OT: New Racial Dynamics in Post-Racial America

Without getting into it, unfortunately perception is 90% reality to a lot of people.

^^^ True story bro

i would say that YOU have one SERIOUSLY fucked up view of the topic seeing what YOU want to see in what ISN’T there. in other words your PERCEPTIONS are self serving confirmation biases. that's what i would say

^^^Huh?

Mikeya is right. Perception is worse than reality

The racists are really the ones who keep living in the past and refuse to move forward. I think they are addicted to the theatre of the platform and enjoy playing the role of a victim, especially so in today's modern era.

I have no idea who is black or white of the frequent posters....frankly I don't give a rat's ass.

Ireland is a country that is 85% Catholic and last week they voted to legalize same-sex marriage.

Times change and anything's possible.

I think racism is still very strong in America.

An outstanding book: amazon.com

And then David Blight, why is the Civil War so important? youtube.com

And then his book: amazon.com

And then of course Eyes on the Prize: youtube.com

And then recently I have read most of: amazon.com

This deals much with resistance to the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, passed in conjunction with the Admission of both California and Texas.

And this is what got me interested in the Uncle Tom epithet and what it means. Remember that Harriet Beecher Stowe saw him as an exemplar of Christian virtue. Her novel was serialized in 1851, and then published between two covers in 1852. The Uncle Tom character was seen as extremely offensive and within one year, "Uncle Tom" was being used in a negative way.

This can be read in:

Negro protest pamphlets / selected and edited by Dorothy Porter Imprint New York : Arno Press and : The New York Times, 1969

Our rights as men: an address delivered in Boston before the Legislative Committee on the Militia, February 24, 1853 / by William J. Watkins

At issue was whether black men could serve in the Massachusetts Militia.

"Your laws are founded in caste, conceived in caste, born in caste. Caste is the God whom this great nation delights to honor. Caste is in your singing, your preaching, your praying; your beau-ideal of Heaven is a place of unfading joy, and resplendent magnificence, where you shall play for ever upon your golden harps, and the colored people, if they, like Uncle Tom, submit to your indignities with Christian meekness and becoming resignation, shall be permitted, from the Negro pew, to peep into the glory of your third heaven to all eternity!"

One of the things which has shocked me most about TUSCL is the blatant racism found in many old white guy posts.

SJG

Anyone that thinks racism does not still exist is not paying attention. All you have to do is look at YouTube and Twitter comments.

@san_jose_guy “One of the things which has shocked me most about TUSCL is the blatant racism found in many old white guy posts.”

you hypocritical fucking troll. you have no idea who is and who is not an old white guy not to mention that you are one of the top racists on this board. your posts are consistently riddled with your deeply ingrained racism

nicki free is so grumpy. That dude has been harping/complaining about the SAME topics for years.

"Growing up in the 90's whites would not have the nerve to even say "black guy"" -- perhaps to a black guy's face.

Trust me, I heard plenty of racially charged "humor" at blue collar jobs I had in high school where everyone was white who worked there. The most appalling was probably one of my bosses who would act like he was the best friend of black guys who came in to buy things and then turned around and made N-bomb jokes.

Of course, I also am old enough to remember Dumb Polock jokes. Most of that kind of humor is below my personal tastes simply because it's just boring, trading mostly on "Group X is so stupid..."

I do think we're moving towards a post-racial America. Blatant racism isn't accepted in most social settings, even those where everyone is white (the racism of non-whites with regards to other ethnic groups is a whole different ballgame). Things are better than they were 20 years ago, and far better than they were 50 years ago. Doesn't mean things are good mind you, but they're better.

Not so long ago, rich blacks couldn't buy their way into the best neighborhoods or schools. These days we have Colin Powell, Condi Rice, Clarence Thomas, and yes, Barack Obama. There is tokenism, and tokenism does have it's downsides, but it's way better than complete exclusion. I strongly believe Kanye was wrong when he claimed "George Bush doesn't care about Black People". George Bush didn't care about POOR Black people. I also don't think he gave two shits about poor white people either.

Blacks in the US do have an economic historical legacy which we're still working our way through. Blacks are far more likely to live in poverty than whites, and poverty has many root causes. We're close to a level economic playing field, finally, although there have been some brilliant studies that show that two equivalent resumes, one with a traditionally white name and another with a traditionally black will result in more interviews for the made up white guy. But we still have generations who grew up without anywhere close to equality of opportunity.

