On noticing racial differences
Published December 17, 2004
As it turns out, Ken was born within a few weeks of the same time as me, which gave us some commonality of experience and memory right there. He also has some knowledge and interest in country music, picked up in a previous life as a truck driver. I sent him home with Junior Brown and Grandpa Jones CDs.
Of course, noticing and expecting patterns of behavior of the negative variety is unfair to many individuals. Perhaps there are high rates of criminality, and lower rates of interest in educational achievement among some parts of the black community. But not little Freddy, though. Mama takes him to church twice a week, and he spends his evenings doing homework and thinking about college.
You can't expect people not to notice patterns of behavior among various racial and cultural groups, though. It's like asking people to pluck out their eyes.
It's also tantamount to expecting people to shun their legitimate self-interest. You're asking a lot for an employer to absolutely disregard that one group has given you four times higher rates of absenteeism than the company average, say.
That's totally unfair to little Freddy, but life isn't fair. Also, it might be more productive to focus on getting after those who are fulfilling those negative stereotypes and making all your people look bad, rather than putting everything off on the ill will of others guilty only of having eyes.
The most I know to do in this imperfect world is to try to do right the best I can with people one-to-one. You might practically have to take race into account if, for example, your car's broke down in a questionable neighborhood. Much of the time, though, there's simply no necessity of such considerations. It's generally your best bet to discount expectations based on ethnicity or any kind of group considerations such as gender or sexual orientation as much as reasonably possible.
Particularly, not just fairness but truth and accuracy demand readily replacing the actual and particular in the place of the general or stereotypical. You might have certain expectations if the main thing you know about someone you just met in the street is their race, but even a couple of minutes talking to Freddy should tell you that he's a different kind of fellow.
Of course, five minutes talking to his no-good cousin Mike would tell you that cuz is every bit of the crappiest stereotypes of his people. Just be careful not to acknowledge that you notice this however, or you are a racist devil.
- On noticing racial differences
- Published: December 17, 2004
- Type:
- Section: Culture
- Writer: Al Barger
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What does someone who is Jewish look like?
it is rather funny that the classic stereotypical Jewish appearance is virtually identical to the stereotypical Arab appearance
It's also funny that my two youngest children, who are, I guess 1/8 Jewish by blood, look like blond-haired, blue-eyed little vikings. 1/8 may not be much, but it was enough for the Nazis
Yes, we all have the same ground beneath our feet, but you seem to be trying to deny the obvious fact that we walk differently upon it.
Color stereotypes exist because they are perpetuated. How much of this perpetuation is from bad racists repeating untrue slanders against some race, and how much of it is from members of those races giving substance to those claims by their actions?
As to African descent in my own family, I've never made much examination of my family tree past a couple of generations. So I don't really know, I might not would have to go back that far to find African blood.
Just thinking in terms of physical proximity to my recent Kentuckian ancestry, how cool would it be to find I was some distant cousin to the family of Cassius Clay?
According to the proper liberal orthodoxy, we're not supposed to even notice race or ethnicity, and certainly we're not supposed to use that knowledge to make any bit of judgment- other than that darker people are oppressed and should get affirmative action. Otherwise, you're a RACIST- evil incarnate.
Sorry, guy. "Colorblind" is a Conservative thing. It's Conservatives that insist on pretending someone can "happen to be" whatever ethnicity.
You've started with Freudian projection on an institutional scale.
Now I'll read the rest of the post.
last summer we were at some gathering at a public park (might have been Sons of Norway, chuckle) and there was a very large extneded family reunion going on at the same time. It was the most amazing thing: like a U.N general assembly meeting covering the entire skin color spectrum from very dark to very light and in approximately equal proportions. They were having a grand old time running around, playing games, reminiscing, eating, an idyllic little world unto themselves. Maybe we'll get there.
Some of us have lived there our whole lives -- what you describe sounds like one of my family gatherings. This whole perceived "difference" thing is important only to those with an interest in dividing people, and those are people I pity. There is only one race, period.
No, I want to know what is the point of this post.
You see, Al has surrounded himself with feel-good book titles and complained exclusively about people judging his perceptions of Black people.
That's a force 5 indicator that he's trying to get a rise out of...someone...just for shits and giggles (which is obnoxious as ugly fuck) or that he has a problem with Black folks.
I'd like to know which.
I like the phrase "obnoxious as ugly fuck"
Now see there, Prometheus, that's what I'm talking about. I've said nothing indicating ill will toward anyone, but you're immediately ready to jump to the fore with the most evil spin you can put on my supposed motivations.
Again, the topic of the post is the tricky issue of the unfortunate but unavoidable necessity of recognizing and dealing with group patterns of behavior, particularly among racial or ethnic groups.
A secondary point in the opening paragraphs was the stifling of honest talk on such matters by just such nonsense as your comment #9.
Contrary to your insistence, I don't have any particular issues with black folk in general. In the real world, I've generally gotten along and related quite well with most of my neighbors and co-workers and friends of African descent.
I DO however, have limited patience for those what are unreasonably hostile and accusatory toward me. Such nonsense does not impress nor intimidate me. I don't care if you're black or Hindu or a polka dotted frickin' Martian, running up all hateful and disrespectful on someone is no way to win friends and influence people.
What do you even disagree with me on, here? Rather than conjuring up the worst, most hateful accounting you can imagine of my supposed motivations, try addressing what I've said. Are you in fact mad because I suggested that black folks favor menthol cigarettes more than others? What's your beef?
One thing less respectable than that open malice, however, is the fake righteousness given by people offering "pity" in an argument. Generally, these pronouncements are not in fact any kind of expression of human regard for another, but rather a purely dishonest way of contemptuously asserting their own supposed vast moral superiority.
Now see there, Prometheus, that's what I'm talking about. I've said nothing indicating ill will toward anyone, but you're immediately ready to jump to the fore with the most evil spin you can put on my supposed motivations.
Since you knew it world happen if you chose to speak this way, it was intentional.
And obviously now, the point was to allow you to direct this speech to me. No problem. On to important matters.
No, Prometheus, I did not particularly expect such a reaction from you. You have generally been fairly civil and at least broadly reasonable in your recent activity at Blogcritics.
Also, please don't flatter yourself by thinking that I went to the bother of writing this post just to get YOUR goat. You're not that interesting.
At this point, it does not surprise me that an official Angry Black Person shows up to renounce and pronounce and otherwise denounce me if I write anything even tangentially race related. Still, that's not going to stop me from saying things that I think need saying.
Plus, you're frankly not up to the job. After the Mac Diva S&M experience, you'll never be anything but a second-string Buggin' Out wannabe.
Alternate suggestion: try being friendly and reasonable rather than accusatory and paranoid. See if that gets you a different reaction.
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/23376)
You, sir, are a 'fellow of African descent' too, far enough back.
Your point, in so much as one can discern one, is that there are good and bad people of every kind, no matter what the color. Insightful.
Color stereotypes exist because they are perpetuated.
Oh, and with reference to statistics, Ref the US Census bureau report noting that Asian Americans are beating other ethniciities and the national average. That does not make them any better than say, any one else. One notices color, of course, but to an Asian, for example, a Caucasian is just as colored as any one else. We all have the same ground beneath our feet.