(no subject)
We talked about racism yesterday in Sociology, and I didn't really get a chance to say anything, so I will
Mr. F, one of the only black teachers in our school, came in to discuss with us. Actually, he might be legit the only black teacher. Holy cow. Anyway, he asked us if we had questions about anything, and no one spoke up right away, so Mr. G went first.
-How come black people are allowed to have Miss Black America and Black History Month, etc., when white people would never be allowed to have similar events?
He proceeded to pontificate on his views regarding affirmative action, which are basically that all preferential treatment should be based solely on family income, not on skin color, heritage, or legacy. I pretty much agree with that, actually. To me, most affirmative action stuff is under the umbrella category of The College Racket (Racket #24: All credible colleges and universities must have artificially improved statistics of racial diversity.). He also said that such organizations continue to promote racial separation. He said they were excellent in the '60s, when the country was tense over the Civil Rights Movement, but that they should now be done away with, since we've made so much progress. Mr. F said that we are in fact regressing in terms of racial bias, but Mr. G didn't understand.
During his opinion-stating, however, Mr. G repeatedly referred to "African-Americans." He then stopped mid-discourse to ask Mr. F's opinion on terminology. Mr. F stated that one cannot use the term "African-American" until one knows that the person to whom one is speaking is, in fact, actually of African descent. Mr. G had a little trouble with this, too, saying that many prominent black leaders today use "African-American." Mr. F asked him pointblank to name three prominent black leaders today, and Mr. G couldn't think of a single one. I was absolutely shocked at that, especially considering his subject. Absolutely shocked.
Some more highlights:
One girl, S, was absolutely ridiculous. She basically said that because she was Lebanese, she had a connection to the Middle East, so if she was racist towards Muslims, it was okay because she was kind of like them. I completely miss the logic there. She also said that racism was based on culture. Example given: Music videos show black rappers being violent, so when a black person passes you on the street, it's normal and intelligent to be more frightened than if a white person passes you. WHAT?
1. Name one white rapper besides Eminem who is popular.
2. Such music videos are on tv and online because they are popular. People like to see them. However, this does not mean that their depictions are in any way correct, nor should they be taken as fact. Mr. F made the point that one doesn't believe what one sees in a movie, so why should one be influenced by music videos. S did not understand whatsoever.
3. WHAT?
Later, Mr. F asked T, a black student, if he had any comments. T said that what bothered him the most was when people referred to "them," instead of saying "black people" or something like that. S interrupts T mid-sentence, practically screaming over him, to announce that "I think they (which T had JUST said was the worst way to be described) are just as biased as we are-"... T tried for almost 2 minutes to say what he was trying to say, and S interrupted him to spout her own ideas no less than 6 times. It was ridiculous. I wanted soooo much just to shoot her in the face. Hard. So did most of the rest of the class, but not N.
N chimed in to defend S, saying that prejudice and bias aren't related to racism. She said that if you don't like a group, it's just based on memories, not prejudice. Now, let's just think about the word "prejudice" for a moment. "Pre"-"judging," perhaps? For instance, N continued, if one sees a black man throw something, then one has a memory of this incident and one will from that time forth be afraid of black men. That is not racist, just reasonable, she says. Holy cow. Just to make sure I wasn't mistaken, I looked it up.
Racism: noun
1 : a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
2 : racial prejudice or discrimination
So, it appears that prejudice does have something to do with racism. Who would have guessed, huh?
Something else that came up was the use of the word "ethnic." Mr. G insisted that it applied only to non-white people. I thought at first that he was playing Devil's advocate, but he wasn't. He seriously didn't understand that "ethnic" referred to ethnicities, things to which everyone belongs, regardless of race. Mr. F brought up the fact that in a classroom of 25 white students, there would be diversity. Mr. G didn't understand that very well either.
(That's kind of like something else that's been bothering me. In writing for the newspaper, I've often had to talk about young women and young men. This is culturally said "girls and guys," although the correct English parallel is "girls and boys." I didn't really identify that as sexism at first, but it is. That's slantedly parallel to Mr. G wanting to refer to all people of color as "African-American," even though they could be Jamaican or just straight-up African.)
I don't think I wrote this very coherently, but the main point is HOLY COW! People are so dumb and they do not understand anything and they're dumb. I was absolutely astounded by the racism and pure ignorance that came up in that class.
I really wanted to talk to Mr. F after class about some issues, but I had a lovely orthodontal appointment in which I got an equally lovely thing to wear in my mouth which cause me to not be able to talk.
Feel free to ignore.
By the way, I'm winning this mind game I'm playing with myself. I'm totally not addicted very much to livejournal at all!
It's now April vacation, and my schedule includes homework and not much else. I must read most of the history textbook, do 2 months of math, practice free-response questions, and go through a Cliffsnotes textbook on Calculus, read 350 pages of the '50s, read 100 pages of French, start a Cold War project on the Vietnam War, and work on my English project. Yessssss.
In other news, this is my last day of 16. That's hard for me to believe. I don't understand 16 at all yet, and definitely can't begin to comprehend 17.
