Seeing Race and Seeming Racist? Whites Go out of Their Way to Avoid Talking About Race
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American Psychological Association, October 6, 2008
PRESS RELEASE
October 6, 2008
Contact: Public Affairs Office
(202) 336-5700
White people—including children as young as 10—may avoid talking about race so as not to appear prejudiced, according to new research. But that approach often backfires as blacks tend to view this “colorblind” approach as evidence of prejudice, especially when race is clearly relevant.
These results are from two separate sets of experiments led by researchers from Tufts University and Harvard Business School. Their findings are reported in the October issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and the September issue of Developmental Psychology. Both journals are published by the American Psychological Association.
“Efforts to talk about race are fraught with the potential for misunderstandings,” said the studies’ lead author, Evan Apfelbaum, a PhD candidate at Tufts University. “One way that whites try to appear unbiased is to avoid talking about race altogether, a tendency we refer to as strategic colorblindness.”
In one study, 101 white undergraduate students were paired with either a white or black female partner who pretended to be another participant. The pairs were presented with 30 photographs of faces that varied in race, gender and background color. Each white participant’s objective was to guess which of the photographs the partner was holding by asking as few yes-or-no questions as possible.
Even though asking about the race of the person in the photograph was a sound strategy for completing the task, white participants were far less likely to do so with a black versus a white partner. Moreover, when the black partner was the first one to have a turn asking questions, whether she mentioned race had a dramatic effect. White participants whose black partner asked about race mentioned race on their own turn 95 percent of the time. When the black partner never asked about race, white participants only did so 10 percent of the time.
“There was clear evidence the white participants’ behavior was influenced by the precedent set by their partner, but especially when that partner was black,” said Samuel Sommers, assistant professor at Tufts and co-author of both papers. “Whites are strategically avoiding the topic of race because they’re worried that they’ll look bad if they admit they notice it in other people.”
The researchers also wanted to see how outsiders interpreted such interactions. In another experiment, 74 black and white college students evaluated videos of whites engaging in the photo task. The results showed that whites’ effort to appear colorblind backfired. Black observers rated whites’ avoidance of asking about race as being evidence of prejudice. What’s more, when the researchers showed silent video clips of whites from the study to another group of individuals, those whites who avoided asking about race were judged as less friendly, just on the basis of their nonverbal behavior.
“The findings suggest that when race is clearly relevant, whites who think that it is a wise social strategy to avoid talking about race should think again,” said Apfelbaum.
Even children appear to adopt this strategically colorblind approach. In another set of experiments, 101 white children between the ages of 8 and 11 were asked to perform a similar photo task. The children were told that asking as few yes-or-no questions as possible would mean they would get a higher score on the task.
The results showed that the older children, ages 10 and 11, avoided asking about race more than the younger children, even though this led them to perform less efficiently than their younger counterparts on the task. In a control version where all the faces in the photos were white, the older children outperformed the younger children, as expected. “This result is fascinating because it shows that children as young as 10 feel the need to try to avoid appearing prejudiced, even if doing so leads them to perform poorly on a basic cognitive test,” said Kristin Pauker, a PhD candidate at Tufts and co-author of this study.
The authors associated with both studies said their findings offer several important implications. “Our findings don’t suggest that individuals who avoid talking about race are racists,” Apfelbaum explained. “On the contrary, most are well-intentioned people who earnestly believe that colorblindness is the culturally sensitive way to interact. But, as we’ve shown, bending over backward to avoid even mentioning race sometimes creates more interpersonal problems than it solves.”
Article: “Seeing Race and Seeming Racist? Evaluating Strategic Colorblindness in Social Interaction,” Evan P. Apfelbaum, PhD candidate, and Samuel R. Sommers, PhD, Tufts University; Michael Norton, PhD, Harvard Business School; Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 95, No. 4.
(Full text of this article is available from the APA Public Affairs Office and at http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/psp954918.pdf )
Article: “Learning (Not) to Talk About Race: When Older Children Underperform in Social Categorization,” Evan P. Apfelbaum, PhD candidate, Kristin Pauker, PhD candidate, Nalini Ambady, PhD, and Samuel R. Sommers, PhD, Tufts University; Michael I. Norton, PhD, Harvard Business School; Developmental Psychology, Vol. 44, No. 5.
