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REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS
Inside the Racist Mind
Thursday, April 19, 2012 5:59 AM
NIKI2
Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...
Quote:After a recent event where I spoke about racial identity, a white woman sidled up to me, leaned in close so no one near us could hear, and said, “I’m racist.” Many people would be repelled. I was entranced. Here was someone who could tell me first hand how the racist mind worked. Social scientists have done studies on Klansmen and Neo-Nazis but those sorts of people are outliers, socially and mentally, while this woman was the sort of person you might encounter on a normal day. She seemed indicative of the sort of racist mind we’d be mostly likely to meet. She seemed normal. So I decided to talk to her and find out how her mind worked. Studies show most people have some sort of prejudice or bias. “Decades of cognitive bias research demonstrates that both unconscious and conscious biases lead to discriminatory actions even when an individual does not want to discriminate,” write Michelle Alexander in her book The New Jim Crow. “The fact that you may honestly believe that you are not biased against African Americans, and that you may have black friends and relatives, does not mean that you are free from unconscious bias. Implicit bias tests may still show that you hold negative attitudes and stereotypes about blacks even though you do not believe you do and do not want to.” Part of the problem is the monsoon of negative messages about blacks coming at Americans which makes being non-racist almost like mentally swimming upstream. Still, most people today are ashamed to be racist and know to do their best to never reveal it. So after this woman at the event told me she was racist, I said, “Really?!” in a way that indicated I wasn’t offended and that she could feel comfortable to speak freely. She did. “I just have these thoughts,” she said, almost whispering into my ear. I felt like she was confessing as if I were her priest. “My mind just goes places. I can’t control it. I know it’s wrong but I can’t help myself. I say, Don’t think like that! But it’s what people told me when I was younger.” Then she leaned back and someone else said hello and our moment of penance concluded. I wanted to hear more but I had heard enough to understand. She had mental habits based on ideas implanted long ago that had taken root in her subconscious. She’s got various stereotypes and biases firmly lodged in her long-term memory where she stores things like how to ride a bike. That’s why the thoughts feel like they come at her automatically and beyond her control—“My mind just goes places.” At this point, unlearning those perceptions would be as hard as unlearning bike-riding—if there were near-constant media messages and social reinforcements about how to ride a bike. And yet society has also taught her that she should be ashamed to judge people in this way. It’s sad that she knows she should not think racist thoughts but cannot stop herself because the lessons were learned and reinforced so well. Racism is a mental tumor. It’s an acceptance of stereotypes, of otherness, of fear, of racial hierarchies. It requires embracing the concept of constants about certain racial groups even though there are no biological certainties about the races. Scientifically, there is only the human race. Race as we know it is a social construct and, in the sweep of human history, a relatively recent concept invented in America to justify having both “liberty for all” and slavery. Racism has long had sub-ideas protecting it like bodyguards—the idea that blacks were lesser human beings with inferior brain power and morality and criminal proclivities aided in the perpetuation of slavery, Jim Crow and the current wave of criminalization in which young black men are considered synonymous with criminals—some have captured this via the term “criminalblackman.” Some people suggest that the multiracial embrace of Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, Will Smith and others portends the end of racism. But this, as the writer Arundati Roy says, is like the President pardoning one turkey before Thanksgiving and then eating another—and America eats thousands. The human mind is complex enough to integrate hypocrisy and contradictions. There have long been extraordinary blacks who succeeded far more than the vast majority and were accepted as special. The racist mind need not hate every black person it encounters, and indeed not hating all may serve as a valuable safety valve, releasing pressure and proving to the mind itself that it is not racist. Few people want to think of themselves as bad or evil. George Zimmerman provides a fascinating case study because his moment of evincing bias is caught on tape. He said, “This guy looks like he is up to no good — he is on drugs or something,” showing us he saw a Rorschach of a tall black boy walking in the distance and assumed he