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Originally Posted by mixedmedia
I feel like you are making an idealistic argument about racism that, theoretically, I can agree with.
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Good. You and I tend to agree more than we disagree, so I was disturbed over this one
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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.
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And I have no problem with this analysis. That's how it is. No doubt about it. Where I have a problem is when people get the attitude that "well, that's how it is, and therefore that's how it's going to be."
That may be how it is, but I don't find it acceptable that we should think it OK that it continue to be that way.
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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.
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You're right, it is certainly not a dismissive attitude.
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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.
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Yeah I can see where it came out of left field. Honestly I expected someone to pounce on me for that long before now. But I think despite the appearance of being 2 different opinions, you'll see that actually I'm staying consistent. Imus has the RIGHT to say this stupid crap if he wants to. That doesn't mean it's right for him to say it. I support his right to say it just as I support the right of the National Socialist Movement to tell us the Jews are evil. Doesn't mean I agree with 'em, or approve of 'em, but one of the things that makes this country potentially great is that it is founded on the belief that even unsavory or unpopular opinions should be able to be expressed. Remember, that in 1950 it was unpopular to say that you supported equal rights for black people. But because of the unpopular views of a minority of the population, eventually society started to realize that picking on black people because of their skin color is wrong. In a country that did not support the expressing of unpopular opinion, that change may never have come about.
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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?
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Of course. I see the way they are today. It pisses me off, and I want it to be different tomorrow. That won't happen if we sit around and complain that people in the past were wrong. Yes. They were wrong. Now let's stop rehashing that, and work toward a better society.
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It means I can make the logical connections and understand why we are behaving this way. That is all.
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Understanding why the system is the way it is, is fine. But are you happy with the system as it is, or would you like to see a change toward a society where people don't have to worry about being judged based on stupid physical characteristics?
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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.
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Well it all depends on your definition of racism I suppose. If you think calling a black guy a nigger is racist, then Michael Richards was racist in his "comedy" a few months back. And if you think calling a black guy a nigger is racist, then to stay consistent you must think that calling a Muslim a cameljockey, or a Mexican a beaner, is also racist.