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White Denial: America’s Persistent and Increasingly Dangerous Pastime

Discussion in 'News & Current Events' started by Zaac, Dec 30, 2015.

  1. Zaac

    Zaac Well-Known Member

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    This essay was written originally for CNN.com and can be found here.
    ______

    There’s an old saying that it’s hard to know what you don’t know, the premise being that when you’re ignorant about something, you aren’t likely to realize your blind spots.

    But I’m not so sure. Sometimes, knowing what you don’t know just requires a certain degree of humility.

    For instance, I don’t know calculus, because I never took it in school. But here’s the thing: I know that I don’t know calculus; and as such, I would never presume to know it, let alone to tell others for whom it had actually been their major that I knew it better than they did.

    How nice it would be if white Americans would exercise a similar restraint when it comes to the topic of racism and discrimination in America. For although we have rarely had to know much about it — and though most of us, by our own admission, socialize in nearly all-white environments where we won’t benefit from the insights of persons of color who have, indeed, had to major in the subject — we continue to insist that we know more about it than they do.

    To wit, a just-released poll from CNN and the Kaiser Family Foundation, which finds that white Americans are far less likely than persons of color to believe that racism remains a serious problem in the U.S. While roughly two-thirds of blacks and Latinos believe racism is a big problem in America today, only about four in ten whites agree. Even a simple recognition of ongoing racial inequities in life chances differs markedly across racial lines, with clear majorities of African Americans perceiving that the typical black person is worse off than the typical white person in terms of income, education and housing, but most whites being evenly divided on the question, with about half of us failing to perceive such well-documented inequalities of condition. So despite the fact that African Americans are worse off than whites in every single category of well-being, and despite the research indicating that these disparities owe significantly to discrimination both past and present, most whites believe there are few if any ongoing inequities in need of being addressed.

    For instance, even though young blacks with college degrees are twice as likely as similar whites to be unemployed, regardless of their field of study, most white Americans don’t see much of a problem (or actually continue to insist that it is we who are discriminated against in employment).

    Despite the fact that white male high school dropouts between 18-34 are more likely to find work than black men that age with two years of college, most white Americans don’t see much of a problem, or again, insist that “reverse discrimination” is the real issue when it comes to racism.

    Despite the fact that the typical white family has about sixteen times as much wealth as the typical black family — and that even white households headed up by a high school dropout have, on average, twice the wealth of black and Latino households headed by a college graduate — most white Americans don’t see much of a problem.

    Despite the fact that black children are about three times as likely as white children to be suspended or expelled from school, even though the rates of serious school rule infractions are largely the same (contrary to popular belief), and despite the fact that black children are about twice as likely as white children to be taught by the least experienced teachers, most white Americans don’t see much of a problem.

    According to the survey, whites are also far less likely than blacks to believe the Voting Rights Act is still needed, even as several states have moved to create impediments to voting that will disproportionately affect voters of color.

    And while overwhelming majorities of African Americans (and a clear majority of Latinos) see biases in the justice system, only about half of whites agree; this, despite the racial disproportionality of police-involved shootings, and the blatant disparities within the so-called war on drugs, whereby blacks, for instance, are four times as likely as whites to be arrested for marijuana, even as rates of usage and dealing are virtually identical. It apparently doesn’t register as a “big problem” in the eyes of most whites that there are roughly 160,000 black folks arrested for drug possession annually who wouldn’t be were it not for the racially-disproportionate way in which African Americans are targeted in the drug war. Likewise, it fails to give us much pause that there are also about 160,000 whites who would be arrested for possession each year if arrest rates actually mirrored rates of drug law violations. It’s apparently no big deal that in recent years, persons of color have been subjected to massively disparate treatment by police stop-and-frisk policies, even though such policies almost exclusively target innocent people and are unconstitutional.


    http://www.timwise.org/2015/11/whit...and-increasingly-dangerous-pastime/#more-9039
     
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  2. Rolfe

    Rolfe Well-Known Member
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    [​IMG]
     
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  3. carpro

    carpro Well-Known Member
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    This tripe doesn't belong in the News forum.
     
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  4. Zaac

    Zaac Well-Known Member

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    Well when the other tripe about the Black Lives gets deleted, this one may be deleted also. If that's news, then so is this.

    Otherwise, if you don't want to read it, keep it moving.

    You don't run the board and thus more than those things that fit the narrative of you and yours may be posted.
     