was a criminal and a drug user and to be feared. None of these things were true—in fact, the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse has repeatedly found that blacks use illegal drugs at about the same rates as other races. Zimmerman is also said to have mentored two black children in his neighborhood. Does that prove he’s not a racist? No. Humans are filled with contradictions, so Zimmerman could have gotten to know those neighborhood boys and embraced their humanity but not extend the expectation of humanity to someone he didn’t know.When Zimmerman went to mentor those children he was one subself, and when he spotted Trayvon a different subself kicked in, powered by a constellation of thoughts that aligned black men with criminality. Zimmerman was taught by society that young black men are on drugs and criminals and that fallacy sits in his subconscious alongside how to ride a bike. If he didn’t live in a world where people are constantly acting on that fallacy then he wouldn’t have that in his subconscious. Racism is not inherent like the ability to learn how to read. It’s learned. And we are teaching it well. http://ideas.time.com/2012/04/19/inside-the-racist-mind/
Thursday, April 19, 2012 8:37 AM
CAVETROLL
Thursday, April 19, 2012 8:50 AM
STORYMARK
Thursday, April 19, 2012 9:42 AM
BYTEMITE
Thursday, April 19, 2012 10:06 AM
WULFENSTAR
http://youtu.be/VUnGTXRxGHg
Thursday, April 19, 2012 10:12 AM
Quote:Originally posted by WULFENSTAR: It is a apparent that most here have never had the joy of living in such places. Like those in the past who built bungalows to "observe" the savages from their verandas... and give wonderful speeches (i.e anthropology), these banana hat wearing fools have nothing to offer. Curse these people to live in the territories their ideals have created. Watch them crack. Much like PETA who kills the pets they "rescue", these clowns are not worth listening to. "None of you seem to understand. I'm not locked in here with you... YOU are locked in here with ME."
Thursday, April 19, 2012 10:17 AM
PIZMOBEACH
... fully loaded, safety off...
Quote:Originally posted by WULFENSTAR: It is a apparent that most here have never had the joy of living in such places.
Thursday, April 19, 2012 6:00 PM
FREMDFIRMA
Quote:Originally posted by CaveTroll: When was the last time you went out to dinner in an inner-city black neighborhood after dark?
Thursday, April 19, 2012 9:32 PM
HKCAVALIER
Friday, April 20, 2012 3:29 AM
Friday, April 20, 2012 4:37 AM
Quote:But I was using a sarcastic comment to point out that everyone has a chink in their armor. Nice to see where the knee jerk reactions came from.
Friday, April 20, 2012 4:51 AM
Friday, April 20, 2012 11:48 AM
MINCINGBEAST
Friday, April 20, 2012 12:08 PM
Quote:Originally posted by CaveTroll: But I was using a sarcastic comment to point out that everyone has a chink in their armor. Nice to see where the knee jerk reactions came from.
Friday, April 20, 2012 12:57 PM
OONJERAH
Friday, April 20, 2012 1:09 PM
MAGONSDAUGHTER
Quote:Originally posted by CaveTroll: I live in a neighborhood that is 50/40/10 black, white, hispanic. The largest city near me is 60% black. My neighbors on either side of me for 12 years have been black. The same couple on one side own and on the other side there were two owners for 3 years each. They sold to a white guy who rented it out to black tenants. First renters lived there for 4 years, totaled the place before they were evicted and it took the owner a year to put the house back together again to rent it to the current tenant. Who is not a bad fellow. A little motorcycle happy, but that's not the worst hobby. It has been my experience that most folks who decry racial intolerance live in single race communities/neighborhoods. The worst racism I've ever seen was in Cicero, IL. Where they would BURN out black families who moved in to the town. That was 30 years ago. Things may have changed. In Rapid City, SD racial intolerance tended to be directed at the Indians. In Raleigh, NC there wasn't so much. If folks didn't like you, they would tell you to your face. It was remarkably civilized for what you'd think was an antagonistic environment. Probably the best place re: race I've ever lived. In the northeast, where I'm from, it is alive and well. Mostly in the cities. The small towns could never afford segregation. So all the kids went to the same schools, regardless. But I was using a sarcastic comment to point out that everyone has a chink in their armor. Nice to see where the knee jerk reactions came from. Oh, and for me it was about 3 weeks ago. Caribbean place. The jerked goat was good, but hot enough to burn the hair off your feet. Just as hot going out as it was going in.
Saturday, April 21, 2012 8:07 AM
KWICKO
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)
Quote:Originally posted by CaveTroll: When was the last time you went out to dinner in an inner-city black neighborhood after dark? Congratulations. You're racist or you engage in racial profiling. Discuss.
