Racial Reality
Thursday, October 18, 2007
I've been very busy today preparing for my first ever deposition of a defendant doctor (sorry Raveen). I'm losing steam in my AC Trip Report too, but I hope to finish that up this weekend. In the meanwhile, I'd like to just throw something out there that may very well get me labeled as racist. Even so, I'm here to speak the truth (my truth), so you have no choice but to sit back and read. Well, I guess you do have a 'choice' to stop reading, but really at this point, you are going to keep reading? Don't believe me? Then why are you still reading? Checkmate!
As it were, I opened Yahoo to check my email and saw this article: Controversial DNA Pioneer's Talk Halted. Why? Because he said that based on his research (as co-discovered of DNA's structure) African's are generally less intelligent than Europeans.
Clearly, its a controvesial thing to say, but is saying it enough to get some guy thrown on the evil racist list? Admittedly, he also said some stupid things, like saying that people with black employees will find their lesser intelligence to be true. Okay, now you are personalizing it, and I can understand why people would be upset. No one wants to hear that black people are worse employees or are stupider employees. But I still take exception with those who would push the idea that one cannot discuss the scientific differences of races without being a bigot.
Fact: Black men had longer forearms than White men. (Note: I refuse to use the term "African-American" because it ignores the large population of the black population with Carribean or other descent, in favor of a PC term that is a half-step away from the now universally "bigotted" Afro-American).
Don't believe that last one? Okay, how about a more simple one?
Fact: Black people are generally darker skinned than caucasians!
YES, its true!!! Of course, by stating that black people are blacker than whites, I suppose I must be racist, since its a general term encompassing all black people.
Listen, folks, I'm not trying to argue that black people are less intelligent than white people. I'm just trying to say that we are all oversensitive to race-related conversations. See Imus' nappy-headed ho reference. After all, nappy is defined as "Tightly curled or coiled" by the American Heritage Dictionary. And guess what? BLACK PEOPLE HAVE DIFFERENT TEXTURED HAIR THAN WHITE PEOPLE.
Boy, I can't help but feel like I'm setting myself up for disaster on this one. But it must be said. When we ignore that there are legitimate differences between races and cultures and sexes, we don't become blind to bigotry; we become blind to reality.
Until next time, make mine poker!
posted by Jordan @ 4:49 PM,
12 Comments:
-
At 5:30 PM,
Heavy Critters said...
-
We also have bigger cocks than whitey.
-
At 5:35 PM,
Alan aka RecessRampage said...
-
As a minority, I totally agree with what you said. This country is insanely sensitive about racial issues to the point where it's ridiculous.
I remember one time, I was listening to this conversation... one of them was on our county league basketball team. And he was talking about one of our teammates. And trying to describe to him who he was to the other dude... and was giving every explanation possible... until I injected with "dude, he's the only black guy on our team." I mean... why the fear to call a black person black?
Also, you might find this article interesting. Jason Whitlock is right on I think about the nfl.
http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/7343980?MSNHPHMA -
At 6:02 PM,
SirFWALGMan said...
-
I think I will refer to all races as "Waffles" and "Not Waffles".. and anyone not Waffles will be deamed inferior just because they are not Waffles.
-
At 6:31 PM,
KajaPoker said...
-
I'm not sure why people are still obsessed with race in the 21st century. Or religion. Why even make any generalizations on these subjects? Why can't we all just be humans? I always thought this was called the human race for a reason.
-
At 6:34 PM,
said...
-
I don't think Afro-Americans should also be called black, they should be called brown...
Conversely, white people should be called beige.
~
It's extremely unfortunate that due to a select group of real racists (a diminishing group of malicious indidivuals as time progresses, I'd say), well-intentioned individuals aren't given enough respect to not be accused of being racist in seemingly borderline cases that are only so in the form of a mere transcript of the situation. (For example, a theoretical course of events: someone makes a disingenuous comment without using politically correct terms that is clearly meant to be interpreted as folly, but a small number of people over-react based on their own prejudices, all while the public is only able to judge what happened based on seemingly clear quotes in a news article.) -
At 8:31 PM,
said...
-
I agree with DP that the media is more concerned with generating hype and controversy than it is with the pursuit of acceptance and celebration of diversity.
Too many people think that equality = hemogeny. Too few people are willing to truly celebrate diversity in a public fashion, and the oversensitivity to racial and ethnic differences means that most diversity 'celebrations' are nominal at best.