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  5. Rolfe

    Rolfe Well-Known Member
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    Agree, but since he drank the Black Lives Matter cool-aid with a CNN chaser, he probably thinks that it is newsworthy.

    As Zaac would say it, "Boring".
     
  6. carpro

    carpro Well-Known Member
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    Trust me. I won't. I don't know anyone else here but you that will.

    Tim Wise is a hippocritical opportunist raised in the "white privilege" he rails agains, just as you are. At least that's the way blacks see him. Everyone else but brainless whites mostly just think he's an idiot.


    http://www.womanist-musings.com/2010/11/limitations-of-tim-wise.html

    The Limitations of Tim Wise

    As a Black woman, I am very aware that I am not Wise’s target audience, in fact, he seeks to exploit my experience for his own financial gain, rather than to deeply educate those that read his books.



    http://racetraitor.org/nopper.html

    The White Anti-Racist Is an Oxymoron:
    An Open Letter to “White Anti-Racists”

    I received an annoying e-mail about white people and their struggle to do anti-racist work. I keep reading and hearing white people talk about their struggle to do anti-racist organizing, and frankly it gets on my nerves. So I am writing this open letter to white people who engage in any activist work that involves or affects non-whites

    There is NO SUCH THING AS A WHITE ANTI-RACIST. The term itself, "white anti- racist" is an oxymoron.
     
  7. Kevin

    Kevin Active Member

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    The thing is, BLM is a terrorist group. Their actions bring about negative responses from myself, and the people I know. They are hurting themselves more than helping. What I see is a group being encoraged by folks like Obamo, Sharpton, and Faraken to go out and cause trouble. Most of those fools are there for the party, not because they have a clue they are being used as pawns.

    I ask you what is the solution? One thing that would help the arrest differences you mentioned would be to stop doing illegal stuff, and stop whining like a 5 year old kid who Mom caught but didn't see his brother doing the same thing.

    Maybe if these kids would stay in school, they might have better options. Maybe have a mother and father living in the house, and setting a good example would help. Maybe not becoming pregnant at 15 might help. Maybe staying away from drugs might help. All these things fit for any kid, any color, and I;m sure the list could be a lot longer
     
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  8. Zaac

    Zaac Well-Known Member

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    And you can do the same thing as carpo if you don't want to read it.Thumbsup
     
  9. Zaac

    Zaac Well-Known Member

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    Gosh, white folks said the same thing about MLK Jr and his group. So what's new.

    I personally think that police departments are being allowed to operate as terrorist groups, and they bring about negative responses from black and brown people all across the country.


    And what they see is a white populace, including a lot of those who say they are Christ followers, being hyped up and incited by the likes of Donald Trump and many GOP Presidential nominees, and Hannity and Limbaugh and O'reilly to commit domestic terrorism and acts of racism and racial prejudice. But by golly they want you to believe that they love Jesus.Rolleyes

    Sounds again like how many white folks in the church sat around and gave their tacit approval for the atrocities of slavery and Jim Crow.

    And here again is where the average white person acts as though they don't have a clue. If you're policing equally, and not taking skin color into consideration, then by sheer numbers, there should be more white people in jail for doing the illegal stuff. They aren't being policed the same. If they were Johnny Jr with his suburban coke business would be in jail right beside Hakeem and his weed business.

    .
    Laughable when you've got folks disciplining them in school who know nothing about or don't care anything about their home situation and label them as being problem students many times more than they do their white counterparts. Thereby getting them set on a track of remedial classes and a lack of the same opportunities as their counterparts.

    And lets not talk about the socioeconomic disparities and the school to prison industrial complex that takes fathers out of the homes for the same things that their white counterparts don't even get jailed for.

    So there's a little bit more to it than just staying in school.

    Staying in school still has the average household wealth of Blacks at about $7100 and Hispanics at about $8300 while that of the average white household sits at over $111,000.

    Maybe if the justice system and the system of policing wasn't set up to take a mother or father out of the household to supply labor for 21st century legalized slavery for the prison industry, maybe mother and father would be there.

    But when the folks doing the policing police you differently because they have been conditioned to, and the folks who are the majority in the country think you're getting what you deserve, how is that gonna change?

    When there is racial profiling for everyone except the folks who commit the greatest number of crimes...when there is PROVEN racial disparity in the policing, how exactly will this come about?

