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Originally Posted by filtherton
Alan, i don't think that you're the only person here qualified to speak accurately about black and white culture in america. No one has the authority to speak on behalf of millions of people, regardless of shared characteristics. In fact, i would wager that everyone who has grown up in america has a valid perspective on any number of different american subcultures. It doesn't make sense for you to call people ignorant when you have no solid basis on which to consider yourself the absolute authority on race relations in this thread, which it seems as though you do.
In fact, it doesn't make sense for anyone to be throwing around the word ignorant, because you're all fucking ignorant. I am too. It's part of being human.
Race relations in america is an exceedingly complex issue made moreso by the fact that it is often impossible for any kind of respectful disagreement to occur between people with different perspectives. This thread is no exception.
I don't think that there will ever be an end to racism any time soon. I don't think that there will be an end to justifications for racism on behalf of all races any time soon.
I think that what nagin said was racist. It's obviously racist, by any objective measure of the word, but that's just me.
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Am I the only person qualified? No, I'm not. But I'm sure I'm more qualified than whites who think that all blacks are lazy and self-piting. And I'm sure that many people who grow up in America do have valid criticisms about other cultures, but I'm seeing very few in this thread. And to say we're all ignorant is a cop-out. You can take that view about all knowledge-it's all assumptions based upon our perseption of reality. But taking that view means you can make no judgement on anything, nor discuss any subject. It's a dead-end. So I prefer to use "ignorance" to refer to people whose ignorance is relatively higher in some areas, and not as a blanket designation for everyone.
And what Nagin said wasn't racist. He was neither saying one race was superior, nor was there discrimination or threat or abuse in his statement. Just becuase someone mentions race does not immediately make that statement racist.