(Full text of this article is available from the APA Public Affairs Office and at http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/dev4451513.pdf )
(Posted on October 7, 2008)
Comments
While there are still some conservatives on the courts, people should stand by their beliefs that race matters and explains differences. It still may be possible to win a Supreme Court case on discussing race as a valid factor to explain cultural and economic differences. Once Obama is in, his appointees to the Supreme Court will stifle free speech about race.
Posted by feller at 6:31 PM on October 7
This reminds me of high school. In every history class, the teacher gets on the subject of race, and asks us to talk about it. My history teacher, a white liberal, rattled off every racial slur that I had ever heard, and then asked us to discuss racial issues.None of us did. There was complete silence, from all races. Nobody really wants to talk abour racial matters in the presence of members of other races, because the truth about our predjudices is just too ugly and negative for us to admit to anyone else.If the truth were to really be told, it would shock everyone.
Posted by Peejay in Frisco at 6:39 PM on October 7
This is very true about whites being suppressed in speaking about race. It is one of the reasons sites like this are so alluring. Also, because they are highly informative. I also find myself on black websites debating with racist blacks, since I often feel compelled to let them know how whites really feel really feel regarding race relations in American. Most of them are highly obnoxious and the most bigoted people you will ever meet.
Posted by at 6:39 PM on October 7
The sickening thing is, this endless witch hunt for white racists is now warping the minds of children as young as ten.
Posted by Dwayne O. at 6:51 PM on October 7
My children are being taught to call them as they seem them.
Posted by Civilized Neighbor at 7:01 PM on October 7
Note that anytime the establishment want “honest dialogue” on race, they want white people to bash themselves. They want white people to talk about race in terms of how bad white people are, but they want whites to shut up about the shortcomings of non-whites.
Posted by Question Diversity at 7:02 PM on October 7
This is easy. Who cares? All whitey needs to do to solve the issues being it a future one - is buy more offensive guns and a lots more ammo!!! Solved - when the time comes!!!
Posted by Justifier at 7:04 PM on October 7
Again we see that whites are wrong either way. Talk race; you;re racist; remain silent; you’re racist.Damned if you do damned if you don’t.
I am reminded of the man who’se wife constantly accused him of cheating on her. Eventually he figured that as long as he was being punished for the crime; he may as well commit it.
Eventually the white race will either have to take action against the other races or completely submit to them. There will be no in between
Posted by Lorin at 7:12 PM on October 7
In other news: the sky is blue & water is wet.
Seriously, we avoid the subject of race because we could Lose Our Jobs, Get Sued, & Be Ostrasized. Remove those petty obstacles, & you’ll hear some very hard, nasty truths from us white folk. It’s all simmering just below the surface of even apparently very nice people, like me.
Actually, given that, it sort of boggles my mind that any white people will consider voting for BO. Just shows what a mess Bush has made of the last 8 years.
Posted by SeenItHappen at 7:24 PM on October 7
When it comes to race, Whites are always guilty. Therefore, just as when you talk to the cops, the best thing is to say nothing.
I recall another poster once saying, “With Blacks, you are always walking on eggshells.” Those eggshell walkers might even be “anti-racists”, but their actions show that they know we’re right.
Posted by Schoolteacher at 7:39 PM on October 7
This is a logical choice for whites who wish to avoid a racial confrontation. You can get fired, subjected to humiliating “sensitivity classes, or physically attacked, or at least verbally. Best just to keep your mouth shut than to say something they would deem offensive. That list grows longer every day.
Posted by The Quadfather at 7:47 PM on October 7
“Efforts to talk about race are fraught with the potential for misunderstandings,”
I noted that on this forum just the other day. Being around blacks is like holding a ticking bomb. I don’t put myself in that situation. No contact, no problem.
We live with cognitive dissonance. We’re not supposed to notice race (because it’s a social construct) but we’re supposed to be aware of race so as to be sensitive.
When it comes to blacks, it’s lose-lose. You can’t win or break even.
Posted by sbuffalonative at 8:02 PM on October 7
I am white and was once afraid to discuss race. Now that I discovered AMREN, it is my favorite subject and back down to no one.
Posted by toonces at 8:02 PM on October 7
It is pounded into white’s heads 24/7 that they are racist to their core by society, tv shows/commercials, the MSM, etc. He also sees talking about race puts him in a no win situation. He is damned if he does and damned if he doesnt. Why would it be a surprise to learn that whites clam up when the subject of race comes up?
