Racism In America

[Adrestia]

[quote name='Socrates' post='1495307' date='Apr 8 2008, 10:13 PM']And the statistics show that black-on-white violent crime is much more common than white-on-black.[/quote] so it's the opposite of economic and social injustice... isn't that ironic

[BeenaBobba]

[quote name='Socrates' post='1495307' date='Apr 9 2008, 12:13 AM']Again, I'm not denying that racism exists - I'm just saying I don't see it as a huge widepread problem in America needing more government activism to solve.[/quote]

Out of curiosity, what makes you think it's not? How would you define something as being a huge, widespread problem?

I know you don't think that government activism is the solution, and frankly, you'd be a pretty bad Republican if you did. Anyhow, I'm neither a Republican nor a Democrat, and I too am not 100% convinced that more government activism is the solution. There's got to be a solution; the thing is, I don't know what it is.

[quote]Incidents like the Jena Six (which I regard as deplorable all round) are big national news and get major coverage as showing a major national problem of racism which needs to be dealt with.
But lets face it - the fact that it was big news shows it's not an everyday occurence, nor does it reflect race relations in general.[/quote]

I disagree with you here. Incidents like this don't spring up out of nowhere, and while I don't think that violent incidents between races (like those in Jena) are commonplace, I do think that the racial tension and subtle racism that spark them are more widespread than you'd think. As long as this tension exists, we're going to keep seeing violence between blacks and whites. If things build up long enough, it's inevitable that they'll come to a head.

[quote]While racial violence is evil and unacceptable, we often ignore the MUCH larger scale problem of black-on-black violence in this country. And the statistics show that black-on-white violent crime is much more common than white-on-black.[/quote]

I certainly agree that there's tons of violence within the black community. One only needs to look at gangs like the Bloods, the Crips, etc. Hell, the other day, I watched a documentary about Frank Lucas, a black man who sold heroin to his fellow African-Americans.

But as I wrote above, I don't think that racism necessarily has to be [i]violent racism[/i]; racism exists in many forms.

[quote]And, of course, countless everyday examples of people of different races living in peace and helping each other out get no media attention.[/quote]

Since when does the media show good news of any sort?

Edited April 9, 2008 by BeenaBobba

[BeenaBobba]

[quote]Anyhow, I don't think there's anything sinister at work here, and I'm not sure exactly what you're advocating.[/quote]

There may or there may not be anything sinister at work there. I wasn't advocating anything; I was just pointing out that many minorities are somewhat offended by this disparity. Many blacks, for example, say that they're living in a white man's world, and the lack of black presence (compared to white presence) in the movies and on TV just cements their opinion. That being said, I think that this disparity hurts race relations.

[quote]I think hollywood basically just follows the money on this, and if demand for black-centered movies rises, so will the supply. (And since hollywood is also socially quite liberal, I would see no reason for them to downplay blacks.[/quote]

That's the thing, though. If Hollywood's more motivated by money than by trying to even things out, then I can see why some minority groups are offended.

[quote]Superman II, Terminator II, Batman Begins, and Transformers come to mind off the top of my head, and it seems I've seen a number of lesser examples which I forget.[/quote]

I've never seen them, so I can't really comment. Well, I've seen some of [i]Batman Begins[/i], but I fell asleep during the middle of it. I know, right?

[quote]And watch pretty much any action flick - criminal gangs are usually shown as a racially-diverse bunch (if they aren't the common villain stereotype of white supremacist Nazis, who also seem much more common in Hollywood than the real world), unlike in real life (I guess Hollywood wishes to give us some edifying message by showing interracial brotherhood amongst murderous thugs - lol)[/quote]

Edited April 9, 2008 by BeenaBobba

[Adrestia]

[quote name='Socrates' post='1494610' date='Apr 7 2008, 09:37 PM']And Hollywood also seems to have developed its own "reverse stereotypes" - or what I call affirmative action casting. Hollywood blockbusters seem to be disproportionately full of black techo geek types. They are also full of mixed-race criminal street-gangs (virtually non-existant in the real world).[/quote]As a "black techo geek," I would like to say it's actually nice to see Hollywood finally admit that we exist. I find it interesting that you would categorize those movie characters as "reverse stereotypes" since they do represent a real segment of society. Hollywood didn't develop them... they just acknowledged them.

[Deb]

[quote name='cmotherofpirl' post='1493733' date='Apr 6 2008, 02:03 PM']We can start by assuring that every child has a chance at equal education. School district taxes should not be the source of funding districts unless all the money in the state is put tigether and divided equally. Anything else is a disgrace. You wouldn't need affirmative action if everyone had a fair start.[/quote]


Beautiful observation!!

[CatholicMax]

Racism is not as big of a problem as people think here in the states. I myself am not a racist though i am accused of being one often. I think most people are Ethonocentrist, I know I myself am. I am against anti-"Black-american culture" or "mexican-american culture" or any other hyphenated american culture I believe American Culture is the superior culture and those that want to hyphenate it are anti-American.

The problem is that people dont distinguish between color of skin and culture, I dont care what color your skin is but if you support what is wrongly called "Black culture" then you are a bigit and want to keep a group oppressed.