Senate "Race" Relations (was "U.S. Society and Black Men")

Most White people are not psychotically violent, as such they do not express their racism through direct violence and pogroms as they once did.

The Unites States society specifically the European colonial social faction has been disturbingly fine with both racist power structures and leaders who express racist views, so long it is not obvious. Unless the European American community experiences some sort of society wide pain, then openly racist potential leaders are ignored.

Case in point all with a bit of faux populism and a veneer of straight-shooter rhetoric, the White American population ignored basically everything about Trump. Trump's open racism, misogyny, known incompetence, and his inability to focus and lack of impulse control. Did not decades earlier Klansman David Duke get most of the White vote in the state he ran in?

Look at the difference the UN and IMF treat western countries in opposition to everyone else. The US populace seem perfectly fine with drone strike that kill 90% the wrong people, and the Candidate Trump stated "We need to take out their families", deliberate targeting of civilians. Would their be tolerated if this was done in Europe? In the United States? Should Dylan Roof been droned while he was at home with his family?

Imagine if Obama droned Yall'Queda when they took over that bird sanctuary, or when they went to speak in town.

"Most White People are not racist."? If actions speak louder than words, the actions and in actions of the European American populace speaks volumes.

 

Is it crazy if I think it's fine for a white (or black, for that matter) kid to wear a Moana costume?

I think for me, whether something is a negative appropriation sort of depends on the context. If you're disrespecting something important/sacred/not meant to be portrayed, that's one thing. If the portrayal is mocking or insulting, or warps the meaning of a traditional dress or religious items, for instance. Or if a costume perpetuates a negative stereotype in an obviously harmful way (blackface).

But to me at least, Moana isn't a mocking or disrespectful portrayal of a Polynesian. She seems like a positive portrayal, and also a character who could get a kid more interested in Polynesian history and culture. I don't know if discouraging a kid from innocently wanting to wear her costume and look up to her/her culture is ultimately all that helpful.

If I had a kid, I'm pretty sure I would be happy for him or her to want to be Moana. I would try to use it as a chance to maybe read some more books or watch documentaries about some of the real aspects of Polynesian culture the movie drew on. Because I think the film was made by people who respected the cultures and wanted to get kids interested in them.

Hell, when I was in Hawaii earlier this year, I stopped at one place to hear a traditional storyteller recounting Hawaiian myths... And there were kids there, engrossed. One story featured Maui, and they had some idea of who that was. I'm pretty sure for the elderly Hawaiian man practicing his culture's traditional storytelling, he was happy that the young white and Hispanic kids there were interested in his culture and how he talked about it.

Someone mentioned ninja costumes as well. Again, I don't have kids, but I think I'd be okay with that costume. To me it's more a caricature of ninjas specifically than of Japanese people (and you definitely don't need to be made to look Japanese to dress as a ninja). As long as you make it clear to kids that ninjas are just one small subset of Japanese history, I think it could be fine. It might depend on the kid and their ability to understand.

But I mean, if we had to all stick to Halloween costumes that looked physically like us, I would have had to ditch most of the costumes I wore as a kid. I mean, I'm not a man but I was Indiana Jones several times. I'm pretty sure if I had a white kid who wants to dress as, say, Finn, I would never tell them, "That's nice but you can't, he's black."

I worry sometimes that going *too* far with avoiding cultural appropriation amongst kids who are just curious and playing could possibly lead to a mindset in kids that says, "Well, we are like this but those people are like that. We don't dress alike or talk alike or look alike. We're really different and we're not allowed to do the same things."

I don't know. I fully support the notion of preserving the dignity of other cultures, their traditional dress, their beliefs, their treatment as unique human beings and not stupid racist versions of their people... But I also think it's maybe a little different when someone is a curious kid. I think maybe admiring a character or person of another culture should be encouraged, though handled carefully so the kids get the message.

I mean, I hate Halloween too But I mean this not just with reference to that holiday, but also with kids in general, who are prone to wanting to make-believe they are all kinds of characters and such.

I will say that, though it may have been wildly inappropriate from a present perspective for my friends and I to build a teepee and wear homemade mocassins and shoot around with bows and arrows when we were 10... This did eventually lead to me reading books about real Native American tribes, and learning and admiring tons of things about their cultures and histories (including that many of them didn't live in teepees). I'm a bit scared of crushing childhood interest that *can* lead to healthy respect, if shaped.

 

https://www.salon.com/2017/11/05/american-high-schoolers-lashing-out-in-racist-atmospheres_partner/

American high schoolers lashing out in racist atmospheres

Trump’s fanning of the flames of division has reached our education system

 

This topic was brought up by some associates on Facebook. We were talking about the idea of "white trash" and all the stereotypes behind that. I suppose this summarizes my disdain for how generations have been encouraged to maintain an anti-intellectual mindset vis-a-vis "race relations." Anti-intellectual ideologies are often racist and fascist in nature.

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."
- Sinclair Lewis

Well, here we are, unfortunately.