And this is coming from a beige man married to a brown woman... -
At 11:31 PM,
MHG said...
-
Race and diversity is probably the biggest issue that my generation will face. As corporations grow and technology progresses, our world gets smaller everyday. And as the world gets smaller, diversity is threatened.
I really like Kaja's post, and I try my hardest to interact on a human-to-human level with anyone I meet. Old Asian poker lady, young Black kid in the classroom, or my Mom or Dad.
The melting pot isn't the way to go. Think of the world as a stew, with all sorts of different meats and vegetables--each unique, but together they come together. -
At 11:35 AM,
KajaPoker said...
-
meanhappyguy is almost right :-). I like the stew theory but would rather eat some puree instead. It's an old theory that says that if we all start screwing each other, we will end up all being the same color in a few generations. Then we won't have to worry about it any more. Tiger Woods is on the right track. He calls himself a Cablinasian (Caucasian, Black, Indian, Asian). And his daughter is one step further because she has some pretty Nordic genes in the mix.
If you subscribe to some good old fashioned Darwinism theory you know that you have to combine all the strong genes to get the best out of the species. But this might get us all back to a discussion on creationism, so I think this is where I stop. -
At 11:37 AM,
BWoP said...
-
When I was in college, an interesting little book called "The Bell Curve" was released. Charles Murray, one of the co-authors, was invited to speak on campus. (If you recall, one of the themes in the book is that intelligence levels are different among various ethnic groups.) This invitation sparked a huge debate among various members of the campus community. I attended the speech, partly to hear Mr. Murray discuss the book, and partly to see what would transpire in the Q&A session.
If you are not armed with an understanding of what your opponent's arguments are, you can never defeat them. Therefore, even though it was an uneasy topic, it was necessary to hear what Mr. Murray had to say. The most disturbing part was that instead of inviting a reasoned intelligent debate on the topic, most of the people who stood up at the microphones spewed off some reactionary nonsense that basically relegated the entire discussion to "Why are you a racist" rather than "Here are the aspects of your study that fail to account for x, y and z, therefore leading your conclusion regarding race to be based on some faulty research".
As a person of mixed-whateverness, it is generally a bad idea to make a generalization about anything. I'm just as snarky toward Asians as I am toward the round eyes. I also grow very tired of being the Asian Female torchbearer, because it serves to diminish other aspects of my background that are equally as important as my "race" and "gender".
It is an unfortunate tension to live with, because if I do not attempt to challenge those that would dare relegate people of my backgrounds into bizarre categories, then those people will continue to do so (and they may even do so after I try to convince them otherwise). But for so long as we live in a society where judgments are made on either physiological characteristics or the way someone chooses to worship their god(s) / goddess(es) / sheep, we have to embrace the debate. -
At 1:26 PM,
Unknown said...
-
Doog...
"I agree with DP that the media is more concerned with generating hype and controversy than it is with the pursuit of acceptance and celebration of diversity."
Actually as a member of the media, we are really only concerned with ratings. You find some pinhead who says something outrageous and then let them rant. By giving the listener or viewer what he or she wants we have a job. We also get to FAKE OUTRAGE!
If Coultergeist and Rush didn't have wacko readers and listeners and Snolberman wouldn't have fun picking on Bill Orally, many people would be bored.
We're people. We're human.
We should be coming together. We should be uniting.
The key words are we should. But we never will. Because psychologically we have been imprinted with staying even or better with the joneses, we have to have people who MUST be first.
Remember for each WSOP Champion, there also is the WSOP gigli. Is it that of all the players in the world that he was the worst? No, he was the unluckiest.
Tolerance is the best way to deal with people who have no tolerance or love.
But that's just my opinion and I have been in the past WAYY WRONG! -
At 6:45 PM,
Riggstad said...
-
Sean, Its not that we are psycologically imprinted with keeping up with or beating the jones'.. although I get what you mean...
It is more in our dna makeup to act that way. we are built to survive, and in the days where surviving is easy, its more important to achieve... moreso than others.
Plato said it best (or socrates, one of the really old smart dudes), that as long as there is man, there will be war. And I take that to mean that we each have a drive to have more, win more, and control more than the next guy. -
At 2:53 AM,
Jamie said...
-
Holy crap, CK. You're Asian?!?!
