Accidental Racist

[editec]

I think its generally a bad idea to call somebody a racist.

If they are indeed racists, their own words will inform the rest of us of that fact.

I mean why point out what is obvious to (in far too many cases) everybody but them?

Here's the thing I know about a whole lot of us who are still somewhat racist.

(and I know this because I was like this)

Most of us cannot see the racism in ourselves.

We do not think of ourselves as racists BECAUSE We do not automatically hate the other.

Obviously in cases where people admit their racism, well that's entire a different kettle of jackboots.

But I know that I used to be racist much like many of you (who do feel like you are remotely racists) are today.

It takes being able to empathize to even begin to see that what you believe to be truth may not be true for others.

 

[hortysir]

I think its generally a bad idea to call somebody a racist.

If they are indeed racists, their own words will inform the rest of us of that fact.

I mean why point out what is obvious to (in far too many cases) everybody but them?

Here's the thing I know about a whole lot of us who are still somewhat racist.

(and I know this because I was like this)

Most of us cannot see the racism in ourselves.

We do not think of ourselves as racists BECAUSE We do not automatically hate the other.

Obviously in cases where people admit their racism, well that's entire a different kettle of jackboots.

But I know that I used to be racist much like many of you (who do feel like you are remotely racists) are today.

It takes being able to empathize to even begin to see that what you believe to be truth may not be true for others.

I feel ya.

I was raised in a very racist and bigoted family. Hell, we couldn't even watch the Jeffersons

For me the Navy was my first step in overcoming those ways.
When you're surrounded by every color of the rainbow and sealed in a steel vessel in the middle of the ocean.......well, you learn a lot about people.

After the Navy came the "crack days", so I spent a lot of time in "the hood" and a lot of time getting to know people.

Next, and lastly, came being saved, sanctified and filled with the Holy Spirit!
That's where I learned the empathy you mention.
Besides there's quite a few black people that are (fellow) "holy rollers"

 

[midcan5]

How does one become an accidental racist? For a moment think outside the box and consider a few other accidents. I really did not mean to: [fill in the crime, a thoughtless act, a death, an evil act, then add the excuse it was an accident], how many would be willing to forgive the perpetrator's excuse, it was just an accident?

Now consider why someone may think a flag that only represented the right to keep another human being in slavery could be offensive. No one who has read the literature on the Civil War could ever come to the conclusion that had slavery not been the key issue, the war would have taken place. I will provide a few links for the rational reader below.

Now consider 'states rights' a wonderful euphemism for we in power will do whatever we want. Anyone for nullification? How about Jim Crow? Separate but equal anyone? You N-word ain't coming to our school? 'Voting, what,' where's your (state's right) ID?

So what if the flag was displayed by the KKK, they only lynched a few people, didn't they? I propose someone create a historical flag that would represent the South's right to secede, it could be created for the few people who honestly think state's rights had anything to do with the war. Maybe an all white one?

As far as the song, because someone else does something that's OK? Remember what mom used to say long before PC. Being proud of that long and evil history is hardly a promising sentiment.

"I can testify about the South under oath. I was born and raised there, and 12 men in my family fought for the Confederacy; two of them were killed. And since I was a boy, the answer I’ve heard to this question, from Virginia to Louisiana (from whites, never from blacks), is this: “The War Between the States was about states’ rights. It was not about slavery.”

I’ve heard it from women and from men, from sober people and from people liquored up on anti-Washington talk. The North wouldn’t let us govern ourselves, they say, and Congress laid on tariffs that hurt the South. So we rebelled. Secession and the Civil War, in other words, were about small government, limited federal powers and states’ rights.

But a look through the declaration of causes written by South Carolina and four of the 10 states that followed it out of the Union — which, taken together, paint a kind of self-portrait of the Confederacy — reveals a different story. From Georgia to Texas, each state said the reason it was getting out was that the awful Northern states were threatening to do away with slavery." http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/opinion/19Ball.html


The south wanted slavery, same as the republicans today want power and corporate wealth, nothing has really changed. All that changes is the influence of money and paid for revisionism. The new revisionism is a mea culpa history. Below are a few links that tell the story if you can see it or the harder part, accept it. If unanimity existed, history would be so easy but ignoring the fundamental reason is dishonest.