I feel like we're moving in the right direction, and substantial systematic racism will likely be a thing of the past in my lifetime. There will always be Neo Nazis, but there will always be all kinds of fringe fanatics too. Economic inequalities will take generations to sort themselves out.

Did I manage to write more than SJG?

I have so many comments on this thread. I'll start with these: (1) I'm an "old white guy" from a small Midwestern city who has known such terms as Oreo and Uncle Tom, supposedly part of "inside black language", for most of my life. They're not that "inside" if I know them. (2) I must come to nickifree's defense. I find it inflammatory to label a proud black man an Uncle Tom just because he dislikes the ghetto culture that has overtaken so many strip clubs. You can oppose thugs and still not be an Uncle Tom. Grumpy, perhaps; Tom, no. (3) Of course racism is still a problem in America, but it's immeasurably less of a problem than it was in my youth 50 years ago. People who think racism is as bad as ever are looking for trouble or feeling like victims. (4) I don't detect racism in SJG's posts so much as a certain relentlessly leftwing idiocy (but I repeat myself). (5) In general, the only way I can tell who is black or white or whatever on this board is when the writer identifies his racial background, as ranukam (for example) has done. Hell, I didn't know nickifree was black until he revealed it. This is as it should be. That'll do for now.

I'll go on the record as saying I personally believe that we are living in a Post-Racial society. I see a lot of white guys use the word "nigga" toward each other in the presence of black friends because it's not supposed to be about color any more. I definitely appreciate they fact that Americans are ready, willing to even engage without fear of being labeled a racist. Trust me people talk about the good ol'days but I think we're living in the great now'days.

...and sorry @MrDuece but your boy is a self hating negro. (True story)

I was shocked at a study that showed that black players get more called strikes than white or Hispanic players in MLB. I would have never guessed that in a thousand years. So there's still some issues that people aren't even aware of.

That being said, I agree that America has made a lot of progress, and we are mature enough to address racism in a rational way. The big issue today for me is defining the modern definition of 'racism'. It's not as cut and dry as it was in the 50's. Do we admit black students into colleges with lower qualifications in the name of diversity or is that racist? Why do Asians have to score higher than whites to get into the top colleges? Is it racist to not want an all Asian student body?

I don't have the answers...but I think a lot of good can be done by asking the right questions.

Reagan going into Mississippi to talk about state's rights, and then Lee Atwater explaining how to send coded racial messages in a post 1954 Brown v Board era.

Dog Whistle Politics democracynow.org

SJG

I only mention my race when it's pertinent. Obviously, this happens more with racially charged threads. It's not a thing of "look at me", it's an effort to give people a frame of reference when it comes to what I'm saying.

rockstar --

You need to keep current on your stats :)

In the May 2015 issue of "The Journal of Sports Economics" a University of Illinois professor published results that dispute the earlier work. A much broader data set was used (8 million pitches in the new study compared to just 2 million).

In the new study there was no evidence of racial discrimination. If anything, the results trended in the direction of "reverse discrimination".

Everyone here isn't a WASP? Oh my God!!!

Michelle Alexander: Roots of Today’s Mass Incarceration Crisis Date to Slavery, Jim Crow democracynow.org

SJG

Stones, 1989, early Lisa Fischer performance youtu.be

@motorhead: I'm glad you corrected that, thanks! As I said, I couldn't believe it was true that umpires discriminated on balls and strikes, but I didn't do a review of the actual study. Obviously 2 million pitches was too small a sample size....which is also surprising. That's a lot of pitches!

reality is a nightmare to the average American (blacks are never considered solely "American"). Americans live in their own fantasy bubble that racism is over. But everyone else already said that so whatever. And I'm not an Oreo by the way. I'm a straight black man from da hood, what what.

Ifound out recently from neighbors that racism is alive and well.

Well I can't say that for sure, I can say for sure some of my neighbors are concerned the neighborhood could have more kids playing in the street and more people driving fast down the street and or more people visiting and or making the neighborhood look trashy in their words. There are lots of retired people in my neighborhood so I don't know if it's old versus young they don't like or racial. probably both. They want a quiet neighborhood with no kids in the street and no noise. I agree with that. I prefer quiet people. Now if no one complained and it was legal, I'd shoot every last noisy bird in the neighborhood. They chirp at all hours.

I think the best neighbors are those you don't notice, unless she's hot and not wearing much. I used to have a good looking neighbor who sometimes washed her car in a bikini outside my window. She moved away.