"I Hope They Ain't Black" moments...

Status
Not open for further replies.

aruna

On a wing and a prayer
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 14, 2005
Messages
12,862
Reaction score
2,846
Location
A Small Town in Germany
Website
www.sharonmaas.co.uk
Living in Germany, I have a lot of such moments. Blacks are a small minority here and struggling to get past the stereotype of poor refugees from Africa.
 
Last edited:

djrashn

Deus ex Harry Potter.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 27, 2012
Messages
139
Reaction score
9
Location
Billings, Mt.
This is a very interesting thread, and I can definitely relate. I read the news online everyday and any headline that has "killed" in it makes me click it to see if they describe the perpetrator.
My kids have collectively shook their heads at me many times because I screamed out in relief..."YES! They weren't black!"
When I was younger I decided that if someone lumped me in with all of the "bad ones" that it was their problem. They were racist. They were stereotyping me. Their bad.
Now that I'm older, it seems that actually it is my problem. It is my childrens inherited problem. It's one more obstacle that can't be overcome.
Somehow I hear it everyday and it never matters how many negative acts the white race commits, because if one black person does it, we're all guilty, and it's used as "evidence" to prove once again that we're a lesser race.
 

djrashn

Deus ex Harry Potter.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 27, 2012
Messages
139
Reaction score
9
Location
Billings, Mt.
Nighttimer thanks for that Chris Rock link. Haven't seen that in years, and it still brings tears to my eyes. Too funny, too sad, too true.
 

djrashn

Deus ex Harry Potter.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 27, 2012
Messages
139
Reaction score
9
Location
Billings, Mt.
I do wish they wouldn't post that stuff, but I wish even more that people would stop doing it.
 

aruna

On a wing and a prayer
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 14, 2005
Messages
12,862
Reaction score
2,846
Location
A Small Town in Germany
Website
www.sharonmaas.co.uk
I having one of these (ongoing) moments due to this motorcyclist gang attack SUV story. Why oh why. To make matters worse (for me) is that the chief suspect is apparently from Guyana. I'm groaning down to my bones.

And since this is an old, old thread I'm going to repeat what nighttimer said in the first post:

I tell myself nobody is responsible for the bad actors who shame themselves and by extension shame their entire race. I know in my rational and logical mind there is no reason to think this way. No one, no matter how noble or evil or foolish represents or reflects on every other member of a racial or ethnic group.

The journalist Carl T. Rowan sagely observed, A minority group has "arrived" only when it has the right to produce some fools and scoundrels without the entire group paying for it.

Logically, sure, I know this to be true, but the failures of Black people are so often shoved under my nose, I find myself actively craving and seeking the success stories just to remind myself we're ALL not thugs, criminals, psychos and human garbage.

The Black race has produced philosophers, healers, entertainers, scientists, politicians, athletes and other men and women of distinction that have made the world a better place.

It needs more like Celina Hollis and a lot less like Rollen Oliver.

I shouldn't feel embarrassed for every Black person, but when I know how this kind of tragedy will be seen (and spun) as Blacks killing, Blacks being violent, Blacks doing stupid shit, Blacks proving every horrible stereotype about us is true, I do feel embarrassed for every Black person who doesn't kill, who isn't violent, who do smart stuff and prove every horrible stereotype about us is false.
my bold.

I feel embarrassment not only for blacks but for Guyanese. We are such a small country but it seems whenever the outside world becomes aware of us it's just for bad, bad things; Jonestown, and now this (OK, this isn't much and Jonestown wasn't our fault but it did make negative headlines for Guyana.)
 
Last edited:

Wilde_at_heart

υπείκωphobe
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 12, 2012
Messages
3,243
Reaction score
514
Location
Southern Ontario
I having one of these (ongoing) moments due to this motorcyclist gang attack SUV story. Why oh why. To make matters worse (for me) is that the chief suspect is apparently from Guyana. I'm groaning down to my bones.

And since this is an old, old thread I'm going to repeat what nighttimer said in the first post:

my bold.

I feel embarrassment not only for blacks but for Guyanese. We are such a small country but it seems whenever the outside world becomes aware of us it's just for bad, bad things; Jonestown, and now this (OK, this isn't much and Jonestown wasn't our fault but it did make negative headlines for Guyana.)

My family were in the process of moving to Guyana when headlines broke about Jonestown. Most people afaik know they were Americans, at least, but yeah, it's unfortunately what Guyana is 'on the map' for...

Part of the problem though, is the media's fixation on relatively random, violent crimes 'as crime', ignoring of course the social problems behind a lot of them, but also other forms of crime that cost 'society' a hell of a lot more ruin people's lives just as often and so on but because 'white collar' crime is often less directly related to the victim it gets downplayed most of the time.
If higher-level fraud and corruption were even prosecuted, never mind covered by the media nearly as obsessively as stabbings and liquor store hold-ups people's perceptions could very well be quite different.
Let me put it this way - the Financial Crisis of 2008 - which was the end result of cumulative illegal or unethical practices of thousands and thousands of culprits and how many arrests were there? Anyone besides Bernie Madoff in something that is still costing taxpayers billions to this day?
 
