Actually, I still say that it is racist to call a "white" person racist simply because they may not believe that a "person of color" should automatically receive special considerations, socially or otherwise.
To assume someone's race offers you any insight into them at all is, in and of itself, racist.
The greatest obstacles for Americans of any color right now is poor education, and poverty...which, actually, affect all races equally.
But, since this is your page and all...you would be totally entitled to tell me to fuck off :-)
I don't think I ever said anything about people of color getting special considerations. And I am fully aware that "people of color" can also be racist towards whites. But having no respect for a person's culture (whatever that might be) is racist when that culture relates to race. And if it doesn't relate to race, then it is closed minded and bigoted.
I also never assumed anyone's race allows you insight into them either. Ever heard of internalized racism?
Also, were you a victim of that poor education? I grew up in a poor white community, so I know they exist. But if you think that the extent of poverty is the same for all races you have obviously never been to a Indian reservation and haven't done much research on it either.
I was going to tell you to fuck off, but then I would miss out then amusement of these arguments.
I like the amusements of the argument too :-) Dont take them personally...I just like to stir the shit :-D With that said (bullet points time :-)...
- I grew up in a poor white community. I could not afford college...so I got the books, read them myself, and took certification tests. Now I make good money and am paying my own way through a Molecular Biology degree.
- I grew up about 30 minutes north of the Crow reservation near Hardin Montana...where I spent a significant amount of time with my grandfather. All of the successes I personally knew from the reservation took responsibility for their own education (as I did) and used the system to find money to go to college. Most of the failures I have known in life (of all races) usually blamed their failure on some external condition...like their race.
- Statistically, poverty and ignorance are relatively evenly spread throughout the races across the entire U.S. However, there are regional clusters...I.E. A large amount of Black and Cajun poor and uneducated in New Orleans (where I also used to live), a large number of Hispanic poor in Texas and Southern Cali, ETC. Nationwide, the racial division is about even.
- Part of the definition of racism is offering special sensitivity or consideration to someone because of their race. I.E. You would be 100% entitled to tell me to fuck off and call me a dick. However, if my Irish descent influenced you in ANY WAY to NOT tell me to fuck off and call me a dick... that would be racism. If, after you told me to fuck off, I claimed you did it because I had Irish descent - that would be self deprecating racism.
- Should the stylist have actually known about the religious tradition not to cut a childs hair, then to assume this little girl and her family held to this tradition simply because she was Native American, would have been a racist assumption...just as it would be racist to assume I am Catholic because I have Irish descent. Thats what I meant about assuming to know someone from their race.
I disagree with the statement that the haircutting was racist...as it was simply a callous error. I dont think race factored into the error at all. I suspect, under identical circumstances (had the film been about Irish people, for example) the same error would likely have been made.
- I do think the family is warranted to recompense since this stepped on a very deep religious belief, and the act was socially callous and unacceptable (by nationwide standards). However, to say the individuals involved should have shown extra sensitivity or should have taken additional precautions because this was a minority child is racism.
whats racism? is it the lady that walked by me at the mall today and in answer to her sons question of ," why does he have that on?"(pointing toward the black lady who had one of those kid harness' on her son), she answered" because they're animals"? would that ugly bitch qualify as racist or a bigot, or both?
Bootstraps...not in the least. What I am saying is that, the problem is poverty and non-education...not race.
If you live in a shithole, it is not because you are <race>...it is because you are poor, and uneducated and likely have been raised by generations of poor and uneducated. Frequently, due to a regions history, one (or more) minorities will make up a large majority of the poor, uneducated population.
But their race has nothing to do with what's currently holding them down...it's their poverty and lack of education that's holding them down. As long as the problem gets addressed as an issue of race, nothing will be accomplished...as race is not ultimately the problem.
However, there are endless resources to end poverty and ignorance, which is the problem. These resources need to be implemented by both the individual (the so-called bootstraps) as well on a governmental scale to wipe out the poverty and non-education that is propagating continued poverty and non-education.
As for the definition of racism, I just think it's critical to the next step in racial unity to realize that identifying an individual, positively or negatively, and making assumptions about what their culture is based on race is just as much a form of racism as is "...because they are animals..."
We will only be a united community once race holds no bearing one way or another and cultural/religious preferences are accepted on an individual by individual basis with total disregard to genetic heritage.
Daniel