racism and discrimination in general
i was thinking. a lot about things i forget to share.
and i was browsing margret cho's myspace page in which she commented on the VT shooting and why the media is proliferated with comments of "the asian shooter", "the korean gunman" etc. and why his actions seem to be tied up with his race, but if he had been white, the news wouldn't have been plastered with "the white gunman" etc.
and the comments were interesting. some filled with their own versions of discrimination, bias, ethnocentricies. others simply passing their condolences to VT. and also to Margret who feels like she wants to hide when something like this happens because the shooter looks like he could be part of her family, and she doesn't want to be asked about it, or blamed for it, or associated with it. but feels like if she doesn't hide, she will inevitabely be dragged into it some how...
but it made me think. one girl said, "it's easy for you to say it shouldn't be about race because your white". she also disaproved of the word "aryan" because "hitler doesn't rule the world anymore". she's jewish by the way.
and there was commentary about how whites are the subject of racism too. because if whites tried to start an organization like the NAACP, then they would be called, well racist.
and a comment on that is that the NAACP was created to protect the rights of black americans, and how sad it is that we have to have an organization to protect the rights of some of our citizens.
the implication being that whites don't need to have their rights protected in america. which i agree with. because as margret cho points out, "white" isn't seen as a color. whites are classified by their race. they are classified by their background. by their family. by their education. by their "problems", but not by their race. it's not the first thing said about someone because white is still seen as the default.
and i think there's something wrong there. something wrong with that default. and i wonder how we can hope to participate in a golobal economy as a country when our default is still "white". when our default for thinking about another person still includes race.
but how can we take it out? how can we change the 'group think' of america to discard race as a classification?
grassroots organizations would believe we do it one person at a time. and i think, "god, how long is that going to really take?" one american at a time.....
but back to the NAACP and the thought that it reminded me about...I was at work the other day and thinking about my friend from home, Robby. who does a lot of GLBT political posts. and the setbacks being reached by the community in LA and the US at large. and I was wondering how far the country would have to come, and how long it would take before the GLBT's get their own affirmative action laws. requiring schools to keep % balaced classrooms, and jobs to hire certain % of GLBT members in order avoid discrimination lawsuits brought by the NAAGLBTP (the National Associationg for the Advancement of Gay, Lesbian, Bi-Sexual and Transgendered People) or the NAAAIP (The National Association for the Advancement of Alternatively Identified People).
I mean we have hate crime laws that include sexuality slurs now, and a few other things, but what about the rest? then again, will it ever really happen?
there are no organizations created to ensure the protection of women's rights. there are laws passed that subtly hint that encroaching upon women's rights will not be tollerated, but we don't have a NAAW (do we?).
and I wonder if we can't have a NAAAIP because it's membership would be hard to identify. You could just fake being a memeber of the GLBT community and claim discrimination to get a job. right? How would we then qualify people as being protected by these advancement laws, designed to make up for the unimaginable horrors eneacted upon these people and the discrimination they faced by hundreds of years of american ancestors?
Women and Blacks are easy to identify. right? it's on their birth certificates if nothing else, but what about the GLBT's?
and that brings me back to my first thought. in references to the jewish girl's comment that "it's easy for you to say because your white."
we've all been discriminated against for one thing or another by someone or some group in our lives. whether it be our sex, our race, our gender identity, or our hair color, there's been some point in which we've had to deal with someone not liking us soley based on this one thing.
so why is it, that whites can't talk about racism and just trying to put it behind us and move on into a world of humanity where race isn't considered when we talk about what people have done?
why is it racist for whites to say things, but not racist for others?
why is it racist for whites to want things to be better, want people to get over race, and want the world to not look at our skin to make judgements, but not for others?
do whites have to be discriminated against, and devalued, and humiliated based on their skin color before they're allowed to wish for equality and pray for the world to get it's head out of it's ass?
are a white's hopes less valued on this front because they're white, and therefore didn't have to come as far or go through as much as the rest of the world to get to this point?
a co-worker of mine saw a woman wearing a shirt that said, "blacks do it better." and she said if she'd been wearing a shirt that said, "whites do it better" she would have been shot.
and i think that's true.
why?