Last edited:

Roxxsmom

Beastly Fido
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 24, 2011
Messages
23,079
Reaction score
10,775
Location
Where faults collide
Website
doggedlywriting.blogspot.com
After all, do White people ever feel a sense of collective guilt that Adolf Hitler and Jeffrey Dahmer and Jerry Sandusky are White? No such shame in their game.

I feel shame about these people, and am painfully aware of the fact that most serial killers and mass shooters seem to be white. I'm also embarrassed by the large number of people of my race who seem to be unapologetic bigots and listen to AM talk radio (including a member of my own family).

And it infuriates me that some of my fellow white people can say that it's okay to profile Muslim men and don't see that this is the same as saying that white men, or Catholics, should be profiled because Timothy McVeigh was these things.

I think, though, that the issue is less prevalent for white people because of the privilege one has as the historically empowered and normalized group in our society--publicized crimes are not automatically perceived as typical behavior for the group.
 

Lavern08

Sit Down, and Shut Up!
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 14, 2009
Messages
21,790
Reaction score
7,436
Location
7th Heaven
... I think, though, that the issue is less prevalent for white people because of the privilege one has as the historically empowered and normalized group in our society--publicized crimes are not automatically perceived as typical behavior for the group.

:Clap:
 

tatygirl90

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 25, 2013
Messages
107
Reaction score
3
Location
Louisiana
I have those feelings and I struggle with them. But I guess because crimes committed by Black people are magnified while crimes committed by whites don't get as much attention as the Black ones.

Bad thinking but I can understand it.
 

Kim Fierce

Attack me with everything you have.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 18, 2011
Messages
1,366
Reaction score
129
Location
Indiana
Website
kimnflowers.blogspot.com
I know some people who posted on Facebook about crimes committed, for example while Trayvon Martin was going on they were like, "Oh, so you're upset about Martin, but I think Zimmerman is innocent and here's a crime I found committed by black people against white people but no one is talking about it! Hear me declare my self-righteous outrage!" It was insane. But the thing is also, the crimes they were talking about were those which the guilty party was clearly evident and the person had been prosecuted. End of story, and yes it had been reported, but no the families/other people involved weren't spreading the story around apparently because the sentence had already been carried out maybe? Zimmerman/Martin was an incident where they claimed they needed to find evidence of guilt (and failed miserably IMO.) So people like to compare apples to oranges a lot as well.

On the other side, is the sickening story of the rich white teenage boy who gets probation for killing 4 people while driving drunk because of "affluenza." I had never heard of that word before and learned that apparently it means this kid was raised so privileged and rich that he had no idea of the consequences of his actions! How sickening. But the families of the people he killed/injured have now all sued him. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/...uenza-lawsuits-car-crash-texas_n_4461585.html
 

Midian

My sarcasm got the better of me.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 19, 2010
Messages
392
Reaction score
57
Location
Los Angeles
Website
inkslingereditorialservices.com
I hadn't been following and didn't know about the "affluenza" defense. I'm having trouble wrapping my head around it. I'm floored. I actually had to read a legal explanation just to figure out how it could ever happen. Even after reading that, still...how does a jury or judge even buy into it? They too must be suffering from affluenza. As if saying no to drinking and drugs aren't drilled into kids from preschool, along with all of the consequences.

Talk about being ashamed to be human.
 

rwm4768

practical experience, FTW
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 12, 2012
Messages
15,472
Reaction score
767
Location
Missouri
I think whether you feel ashamed by actions of a member of your race depends on how you view yourself. Due to being minorities, many people who are black, Hispanic, Chinese, etc. have greater identification with their race. As for me, I've never really thought of myself as white. I'm more likely to be ashamed for the human race in general.

I can think of some other things that bother me, though. As a Christian, I get a feeling like this when I see other Christians who are being hateful and bigoted. It's the whole guilt-by-association thing. If you consider yourself, even loosely, to be part of a certain group, you are more likely to be ashamed when someone else in that group does something terrible.

For another example, I'm half German (my dad was actually born in Nazi-occupied Poland), so there's a part of me that feels ashamed that there were people like Hitler and the Nazis.

Of course, the biggest thing that perpetuates these problems is the news. On the local news here in St. Louis, you spend the first five minutes hearing about all the murders, thefts, and other crimes committed (mostly) by black people. For people that don't see many black people regularly, this is the primary image of black people they see. Then, whether they intend to be racist or not, they end up feeling anxious around black people because of the portrayal in the news.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.