Shakran,
I've been giving this a lot of thought this evening, and I think I've come to the conclusion that we are debating this argument in two completely separate arenas.
I feel like you are making an idealistic argument about racism that, theoretically, I can agree with.
While I am making a completely different argument about the realities that distinguish what you are calling racism today when contrasted with the institutionalized racism of our past and why it colors our present making it,
popularly, more offensive when black people are denigrated by a white person than vice versa. Not HOW things should be, but what THEY ARE and why it shouldn't be difficult for anyone to comprehend why they are that way. And I will grant you that I mistook what I am supposing to be a "tough love" kind of attitude towards American blacks and their need to move out of the past with a
dismissive attitude towards that past. I don't agree with it, but I can understand it.
When I started on this subject I was not responding to a statement made by you. Your initial contributions to this thread seemed to center on Imus' right to say what he said. Therefore, your responding to my post seemed to come out of left field and maybe you can understand how it was interpreted by me to be a negation of my simple explanation about the dynamics at play in race relations in America. Surely, you do not deny the simple reality of why we react the way we do? You can wish for things to be different and still see the way things are, yes?
I would love nothing more than this not to be an issue. But it is. Do I have to feel guilty about it or responsible for it to realize it? No, I don't. And I have grandparents who directly participated in the racist system - who were
against the de-segregation of the south. But I don't feel guilty. I feel understanding. It doesn't mean I feel satisfied. It means I can make the logical connections and understand why we are behaving this way. That is all. There is no basis to extrapolate from this that I am accepting of racism in any form.
Then there is the subject of comedy and its role in perpetuating racism. A concept that, personally, I just flat-out disagree with. And unless you can come up with some proof of that, it's just your opinion against mine.
Now that this is all said, I am officially taking leave of this conversation. You can respond, but I'm not going to address it. Not out of anger or frustration, but just because my time is precious and I don't think I have anything else to say about it. Hopefully there isn't any doubt about where I stand. And I'm under no compulsion to make anyone see things my way.
Bye