"Her conclusion is that the Americans who fought the Civil War overwhelmingly thought they were fighting about slavery, and that we should take their word for it."
AmericanHeritage.com / Why the Civil War Was Fought, Really

"Benjamin Franklin, in a 1773 letter to Dean Woodward, confirmed that whenever the Americans had attempted to end slavery, the British government had indeed thwarted those attempts. Franklin explained that . . . . a disposition to abolish slavery prevails in North America, that many of Pennsylvanians have set their slaves at liberty, and that even the Virginia Assembly have petitioned the King for permission to make a law for preventing the importation of more into that colony. This request, however, will probably not be granted as their former laws of that kind have always been repealed. " WallBuilders - Issues and Articles - The Founding Fathers and Slavery

Southern arguments for and against: Southern Arguments for and Against Secession from the Union - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com
Agrument v Lincoln's position
http://apollo3.com/~jameso/secession.html
Does the constitution allow secession FindLaw's Writ - Dorf: Does the Constitution Permit the Blue States to Secede?
AmericanHeritage.com / How the North Lost the Civil War


Words here as youtube was taken down. Brad Paisley - Accidental Racist Lyrics


"We learn to be racist, therefore we can learn not to be racist. Racism is not genetical. It has everything to do with power." Jane Elliot

mc5 on racism: http://www.usmessageboard.com/race-relations-racism/61091-life-in-a-parallel-universe.html

 

[hortysir]

How does one become an accidental racist? For a moment think outside the box and consider a few other accidents. I really did not mean to: [fill in the crime, a thoughtless act, a death, an evil act, then add the excuse it was an accident], how many would be willing to forgive the perpetrator's excuse, it was just an accident?

Now consider why someone may think a flag that only represented the right to keep another human being in slavery could be offensive. No one who has read the literature on the Civil War could ever come to the conclusion that had slavery not been the key issue, the war would have taken place. I will provide a few links for the rational reader below.

Now consider 'states rights' a wonderful euphemism for we in power will do whatever we want. Anyone for nullification? How about Jim Crow? Separate but equal anyone? You N-word ain't coming to our school? 'Voting, what,' where's your (state's right) ID?

So what if the flag was displayed by the KKK, they only lynched a few people, didn't they? I propose someone create a historical flag that would represent the South's right to secede, it could be created for the few people who honestly think state's rights had anything to do with the war. Maybe an all white one?

As far as the song, because someone else does something that's OK? Remember what mom used to say long before PC. Being proud of that long and evil history is hardly a promising sentiment.

"I can testify about the South under oath. I was born and raised there, and 12 men in my family fought for the Confederacy; two of them were killed. And since I was a boy, the answer I’ve heard to this question, from Virginia to Louisiana (from whites, never from blacks), is this: “The War Between the States was about states’ rights. It was not about slavery.”

I’ve heard it from women and from men, from sober people and from people liquored up on anti-Washington talk. The North wouldn’t let us govern ourselves, they say, and Congress laid on tariffs that hurt the South. So we rebelled. Secession and the Civil War, in other words, were about small government, limited federal powers and states’ rights.

But a look through the declaration of causes written by South Carolina and four of the 10 states that followed it out of the Union — which, taken together, paint a kind of self-portrait of the Confederacy — reveals a different story. From Georgia to Texas, each state said the reason it was getting out was that the awful Northern states were threatening to do away with slavery." http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/opinion/19Ball.html


The south wanted slavery, same as the republicans today want power and corporate wealth, nothing has really changed. All that changes is the influence of money and paid for revisionism. The new revisionism is a mea culpa history. Below are a few links that tell the story if you can see it or the harder part, accept it. If unanimity existed, history would be so easy but ignoring the fundamental reason is dishonest.

