Everybody has someone or some group that they react and/or discrimenate against. Creating hierarchies is part of the human experience, like it or not.
If you are of European descent anywhere in the world, as part of your heritage you have a dose of white privege in your background. Its part of the colonial and 16th-19th Century european hegemony. Whether it's India, South Africa, Peru, Mexico, or the US South. It has formed and molded a part of your world paradigm. Some more, some less.
The thing that matters is how we deal with it in our lives. Do we catch ourselves and say that it is not right and correct ourselves. Or do we build on and make it part of our culture.
The South made it into a fundamental part of their culture. They use white privilege and percieved minority inferiority to elevate themselves. We see almost daily examples on the news of how this mindset and behavior is alive and well in this area.
After the Civil War many southern white males migrated North and West in seek of jobs, as the Southern economy was destroyed. Unfortunately, I fear that they imported their racism wherever they went. We find pockets of extreme white privilege and white supremacy in the Midwest industrial states. The final destination for many of those who migrated north.
There are also many pockets of ethnically concentrated communities that came directly from Europe to here. They brought their own racism. We see the return of white supremacy re-emerging in Europe today
It happens all over the world between populations China and the Muslim Uyghurs, or Hindus in western India against Pakistani Muslims, or the Muslim ISIS against Christian sects in Syria, or everybody against the Jews.
Personally, I think that many people simply prefer to associate and be around people similar to themselves, whether its color, race, age, sexual orientation, religious views, political views, income, shared interests, etc.
In most social gatherings, people tend to clump together based on race, color, age, and gender. Not always, but more often than not, if the option is available. At work I see groups of black people going out to lunch together and the same for groups of Indians and groups of men and groups of women. I wouldn't consider any of these people racist or sexist based just one what I've observed. It's just that being around people similar to us is usually more comfortable for most people.
I also think that those who are exposed to a variety of races, cultures, ideas, etc are probably going to be less biased than those who live their lives in a largely homogeneous community.
But, this is just my opinion.
In general the phenomenon you are describing is mostly true for heterogenous groups of people. But the question is deeper than the outward manifestation of the phenomena.
Why is this segregation occurring? That is where the true sociological and cultural question arises. Its not so easy to understand as they have things in common. and we have different things in common. So everybody hangs with those they feel have commonality.
Minoritirs hang together because its safer. They can be themselves and not have to walk on eggshells so to avoid crossing a cultural line. Whites hang together because they do not want to have to put out the energy necessary to check or adjust their behavior. They do not want to be concerned with understanding someone who is different or who's culture is different. And before you say....but...but...there are always exceptions. Exceptions do not make the rule.
Don't forget what the apartheid regime of Israel is doing to the indigenous people of Palestine currently. A massive ethnic cleansing in the making.
You speak with such eloquent words and profound meaning, i have no doubts whatsoever that your intelligence has surpassed mine but the Orthodoxy Jewish religion is totally against the ideology and political factions of Zionism in Israel.
When we condemn what the racist fascist regime of Israel and the IDF are doing to the innocent indigenous cultures of Palestine, we are truly speaking the truth to the world and directly to our personal divinity's.
I agree that present day Isreal is definitely apartheid. That does not discount the travails and discrimination they have experienced over the millenia.
This is true, but the present ultraconservtive Isreali govt. is apartheid. Regardless of the admixture of peoples in the Gaza and West Bank, the government. is still apsrtheid.
@K9Kohle789 Well you just have to understand that Netanyahu and the majority of the knesset agree that they do not want to allow the Palestinian or any other Arab faction or any other outside groups( people of color) to be included in any way protected under Israel's laws.
All you have to do is ask some of the major US celebrities of color that have tried to enter Israel either through a business social meetings or a performing show... if you have brown skin you are treated like a second-class citizen and if you do not show the type of respect for the upper-class citizens around Israel, you will be spit on, they will hit you.... you in anyway try to fight back against these first class citizens they will call on the IDF or their local law enforcement agencies to quell the situation.
I don't have to live there at all to receive proper news feeds of what the IDF and what atrocities they are committing upon the Palestinian community.
Among these atrocities are illegal settlements currently taking place in the Golan Heights and now all Arab factions and Palestinian people AR forced to be combined in the West End of Gaza.