However, I would stretch that statement to include things besides autocracy. Racism itself is totalitarian in that it totalizes the rancid ideology. It pervades a culture, and therefore, cultures turn on themselves. It is a form of what is known as inverted totalitarianism that infects small groups and clubs, as it were. It becomes more dangerous when the state government adopts an official policy of racism. We all recall that, I'd wager. Inverted totalitarianism is used to describe corporate entities controlling a nation-state's government, from the ground up more than from the top-down. I would argue that racism from below poisoning the state government encourages radicalism, and that is the problem that America is experiencing.

I'm going off topic for a second. But I grew tired of conservatives talking about how Europe was going to turn into "Eurabia." That was inherently racist and, to be more blunt, ethnocentric. The best way to fight ISIL would be to welcome refugees who are trying to escape it. That would go for America, too. Welcoming the oppressed is supposed to be a virtue. America needs to participate that for more people. Additionally, it needs to show compassion for the oppressed within the country.


It was a means by which the white plantation class kicked down the poor white people. It was them saying, "You're better than slaves." It's basically a form of wage slavery/indentured servitude that persists to this day. Wealthy people and politicians manipulate poor people and keep them down. Racism, therefore, is a tool, a boon, for the machinations of conservative class warfare. Thus, the latter remain racist through generations. That's my summation. ... [Profanity omitted] conservative society for perpetuating that ridiculous myth.

 

RE: Racist atmosphere in schools and other education centres.

This is why I've always supported safe spaces for students.

 

Lupita Nyong'o has criticized a magazine for editing her hair. They made it Eurocentric. I can't blame her. She is a very talented, beautiful actress, and if I were in her shoes, I would prefer to have ownership of my image.

 

I think Gerald Horne is one of the better Black thinkers out there, he points out united states mythology as just that, mythology.

 

I fail to see where race enters the equation here. From what I saw in the video and read in the article, Davis said he was largely dismissed due to the other fraternity members wanting to save their own skins rather than take the consequences of this extremely dangerous hazing ritual (that had apparently been a tradition in Beta Theta Pi) which could have had major punitive measures taken by the university had it been discovered earlier. I really don't see this situation improving nor Davis' pleas having been considered had he been a white man. It's a pretty obvious conflict of interest going on between a good man and a bunch of thoughtless lemmings who were willing to let someone die.

Also, I'm pretty sure Davis didn't have a doubt in his mind that the victim would have died without immediate medical attention. It was more the fact that he was getting physically intimidated by several other fraternity members.

 

I can see what Merk was talking about in this:

Maybe race had something to do with it, maybe it didn't, but I can see what Merk is talking about. If he had been a white brother, would they have told him that his opinions were not relevant and not needed?

I don't know if I've ever been dismissed like that, in that kind of (emergency) situation, by people who were supposed to be my brothers.

 

That seems like a pretty common thing that people like those fraternity members do when they **** up quite badly and attempt to pretend that the situation is absolutely salvageable by doing it their way. Especially since Davis was suggesting a course of action that would have (justifiably) resulted in their punishment. I don't see how my previous points do not stand in that regard.

 

At what point did I attempt to knock down your points? Your points stand just fine.

Maybe you're right. Maybe you're wrong. You don't know. We don't know. Just because you fail to see where race enters the equation, doesn't mean it didn't. And vice versa.

All I said was that I could see what Merk was saying. Even if Merk is just totally off base with this example, his insight may be applicable to other/similar situations. Something to think about. I appreciated the comment.

 

Jay - Z op - ed on Meek Mill situation.

 

https://twitter.com/TheBlackChannel/status/932736211298369536

It's weird. At some point over the last few years, the primary opposition to interracial relationships have become minorities, not white racists.

 

Thank you for sharing. I hadn't read about this in a long while.

 

I put this article in another Senate thread as I think it's rather relevant.

 

1. It’s awful people won’t leave that woman alone when she’s just trying to grow up.

2. It’s pretty predictable that when you build a society around so many explicit and implicit benefits of whiteness, there would emerge both people that try to deliberately whiten their families and people who have anxiety about the existence of that latter group. In this light, it really has to be viewed as distinct from some general opposition to inter-racial relationships.

 

As a mixed race kid myself, I'm not really inclined to give these people any kind of benefit of the doubt, no matter how much you scrounge for a good reason.

Stop justifying nonwhite racists.

 

Understanding something isn't saying it's right.

 

Except that's exactly what you're trying to make it out to be. You're presenting them as innocent people acting on a "justifiable anxiety." Give me a break. They're racist.

 

How am I "trying to make it out" to be anything?

 

You first create a group of people that largely don't exist or, if they do, are so small to be negligible, and then use a fear of that group to present these racists as having anxiety that must be understood in order to see them in a different light. You literally wrote it out like that. Anyone can see this upon reading your post.

 

Erm, what? "Largely don't exist?"

It was literally the national policy of multiple countries (blanqueamiento). There are members of my own extended family who have made remarks about how they are glad someone is more white-looking. How are you justifying your assertion that this isn't a very real phenomenon?

 

PoC here aren't going around trying to get whiter kids. Jesus Christ. This is about as prevalent as voter fraud.