Posted by Mike Harrigan at 8:17 PM on October 7
Although the fact that time and money is spent on these pointless “studies” is frustrating, they do inadvertently help to further expose how repressive and lame the PC doctrine is - no matter how this press release tries to wrap it up in a “colorblind” ribbon at the end.
Posted by ZKR at 8:25 PM on October 7
The last forty years of programming whites is paying off. None of the Whites has the courage to even mention race. They have us right where they want us. Under their boot.
Posted by at 8:51 PM on October 7
“In another experiment, 74 black and white college students evaluated videos of whites engaging in the photo task. The results showed that whites’ effort to appear colorblind backfired. Black observers rated whites’ avoidance of asking about race as being evidence of prejudice. What’s more, when the researchers showed silent video clips of whites from the study to another group of individuals, those whites who avoided asking about race were judged as less friendly, just on the basis of their nonverbal behavior.”
Interestingly, I was reasonably sympathetic to this group of studies, until I read that paragraph above.
As is typical with academics and the APA who publishes this garbage they produce, no matter what whites do they are to be pilloried and spat upon, and these types of studies are endlessly geared toward this goal. Take the concept of racial “colorblindness” for example and in the first place. Where does that idiocy come from and why has it evolved into a negative? It was the original fantasy of these anti-white Reds with Ph.Ds, that they pushed right up until the turn of the century almost universally, when suddenly the more “progressive” concepts of “white privilege” and race as a “social construct” appeared and began to interact to produce cognitive dissonance in not only the public as a whole, but even in themselves as well.
How does one resolve such disturbing states of mind? Does one review the foolishness of the nonracial/multicultural and “white privilege” constructs, or does one excuse them through a more twisted maze of anti-white paradigms?
If you guessed the latter over the former, then you are either very insightful if this was done with a healthy cynicism or a good candidate for graduate work at Harvard, if it was done with a brainlessly giddy “optimism.”
Race now has become phenomenally real for nonwhites, which whites need to be reeducated to understand through a rather odd (and also wretchedly condescending) plethora of “nonracial” abstractions that leads them into a state of doublethink, that makes sense of this whole rotted smorgasbord of Marxism and tolerance terrorism. Whites hold “privileges” that they are only subconsciously aware of, that have roots in their falsified construction of the concept of race, as a means of perpetuating their “privileges;” which in turn, are even more oppressive to nonwhites, when they try to ignore race through “colorblind” constructs which do not present nonwhites with a comfort zone of racial consciousness and group solidarity among themselves.
Thus, on and on it goes and where it stops nobody knows!
As always, God help us all!!!
Posted by John PM at 8:57 PM on October 7
You just CAN’T win with blacks. Fortunately, you’re not missing out on much by not trying.
Posted by generalquagmyer at 9:19 PM on October 7
One of the things you are not suppose to do to people is give them conflicting instruction. It really fouls them up. It is even more damaging when done to children.
“The findings suggest that when race is clearly relevant, whites who think that it is a wise social strategy to avoid talking about race should think again,” said Apfelbaum.”
Kids are taught that to draw attention to a black person’s race is wrong. It falls under the rubric that if you can’t say something nice about some one don’t say anything. Since almost everything you can say about minorities is something not nice, the kids are bright enough to shut up about it in public.
So now the crazy liberals are telling the kids to speak their minds. When the kid says, “Wow blacks are really dumb in school, but they can run and jump really good. And black men are sure raping and killing a lot of white people and black women are always on welfare with a bunch of unruly kids and no husbands”, they’re going to go to jail for hate speech.
Posted by P Noctura at 9:57 PM on October 7
6:39 PM on Oct. 7th wrote:
“… Also, because they are highly informative. I also find myself on black websites debating with racist blacks, since I often feel compelled to let them know how whites really feel …regarding race relations in American. Most of them are highly obnoxious and the most bigoted people you will ever meet”…
_____________________
Sometimes I do the same on Topix or other general message boards which don’t censor everything non-PC. It is interesting to go in there and post logically and rationally, supporting your case with references.
When you are attacked (just ask them where their “facts” are coming from and request they cite sources to support their statements) - most will go ballistic but some of the more intelligent blacks actually DO want to debate about racism, which also can be an out of the ordinary experience.
