Racist, or just careful?

[One Brow]

Nor did I expect anything but baseless raging about racism from you.

Some posters get responded to with rage, some with dialogue. I'm the same person on both those conversations.

The only reason that you care about her skin tone is because it lets you go on your misguided, false crusade.

The only reason I know about her skin tone is because of the treatment she received based on her skin tone.

We all kow how being able to accuse people of that brightens your day.

It brightens my day to accuse humans of being human?

 

[moevillini]

I don't like lumping anyone in with a group.

Perhaps you can describe for me what a prototypical incident of racism would be, and why you think this even doesn't cover it.

I don't want to get into a pissing match with you. Due to differences in our anatomy, I'm pretty sure you can piss farther. Unless I'm mistaken about your anatomy?

I was responding to your comment that this was directed against "one specific person". It seems like an odd distinction to make.

I guess that's on you then.

They are different aspects of the same "one specific person". To which aspect do you think the guards were likely reacting?

I have no idea. I'm not trying to read minds here.

 

[One Brow]

What I haven't really heard mentioned here is that she wanted into an area that she did not have a ticket to enter. She told the guard that she didn't have a ticket. Once she told him that it probably made it more difficult for him to let her in.

If my spouse had my car keys like her's did I too would be pretty desperate to get my keys back. I can understand she was upset. I would have asked for the guards supervisor or someone in charge of the event. Stop making it a conflict between you and the one guard. If you're desire is reasonable (hers was) someone else is likely to side with you and find a way to get your keys back.

I believe her story, but I can also see how her interpretation of events might not be universal.

There are times I don't get treated well. I chalk it up to being short, fat and ugly. I guess if I was middle eastern I would blame that instead.

Don't forget that another woman, who explicitly said she didn't have a ticket, was nonetheless escorted downstairs.

I think, if you had been told that dwarfs, or obese people, or ugly people, weren't being allowed because of what some unrelated short/obese/ugly person had done a couple of weeks ago, you'd have a pretty good reason to chalk that up to your height/weight/appearance.

You're right that approaching a supervisor might have helped. Unfortunately, it's not always easy to think of that option in the moment.

 

[One Brow]

If it happened exactly as she said then yes the guards are bigoted/racist. If...

If it happened 90% as she said?

 

[One Brow]

Well if their country is called Great Britain or United Kingdom maybe they should compete like that ( they do that in Olympics BTW).

Why?

 

[Gameface]

Don't forget that another woman, who explicitly said she didn't have a ticket, was nonetheless escorted downstairs.

I think, if you had been told that dwarfs, or obese people, or ugly people, weren't being allowed because of what some unrelated short/obese/ugly person had done a couple of weeks ago, you'd have a pretty good reason to chalk that up to your height/weight/appearance.

You're right that approaching a supervisor might have helped. Unfortunately, it's not always easy to think of that option in the moment.

Holy ****, bro. I said I was short, not a dwarf! My wife's the midget...

Edit for those who might like to know... https://www.diffen.com/difference/Dwarf_vs_Midget

 

[candrew]

So, knowledge that this writer can't be trusted is a common, and easy to verify, as knowledge of the star of Footloose?

LMAO.....that wasn't the comparison I was going for.

 

[Stoked]

Some posters get responded to with rage, some with dialogue. I'm the same person on both those conversations.



The only reason I know about her skin tone is because of the treatment she received based on her skin tone.


It brightens my day to accuse humans of being human?

You get to make assumptions about my personality, emotions and view points with out kowing me so I can do the same.

You delight in being able to call people racists.

Her skin tone does not matter to me because to me it has no bearing on what kind of person she is or can be. But feel free to make some more wildly incorrect assumptions about me.

 

[Stoked]

If it happened 90% as she said?

IF then I'd side with her. But we can play if games all day long. I have also allowed for the probability from the beginning that she was the victim of racism. You never allowed for anything different.

 

[Stoked]

If it happened 90% as she said?

If, as more and more of our current society is prone to do, she is only doing this to get attention for herself?

 

[Bronco70]

It brightens my day to accuse humans of being human?

You go to the phrase "humans being human" frequently.