Now that the United States is complicit in these illegal settlements taking place in the Golan Heights, there will be no room left for the Palestinian Arab community to maneuver around in... so I don't have to live there to understand how apartheid and racist Zionism can demand on a lower subordinate populus group of people.
This ideology of Zionism is taking the Nazi Germany play book and using it against the Palestinian people.
Just as Hitler did his research on what the earliest European settlers did to the earliest indigenous cultures here on this continent now known as the United States... Hitler was only using same old Playbook of ethnic cleansing that the Catholic Diocese allowed Christopher Columbus to use against the indigenous tribes on the East Coast.
@K9Kohle789 they started expelling the all black Ethiopian Jews within the last 3 years.... I'm so happy you mentioned that because that went through the knesset and they all voted to start excommunicating anybody who doesn't fit in, even if they were newly converted. Now that's a f*****-up country! I feel confident in talking about this because Native Americans were not involved in the atrocities caused by the Polish Jews during Nazi Germany. All that crap has nothing to do with Native American anyting or indigenous culture anything... we have had 98 million indigenous cultures and people arbitrarily exterminated from 1492 to the end of 1870. The final straw was the Indian Removal Act by President Andrew Jackson his nickname was Indian killer.... now that's a horrible ordeal that 6 million Jews were exterminated.... so how come nobody ever talks about what happened to the genocide, that is such a great elephant in the room to all white people standing on this Native American land???
@K9Kohle789 you just have to understand that the Palestinian people do not have submarines, they don't have F-35 fighter jets that can fucking eliminate millions of people with such horrible ordinance.... the Palestinian people do not have long-range missiles or nuclear weaponry... the Palestinian people or Hamas do not have weapons of mass destruction nor do they have biochemical weapons phosphorus cluster bombs.... the people of Israel have not experienced that but yet we do not hear what the how many casualties the Palestinian people have suffered due to these horrible chemicals when released... they even had their 440 million in humanitarian Aid cutoff from President Trump all because Israel pushed and lobby for it... fuck Israel and fuck your Jews!!!
The Palestinian Arab Community has been living there for thousands of years.... the propaganda that you've been ingesting suggest that the Hebrews were living there for thousands of years and they finally just gave up their land and the Palestinian people just suddenly emerged there... did you know that because the Orthodoxy Jewish community gives homage and praise to the Wailing Wall by jerking themselves back and forth.... do you know what they're actually doing.... their talmud and their rabbis have explained that their movement is them making love to children.... they have a major archives in Israel that's completely guarded with the facts on everything.... where did you get your formal educated from, a Koch brothers back University or something??
@K9Kohle789 boy you're just living in your own little bubble, aren't you?
You Fucking murdering Jews are just hateful!
The only reason Hamas and the PLO were ever to materialize... was to protect the indigenous cultures that were there for thousands of years way past your Hebrew culture skipping a few hundred years... only just suddenly come up with the Jewish religion... suddenly announcing that you are the chosen ones and that everybody below you is a subordinate populus group.... the Palestinian people have been living there for thousands of years. You're evil Zionism infected Palestine in 1947 through the Balfour Accords and the whole world uniting to allow Israel to form. The only reason why they had the Six-Day War is because the surrounding Arab Nations didn't want Israel there in the first place.... the only reason why Israel won is because do United States was Israel's Ally.... do you know how is real got its nuclear weapons??
@K9Kohle789 that's right.... why does the Israel allow rapist to live in their Holy Land.... or at least the holy land that was given to them???
