Rex Trulove
One political party in the US is well-known for claiming that anyone who doesn’t agree with them on any point must be racist. This is sheer lunacy. Doing this clearly shows that they don’t understand the definition of ‘racist; The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others. It should be totally obvious that using the race card because of differences in political viewpoint has nothing at all to do with race or racism or if it does, the racism is on the part of those who are trying to use the race card.
Ignoring for a moment the fact that there is only one race; Homo sapiens I grew up during a time when true racism was rampant. White people simply didn’t associate with black people and visa versa. We had good friends who used to visit us at Crater Lake and it was frowned on because they were black. The part that makes it even more insane is that I’m not white, I’m Native American. Almost everyone is of a mixed background anyway. President Obama was said to be the first black US president, only, he wasn’t black. His mother was white.
For that matter, there is no good definition of ‘black person’. I mean, how dark does your skin need to be to be a black? Many blacks aren’t black, they are various shades of brown. Obviously, what they are actually trying to say is ‘non-white’, yet many people who identify as being white are not pale-skinned.
Why are Latinos treated by that political party as is they are a separate race? They are brown-skinned, but they have physical traits of whites, except for skin color. How about Asians? Asians are not yellow-skinned More often, their skin color is a beautiful olive color. There is no separation in races, though. It is very interesting that the political party that wants to open the southern US border will even call legal immigrants racist if those legal immigrants don’t agree that the borders should be open. This clearly shows that it has nothing at all to do with racism.
The worst part is that using the race card so often, in an incorrect manner, desensitizes people. When an actual case of racism actually comes up, people have more of a tendency of ignoring it, even when the case is legitimately racist.
It is my hope and my dream that people will stop trying to use the race card. It helps nobody.
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Have you ever been accused of being racist, even though you aren’t?
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Yes
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No
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I have never understood why the United States has got into so many tangles over race, although I suppose it is a legacy of slavery, when black people were certainly seen as inferior (by whites) because they could be bought and sold.
Yes, we do have racism in Europe, but – apart from in Nazi Germany – we have not had the brutal Apartheid that the US suffered from in the early decades of the 20th century.
We still have racist attitudes being expressed – usually by people who consider themselves to be inherently superior to others who are not like them – and this works both ways. It is always the case that if you go around calling yourselves the “chosen people” – however you may express that belief – you will inspire others to behave towards you in similar ways to how you regard them. and that is at the heart of all kinds of “isms”.
I have never understood racism. I have seen it, but never understood it.
I agreed with Carol …..
Playing the race card does more harm than good. People think, if I’m going to be called a racist anyway, why should I care. There is still some racism today (although I think a lot of what is considered racist are just things done out of ignorance rather than malice) but it is not even remotely close to what it used to be. I remember as a kid sitting down at a lunch counter and my mother freaking out because it was the lunch counter for Negroes. (Referring to them as black or African-American was a decade in the future.)
Yes, I remember those days and those memories aren’t fond ones. You’re right, the frivolous use of the race card can do a lot of harm and can actually hurt the people it is supposedly designed to protect.
Playing the race card has gotten ridiculous these days.
It has been that way for almost 10 years now, too. Because of that, ‘racism’ has now come to lack any meaning at all, which is a true shame.
How beautiful and handsome Whitney was!
Very much so. She and Mariah Carey are both stunningly beautiful women and both have tremendous voices.