    Gosh, white people get pregnant at 15 too. But when your average household wealth is $111,000 vs 7100 or 8300, you can "afford" to not have a baby.
    Yes indeed. I'm glad you recognize that these things could fit any kid. The big difference is how black and brown kids are labeled in school and policed outside of school vs their white counterparts.
     
    #9 Zaac, Dec 30, 2015
    Last edited: Dec 31, 2015
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  10. Zaac

    Zaac Well-Known Member

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    Boring. You can't refute what he says so you take to demonizing him. Fox News did teach you something. [​IMG]
     
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  11. Internet Theologian

    Internet Theologian Well-Known Member

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    'Some people' spend way too much time worrying about what color skin the person had that did thus and so.
     
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  12. Rippon

    Rippon Well-Known Member
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    The above is a complete falsehood. Why do you say such untrue things? Of the three Limbaugh is my favorite. Do you actually l-i-s-t-e-n to him? I read the transcripts regularly. I would like you to document instances where he incites folks to commit domestic terrorism and acts of racism etc.
    What is the "school to prison industrial complex" of which you speak? You are spouting nonsense. Most blacks are in jail for crimes against other blacks.
     
  13. carpro

    carpro Well-Known Member
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    http://www.gradientlair.com/post/61521224722/i-dont-need-tim-wise-as-an-ally


    I Don’t Want Tim Wise As An Ally. No Thanks.


    This is a person who claims expertise on that which he does not live yet rejects criticism. But rejecting criticism when you’re in a place of privilege is very dangerous especially when you do justice work.

    This is a part of what he recently wrote on Facebook. How someone can claim to be anti-racism yet writes this is beyond me:

    "And this is what’s funny…every second that fools troll my site, complaining about how I take up all the antiracist space so they can’t be heard, is a moment they aren’t setting up their own website, blog, or writing their own book…but they wanna blame me for why no one knows who they are…it’s not on me sweetheart..plenty of people of color get book deals and speaking gigs each year…if u didn’t its not on me…it’s cuz u havent said anything that anyone finds valuable…deal with that rather than wasting time trolling…Maybe another POC blew up your spot rather than me…ever think of that? No, of course not…cuz that would require critical thought rather than simplistic hater bs and stuff u can put on tumblr…seriously, it’s time for people to be told to step off…feel free to jump off the page trolls….or I can bounce you…and would love to…trust me, u will lose this beef..badly…"
     
  14. Zaac

    Zaac Well-Known Member

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    Sure. Anything that some of you don't like is deemed a lie. Maybe it helps you to sleep better at night or something.

    How about you list all the transcripts from Fox News, Hannity, Limbaugh and O'reilly and show it to be untrue?

    .

    Nonsense for those who don't know what it is.

    Most whites are in jail for crimes against other whites.
     
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  15. Rippon

    Rippon Well-Known Member
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    You made the wild accusations man. The onus is on you to substantiate your charges. You said Limbaugh and the other incite domestic terrorism (among other things). Document where Rush has ever done such a thing. What you are doing is follish and sinful.

    .
    "School to prison industrial complex." Please explain.


    The point is that you have been trying to convince us that somehow most blacks are unjustly imprisoned. And that is a flat-out falsehood.
     
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  16. Internet Theologian

    Internet Theologian Well-Known Member

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    It's hilarious how robustheologian agrees with his other moniker 'zaac'. 'Both' of these 'two' dudes need to quit worrying about what color skin so and so has that committed such and such crime. And this 'they' do so 'they' can make an objective determination! LOL!!!!!

    The latter needs to also consider his multiple signatures are referencing himself more than any other. Especially this one 'I'm convinced...some of the most racist people I know are here on BB—and they don't even know it. Nov 26, 2015'

    Yep, you sure don't know it zaac.
     
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  17. Internet Theologian

    Internet Theologian Well-Known Member

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    Zaac/robustheologian/othermonikers since you're so convinced all these of certain skin color individuals are on the 'school to prison program' (assuredly your tin foil hat brought in radio waves to tell you that) and are unjustly imprisoned, why not become an activist with Farrakhan, Sharpton and Jackson? Their gospel is the same as yours, you all preach the same message of contempt for those of a certain skin color. And age. And political association. You'd fit right in. :)
     
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  18. carpro

    carpro Well-Known Member
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    zaac and robust are the same poster.

    Kinda funny (and pathetic) to watch him "like" his own posts.
     
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