Fort Fun Indiana
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We love our stereotypes as a species. It is one of the tools we use to wrap our puny minds around larger, more complicated issues. It will always be so."Whites are individualsā
Tue Nov 10th 2009 by abagond
āWhites are individualsā is a common argument brought up by White Americans. It is part of a set of closely related arguments:and
- Whites are individuals. There are all kinds ā bikers, soccer moms, coal miners, business men, goths, etc ā so you cannot make general statements about them.
- To make a general statement about Whites is itself racist. It is stereotyping them. It is hypocritical. It is seeing them according to skin colour and that is racist.
- The ānot all Whitesā argument: āAll Whites are not like thatā. They bring this up even when no one said all Whites were anything. But that is how they heard it. It amounts a straw man argument.
āWhites are individualsā
āWhites are individualsā is a common argument brought up by White Americans. It is part of a set of closely related arguments: Whites are individuals. There are all kinds ā bikersā¦abagond.wordpress.com
Let me start with this. In the discussion of race here there seems to be 2 camps relative to white members.
1. Whites who recognize that criticism of past/present racism doesn't apply to them if they don't practice it, yet understand the long term damage it has caused.
2. Whites who deny and make excuses ignoring the impact of past/current racism and declare people are racists because they talk about racism and that because they talk about whites who are currently practicing racism, they are blaming every white person that ever existed or is alive today of being a racist.
See, this is where the understanding of history is important. First, during the course of American history, not every single white person was a racist. In fact, during the 1600's many black and white slaves and the indentured servants had no problem with each other. The division came when wealthy whites who feared that if the two groups unified, they would lose control and money, so they, rich white men, invented the race card
During slavery, there were whites along the underground railroad that helped blacks escape slavery. Everybody here knows that. But it seems that one section of whites do not want a real discussion about race. They want to run off about "black culture" and we're all just supposed to nod our heads and take their suggestions as to what blacks need to do.
While all whites have not practiced racism, the American system was created based on white racial preference. While all whites are not racists, there is a subculture in the white community that is. That subculture exists right now in the third decade of the twenty-first century, still making comments like this:
āI have innumerable faults, but ignoring reality isnāt one of them. Poor white trash that vote for Trump, hey, they arenāt burning down cities and, whatās the thing about black rapers and dominance and homophobia and killing cops. We all know poor black culture is toxic. Deep down in your dark heart, poor black culture is anti-human and toxic to everyone and you know it.ā
This was said by a member here
My point here is that you have not seen a post from blacks here blaming all whites for anything, because we know all whites are not the problem. But we aren't going to pretend that no whites are just because there are whites who do not want America to really be unified. So if there is to be a real discussion, some whites here need to end the hysterics. Saying that the root cause of the problems blacks face is white racism is NOT saying that the root cause is white people. It IS saying that a behavior practiced by a subculture in the white community causes problems. A subculture is part of a culture, not all of it. Therefore no one is blaming all whites for anything.
It's time to ignore racists, IMO. Who cares? Let them be racist. People will agree with them or not agree with them.
Focus only on systemic problems and actions. Violations of civil rights, systemically racist outcomes, etc.
The fact is, people will ALWAYS be racist, insomuch as they will be xenophobic. It's hard wired. If Grandma June doesn't like black folk, then so be it. Leave Grandma June the fuck alone. She can think what she wants.
If a community proposes a bill that would lead to a systemically racist result, explain that and lobby against it.
Two different approaches. Only ONE actually works.
