electra, that's the nicest thing anyone has said to me in a long time. Thank you 
And thank you for your insight as well, something to think about
And thank you for your insight as well, something to think about
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Racial Microagressions
- Thread starter Joe Nerve
- Start date
electra, that's the nicest thing anyone has said to me in a long time. Thank you
And thank you for your insight as well, something to think about
Probably long overdue.
No problem.
Tat2dHeart
Only two strings away from an attitude problem.
You don't have to avoid the person's heritage. Just treat people with respect and if you are ignorant, don't let your ignorance flyThe point of the Asian girl's sign was not "pretend I am not Asian." It was "don't ask me dumb*** questions like 'do you speak Asian?' "
I'm with you on this, Tony. Many, many moons ago, I worked with a very delightful British man at a local K-Mart store in the middle of podunk nowhere. It was a really small town, so everyone knew everyone and folks didn't have a lot of exposure to other cultures.
One day, in the middle of a sale, as Harvey was explaining the warranty on the television being sold, the customer gave him a blank look and interrupted with, "That's a really interesting accent, where does it come from?" Harvey smiled and said, "Oh, I'm from England." The customer sort of processed this as they completed the sale of the television and while Harvey was loading the box into the cart, the customer said, "England, huh? Do you speak the language? Can you say something in English?" There was a really long awkward pause before Harvey replied, "Boy, was that a stupid question, or what?"
Haha!
I know a woman of Vietnamese descent who is from Australia. Whenever she opens her mouth to speak, it takes me a couple of seconds to realize what's going on
I know a woman of Vietnamese descent who is from Australia. Whenever she opens her mouth to speak, it takes me a couple of seconds to realize what's going on
Haha!
I know a woman of Vietnamese descent who is from Australia. Whenever she opens her mouth to speak, it takes me a couple of seconds to realize what's going on
Or Phil Chen...da rastafari.
I agree wholeheartedly!
With all the anthropological DNA research that been done in the last 20 years the term "race" is pretty archaic since all of us share about 99.9% of the same DNA. In fact after realizing this I have found that when people use the term ubiquitously or say things like "let's have a conversation about race" I cringe because it inadvertently takes us back to the days of quack racial theorists such as Madison Grant:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madison_Grant
and his idiotic racial maps of Europe (See the link for a good laugh. Also note who one of his biggest fans was.)
We're always going to have ethnic, cultural, and religious differences -- that's a given, but please let's stop using the term "race" all the time. Given what we know now it comes across as really outdated.
Ha, I forgot all about that guy.
I will throw in Tessanne Chin as well. Don't act like you don't watch "The Voice"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_heritage said:
So, your past generations are where your heritage comes from. Simply moving to the USA does not erase that heritage and implant an "American" heritage.
Furthermore, what is an/the American heritage? I would hazard a guess that you consider your own heritage to be "the American heritage", when everyone by definition has a unique heritage. There is no single monolithic heritage that is shared between all people within this giant country. Telling people to adopt your idea of what "the American heritage" or leave is absolutely jingoistic.
Even treating the "everyone within the borders" subset that is "poor southern whites" as a one-faced creature is ridiculous. Are you trying to claim the CSA flag as your heritage, as a point of pride? It may be your heritage, but that does not mean you should glorify it. In today's world it doesn't speak to any cultural ideas other than slavery.
One of the biggest problems I see in people is a failure to realize that everyone likely has a very different background from your own. Even within the poor southern whites in your own town, I am sure there are extremely different realities.
Here is my analogy for why "protected classes" of people is not a bad thing:
If you are building a house and you determine that the foundation is not level (really, you have some big problems), it would not be a good idea to just assume that everything you built on top of it would be level. You would need to compensate at some places.
But, when the outdated concept of race still effects people today, it is completely relevant to address it.
I think we should just chalk it up to ethnic and cultural differences, which are, of course, very relevant today. Those are the terms I use and people have no problem understanding it. Why does the scarecrow of the outdated construct of "racialism" need to seep itself back into the discussion?