@K9Kohle789 you are a Zionist if you protect & defend them. The earliest indigenous cultures on my land here in the United States not the white man's land but my cultures land.... we were in the same predicament. We have been living here for thousands of years without any fucked up European religion. And we didn't kill each other off we didn't cause any wars we didn't want to inflict genocide on a smaller populus group merely to State the fact that they are subordinate group and we are the chosen ones. You know for a fact that they are committing humanitarian atrocities currently in Gaza... they are bombing everything not just targeting what they think is Terrorism but they are having their IDF snipers shoot at medical personnel and the media that's trying to cover what is going on... they just got done with a bombing last. There were at least 20 people that died and all were Palestinian people... now those innocent Palestinian people didn't have any chance to protect themselves... they don't have missiles to shoot back at Israel and they don't have drones to drop cluster bombs on Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. No, you know what's going on.... even Germany announced that they even want to know what exactly happened in the Holocaust and what happened up to 1948 what led to the formation of Israel. Go look it up man everybody is trying to figure out why Israel wants to kill all the Palestinian people. I don't understand why you're defending these zionists who are using propaganda to influence an old ideology and continue the Quest for dominance over the Palestinian people so they can control all the land... they are almost there... and when they are finished there will be no more Palestinian people and you will be just fine with that won't you? You murdering piece of white shit!!!
@K9Kohle789 you know nothing about the indigenous cultures you white piece of shit!!
We are born with a natural ability to prioritize what is best for ourselves and our offspring. In competition with the rest of the world this has to be accepted. You are not going to get rid of that. It will always arise when taking something (including jobs) which was designated for another family to use in your own family. The only way to combat this natural tendency is to make every family equal in opportunity and resources . But again whatever is done families always end up unequal. So as long as things are fairly equal and you are fairly happy it would be best to turn off the envy side of competition and make the best of what you have got.
Also stop saying "I am the greatest". You may be and you may not. You will never really find out.
????
I agree with what I think your general point is. All of us need to think about racism and watch out for our own assumptions. But I would articulate a little more pointedly the fact of racism being a structural, systemic problem in society. Racism doesn't mean that each person in a privileged demographic is personally evil, or that each has personally perpetuated racism, nor that each has automatically lived life on "Easy Street," but it does mean anyone who cares about social justice is wise to be on the lookout for signs of discrimination at work. Racism as a major social force throughout America's history is just a fact, and pretending it is confined to distant history is an act of blindness that seems reserved for those of us who are protected by being White. It helps to be aware that it is generally harder for someone, any one of us, to perceive discrimination in action when we aren't personally targeted by that specific discrimination.
People get really defensive when the whole topic of racism is raised. That makes it really difficult to talk about constructively. We each are more sensitive to some points more than others. So it is easy to talk past each other and to decide the other person has it all wrong.
People often seem to think they are being personally blamed for slavery or Jim Crow, etc, when they are actually just catching someone venting their deep frustration at continuing, deeply entrenched discrimination and the apparent (whether actual or just perceived) shrug of nonconcern of White people. I think it helps if we can stop taking complaints about racism personally and instead ask ourselves how we ourselves can try to be more sympathetic listeners and can be in some way a part of a solution.
I agree with your post. I do think that for generations we as a society have talked around the topic of slavery. Until the Nation confronts the topic of its racist past honestly, and head-on, we will never advance towards ending it and rectifying old wounds.
The Nation,IMO, has given the South in particular, but the Nation as as a whole a pass, not wanting to hurt feelings or take on the hard issues. It is time, once again IMO, to bring the topic out of the closet and address it up front and honestly, regardless the pain it causes some.
@t1nick It has been time for generations. For whatever reason, the BLM movement now has some momentum and White people in large numbers are supporting it. That is a critical opportunity. Systemic societal problems don't just comfortably fix themselves with the passage of time. "Systemic" means the system will perpetuate the situation unless actively countered. The majority need to actively engage constructively to make the difference of critical mass.
My personal perspective is of a gay White male. I have been amazed at the rapid transformation of society in just the past couple of decades toward inclusion and recognition of gay people. That did not happen ONLY because we queers were having parades. It happened as a critical mass of straight people (as if I"m crooked?) Started speaking out in support of their queer family, friends, and coworkers.
I get it that people of color are not even able to hide in a "closet," but otherwise the dynamic needs for social change are similar, I believe.
My step-son was gay before he passed from heart disease. I couldn't have been more proud of him as a person and an individual.
@t1nick It's not easy being "gray." Or green. Hmm, I hear a song in there somewhere.
Damn autocorrect
I post on my phone and don't always catch the errors. Lol
@t1nick I am joking, not criticizing. I have as many typos as anyone. And the auto-correct just makes it worse. My touchscreen on my phone also obscures from sight what I am typing, so in a hurry I get "interesting" results sometimes.
