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I also have to say that there is a mob mentality, so to speak in many of these situations. For example, college fraternities often have donned blackface or did questionable stunts for pledging. You either do it or dont get in. Now sure some kids are brave and say "screw that" but for others its peer pressure. Not sure if the VA cases are like this but I have seen it happen. We recently had racist incidents at a local college and it was due to "pledge week." The kids felt they had to.
In recent weeks and months, there's been quite a bit said about the matter of white folks in the modern era having donned blackface. As I sat here thinking about the behavior, it occurred to me that some things about it have changed and some others have not.
A key part of the problem of racism is, of course, that it's not easy to tell who is and who isn't, and there are plenty of plausible so-called "explanations" for behavior that to Blacks is pretty obviously race-driven, but that to many whites, whether or not they in fact harbor some sort of racist sentiments, can be argued/accepted as not so. It'd be different were racists to have forehead warts that disappear as they racist notions and feelings dissipate, but that's not how it works.
- What's changed:
- White folks -- particularly those who've long been able to remain circumstantially or willfully ignorant about blackface and what it means, its impacts, its historical extants and uses, the fears, disappointments, frustrations and doubts it invoked in the past and now, etc. -- are finally becoming understood, at least intellectually. I doubt that there's any behavioral correlate that will allow any white person to "get it" empathetically; however, the newly realized sympathetic capacity ever more whites are developing is a step forward from what it was even just a lustrum ago.
- Blackface seems to no longer be a funny thing, a thing that is fodder for "all in good fun."
- What's not changed:
- Black folks' anger, frustration, fear, dismay and opprobrium over seeing their white countrymen belittle them by donning blackface. This should not change, so it's good that it hasn't.
- Black's/minorities' awareness that racism, bigotry and race-based discrimination and its perpetuators aren't merely jerks running around with pointy white hats and swastikas.
Black folks ceasely been saying that racism and its effects are "alive and real" and not just in overt ways, and so-called reasonable folks on the right and left have denigrated, denied and discounted the verity of Blacks' assertions thus. Perhaps with the recent revelations from VA's governor and AG, more folks will believe them.
As one of my Black friends say, "Racism and homosexuality are both mostly in the closet." While Black folks know that to be so -- How can they not having 400+ years of experience recognizing it? -- far too many white folks act and speak as though it's not.
And let's be clear. Black folks don't think every white person is racist. They think every white person who gives them a reason tho think so is a racist. Of course, not all white folks give Blacks a reason to think so, but even in 2019, far too many do.
I also have to say that there is a mob mentality, so to speak in many of these situations. For example, college fraternities often have donned blackface or did questionable stunts for pledging. You either do it or dont get in. Now sure some kids are brave and say "screw that" but for others its peer pressure. Not sure if the VA cases are like this but I have seen it happen. We recently had racist incidents at a local college and it was due to "pledge week." The kids felt they had to.
In recent weeks and months, there's been quite a bit said about the matter of white folks in the modern era having donned blackface. As I sat here thinking about the behavior, it occurred to me that some things about it have changed and some others have not.
A key part of the problem of racism is, of course, that it's not easy to tell who is and who isn't, and there are plenty of plausible so-called "explanations" for behavior that to Blacks is pretty obviously race-driven, but that to many whites, whether or not they in fact harbor some sort of racist sentiments, can be argued/accepted as not so. It'd be different were racists to have forehead warts that disappear as they racist notions and feelings dissipate, but that's not how it works.
- What's changed:
- White folks -- particularly those who've long been able to remain circumstantially or willfully ignorant about blackface and what it means, its impacts, its historical extants and uses, the fears, disappointments, frustrations and doubts it invoked in the past and now, etc. -- are finally becoming understood, at least intellectually. I doubt that there's any behavioral correlate that will allow any white person to "get it" empathetically; however, the newly realized sympathetic capacity ever more whites are developing is a step forward from what it was even just a lustrum ago.
- Blackface seems to no longer be a funny thing, a thing that is fodder for "all in good fun."
- What's not changed:
- Black folks' anger, frustration, fear, dismay and opprobrium over seeing their white countrymen belittle them by donning blackface. This should not change, so it's good that it hasn't.
- Black's/minorities' awareness that racism, bigotry and race-based discrimination and its perpetuators aren't merely jerks running around with pointy white hats and swastikas.
Black folks ceasely been saying that racism and its effects are "alive and real" and not just in overt ways, and so-called reasonable folks on the right and left have denigrated, denied and discounted the verity of Blacks' assertions thus. Perhaps with the recent revelations from VA's governor and AG, more folks will believe them.
As one of my Black friends say, "Racism and homosexuality are both mostly in the closet." While Black folks know that to be so -- How can they not having 400+ years of experience recognizing it? -- far too many white folks act and speak as though it's not.
And let's be clear. Black folks don't think every white person is racist. They think every white person who gives them a reason tho think so is a racist. Of course, not all white folks give Blacks a reason to think so, but even in 2019, far too many do.
Amazing how places of higher learning go so low with the dumb sometimes.
Totally emotional. No one can point to a single way anyone was actually victimized by Northam, unless he was their mother's doctor maybe
Any college group, fraternity et al, that in this day and age is using "peer pressure" to have pledges don or act in blackface or other racist-racial stereotypical behaviors needs to be suspended and possibly removed from the campus.
Totally emotional. No one can point to a single way anyone was actually victimized by Northam, unless he was their mother's doctor maybe
By who? As I said above, the admin likely went there too or another similar place and in all likelihood did the same things. Fraternities in particular have decades of these "traditions." Which is why whenever I hear a colleague or some CEO talk about their fraternity days all I think of is "what horrible things did you do?"
Wow...
Baby, racism and its effects aren't only about victimization. It's every bit as much about trust.
Sure, and no one can point to a single way any non slave owning Founding Father or other freeborn American, in pre-civil war America, actually victimized blacks.
??? Do one really need folks to run around and commit overtly racist acts and utter overtly racist remarks for one to know they're racists? I should hope not.IMHO, it's that (bolded above) loophole which is being seen as the (politically?) plausible out. The idea that positions (ethics and/or morality?) evolve and that no photographic (or personal admission) examples of such racist behavior can be proven to exist for over 30 years.
True. What's your point?
Trust? What does that even mean?
^^^Example of exactly why reprehensible behavior can become condoned, ensconced, if not also revered "tradition".^^^
Too many people just don't get it!
I didn't call anything tradition. You're not making any arguments, just word salads.
I also have to say that there is a mob mentality, so to speak in many of these situations. For example, college fraternities often have donned blackface or did questionable stunts for pledging. You either do it or dont get in. Now sure some kids are brave and say "screw that" but for others its peer pressure. Not sure if the VA cases are like this but I have seen it happen. We recently had racist incidents at a local college and it was due to "pledge week." The kids felt they had to.
You still don't get it.
So sad, even after I laid it out for ya!
Any college group, fraternity et al, that in this day and age is using "peer pressure" to have pledges don or act in blackface or other racist-racial stereotypical behaviors needs to be suspended and possibly removed from the campus.
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