Unfortunately there are those who want it to be much the same as it was 100 years ago with competing "races". Sadly, this thinking is in all ethnic strains and I personally think it's counterproductive and polarizing.
A better analogy would be to remove the weak parts of the foundation before the house falls.
Allowing the strong parts of the foundation to increase and make the house sturdy.
Racism (race usually being defined by skin color) = the belief that one group of people is biologically, genetically superior to another. This usually gets extended to such a degree as to think no matter how much education or "enlightenment" is recieved by the "lesser race", they will never reach the level of intelligence possesed by the "superior race" because they are by nature unable to do so.
Bigotry = what most people really mean when they say "racism".
Semantics there though it is good to keep word definitions in line if we want to have a coherent, informed conversation. In either case, it's a horrible way to treat people. Last I checked, we all bleed red.
Bigotry = what most people really mean when they say "racism".
Semantics there though it is good to keep word definitions in line if we want to have a coherent, informed conversation. In either case, it's a horrible way to treat people. Last I checked, we all bleed red.
As far as what "American heritage" is, that can get a little tricky. Ideally, we are supposed to be one big melting pot of everybody, and those people keep the traditions of the places and cultures they came from while assimilating to the "American way" of doing things for the good of all of us.
What that "American way" really is seems to be largely defined by the original British invaders (the same people we revolted against), but, you'll find that primarily applies to the east coast. The rest of the country has very big influences from many other nationalities.
Here in Texas for example, German and Chech are big influences in some areas while Mexican/Spanish are the biggest influence on us, we used to be part of Mexico after all, so, the white British/Scotch/Irish thing is not the standard that all others are compared to here.
It should be noted that Texas War for Independence (from Mexico) was not only fought by the Sam Houston's of the world. There are many, many Ramirez, Gonzales, etc. that shed blood for Texas. Many of these families have roots that run deeper than many European immigrants and these folks are about as "American" as you can get. They just don't have British lineage, that's all. Same could be said for many Black families who stem from the 18th century or even earlier. Their original forefathers may've got here not by choice, but as a result of the slave trade, yet these folks have freedom burning in their hearts from way back, and are the epitome of "Americans", in a new land, wanting to live their lives freely, and wanting the same for the rest of their bretheren and neighbors.
When many folks say "American heritage", they're talking about east coast British ideas. What happens in the rest of the country couldn't be farther from that. The East Coast Victorian thing is really about as "un-American" as you can get, as they still fancy sucking the teat of their conquerors as being something to be looked up to, as if it defines "class". They are subjugated, yet still look down their noses at the freedom the west brings.
What that "American way" really is seems to be largely defined by the original British invaders (the same people we revolted against), but, you'll find that primarily applies to the east coast. The rest of the country has very big influences from many other nationalities.
Here in Texas for example, German and Chech are big influences in some areas while Mexican/Spanish are the biggest influence on us, we used to be part of Mexico after all, so, the white British/Scotch/Irish thing is not the standard that all others are compared to here.
It should be noted that Texas War for Independence (from Mexico) was not only fought by the Sam Houston's of the world. There are many, many Ramirez, Gonzales, etc. that shed blood for Texas. Many of these families have roots that run deeper than many European immigrants and these folks are about as "American" as you can get. They just don't have British lineage, that's all. Same could be said for many Black families who stem from the 18th century or even earlier. Their original forefathers may've got here not by choice, but as a result of the slave trade, yet these folks have freedom burning in their hearts from way back, and are the epitome of "Americans", in a new land, wanting to live their lives freely, and wanting the same for the rest of their bretheren and neighbors.
When many folks say "American heritage", they're talking about east coast British ideas. What happens in the rest of the country couldn't be farther from that. The East Coast Victorian thing is really about as "un-American" as you can get, as they still fancy sucking the teat of their conquerors as being something to be looked up to, as if it defines "class". They are subjugated, yet still look down their noses at the freedom the west brings.
May I suggest you take a trip and actually see whose living in , say New jersey. Where I live.