I am 3/4 Navajo and 1/4 Hopi Native American here in this illegal United States of yours.
The problem I have with white people here in America.... is that when they witness racism in front of them in real time, they really don't do anything about it but just Walk On By.
I would like to see all white people attack those bad white people out there.... Southern Dixiecrats coming out of the Jim Crow South and infecting the rest of the United States here after.
When we are born, we are born with an innocence until we are infected by our parents, infected by our surroundings to become bigoted, partisan and apathetic towards the correct change this illegal United States of yours definitely needs.
I definitely hope that all white people will see what a horrible white person in power can do to this nation.
What I would like to see is all you white people become very proactive when confronted with witnessing racism around the United States.
I would like to see you all white people not ignore those types of situations and incidents especially when they see atrocities committed by police departments.... condemn those who are trying to oppress a lower subordinate .
Unfortunately I just see you white people just walking on by, shaking your head, smirk, kind of laughing about it and hoping somebody else is going to fix the problem.... because people of color are already out there doing this all the time. And when you do that you are the enemy.... you white people need to be very afraid of us brown and black Americans, somehow we are just a threat with the color of our skin.
You white people here in America are afraid to expose yourself as an enemy of the United States and being an enemy of white privilege.
The early indigenous cultures that protested and fought the earliest European settlers, then the United States Federal Calvary, are the true Renegades, the true protesters and Protectors of this land you are standing on!
@Ldflitefoot555 We need to do more. I have to say it is daunting. Standing up to entrenched racism is dangerous, even for White people. It would be wonderful to think I am courageous enough to take on any situation. But I know I get scared sometimes. That is reality. When minority police officers take part in racist atrocities, you know the power of the dominant culture is very intimidating. Is the U.S. ever going to hand back all the land taken and stop being a nation? Not a chance. But we could at the very least get more educated about the various treaties this nation has broken and push hard to restore those.
I am not my ancestors. plain and simple.
True, but they set the stage. What are you doing to change the scenary.
@t1nick No. They set their own stage, not mine. And as to what I am doing to change the 'scenary' as you put it. Well, that is fairly simple. I set my own stage. As do most people. And one thing I don't do is to lament on things that my ancestors may have done, nor try to repeat their mistakes. I learn from history, and try to improve my world, and those around me. Honestly, I don't think that is anything out of the ordinary. Any one with empathy I would wager does the same.
You continue to benefit from slavery, colonialism, and imperialism while others continue to suffer from it. Your denial of your White Privilege is meant to perpetuate it,,,
@Krish55 Explain please. Just what white privilege do I have. and also exactly what benefits do have still from slavery,colonialism, and imperialism, and who exactly is suffering from "ME". Also, are you trying to say that I DON'T understand, or have empathy?
The country has not totally separated from their heritage in this country. Part of the original paradigm still affects and imparts decisions we make, even if we are not aware if them. I doubt you are totally immune from these influences. Just because it is inconvenient, denial is self-serving.
@t1nick Much like I asked Krish55. Please be specific. In just what am I am in denial of in regards to ME specifically. Blind accusations are pointless. If you are going to assume that I am in denial. please tell me what I am in denial of directly in regards to the way I live my life and with others.
@TristanNuvo You really don't know your privilege? 1. You are not going to be shot in your yard for having a cell phone. 2. The economy here which affords you a decent life was built up by slavery for which many still pay the price. 3. Your access to energy depends on Middle Easterners getting their countries invaded and destroyed. 3. Your access to resources like Lithium and cheap food depends on the US overthrowing democratic governments in Honduras, Bolivia, etc.. You've chosen to close your eyes to all of this before? That's your White Privilege of pretend innocence...
Whites hang out with whites, blacks with blacks, etc. Since I'm white, I have 'white privilege.' if whites were poor, I'd STILL hang out with them.
I'm for a World Government and for TOTAL intermingling of the races, but I'll be d---- if I'm going to apologize for being white
Nobody's asking you to apologize for it, but in just the same way you didn't do anything to be born white and with inherent advantages of whiteness, no one else did anything to earn or deserve their station at birth, either. So the right thing to do is to keep that in mind when you are thinking about things.