why do we comment on the racism against everyone else except the racism against whites?
and i was browsing margret cho's myspace page in which she commented on the VT shooting and why the media is proliferated with comments of "the asian shooter", "the korean gunman" etc. and why his actions seem to be tied up with his race, but if he had been white, the news wouldn't have been plastered with "the white gunman" etc.
and the comments were interesting. some filled with their own versions of discrimination, bias, ethnocentricies. others simply passing their condolences to VT. and also to Margret who feels like she wants to hide when something like this happens because the shooter looks like he could be part of her family, and she doesn't want to be asked about it, or blamed for it, or associated with it. but feels like if she doesn't hide, she will inevitabely be dragged into it some how...
but it made me think. one girl said, "it's easy for you to say it shouldn't be about race because your white". she also disaproved of the word "aryan" because "hitler doesn't rule the world anymore". she's jewish by the way.
and there was commentary about how whites are the subject of racism too. because if whites tried to start an organization like the NAACP, then they would be called, well racist.
and a comment on that is that the NAACP was created to protect the rights of black americans, and how sad it is that we have to have an organization to protect the rights of some of our citizens.
the implication being that whites don't need to have their rights protected in america. which i agree with. because as margret cho points out, "white" isn't seen as a color. whites are classified by their race. they are classified by their background. by their family. by their education. by their "problems", but not by their race. it's not the first thing said about someone because white is still seen as the default.
and i think there's something wrong there. something wrong with that default. and i wonder how we can hope to participate in a golobal economy as a country when our default is still "white". when our default for thinking about another person still includes race.
but how can we take it out? how can we change the 'group think' of america to discard race as a classification?
grassroots organizations would believe we do it one person at a time. and i think, "god, how long is that going to really take?" one american at a time.....
but back to the NAACP and the thought that it reminded me about...I was at work the other day and thinking about my friend from home, Robby. who does a lot of GLBT political posts. and the setbacks being reached by the community in LA and the US at large. and I was wondering how far the country would have to come, and how long it would take before the GLBT's get their own affirmative action laws. requiring schools to keep % balaced classrooms, and jobs to hire certain % of GLBT members in order avoid discrimination lawsuits brought by the NAAGLBTP (the National Associationg for the Advancement of Gay, Lesbian, Bi-Sexual and Transgendered People) or the NAAAIP (The National Association for the Advancement of Alternatively Identified People).
I mean we have hate crime laws that include sexuality slurs now, and a few other things, but what about the rest? then again, will it ever really happen?
there are no organizations created to ensure the protection of women's rights. there are laws passed that subtly hint that encroaching upon women's rights will not be tollerated, but we don't have a NAAW (do we?).
and I wonder if we can't have a NAAAIP because it's membership would be hard to identify. You could just fake being a memeber of the GLBT community and claim discrimination to get a job. right? How would we then qualify people as being protected by these advancement laws, designed to make up for the unimaginable horrors eneacted upon these people and the discrimination they faced by hundreds of years of american ancestors?
Women and Blacks are easy to identify. right? it's on their birth certificates if nothing else, but what about the GLBT's?
and that brings me back to my first thought. in references to the jewish girl's comment that "it's easy for you to say because your white."
we've all been discriminated against for one thing or another by someone or some group in our lives. whether it be our sex, our race, our gender identity, or our hair color, there's been some point in which we've had to deal with someone not liking us soley based on this one thing.
so why is it, that whites can't talk about racism and just trying to put it behind us and move on into a world of humanity where race isn't considered when we talk about what people have done?
why is it racist for whites to say things, but not racist for others?
why is it racist for whites to want things to be better, want people to get over race, and want the world to not look at our skin to make judgements, but not for others?
do whites have to be discriminated against, and devalued, and humiliated based on their skin color before they're allowed to wish for equality and pray for the world to get it's head out of it's ass?
are a white's hopes less valued on this front because they're white, and therefore didn't have to come as far or go through as much as the rest of the world to get to this point?
a co-worker of mine saw a woman wearing a shirt that said, "blacks do it better." and she said if she'd been wearing a shirt that said, "whites do it better" she would have been shot.
and i think that's true.
why?
why do we comment on the racism against everyone else except the racism against whites?