Submitted by rwallnerny on Sun, 01/28/2007 - 3:49pm.
anon 1:141 said: ( I understand that you can't empathize...you are white after all....You believe yourself to be sympathetic to our plight and history, but all you are doing is insulting. )
Listen, you don't know anything about me or my background, so who are you to say I can't emphathize? I think your words were hurtful and insulting. Do I have to be black to emphathize with those who experience racism? For that matter how do you know that I'm not black? How do I know that you are? In fact most of my friends were black when I was little, it helped shape my world view. I grew up in the deep south, I saw racism all around me. I've done everything I can to speak out against it. I was in college when Jesse Jackson ran in 1984, I was a supporter, went to his rallies, I still have his button somewhere that says "Jesse!" I thought his was a really important campaign. I have also stated repeatedly here and at daily gotham/culture kitchen that I might support Barack Obama this time. I did sign up at his web site the day he announced, although I have not fully committed quite yet.
In my opinion, you can't always read race into everything. If you do, we will always be divided because we will never see the way clear through the fire of racial rhetoric to those things that are out there that CAN unite us. This is what I've been trying to say. There are no human beings on this earth who are better or worse than anyone else. We need to fight those instances where humans think they are better than other humans, because of differences in class, economics, ethnicity, sexual orientation or race. I had a friend in college who was gay and was severaly beaten. Just for being gay. Yet it seems in your view, is his discrimination issue different than yours? Am I insulting you if I think his discrimination and the discrimination you have felt are part of the same problem, and that if one form of discrimination is seen as greater than another, that we aren't solving anything? Do you for instance find it worse being discriminated against for being black than the discrimination you get for being a woman? Aren't the women enslaved by their men in Saudi Arabia as much discriminated against as any blacks or hispanics or other non-white races here? Must I, as a white person, be called a racist by you or others simply for pointing that out? I don't think so.
My point is I don't want to limit the discussion. I want to consider the big picture. Yet when Barclays is called on the mat for past racism, and not for every other type of discrimination they partook in, in the past, such as sexism, I get called a racist for pointing that out? For saying that we should both hold them accountable for all past discrimination AND accept the hopeful likelihood that this company in the past and the present might be two different places? I want to give them the benefit of the doubt. Just as black voters down in Alabama near where I'm from gave governor George Wallace (mr. "segregation now, segregation forever") the benefit of the doubt when many voted for him in his last campaign and put him back in office. A pessimist thinks people can never change. An optimist thinks people can always change. I am an optimist.
anon 1:141 said: ( I understand that you can't empathize...you are white after all....You believe yourself to be sympathetic to our plight and history, but all you are doing is insulting. )
Listen, you don't know anything about me or my background, so who are you to say I can't emphathize? I think your words were hurtful and insulting. Do I have to be black to emphathize with those who experience racism? For that matter how do you know that I'm not black? How do I know that you are? In fact most of my friends were black when I was little, it helped shape my world view. I grew up in the deep south, I saw racism all around me. I've done everything I can to speak out against it. I was in college when Jesse Jackson ran in 1984, I was a supporter, went to his rallies, I still have his button somewhere that says "Jesse!" I thought his was a really important campaign. I have also stated repeatedly here and at daily gotham/culture kitchen that I might support Barack Obama this time. I did sign up at his web site the day he announced, although I have not fully committed quite yet.
In my opinion, you can't always read race into everything. If you do, we will always be divided because we will never see the way clear through the fire of racial rhetoric to those things that are out there that CAN unite us. This is what I've been trying to say. There are no human beings on this earth who are better or worse than anyone else. We need to fight those instances where humans think they are better than other humans, because of differences in class, economics, ethnicity, sexual orientation or race. I had a friend in college who was gay and was severaly beaten. Just for being gay. Yet it seems in your view, is his discrimination issue different than yours? Am I insulting you if I think his discrimination and the discrimination you have felt are part of the same problem, and that if one form of discrimination is seen as greater than another, that we aren't solving anything? Do you for instance find it worse being discriminated against for being black than the discrimination you get for being a woman? Aren't the women enslaved by their men in Saudi Arabia as much discriminated against as any blacks or hispanics or other non-white races here? Must I, as a white person, be called a racist by you or others simply for pointing that out? I don't think so.
My point is I don't want to limit the discussion. I want to consider the big picture. Yet when Barclays is called on the mat for past racism, and not for every other type of discrimination they partook in, in the past, such as sexism, I get called a racist for pointing that out? For saying that we should both hold them accountable for all past discrimination AND accept the hopeful likelihood that this company in the past and the present might be two different places? I want to give them the benefit of the doubt. Just as black voters down in Alabama near where I'm from gave governor George Wallace (mr. "segregation now, segregation forever") the benefit of the doubt when many voted for him in his last campaign and put him back in office. A pessimist thinks people can never change. An optimist thinks people can always change. I am an optimist.