White liberals, (some of them seem to be 12-year-old idealists) try the snide approach - which is completely ineffective if you honestly admit up-front that you’d rather not be around blacks and don’t mind being called a racist. It is good to ask them: ‘And your point is?…’ Turns out, they don’t have one except to say that racists are EVIL people.
The craziness that is expressed on those boards is amazing. It also seems like some of those posters are online ALL THE TIME (Who knows? Maybe they are under house arrest).
They post about: great black inventions, fantastic conspiracies that they believe are being constantly launched by whites, and amazing history - like the one who posted that “Africa was like the Garden of Eden until the white Europeans poisoned it with hate. That is why there is violence in Africa”. [If nothing else, these folks deserve points for creative delusional thinking.]
Venturing into black message boards or posting on PC web sites is fun to do once in a while but sure hasn’t changed my views about the rottenness of “diversity”. If anything - it just reinforces it.
Posted by at 10:14 PM on October 7
“Note that anytime the establishment want “honest dialogue” on race, they want white people to bash themselves. They want white people to talk about race in terms of how bad white people are, but they want whites to shut up about the shortcomings of non-whites.
Posted by Question Diversity at 7:02 PM on October 7
Exactly. When blacks say ‘we need an honest dialogue on race’ what they mean is they want a confession from whites that they’re racists and they conspire to keep blacks down because in the black mind, that’s the only explanation for black failure. If ‘the man’ wasn’t oppressing them, they would be recognized and rewarded for being the best and the brightest.
Posted by sbuffalonative at 10:38 PM on October 7
“The findings suggest that when race is clearly relevant, whites who think that it is a wise social strategy to avoid talking about race should think again, said Apfelbaum.”
So I guess this means we have “permission” of the social engineers to recognize that race exists, and to talk about it now?
Ronald
Posted by Ronald at 10:45 PM on October 7
Whites are not just suppressed in talking about race. They are inhibited and conditioned to submit to both verbal and physical attacks by Blacks. Where, Where have you heard of a White person attacked by Blacks or in a physical altercation with Blacks where the White person or person’s were depicted as acting in a purely defensive way against Blacks??? No. In all cases Whites will be portrayed by the media as the culprits and the instigators. This acquiescence on the part of Whites has been conditioned in, including the inability to discuss race. Most Whites are just afraid of being called racist and also of Black physical attacks.
Posted by Awakened at 11:44 PM on October 7
I talk about race all the time. Mostly about ways to get illegal aliens to race back across the border.
Posted by Unemployed WASP at 1:02 AM on October 8
Our goose is cooked. Ah well, it was a heck of a civilization and a heck of a race we had for a while, but there’ll be others in time.
Posted by at 2:13 AM on October 8
In another experiment, 74 black and white college students evaluated videos of whites engaging in the photo task. The results showed that whites’ effort to appear colorblind backfired. Black observers rated whites’ avoidance of asking about race as being evidence of prejudice
Black observers would have rated whites’ asking about race as evidence of prejudice, too.
Good old blacks. You can never win with these people. As much as whites have been programmed to ignore race, blacks have been programmed to see everything through racial lenses.
I simply avoid blacks as much as possible. Whenever I do have to interact with them I come off as somewhat standoffish , simply to give the impression that I am prejudiced. What liberals will likely never understand is that blacks prefer whites who are “prejudiced” but fair; the impression they’re left with is that, for a “racist cracker,” you’re a good, fair guy. Whereas liberals almost always leave blacks with the impression that they’re hiding their prejudices.
Posted by Michael T at 3:46 AM on October 8
I applaud whites for refusing to talk about race. Unless and until we can get a fair hearing and can truly have a dialog (which I doubt will ever happen civilly), I will continue to distance myself from all things black to the extent possible and will not satisfy the self-hating white liberals / apologists for black dysfunctional behavior by uttering even the first word about it to them.
The sad reality to me is that it will forever be this way as long as blacks and white try to co-exist together. You can’t expect two distinct groups of people to peacefully co-exist when the group differences are so stark in terms of intelligence, civilizational abilities, and physical attractiveness. Blacks will forever be resentful of this. With their hostility toward whites, blacks are really shaking their collective fist at God, and, in a way, who can blame them? It’s one reason why I don’t buy the idea of a compassionate, humankind-loving God. What kind of God would make a group of people so obviously inferior to another group and give them just enough intelligence to be aware of it?