Man.
Or Wom, as Ms. Duncan would say.
Mr. F, one of the only black teachers in our school, came in to discuss with us. Actually, he might be legit the only black teacher. Holy cow. Anyway, he asked us if we had questions about anything, and no one spoke up right away, so Mr. G went first.
-How come black people are allowed to have Miss Black America and Black History Month, etc., when white people would never be allowed to have similar events?
He proceeded to pontificate on his views regarding affirmative action, which are basically that all preferential treatment should be based solely on family income, not on skin color, heritage, or legacy. I pretty much agree with that, actually. To me, most affirmative action stuff is under the umbrella category of The College Racket (Racket #24: All credible colleges and universities must have artificially improved statistics of racial diversity.). He also said that such organizations continue to promote racial separation. He said they were excellent in the '60s, when the country was tense over the Civil Rights Movement, but that they should now be done away with, since we've made so much progress. Mr. F said that we are in fact regressing in terms of racial bias, but Mr. G didn't understand.
During his opinion-stating, however, Mr. G repeatedly referred to "African-Americans." He then stopped mid-discourse to ask Mr. F's opinion on terminology. Mr. F stated that one cannot use the term "African-American" until one knows that the person to whom one is speaking is, in fact, actually of African descent. Mr. G had a little trouble with this, too, saying that many prominent black leaders today use "African-American." Mr. F asked him pointblank to name three prominent black leaders today, and Mr. G couldn't think of a single one. I was absolutely shocked at that, especially considering his subject. Absolutely shocked.
Some more highlights:
One girl, S, was absolutely ridiculous. She basically said that because she was Lebanese, she had a connection to the Middle East, so if she was racist towards Muslims, it was okay because she was kind of like them. I completely miss the logic there. She also said that racism was based on culture. Example given: Music videos show black rappers being violent, so when a black person passes you on the street, it's normal and intelligent to be more frightened than if a white person passes you. WHAT?
1. Name one white rapper besides Eminem who is popular.
2. Such music videos are on tv and online because they are popular. People like to see them. However, this does not mean that their depictions are in any way correct, nor should they be taken as fact. Mr. F made the point that one doesn't believe what one sees in a movie, so why should one be influenced by music videos. S did not understand whatsoever.
3. WHAT?
Later, Mr. F asked T, a black student, if he had any comments. T said that what bothered him the most was when people referred to "them," instead of saying "black people" or something like that. S interrupts T mid-sentence, practically screaming over him, to announce that "I think they (which T had JUST said was the worst way to be described) are just as biased as we are-"... T tried for almost 2 minutes to say what he was trying to say, and S interrupted him to spout her own ideas no less than 6 times. It was ridiculous. I wanted soooo much just to shoot her in the face. Hard. So did most of the rest of the class, but not N.
N chimed in to defend S, saying that prejudice and bias aren't related to racism. She said that if you don't like a group, it's just based on memories, not prejudice. Now, let's just think about the word "prejudice" for a moment. "Pre"-"judging," perhaps? For instance, N continued, if one sees a black man throw something, then one has a memory of this incident and one will from that time forth be afraid of black men. That is not racist, just reasonable, she says. Holy cow. Just to make sure I wasn't mistaken, I looked it up.
Racism: noun
1 : a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
2 : racial prejudice or discrimination
So, it appears that prejudice does have something to do with racism. Who would have guessed, huh?
Something else that came up was the use of the word "ethnic." Mr. G insisted that it applied only to non-white people. I thought at first that he was playing Devil's advocate, but he wasn't. He seriously didn't understand that "ethnic" referred to ethnicities, things to which everyone belongs, regardless of race. Mr. F brought up the fact that in a classroom of 25 white students, there would be diversity. Mr. G didn't understand that very well either.
(That's kind of like something else that's been bothering me. In writing for the newspaper, I've often had to talk about young women and young men. This is culturally said "girls and guys," although the correct English parallel is "girls and boys." I didn't really identify that as sexism at first, but it is. That's slantedly parallel to Mr. G wanting to refer to all people of color as "African-American," even though they could be Jamaican or just straight-up African.)
I don't think I wrote this very coherently, but the main point is HOLY COW! People are so dumb and they do not understand anything and they're dumb. I was absolutely astounded by the racism and pure ignorance that came up in that class.
I really wanted to talk to Mr. F after class about some issues, but I had a lovely orthodontal appointment in which I got an equally lovely thing to wear in my mouth which cause me to not be able to talk.
Feel free to ignore.
By the way, I'm winning this mind game I'm playing with myself. I'm totally not addicted very much to livejournal at all!
It's now April vacation, and my schedule includes homework and not much else. I must read most of the history textbook, do 2 months of math, practice free-response questions, and go through a Cliffsnotes textbook on Calculus, read 350 pages of the '50s, read 100 pages of French, start a Cold War project on the Vietnam War, and work on my English project. Yessssss.
In other news, this is my last day of 16. That's hard for me to believe. I don't understand 16 at all yet, and definitely can't begin to comprehend 17.
Man.
Or Wom, as Ms. Duncan would say.