@JeffMurray And speaking personally I think about it as little as possible.
Don't worry, man, Joe's going to get it all back on track.
Nobody can apologize for the race they are because it is not a choice we made. As for whites being poor, a great many of them are poor in my area.
No body should have to apologise for something they could not have predicted or arrange to change
Including parentage, colour, lack of intelligence, age and speed of reaction.
"Everybody has someone or some group that they react and/or discrimenate against. Creating hierarchies is part of the human experience, like it or not."
I don't discriminate against anyone or any group.. Perhaps you didn't consider the perspective of people of color when you wrote this?
Creating hierarchies isn't necessarily discrimination.. Hierarchies are needed for clarity of authority...
I don't see the Everybody Against The Jews. I am not against the jews and I know a lot of other people who do not feel against the jews either.
Yeah, I don't even know when people are Jewish and find it confusing when other people make a comment insinuating that they do. I have a buddy that I played cards with for years say one night that he was Jewish, and I said something to the effect of, "Oh, really? I didn't know that." Which made him question how that was possible based on his last name. I guess because it makes zero difference to me, I never even think to contemplate someone's heritage.
I was generalizing about the number of groups worldwide that have discriminated against them. My ex is Jewish and I learned a lot from her about the extent of their worldwide persecution.
Great point Jolanta. Anti-Semitism is a Western phenomenon which the West tries to project upon the rest of the world. Jews did not experience this in India and China. And opposition to Israel is political based on the takeover of Palesine. Such opposition is not anti-Semitic.
I'm not sure about East and Southeat Asia. I was generalizing. I have heard of an isolated population somewhere in China (big country) that still practices Judism in the archaic traditions and speaks an archaic form of Hebrew. But cannot swear to it. China has become very ethnocentric as of late, witness the treatment of the Muslim uighers.
You are mixing up everyday cultural prejudice with the institutional racism associated with power. The latter is much larger and dangerous. In doing so, you are minimizing he effects of racism.
Every ethnic/national group has prejudice against other groups. This ordinary prejudice doesn't become racism until one group asserts power over another and uses racism to justify such control.
Thus, Native Americans may have stereotypes and prejudices against Hispanics but that is not racism because they do not exert control over Hispanics using a racist ideology. Some real examples of racism are (1) those associated with white colonialism, slavery, and imperialism; (2) the Indian caste system; and (3) Israeli Zionism. In these three cases, anyone not belonging to the favored group gets disrespect and inferior treatment. The resultant cultural prejudice is thus more extensive and intensive.
In contrast, an American Indian who dislikes the Hispanics in the neighboring town doesn't have prejudices against Polynesians or Asian Indians. His prejudices are merely localized. This is quite the opposite of white racism which is directed against, blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, East Asians, South Asians, Polynesians, Arabs, etc. etc.
Racists often try to minimize White Racism by slickly passing it off as just part of mere universal human cultural prejudice. It is important to keep these differences in mind in order to dismantle the types of real racism mentioned above.
Racism is racism. i have lived and taught in the Native American (23 yrs) and Hispanic (10 yrs) world for 33 years. Institutional or localized, racism is racism when its directed at you, and it hurts just as much.
Polynesians didn't come in Centuries ago, proselytize and forcibly convert, steal their land, and forcibly attempt to assimilate them against their will. Their animosity is understandable, not excusable, but understandable. If you want to see three cultures living side by side together and despising each the other's cultures, but dependent upon one another, go to Taos or Santa Fe, NM and look beyond the economic window dressing.
@t1nick You have avoided the issue and your reaction to your experiences is short-circuiting your ability to analyze critically. Chanting the refrain "racism is racism" is devoid of thought and proves nothing. Of course racism is racism! But not all prejudice is racism. Think about it before you have a knee-jerk reaction based on your experiences.
I concur, one can be prejudiced against a group, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are racist. I see your distinction.
I have thought about it and watched both prejudice and racism in action for 33 years. I guarantee you its not knee jerk. I worked in the South and got an advanced degree in the upper Midwest. I'm from the Southwest, so I have a little exposure and experiemce.
Racism is common to every human being. Who are you to tell me who anyone discriminates against? Lived in Japan lately? THAT'S discrimination!