Posted by at 6:47 AM on October 8
those whites who avoided asking about race were judged as less friendly, just on the basis of their nonverbal behavior.”
Reminds me of the study of that young black psychologist who found that contact with a black person disturbs the mind of a white person and the effect is worse in whites who are anti-racist.
Posted by at 7:47 AM on October 8
I am not racist. I am a realist. Having lived in South Africa for 24 years, I am a realist. there are a lot of good black people, some were friends, but in a group they just do not seem to be able to do the right thing, and that is a fact, not a “racial slur”. It is well proven: look at Zimbabwe and now the “new” South Africa. And I am not afraid to write or say so.
Posted by B J Deller at 10:19 AM on October 8
The sad reality to me is that it will forever be this way as long as blacks and white try to co-exist together. You can’t expect two distinct groups of people to peacefully co-exist when the group differences are so stark in terms of intelligence, civilizational abilities, and physical attractiveness. Blacks will forever be resentful of this. With their hostility toward whites, blacks are really shaking their collective fist at God, and, in a way, who can blame them? It’s one reason why I don’t buy the idea of a compassionate, humankind-loving God. What kind of God would make a group of people so obviously inferior to another group and give them just enough intelligence to be aware of it?
A God who wants us to learn compassion?
It’s very easy to get carried away with loathing of blacks after all they put us through. But it doesn’t hurt to remind ourselves every now and again that it’s really not blacks’ fault.
Whatever blacks gain materially by living around us is lost by the psychological pressures of having to conform to standards which are beyond them (and which they can scarcely understand), and of continued exposure to the successes of the people who created those standards prosper under them (us). There is more to life than material wealth. Blacks would fare far better in their own racial nation, where the impulse to compare themselves to us (and despair) would immediately diminish. If we truly wanted to give blacks a hand, we should work towards separating from them, not simply for our own (often greedy) ends, but because it would benefit blacks and everyone else alike. Integration may have been a noble ideal, but it is unworkable; let’s replace it with an even more noble ideal: rights to racial self-determination.
Posted by Michael T at 10:27 AM on October 8
Physical separation is the only viable solution for euro-caucasions, so re-acheiving this needs to be our ultimate goal. No two races are as incompatable as white & black.
Posted by GreatNorthWoods at 10:59 AM on October 8
Whites don’t talk race because anything we say is twisted and called racist. We are not allowed to say anything, especially the truth.
Posted by at 11:31 AM on October 8
Our goose is cooked. Ah well, it was a heck of a civilization and a heck of a race we had for a while, but there’ll be others in time.
Posted by at 2:13 AM on October 8
Defeatist attitudes like that are what we can do without.
Posted by at 1:49 PM on October 8
I am a Black woman, from time to time I read some of the postings on this site. I applaud all of you who are posting comments in regards to this article about race. It just lets me know that at least you are beginning to look at the issue of race and discuss it without being mean-spirited. All I know about racism is how it destroys a person or a group of persons from within. Racism like any strong emotion, such as hatred and anger, eats away at the spirit of GOD that is inside of us all. Racism has not only destroyed Blacks but it has destroyed White people as well. No one is born a racist. Racism is taught, it is a learned behavior and it can be unlearned. Maybe one day the world will be rid of this evil called RACISM.
Posted by JustANote at 3:24 PM on October 8
6:47, the same God who blesses some descendants and their progeny and curses some descendants and their progeny. I don’t have the luxury of doubting the same God you question after a spate of palpably-felt, physical miracles that falsified my a priori atheism…. If these miracles hadn’t happened to me, I wouldn’t demure in telling you about it since I didn’t mind telling people that I didn’t believe in God in my atheist days.
A.T.H.E.I.S.M.= “Apotheosizing Time/Hyle Exposes Idolatrous ‘Scientific Materialists’”
Posted by White is Beautiful Robert at 5:15 PM on October 8
*”Hyle” is anther term for “Matter”. I consider my prior atheism as “Hylotheism” in that I identified matter and all that is merely seen as “God”, by default. In other words, although I didn’t believe in God, I merely substituted only things that were tangible as the only “Ultimate Reality”.