Not too many Britishers as my Indian friends call them.
Ha, I forgot all about that guy.
I will throw in Tessanne Chin as well. Don't act like you don't watch "The Voice"
I'm in love with her. And I said that right in front of my wife.
That woman is ...... well....... something.
What about being born in the USA? Does that not make your heritage American? If you are a recent immigrant and a newly minted citizen I could see the desire to identify as a hyphenated American, but if you were born here you are an ordinary, plain old American.
Never said adopt America or leave. I said if your heritage is so important to you perhaps you should live where that heritage flourishes. There is a distinct difference between "America love it or leave it" and 'If your heritage is your prime, preferred identity, then wouldn't you be happier fully immersed in the culture from which that heritage originated?"
thank you for so plainly proving my point about my ethnic group not being allowed a history. There is so much more to us than a confederate flag and slavery, but all the "enlightened" folks out there either can't or won't take even a minute to look past that. When you get right down to it, no poor southern whites owned slaves, that was our genteel ruling class who treated poor whites with about the same compassion and respect as they did their black "property". All the usual shallow stereotypes aside though, if you took just a few minutes you would find that poor southern whites made huge contributions to (among many other things), music, medicine, engineering, and even politics, but none of that apparently matters because less than 1% of all southerners owned slaves. Do a little more looking and you will find that the University of Alabama has produced more doctors than any other university in the nation, that more patent holders at NASA are graduates of the engineering program at Auburn than any other school. One of the largest most successful investment firms in the world was born and still resides in Birmingham, Alabama, a city that was once upon a time when steel was king, second only to Pittsburg as the leading steel producer in the world. The steel industry is all but gone these days and UAB medical school, a world leader in AIDS and cancer research, has become the single largest employer in the city.
Oh and BTW, I don't claim a CSA flag or slavery as my heritage because I have so many more positive things to look to and be proud of. I don't deny the existence of the CSA or slavery because they are facts, but to assume all southern whites are bigots who can't get past the CSA or slavery is as short sighted and shallow as claiming all Germans are nazis and proud of it.
Speaking of Nazis, the number of southern whites who willingly sacrificed themselves on the alter of American freedom is disproportionately large when compared to any other ethnic group in America. I have personally left my blood on the ground in more than one third world craphole to insure the cocksure prattlers here at home are free to tell us how screwed up and just plain wrong the freest nation on earth surely must be. My philosophy is much simpler than that though. I was raised to believe that if doors were going to be kicked in it would ALWAYS be theirs not ours. Maybe you are OK with some guy who doesn't speak your language forcing in the door of your house at the point of a gun, but it's just not a concept I will ever be comfortable with.
Really?? You mean not everyone has the same background or history as I do? Say it ain't so!
As for the poor southern whites in my town, not being one of them I wouldn't know what their realities might be. that said, my heritage is most certainly that of poor southern whites. I am only one generation removed from dirt poor sharecroppers and iterant farm laborers who followed the growing season from Florida to Michigan, eking out a living picking whatever was ripe or tending whatever was about to be that way. My dad tells of visiting his grandma when he was a kid, and looking at the stars at night through the cracks in the walls of her cabin.
While that heritage is not so far removed from that of those who came out of the dust bowl or the northwestern lumber camps of the 20's and 30's, it is this melding of so many distinct cultures which produced the uniquely American heritage that is our American culture. it is not a poor white heritage or an okie heritage, or a cowboy heritage, or a salve heritage, it is an American heritage so why try so hard to deny it by insisting on claiming a heritage from which you are so far removed?
Why not simplify your life and just be proud to be an American?
Living in America and insisting on claiming a heritage that has little or nothing to do with who you are in the here and now is as silly as arguing over what the black stuff is in chicken guano. it's just more chicken guano.
But as I said, we are encouraged to make a big deal over unimportant things because it keeps us too busy to notice that our 21st century masters just keep advancing their program while we split hairs over ethnic heritage and political footballs. We are making ourselves a damned uncomfortable bed that we are eventually going to have to lie down in.
