Off the top of my head I can tell you where the McLaren dealership is in LA. There's no way I'm stealing a fucking Dodge.
I’ll swipe a Chevy Sundance before a McLaren, you can see those goddamn things from space with those eyesore paint jobs. And I’m not an Arab and never played a bad guy in Miami Vice so I would look wrong owning one.
I'm betting the insurance company has hired Blackwater instead of Koreans to camp out on the dealership rooftop.
In truth my neighbor has a Bentley with a custom wrap. Definitely gonna steal that and then play super dumb and say "crazy looters right?" when he notices this literally one-of-a-kind car sitting in my driveway instead of his.
You're right. No one here has screamed at me yet. So far. And to insinuate that no one ever will is naivety, idiocy, or unrealistic optimism. In addition, there's an implication ithat since it hasn't happened here, it hasn't happened outside this board. I don't have to tell you that it has. You can't expect me or anybody else to compartmentalize away a healthy fear of what white people are capable of doing to a minority just because it hasn't happened in a specific place yet. That being said, instead of being mad at me for being the victim of racism, maybe be mad at the racists that do racist things.
All i ask is that you don't call me a racist, or insinuate that I am one, or that I would treat you like you have been treated in the past by others, just because I'm white.
Pre-judging someone based on the color of their skin? There is a word for that, but I can't think of it at the moment.
1) “Reverse racism” isn’t real 2) If you consider “White people are racist” a stereotype, it’s a pretty fucking accurate one Just because we aren’t waving confederate flags and flippantly using slurs doesn’t make us not racist. It takes active work and unlearning to truly not be racist and I’m gonna go out on a limb and say most white people, here or elsewhere, have really done that work, myself included.
It's not a stereotype. It's a fact of life. Now, as I've gotten to know some of the people here, I feel like I have a pretty decent grasp on who is and isn't an asshole. However, this has come from years of interaction, limited as it is. But we are out in the real world, we don't have the luxury of years of interactions. We aren't mind readers. We can't assume white people are going to stick up for us. However, it's super easy to ascribe stereotypes to people of color because skin color is literally the first thing you see. Minorities generally don't get the benefit of the doubt from white people. If we did, we wouldn't be protesting right now. Asian owned businesses and homes wouldn't be getting spray painted with slogans saying they should go back to their own country. Since we don't get the benefit the doubt, we have to assume all white people are two seconds away from ruining our lives. Be it calling the cops on black people, beating up Asians during a pandemic, or calling ICE on Hispanics. Let me put it another way. If you had to walk past an unfenced yard every day, and a guard dog would chase after you and even maul you a few times, how long would it be before you assumed all dogs were like that dog? If you defended yourself against the dog, the dog's owner would have you arrested for animal cruelty. If you called animal control, they'd say the dog was on private property and wouldn't take the dog to be euthanized. Meanwhile all the other dog owners on the block think you're just fucking with the poor dog because all people like you either use dogs for fighting or are eating them, so you deserve everything you've got coming. Obviously, this is a small scale example of the deck being stacked against minorites when it comes to interactions with white people. This feeling of powerlessness is what we have to deal with on a daily basis. This why we have to assume white people are suspect until they prove otherwise. If we don't, it could literally kill us. I'm not saying that it's right, but given the history of white people behavior, it is completely reasonable.
This is bothering me, because all of the sudden, I am guilty of racism...by doing what, exactly? Or not doing what, exactly? I don't see a positive difference between saying "we have to assume black people are suspect until they prove otherwise" and "we have to assume white people are suspect until they prove otherwise". Both are fundamentally problematic. Definition of Racism: The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others. n. Discrimination or prejudice based on race. n. The belief that each race has distinct and intrinsic attributes. The sticking point for me is that middle definition. You can believe a lot of silly shit, and truthfully, I can't give a shit if you keep it to yourself and it doesn't influence your behavior. Beliefs are a wild, weird set of shit, and I see no point in trying to change them....just try to persuade a Trump voter that he's a piece of shit. Waste of time and breath, when behavior is far easier to see and change. I think of a church I saw when I was a kid with the shaking and snakes....beliefs are fucking weird, and if you think Jesus was white, or that black men have big cocks, or whatever, so be it. I think you draw the line at "it's unacceptable to believe one race is superior to another", similarly to "it's unacceptable to believe it's ok to fuck children." And you maintain that line at specific behaviors. Because I can be accused of believing silly shit and it's impossible to prove otherwise, but my behavior stands on it's own. So, the actual issue isn't beliefs tantamount to racism along the lines of "black people sure are good at sports" or "Asians do well at math", but victimizing someone based on their race via actual behavior, speech and actions. This also helps avoid some obvious discrepancies: not a lot of Asians or Pacific Islanders in the NBA/NFL, not everyone contracts sickle cell at the same rate, some of us sunburn easily, etc. It's ignorant and unrealistic to deny there are differences, but you have to draw the line at claiming those differences imply superiority. Some of this discussion is the most overly-dramatized victimhood I've yet seen, and I'm tired of it. There are dead people, families in mourning, and their pain is not on the same plane as "someone with different skin was rude to me once". And before anyone bothers, yes, I've been discriminated against. I have just as much right to sit at the victim's table as anyone else. The reason it bothers me so, is that it's muddying the waters. There's prejudice, there's disrespect, there's victimizing and racism needs to be distinct and in a category all it's own. Not everything bad that happens is because of racism. Not everything members of one race do to another is racist....assholes come in all flavors. The victim bandwagon is crowded, loud and futile. Being accused of racism is infuriating. It's guilty until proven innocent, and that is antagonizing. The response is a mutant form of virtue signaling, where I feel compelled to point out the diverse people I've mentored