In some other thread I commented on people learning to be nicer to each other. You dismissed the idea as futile based on "humans being human". You've used it in the gun control discussion, too.

So... if humans treating each other bad is inevitable, why should I get upset at all? There's nothing I can do about it, right?

You can't have it both ways.

 

[bryandunlop]

Humans are always looking to be offended. Nothing so see here. Move on.

 

[moevillini]

Holy ****, bro. I said I was short, not a dwarf! My wife's the midget...

Edit for those who might like to know... https://www.diffen.com/difference/Dwarf_vs_Midget

good save Gameface!

 

[moevillini]

AND it's a good thing the woman who wrote this is 4'11" tall, or we might be discussing whether or not this was an incident of heightism - either instead of, or in addition to, racism!

 

[Nate505]

Of course. My point is that we all (myself included) are raised in, learn from, and participate in a culture where; with no hate, malice, ill will, or intention; we have learned to make quick judgments that have negative consequences for people with darker skin. When we make these judgments, even though we don't intend harm, we actually do harm. Because this culture is in all of our communities, it's not just white people that do this, these judgments are also made by blacks, Asians, Native Americans, etc. Because these judgments are automatic and almost reflexive, it's not enough to simply say. "I don't hate you. I think you are equal." If we want to live that rhetoric, we need to keep in mind that our first impressions will usually be wrong. We need to actively fight our "instincts".

I agree with this to an extent. The thing about race is that it's the most easily identifiable characteristic a person has, so people tend to associate actions by the characteristic they can identify easily and categorize them based on that. It's unfair for sure, but I honestly don't know how it can be changed unless the population goes blind. Then people would start discriminating against people on the sound of their voice or something else. I'm no anthropologist, but I honestly wonder if it's a survival instinct that's been encoded into us. The more you trusted people who weren't in your tribe, the greater likelihood you were to be killed by them until one tribe assimilated the other.

 

[One Brow]

Holy ****, bro. I said I was short, not a dwarf! My wife's the midget...

All the more reason to be hypothetically upset.

 

[One Brow]

You get to make assumptions about my personality, emotions and view points with out kowing me so I can do the same.

Absolutely, and I fully expect you'll call me out when I'm wrong.

You delight in being able to call people racists.

Nothing about racism is delightful to me, least of all that it's endemic to humans.

Her skin tone does not matter to me because to me it has no bearing on what kind of person she is or can be. But feel free to make some more wildly incorrect assumptions about me.

In the USA, only a white person has the privilege to think skin tone doesn't matter in society.

 

[One Brow]

If, as more and more of our current society is prone to do, she is only doing this to get attention for herself?

She has worked as a doctor in Afghanistan. Why would anyone want the kind of attention this will draw? For every positive comment, she'll see five that say she is lying/exaggerating/etc. She already had a blog on HuffPo, and nothing to gain from this column but trouble.

 

[One Brow]

So... if humans treating each other bad is inevitable, why should I get upset at all? There's nothing I can do about it, right?

You can't have it both ways.

We learn to react based on the culture we are brought up in. 130 years ago, minstrel shows were popular and funny; now they are offensive. Human nature didn't change, but our culture did. I think we can change our culture even more, but there's going to be a lot more to it than just being nicer. It will involve changing our learned cognitive shortcuts.

However, I'm also a cynic. Some days, I think we can change, some days I think we can't or won't. I'll try to be more consistent in my posting on that, but no promises.

 

[One Brow]

I agree with this to an extent. The thing about race is that it's the most easily identifiable characteristic a person has, so people tend to associate actions by the characteristic they can identify easily and categorize them based on that. It's unfair for sure, but I honestly don't know how it can be changed unless the population goes blind. Then people would start discriminating against people on the sound of their voice or something else. I'm no anthropologist, but I honestly wonder if it's a survival instinct that's been encoded into us. The more you trusted people who weren't in your tribe, the greater likelihood you were to be killed by them until one tribe assimilated the other.

I agree that we'll never change in that we will see skin color as one of the first things we notice about a person. However, I hope we can change our cognitive shortcuts regarding what skin color is connected to.