Posted by White is Beautiful Robert at 5:19 PM on October 8
I could honestly care less what people think of me. I will talk about race, and I will use whatever nouns and adjectives I deem necessary to express my beliefs. Don’t like it? TOUGH. I am an American citizen, I pay outrageous taxes of all sorts, and I rely on myself to take care of myself. I ask nothing of anybody. I will say that which I choose to say. And I will fight to the death for that right. For all of us. Don’t try to shut me up.
Posted by Roller at 5:22 PM on October 8
“You can never win with these people. As much as whites have been programmed to ignore race, blacks have been programmed to see everything through racial lenses.”
I think whites have been programmed to view things thru black lenses too. The only viewpoint that counts.
Posted by at 5:32 PM on October 8
“You can never win with these people. As much as whites have been programmed to ignore race, blacks have been programmed to see everything through racial lenses.”
I think whites have been programmed to view things thru black lenses too. The only viewpoint that counts. In fact the more ‘street cred’ one can attach to oneself, the more you too can terrorize or intimidate.
Posted by at 5:34 PM on October 8
The only people who would ask a white person his opinion about race are people who just want to set that same white person to be called a racist. It’s just a stupid game they play. Don’t play it. In fact, don’t even converse with anybody of that ilk unless you absolutely have to.
Posted by AvgDude at 8:19 PM on October 8
Some very good posts here by SeenitHappen and others.
What is interesting is that blacks are not hindered in talking about race. Blaming Whitey is a national pastime for most black folks. My Afro Co-workers say things that are extremely provocative regarding race-that is they say Afro AMREN-type things on a daily basis. Meanwhile, unfortunately I have to keep my mouth shut. I don’t want to be fired and to a certain extent I don’t want to be THE ONE who crosses that barrier and says what dares not be said and like posters above said be ostracized. I also have some class which my Afro bigot co-workers don’t have in that some blacks at work are non-confrontational and I don’t want to be a provocateur bringing up things such as racial IQ levels and the color of crime in front of people who are just going about their work business.
Posted by S & GS at 8:34 PM on October 8
Why and how can anyone say racism is evil? Isn’t that being very, very judgmental - the only other sin recognized beside racism?
Posted by Machifer at 8:47 PM on October 8
“Racism is taught, it is a learned behavior and it can be unlearned. Maybe one day the world will be rid of this evil called RACISM.”
I’ve come to the conclusion that the term “racism” is meaningless. Any word that means whatever you want it to mean, doesn’t really mean anything.
Most of us on this board are realists; we attempt to look at the racial situation in the West, & other parts of the world, as realistically as possible. That might confuse folks who are accustomed to thinking of racism as a sin, but there’s nothing evil or mean-spirited about seeing the world the way it really is, & discussing what is really going on.
Posted by SeenItAllBefore at 9:33 PM on October 8
“I am not racist. I am a realist. Having lived in South Africa for 24 years, I am a realist. there are a lot of good black people, some were friends, but in a group they just do not seem to be able to do the right thing”
This is my view exactly. Having lived in the South, I too have been around large numbers of blacks. On an individual basis, I’ve many blacks who were intelligent, decent people whom I’ve liked a great deal. I also have known individual whites who are stupid, obnoxious, trashy or evil and whom I can’t stand. On an individual basis, I’d rather be around a decent or smart, upper class black then a trashy or evil white. However, it is the group(blacks) as a whole that is the problem. Blacks as a whole are a nightmare. Blacks in large numbers destroy any school, neighborhood or city turning them into crime ridden ghettos. Black nations are poorly run and backwards and violent. There is a large percentage of the black race that is of low intelligence, has poor impulse control and much greater tendencies towards violence and dysfunctional behavior, especially when it comes to sex and the family. Whites are certainly not perfect and you do have whites that are criminals or dysfunctional for sure but as a whole, whites are much more law abiding and create clean, safe, well run neighborhoods, cities and nations. Sorry but that’s the truth.
Posted by kc at 9:37 PM on October 8
“Racism is taught, it is a learned behavior and it can be unlearned.”
Why the hell would I want to “unlearn” a survival instint that was taught to me by Black attackers that put me in a hospital?
The reason I think Blacks are scary and dangerous is because THEY ARE SCARY AND DANGEROUS.