or hired, the cherry-picked examples of kindness I've extended to members of another race, or even the people I've fucked that don't have the same skin as me....when there's no reason to believe any of it, or that any of that bullshit matters. I think this every time I get one of these "our company supports BLM and we're totes not racist, guys" emails: why would I have thought otherwise? Why would you need to say that? I ASSUMED you weren't racist, because this is 2020, and nowadays, actual racism is loud. In 2020, it's the difference between "some very fine people" and "thugs/when the looting starts the shooting starts". Being accused of racism is divisive, and that is hurting all of us. I come from a place where racism has deep roots, it's overt and it's brutal. It is a bludgeon, not a bee sting. It's "you can't live in my neighborhood" and it's "I'll disown you if you bring one of those home" and it's "I wouldn't hire one of them if they'd work for free". It's "that ain't my grand-baby, because you had it with one of them." It is deeply held as a right to divide. It's power to maintain division and superiority. That is the key element here: power. I do not believe my average actions victimize anyone and they are not racist. Why? Because I am not exercising any power. How am I perpetrating racism buying blueberries at Aldi? I think most people are not inherently racist, at an individual level. There's no reason to behave that way. 99% of our behavior falls under "shrug, live and let live, Wu-Tang forever, whatever motherfucker". However, should I decide to make loans, hire people, start a business, etc....that's when I have the potential to bruise people. That's when I need to take a good, hard look at my biases and address them and the systems involved with those actions need checks and balances in place. The issues we are confronting are not "racism is widespread and all black people/white people...etc." The issues we are confronting are "there is not equal access to power or justice, and there are not equal applications of rights based on race." So, the people who need to be held accountable are those in power and the people wielding instruments of power. This police brutality has been a fact of my life...my entire life. Dave Chappelle was making jokes about it when I was in 7th grade. I think what we are seeking, collectively, is lasting peace. That starts with fairness, equal access to power, and universal accountability. It doesn't get off the ground with shit like "all white people are racist" or "they should have just listened to the cops". I think it starts with being united...being a neighbor, a friend, a colleague, a countryman. These protests are working. This progress is long overdue, and I lament that it was necessary in the first place.
Just because it doesn't amount to the same scale as African Americans doesn't mean it's not within the same concept and anger and resistance to it shouldnt be shocking to you when it happens. What do you think the result was going to be? This leads inevitably to the "well excuse me if I don't care if the white man whose been in power forever feels slight discomfort on internet discussion boards when they brush up against racism" argument. Grade A thinking acting flippant and turning off and pushing away the very same people you need to convince to have your ideas succeed. Let me know how this all works out for you all.
So racial profiling is the solution to a problem largely caused by racial profiling. Your view is myopic and fits the literal definition of racism. This nonsense has been spewed on this board before by dim-witted, shallow-thinking morons. I don’t think you are one of those people. I can’t speak to your experiences or how you feel about them, so I’ll take it at face value and fully accept that you’ve been a victim of racism by white people; but it’s not all white people and I think you know that. You would never stand for someone on this board or in general saying, “All Asians...XYZ.” So you really need to pull back and reconsider a lot of this, because either you’re not thinking clearly or they’re your real thoughts they make you no better than the people that victimized you. But I’m going assume (and hope) it’s the former.
Definition of Racism: The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others. n. Discrimination or prejudice based on race. n. The belief that each race has distinct and intrinsic attributes. I think you need to distinguish between bias, which can be unconscious and takes work to address, and racism which per the definition seems to be pretty conscious and intentional. In short, if I don't believe I am racist, I don't act racist and I don't think that one race is superior to another one, then by definition, I am not racist. Also, what the fuck is reverse racism? It sounds like a bullshit term to convince people that racism only exists in one direction (Ie, no black people can be racist), which is nonsense.
Systemic racism is such a problem that essentially all white people grow up with some level of unconscious "bias". How is that not racist? I am actively trying to be a non-racist person but until I can overcome those biases and prejudices that I was socialized to have, I can't claim that I'm not racist. The insidiousness of racism is that it can absolutely exist without overt actions that we think of as capital R Racist. Racism is based in power and oppression, and white people benefit from it. I feel like this is sociology 101.
God damn it. Do we really have to debate the semantics of racism again? There is a difference between the text book definition and the systematic one. Both are bad. Move one and discuss the issues at hand.
I've always approached the "reverse racism" argument this way. Yeah, technically black and brown people can be racist, but it doesn't matter since even if they were extremely racist they wouldn't be able to have a significant impact on my life (I'm a middle aged white man for clarification) or the lives of white people in general. The reason even mild racism from white people is important is that it can significantly make black and brown peoples lives more difficult. I think that's the point JJ is trying to get across. His life has been made more difficult by racism from white people, which makes him wary of them. Is that technically racist? I guess it is, but it's irrelevant since it can't really impact the lives of the white people he interacts with. Ultimately the "reverse racism" argument is a distraction. Black and brown people in this country are hurting, and if we really value the ideals laid out in the constitution we should be doing everything in our power to help heal that wound. The obvious issue at the moment is police discrimination and brutality, but there's a lot more to still do after that.
I think if people learned to replace the word "all" with "some" or "many", you're get a lot further making your case. Especially to the people that actually need to understand it still. Painting with a brush any broader not only turns people off, it's also hypocritical.