Saturday, April 21, 2012 8:12 AM
Quote:Originally posted by WULFENSTAR: It is a apparent that most here have never had the joy of living in such places. Like those in the past who built bungalows to "observe" the savages from their verandas... and give wonderful speeches (i.e anthropology), these banana hat wearing fools have nothing to offer. Curse these people to live in the territories their ideals have created. Watch them crack.
Saturday, April 21, 2012 10:49 AM
PENGUIN
Saturday, April 21, 2012 10:55 AM
Saturday, April 21, 2012 1:14 PM
Quote:Different cultural groups have different attitudes towards education and work. But that would be cultural and nothing to do with skin hue or inherent cleverness or any other tosh that racists drag out.
Saturday, April 21, 2012 1:24 PM
Quote:Some cultures take it easy right in the heat of the day, and someone coming into that culture might look at that and think it's lazy, when it's actually a sensible adaption to avoid heat stroke and stay alive.
Saturday, April 21, 2012 2:40 PM
Quote:Originally posted by BYTEMITE: At the same time, I think it might be some cultures just aren't in as big a damn hurry as others. And I have to say, the ones that kick back and spend time with their family, I can respect that. Some cultures take it easy right in the heat of the day, and someone coming into that culture might look at that and think it's lazy, when it's actually a sensible adaption to avoid heat stroke and stay alive. I think that a lot of the negatives that we put on cultures are mostly relative, and have a lot to do with the conditions members of that culture live in. Poverty will always increase competition over resources and make people act questionably and indecent no matter who they are or what their roots are. Think it shapes people and how they act and how they treat members of their own group or outsiders.
Saturday, April 21, 2012 10:01 PM
CATPIRATE
Saturday, April 21, 2012 10:56 PM
Quote:Originally posted by CATPIRATE: NIKI2, I figured you would be grown up by now. Well God love you for wanting to believe in the best in people. Just don't be a fool. Racist is way over used today. You don't have to like people. If they stink, curse, aggressive, and no respect for you be aware. Judge and be safe. Crime is a big problem with the minorites. No more excuses in 2012. So if your old, crippled, and a woman you will be a victim. Just be aware of what your surroundings are. Now I always remember when I was 16 in 1980 with my uncle in a NY City subway. A black woman and a Italian lady stood next to us and my uncle said "They think were safe". Because there was a puerto rican gang at the other end. Well it's common sense. But what I saw in the 90s with liberals who I knew from London and San Francisco who always made innuendos like I was predjudice. I never understood why but because I was from the south I believe. So there you go. Now who's wife gets rape by the black man. There's do. This happen at least 4 times to different folks I knew. My opinion was they didn't use there smarts. So they didn't want to be accused of being a racist. I am not talking about having a neighbor or a coworker and treating them as less than people. But the inner cities are not safe. Not after dark for sure. As for renters anyone after 30 still renting is behind the curve in America. Keeping property up has nothing to do with owning the place if your ghetto your ghetto.
Sunday, April 22, 2012 12:53 AM
CHRISISALL
Sunday, April 22, 2012 5:50 AM
Quote:As for renters anyone after 30 still renting is behind the curve in America.
Sunday, April 22, 2012 6:21 AM
Sunday, April 22, 2012 6:34 AM
Sunday, April 22, 2012 6:54 AM
AGENTROUKA
Sunday, April 22, 2012 7:13 AM
Quote:Originally posted by CATPIRATE: Grammar Police again, Who cares. You got nothing to correct on the post but spelling big deal. Just like when I am in Frisco you always get corrected by a bum "It's San Francisco". My point is when you are 30 you should be making your own way. People who rent at that age will trash a place. I have seen nice homes go downhill due to blacks but that doesn't make me a racist. All the liberal whites I meet talk a big talk but are shit scared of blacks. I have lived in many big cities. LA was the most segregated city I ever lived in. And Kinko should drive through Compton and make sure he stops at every red light. I've been there. I have no problem going through a red light. Hey take a bus through that section of the city. You are not safe just riding the bus. Well you keep on thinking your stupid way honey. You will learn the hard way.
Sunday, April 22, 2012 11:34 AM
Quote:Originally posted by CATPIRATE: Grammar Police again, Who cares. You got nothing to correct on the post but spelling big deal.
