Here we go again.....

[Joel]

with the news media only showing and telling us part of the full picture. After what this guy did pior to stealing the police car and running he ought to be just damn thankful that he is even still alive.

Joel

[Jorden]

You forgot he was allegedly shooting at the Police, plus that also black police were kicking him, Joel.

We've seen the same pictures here. And I take it down as: You want to steal a cop's car and shoot at them? Then this is what you get back for it !!

Just let's not go into another frenzy?

Jord.

[Joel]

Oh but they are. They are claiming that this is an example of how all blacks are treated by police, period. Can't go with the racist thing this time so they will have to try a different angle.

Joel

[HollyBerri]

Listen, if people find this kind of manufactured melodrama functional in some way (which obviously they do, or it would not be so prevalent)-- who is to say that they should not have it?

Who are we to say that such practices are "disgusting", "immoral" and the like?

No need for a frenzy, Jord.

-------------------------
Holly

[Joel]

And when I say 'they' I mean the news media and the NAACP.

Joel

[Jon P. Inghram]

I really don't care what you look like, I'll kick ya and stomp on your face anyway, for any reason!

(Err... sorry. Wrong forum. I thought this was "HACPA", Hyperaggressive Counterstrike Players Anon.)

[This message has been edited by Jon P. Inghram (edited 14 July 2000).]

[DentyCracker]

What he did still does not warrant that treatment. Granted if I were one of the policemen I'd probably beat him down as well. I do not feel sorry for him in the least. Of course the media has lapped it up as they go for ratings.

[KvHagedorn]

I know I don't have to say I toldja so.



[This message has been edited by KvHagedorn (edited 14 July 2000).]

[The PIT]

In most cases Black kicking Black becomes invisable. Some of worst racist incidents involve Blacks v Blacks but it's not PC correct to say that so I'm in trouble now.

[HollyBerri]

it's not PC correct to say that so I'm in trouble now.

Film at 11!!

How can "Blacks v. Blacks" be a "racist incident"? And are we accepting as given that any "incident" involving people/groups of different races are automatically race-related? I'll grant that the element exists, but when a fight occurs, usually a lot of elements contribute.

I understand the viewpoint that if someone does not make a special effort to point out that particular element (race), the "powers that be" will make every effort to ignore it as a contributing factor (the "if we don't take care of ourselves, no one will" theory)... but I don't know that I agree with it.

On the other hand, trustfulness didn't work out very well for the Jewish people, so maybe there's something to a watchful stance. But frankly, neither the Jewish culture nor the 'African-American' one has made what I would consider a successful transition into the world. Both Blacks and Jews have large groups that hate them for no other reason other than that they are, both groups spend much of their time segregated from the larger society, and both groups have to create special conditions to succeed economically.

So I can't say that either the "don't trust the White man" or the "we're one of you, just a little different" strategies is really optimal.

Wouldn't it be nice if you could just <u>live</u> and find your own way-- your own mind-- without such concerns? And are we all supposed to wait around until someone tells us it's OK to stop being interested in such boring, outdated concepts??

------------------------------
Holly



[This message has been edited by HollyBerri (edited 14 July 2000).]

[dZeus]

the hatred against a certain people, who can be grouped together in a certain way (skin colour, ancestors, etc...) can almost always be explained by xenofobism. It is part of the human nature, since it used to (and sometimes still does) gice a evolutionary benefit. You can also see this with animals: when the young of a bird is too different from it's parents, brothers and sisters, it will be expelled. Mostly these differences are caused by a genetical defect, that would mean the bird would have a much lower life expectance anyway.

Nowadays there is almost no need anymore for xenofobism (which btw is mostly diverted to aliens nowadays. How many stories/movies do you know where aliens are peacefull towards humans, compared to the amount of stories where they are hostile?). However, it still is in the human nature, and some events can lead into áctivating' the xenofobism.

My opinion is that most of the xenofobic behaviour is completely irrational and pointless.

However, every time a person kills or hits another person and one has a different skin colour or whatever than the other, it automatically is caused by racsism? what a bullshit...

What I think is the main problem nowadays is that everything is explained as racism. Even the people who are 'against' racism still talk about the 'black and white' people. Why group people by their skin colour? it just is silly, and doesn't help when dealing with the real racism in the world.

------------------
- What do you get when you put N nVidia whores in a circle and each one pats the person on their right on the back and says "nVidia wins 3dfx and Michael Knight any day of the week!" ?

- You get N people with a boosted ego, and no-one loses anything; keep up the good work, boys!

[The PIT]

Of couse black versus black can be racist if the attack is on the grounds that they hate each other because of there nationatilty. This does occur but seems to be ignored. At the moment in this country if a white hits a black it's automatically racist according to the press while if a black hits a white it's just assault or if a West Indian hits an Indian you don't hear a whimper. What I was trying point out that Racism isn't just White versus Black it's across the board.
I've lived in a town where a Pakistani couldn't walked into a West Indian area at times without being Knifed and vice versa now if that isn't racist what is. By the way this was reported in the local press in middle of the paper and only took a few lines of space.

[spoogenet]

Why group people by their skin colour?

This relates to profiling and, more specifically, racial profiling. There has been quite a bit of hype in some places about racial profiling, almost all of it dealing with profiling minorities.

The biggest misconception that I can see is how everybody thinks racial profiling is so evil. Just like you may dislike grouping people by color. Fact of the matter is, profiling and grouping people by color, etc, can be helpful at times.

As humans we try to categorize and make analysis to find relationships. Discovering relationships can assist us in doing helpful things. It can, however, hurt us. Racism is the single largest example I can think of that hurts us.

However if a study were to show that 85% of Green people develop liver cancer by age 40, vs 25% of all other people at the same age, we can use this data to maybe help the Green people.

It's not so much what you do, but rather how and why you do it. We can not ignore factors such as race, nationality, etc because they are very important in our lives. We should strive, however, not to use them for harmful discrimination.

Or we could just stop referring to people as Black, White, Asian, etc. In fact, don't refer to the guy with blue hair as the guy with blue hair, that's also unfair. And don't talk about the blonde girl, because that's not right either.

Point is, you've gotta draw the line somewhere. We have to be able to differentiate between people, and color happens to be one of the ways to do so. WHY you are differentiating is the important idea.

b

[HollyBerri]

Ah, but The PIT... an African-American vs. a Pakistani isn't "black-on-black".. that's "black-on-brown"....

I still say that "black-on-black" situations like these are not "racist" in the "classic" sense.
<hr>
hey, spoogenet! Haven't seen you in some bit (maybe I'm hanging around with the wrong people )..

WHY you are differentiating is the important idea.

If you think about it that way, there's very little reason to differentiate between people on the basis of race, unless you're:

• Describing someone to another person who needs to recognize them somehow;
• an urban planner
• a polititian
• a sociologist or psychologist.

All the other reasons seem to ultimately add up to "personal fear", imo.

I can live with that (if I must), but it would be nice if we all just came out and admitted it.

-------------------------
Holly

[spoogenet]

I've been lurking.... )

If you think about it that way, there's very little reason to differentiate between people on the basis of race, unless you're:

Describing someone to another person who needs to recognize them somehow;
an urban planner
a polititian
a sociologist or psychologist.

All the other reasons seem to ultimately add up to "personal fear", imo.

Exactly...couldn't have said it better myself. I could maybe think of a couple more reasons where it's appropriate/maybe necessary, if I wasn't so tired right now.

My point is just that profiling and using characteristics such as race to describe someone isn't innately evil. Just like hammers aren't innately evil. Each, however, can be used in an evil manner.

b