we get more specific what we really mean is that ... those people who aren't like me, they don't think like me, and they don't look like me, and they don't act like me. The real name for that is prejudice and it goes both ways.
It doesn't matter where you live there are rights and priviledges that we give to one another that we've earned. Gang members "earn" the right to do certain things in their gang and if you try to assert your "rights" without having earned them then you will find out ... you can't.
Here in the US one of our given rights ... lawful rights ... is the right to PURSUE happiness ... not necessarily have. We have the right to chase after our dreams, but there is not a law that says that if I can convince some lawmaker that no one is giving me what I want then Congress has the right to take something away from somebody else to give it to me.
This is where we're building some really dangerous pentup emotion and repression. When people work hard to "pursue" their happiness and other people (I'm not saying all other people ... nor am I saying that there aren't some people who are getting ripped off ... I'm just saying they're not all from special races or classes ... it rains on the just and the unjust) and other people jump up and say ... "You should give me what you have because it makes me sad to see that you have something that I don't have ... and I don't want to work to get it." That creates an atmosphere where people want to defend what they've worked for and defend their family's right to succeed.
I agree that here in America honestly we can't say that we're repressed about anything! We are in the top 10 percent of people in the world for everything: education, money, security, religious freedom, etc. Check out Global Rich List http://www.globalrichlist.com/
It's very disheartening to see us fighting and scrapping over past issues and made-up present issues. Let's practice the things we learned in Kindergarten: Be friendly, Share, Don't say mean things, Play nice,.
I know where of I speak. I've spent 18 years on military bases around the world ... the military really is the melting pot. I've worked with illegals and legals in hospitals and with CPS etc. And there are a lot of crummy people of every color being mean to people who aren't like them. I've lived in Texas, New Mexico, California, Utah, Colorado, (and visited several other states) England (experienced their socialized medicine ... not so great ... way better than the nothing some Panamanians/Mexicans/Nicaraguans had ), Panama, Mexico. I've traveled to Canada, Nicaragua, Mexico. I've also seen some incredibly generous and caring people ... of all colors.
Why don't we just stop talking about how different we are and start majoring in what we have in common? Like we all want our kids to have a good education, stable home life, opportunities ... but let's not seek those things at someone else's expense. Let's care enough for our families and friends that we're willing to work WORK at it ourselves and encourage one another to work for it.
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