Sunday, April 22, 2012 11:41 AM
Quote: I was in Compton and Watts in 2003. I spent a couple weeks in L.A. on Manhattan Beach, and just about anywhere I went, I went through Compton to get where I was going. That included being in Compton at 3am on a Saturday night, where I stopped at every red light, and wasn't stabbed, carjacked, robbed, threatened, beaten, or killed. But I had the same issues when I lived in the Dove Springs/ "Cranklin Park" area of Austin, too. Black people resolutely refused to rob or kill me, despite all the warnings white people gave me that such behavior was all they were capable of. Treat people like people, and they just might treat you the same. Treat them like trash, and they might do likewise.
Sunday, April 22, 2012 12:48 PM
Quote:Originally posted by CATPIRATE: Grammar Police again, Who cares.
Sunday, April 22, 2012 1:36 PM
Sunday, April 22, 2012 6:41 PM
Sunday, April 22, 2012 6:49 PM
Quote:Originally posted by CATPIRATE: LOL, Those who teach can't get a job in the real world.
Monday, April 23, 2012 4:26 AM
Quote:My point is when you are 30 you should be making your own way. People who rent at that age will trash a place.
Quote:Homeowners in the United States also tend to have higher incomes and households residing in their own home were more likely to be families (as opposed to individuals) than were their tenant counterparts. There is a strong correlation between a household's family structure, type as well as the age of and homeownership. Overall married couple families, which also have the highest median income of any household type, were most likely to own a home, while female singles, who had the lowest median income of any household type were least likely to own a home. Age played a significant role as well with homeownership increasing with the age of the householder until age 65, when a slight decrease becomes visible. Only 43% of households with a household under the age of thirty-five owned a homeWiki
Quote:As more people move from owning to renting, apartment vacancy rates have fallen fast, from 8 percent in 2009 to 5.6 percent in third quarter 2011. Those trends are just the beginning, concludes a July report from investment bank Morgan Stanley: the United States is becoming a nation of renters and home ownership will keep falling. This change, triggered by the 2008 housing collapse, has shifted people’s views of home ownership. The number of those who consider a home a safe investment fell from 83 percent in 2003 to 66 percent this year, according to a survey by Fannie Mae and two other organizations. In another poll last April, commissioned by real estate data firms RealtyTrac and Trulia, 40 percent of renters questioned said they plan never to buy a home. Many experts now challenge the conventional wisdom that owning is a necessarily a sound life choice. Forbes contributor James Altucher argues that buying a home is a trap—houses are illiquid investments that drain their owners’ time, energy, and cash and force them to stay put. Another skeptic is Yale economist Robert Shiller, co-creator of the Case-Shiller Home Price Index. He compiled data in 2006 showing that between 1890 and 2004, the return on investing in houses was just 0.4 percent a year—a period when the stock market grew at 9.6 percent annually. And in a paper this June in the journal Real Estate Economics, two researchers calculated that over the past 30 years, most often it would have been better to rent than buy. Renters who invested in stocks and bonds instead of home equity came out ahead 75 percent of the time. http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2012/01/04/The-New-American-Dream-Rent-Dont-Buy.aspx#page1, your statemnts are incorrect, irrelevant, and reflect nothing but your own beliefs. So here we have a prime example of not only the racist mind, but the ignorant, and I would say dumb and prejudiced, one.
Monday, April 23, 2012 10:59 AM
RIONAEIRE
Beir bua agus beannacht
Monday, April 23, 2012 11:46 AM
Quote:Originally posted by CATPIRATE: LOL, Those who teach can't get a job in the real world. Those who fail at teaching become intellectuals. All the posts on my grammar I have caught mispelling their own posts such as Kinko and CA.
Quote:And Kincko is a liar when it comes to being in Compton at 3am.
Quote:Plus your either picking up black boys or crack.
Quote:White collar clerks make a big deal in the office over the little things. It's major drama over nothing. I hear this crap all the time. But it is always the libs that get violated. They always need my help too.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012 1:00 AM
Quote:Originally posted by RionaEire: Magon's, the relations of European stock and native individuals in Australia is something that I've always wondered about ever since my uncle went to Australia and came back saying things didn't appear to be very good from his observations. Of course everyone is different and there's no way to lump everyone together on that, but where would you say things are worst, Australia being a big place and all. Where would you say they are best?
Tuesday, April 24, 2012 2:39 PM
Saturday, April 28, 2012 9:36 AM
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