This is like the fictitious Jesus exhorting us mere mortals to "turn the other cheek" or cut off an offending arm or to sell everything, give it to the poor, and go preach the good news.
We're human! It's okay!
Jews are racist.
Palestinians are racist.
Chinese are racist.
Russians are racist.
Europeans.
Anyone who is different from anybody else is racist.
This is not complicated:
WE ARE ALL RACIST.
If you say otherwise, you're wrong.
The important thing is to admit it and make laws accordingly, just like we (used to) make anti-greed laws, for instance....left to total license, a man will "earn" $150 million dollars a day while other people starve. Happening right now. Government is for stepping in and redistributing the wealth. That doesn't mean the greed has gone away, just a knowledged and dealt with.
Same with racism.
@Storm1752 StormTrooper: you are protecting your White Privilege by calling everyone racist. By diminishing white racism, you hope to protect it. Yes, every group discriminates. But racism is much larger, institutionalized, and accompanied by an ideology. Yes, the Japanese practice this also. But your attempt to conflate everyday prejudice with White Racism is meant to protect the benefits you enjoy from the latter.
@K9Kohle789 The average Askenazi Jew only has about 3% of genetic connection to the ancient Israelites. White people simply didn't live in that part of the world - the Middle East. Your heart is making you believe ethnic myths because it wants such a connection.
@K9Kohle789 Opposition to Apartheid Israel is not opposition to Jews. That is a manipulative claim designed to transfer sympathy for the victims of the Holocaust into sympathy for the Israeli oppressors who have begun to done similar things to the Palestinians at a lesser level. Your shrillness betrays a persecution complex and a need to feel victimized. You betray an angry ethnocentricism reminiscent of those who clamored for German revival in the early 1930s - a revival based on ethnic myths for which Jews paid the price. And now Palestinians pay the price for your ethnic nationalism.
Racism was not a phenomenon that existed only in tbe Southern US in the 19th century and earlier. It was well entrenched in the North as well. What the North did not have was an institution which flaunted the racial divide. I recall a black entertainer from the 1970's or 80's who moved her family back to the South from where she had lived in the North. When asked why she moved, she said the racism she experienced in the North was just as present as in the South, but Southern racism was overt while Northern racism was covert. She said she preferred to be able to see it rather than have it sneak up on her. I also recall my Grandfather who was born in 1889 saying that if Union solders thought they were fighting to free black slave, the vast majority of them would have packed up and gone home. My grandfather was of an age that he was acquainted with men who fought in the Civil War.
I agree with your premise that that White Privilege is something white Americas (and others?) have to deal with whether we like to believe it or not. I have specific experiences with parents and grandparents concerning them conveying racist ideals. As a child, my only real exposure to individuals of color was my grandmother's cleaning lady of many years and a woman our neighbor had come in to do her ironing. In High School, we had all of 3 black students in a school with several thousand students. I can recall thinking in some rather racist terms without realizing that's what I was doing (I was still quite young, and my mom set me straight in a very appropriate way - bless her).
Today, as a much older person, I can still see certain bits of racism in my thoughts, but hopefully not my behavior. It is difficult because race is something that is very obvious and will be noticed no matter what. For my own experience, i have accepted that I had racism training from adults I loved and depended on. It doesn't make it correct, so I attempt to be cautious without being overt about it. Racism may never be something we can completely erase from our conscienceness, but it is something we need to learn how to live with treating others as we would want to be treated regardless of skin color or other racially distinguishing characteristics.
That's why I said anyone of european heritage. But the North didn't make it into a culture in which they designed and built their society around.
@t1nick - Agreed. This was why I said Northern racism was covert while Southern racism was overt. I did not mean to appear to refute your point. BTW, My parents and grandparents were all from Northern states - Pennsylvania, Ohio, and one from West Virginia (closest to the South as my ancestors get for a couple generations).
@RussRAB
I concur. I expounded on that exact fact extensively a couple of months ago. I worked in the South for a while and got an Masters in the upper Midwest where I studied race and education as part of my Science Education degree.
Myself, I'm from the West. We have our Oklahoma, North and South Dakota to contend with, who tend to be racist against Native Tribes in their states.