"Her conclusion is that the Americans who fought the Civil War overwhelmingly thought they were fighting about slavery, and that we should take their word for it."
AmericanHeritage.com / Why the Civil War Was Fought, Really

"Benjamin Franklin, in a 1773 letter to Dean Woodward, confirmed that whenever the Americans had attempted to end slavery, the British government had indeed thwarted those attempts. Franklin explained that . . . . a disposition to abolish slavery prevails in North America, that many of Pennsylvanians have set their slaves at liberty, and that even the Virginia Assembly have petitioned the King for permission to make a law for preventing the importation of more into that colony. This request, however, will probably not be granted as their former laws of that kind have always been repealed. " WallBuilders - Issues and Articles - The Founding Fathers and Slavery

Southern arguments for and against: Southern Arguments for and Against Secession from the Union - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com
Agrument v Lincoln's position
http://apollo3.com/~jameso/secession.html
Does the constitution allow secession FindLaw's Writ - Dorf: Does the Constitution Permit the Blue States to Secede?
AmericanHeritage.com / How the North Lost the Civil War


Words here as youtube was taken down. Brad Paisley - Accidental Racist Lyrics


"We learn to be racist, therefore we can learn not to be racist. Racism is not genetical. It has everything to do with power." Jane Elliot

mc5 on racism: http://www.usmessageboard.com/race-relations-racism/61091-life-in-a-parallel-universe.html

It's a real pity that the thinner-skinned among the population felt it necessary to take down the song.
I really thought it was a good conversation starter.

I interpreted the 'accidental' reference to mean that, sometimes, we're accidentally identified as racist just because we're wearing a Skynyrd t-shirt or a cowboy hat.
Just like, sometimes, people are identified as a "thug" because of baggy pants or gold teeth.

We need to learn to talk and get past the cover of the book.

IMHO the best first step of understanding the contents of said book is to (1st) get to know the AUTHOR!

 

[editec]

I think its generally a bad idea to call somebody a racist.

If they are indeed racists, their own words will inform the rest of us of that fact.

I mean why point out what is obvious to (in far too many cases) everybody but them?

Here's the thing I know about a whole lot of us who are still somewhat racist.

(and I know this because I was like this)

Most of us cannot see the racism in ourselves.

We do not think of ourselves as racists BECAUSE We do not automatically hate the other.

Obviously in cases where people admit their racism, well that's entire a different kettle of jackboots.

But I know that I used to be racist much like many of you (who do feel like you are remotely racists) are today.

It takes being able to empathize to even begin to see that what you believe to be truth may not be true for others.

I feel ya.

I was raised in a very racist and bigoted family. Hell, we couldn't even watch the Jeffersons

For me the Navy was my first step in overcoming those ways.
When you're surrounded by every color of the rainbow and sealed in a steel vessel in the middle of the ocean.......well, you learn a lot about people.

After the Navy came the "crack days", so I spent a lot of time in "the hood" and a lot of time getting to know people.

Next, and lastly, came being saved, sanctified and filled with the Holy Spirit!
That's where I learned the empathy you mention.
Besides there's quite a few black people that are (fellow) "holy rollers"

I hgad roughly the same experience thanks to the NAV.

It was not until I lived with and shared the same fate as my Black mates, that I began to see the crypto-racism that they had to put up with.

Until one sees the petty shit they put up with with one's own eyes, you're apt to think their complaints are just them whining.

I also note that despite my time with the Navy opening up my eyes to what minorities put up with, the NAV was then and still is the least racist society that I was ever a part of.

 

[midcan5]

It's a real pity that the thinner-skinned among the population felt it necessary to take down the song.
I really thought it was a good conversation starter.

I interpreted the 'accidental' reference to mean that, sometimes, we're accidentally identified as racist just because we're wearing a Skynyrd t-shirt or a cowboy hat. Just like, sometimes, people are identified as a "thug" because of baggy pants or gold teeth.

We need to learn to talk and get past the cover of the book.

IMHO the best first step of understanding the contents of said book is to (1st) get to know the AUTHOR!

Consider another example, the Swastika? Would that be OK on shirts and songs about German history? Would it clarify anything? But as I wrote in another post when this came up, our sons had the General Lee and they loved the good old boys, the flag was meaningless to them. But there are many others who see it in many other ways.

 

[PaulS1950]

The swastika has been around for 1000s of years. It was a symbol of healing and spiritual strength. When the NAZI party used it the meaning behind it changed but the old meaning still exists, it just isn't as well known as the NAZI party is.