Posted by at 10:30 PM on October 8
A reply to Just A Note from 6:47 a.m. —
Your comments are an excellent example of why I, and probably many others who read and post comments on this website, continue to avoid all things black to the extent possible. Trying to reason with people like you is like the old expression of how you shouldn’t try to teach a pig to sing: It wastes your time and annoys the pig. So you and other blacks continue to spout nonsense and prove your low intelligence and lack of reasoning ability all you like. Whites such as myself will only run farther away from you. Michael T, you’re exactly right.
Posted by at 6:40 AM on October 9
I constantly hear that we need to have an honest dialogue about race in America. What this really means is that whites must admit that they are the cause of all the problems among blacks and other people of color, that they are oppressing blacks and all others of color and that they(whites) must repent and atone and forever try to make it up to all people of color. Whites must not dare criticize blacks or people of color in any way. Any failure to do the above in regards to blacks and other peoples of color labels a white person as a racist and this would be tandamount to being labelled a witch in 1692 or a communist in 1952. This is what “honest dialogue” really means in America. So whites just keep quiet.
Posted by Jane at 7:47 AM on October 9
Whites go out of their way to avoid talking about race because they’re cowards. There is no other reason for the silence.
Posted by GetBackJack at 11:04 AM on October 9
Noticing and commenting on race is natural.
People usually gather in groups of same naturally.
I believe there is a new social standard that is being imposed to remove this natural tendency, to make “racism” a hot topic.
But black people comment on whites for sure as they comment on Latinos. And vica vica versa.
My point is that this new “unlearning of racism” is directed from the top down to make us better consumers, more docile as we live in large groups. The fact that white people are supposed to be more quiet about it is not so much cowardice, or guilt [legitimate or not] but more economically a function of shrinking percentage of the population.
I am concerned about Barack mostly in as much as he is playing the race card - all 1/16th of it. I don’t like the expression of the single mom black family in US society but I do like that he seems to have a nice black wife with nice black kids.
Posted by paul at 6:33 PM on October 9
The Army is no different. Minority Soldiers have their own heritage celebrations. In fact, these celebrations are mandated by Army regulations. It is also in Army regulations that white Soldiers are NOT allowed to celebrate their heritage. An Army equal opportunity advisor once told my husband that the reason there isn’t a white heritage celebration in the Army is because, “there isn’t anything worth celebrating.” Visit www.eodoubestandard.net for more info on the Army’s anti-white policies.
Posted by Mills at 8:49 AM on October 10
JustANote wrote at 3:24 P.M.:
“No one is born a racist. Racism is taught, it is a learned behavior…”
She is right-on. Few dislike “Blacks” until they suffer the misfortune of being around them.
Ronald
Posted by Ronald at 2:51 AM on October 12
This reminds me of a chapter in Farewell Espana (Howard Sachar), a book on the dispersion of the Sephardic Jews. Sometime before the mass expulsion/dispossession/torture/murder, a group of learned Jews was summoned for a ‘great theological debate’ with ‘men of the Church’. These were the days before our wise American forefathers created the Separation of Church and State. Losing a theological argument could cost you your property and your life.
The Jews, the smartest and best-educated men in Spain, presented eloquent arguments based on flawless studies of ancient texts, framed within the most flawless constructs of logic. To no avail: no matter how right they were, the Jews were wrong. The debate continued for a surreal number of months, but still they were wrong. The Jews had already been defined as an outlaw class by the people with the power, and as such they could only be wrong.
Whites, today, have been defined as an outlaw class. We’re wrong, regardless. We talk about race: we’re racist. We don’t talk about race: we’re racist.
A little irony here: Descendants of the expelled Sephardim (of those who escaped Spain with their lives, and were not subsequently murdered on the shores of North Africa by the Berbers) often made their way to The New World. Not only did they found many of our founding families, but their insistence on fairness and reason helped shape the institutions and governing principles we so enjoy but take so for granted. It’s ironic that the descendants of the Sephardim (most old-stock Americans have at least one Sephardic ancestor) are now on the verge of being outlawed and dispossessed due to their status as white Christians.
Posted by Ashamed Scot at 4:18 PM on October 13
Liberal Whites (and the blacks sitting on their fists) have created the rules for debate on race. They control the words you can use, the facial expressions you can make, they hold the censor on what is truth. They have no voice in opposition to their perversity. Yet they cant stand it that Whites just simply ignore them. No response. Who really has the obsession with race?
Posted by Guiltless at 2:00 AM on October 19