Not too long ago, I watched a show in which the host interviewed several black guests at the same time. The questions were focused how black people are treated differently from white people in the United States. I am not black and therefore is not easy for me to relate to what living life as a black person must be like. The details below may not be exactly what was said but the sentiment is the same.
One guest said that when he goes into a store, the owner always watches him extra carefully, thinking that " this guy might be here to steal some products." I go into a store and I do not even think twice about what the owner thinks about me.
Another guest said, " he feels like he has to be extra careful if he were to be pulled over by a police officer because some of his friends have had terrible experiences with situations like this." When I have been pulled over while driving, police officers have always treated me nicely. From what I understand, black parents eventually have a conservation with their children about how to act when pulled over by a police officer, fearing that if the child acts inappropriately, the consequences could be severe.
The host of the show said "when she goes into a department store, the security guard follows around the store." No one has ever followed me around a department store.
Another guest said "in school, people would question her when she scored very high on an exam, thinking that she must have cheated on the exam." No one has ever questioned me after scoring high on an exam.
Another guest commented on how waiters and waitresses at restaurants would assume that she would not give a good tip. I have never felt this way.
All of this makes me think about how black people continue to have so many more obstacles in life compared to the average white person. My biggest problem today was receiving a red belt from Banana Republic when I should received a brown belt.
LinkedIn is that way --->
Linkedin? Most of what I see on linkedin is people promoting themselves or their company.
And that's exactly what you are doing:
This just in: local man discovers racism bad. You'll hear all about it from now on.
We get it man. Go back to posting instagram stories showing everyone how you're not racist
I am not black. But I have personally been subject to all of the above except for the grades thing. Even though I kind of got used to it, it was really draining and certainly altered my every day behavior.
I would never wish that on anyone. Having been subject to such things has given me some awareness of what black folks must go through though I feel it is but a drop in the ocean.
Plus I was a foreigner. They are in their own country.
Draining is a good description of what you experienced. To be honest, I do not spend that much time thinking about the plight of other people. I am often too wrapped up in my own world. Listening to people describe their everyday experiences was a a little disturbing and made it more real for me
eventhough im international; im caucasian so prolly get some of the small white privelages. I realized it due to 2 particular incidents.
Once i was attending a conference as a college student and you werent allowed to take anything but phone and a wallet inside. for some reason i had a swiss army knife in my pants which i would normally keep in my drawer in my dorm. the conference was in the hotel we stayed at so didnt have to leave in the morning. however i grabbed lunch outside and when i was coming back in the security alarm set off when i went through a scan. I just had to answer a couple qs and was let go. Im sure if i was black or brown; things wouldnt have been so simple
2nd incident: We were driving down to south carolina from philly and out car tires went flat. it was me and black friend. since i was driving and kinda tired i told him to get out and see what the problem was. apparently some random person called the cops that i was being robbed by a black guy on the side of a freeway
I hope that Black America is able to push US Policing into the 21st century. Qualified immunity and public records would be a great start. A president can realistically get two - three big things done over the course of an administration. Beyond this microcosm in time, it's difficult to imagine a future presidential candidate staking and winning a campaign on police reform vs the usual big ticket items (e.g. healthcare, economy, education).
I understand that blacks, statistically, are more socio-economically disadvantaged than other races. The massive US Wealth Inequality issue is starting to show cracks and I think the outrage we're seeing across the nation is a symptom . Late-stage capitalism is brutal and the losers are losing harder than they ever have. It is an issue spanning all races -- it flat-out sucks being poor in America.
The current climate feels as though anything I write as a cis, white male is unqualified. I grew up as the lone white kid in Central America and solidly in the minority demographic when I returned state-side from high school up until just recently. Out of all cultures, the black culture has been the least accessible to me at an interpersonal level, despite me being really interested in the culture superficially. I've honestly chalked it up to cultural differences at this point.
I've sworn off social media for the time being because you can feel an awkward tension. I feel as though there is a pressure to submit to some sort of "white guilt" whether or not you have been complicit in the oppression of black lives. "It's a difficult conversation" and "you need to just listen and understand" are alienating phrases to me.
I appreciate that your spent a good deal of time thinking about what to write regarding this topic
No problem.
I woke up this morning and had a conversation with my fiance about it over coffee. Her stance is that we should show love and express support for our black brethren through these times of strife. I agree with her view point as well. A part that I left out of my original comment is that I protested two Saturdays ago to show solidarity with the black community.
All this to say is that it is a weird ass time to be a white dude. Maybe I don't know what to do / think of this situation.
I agree. Black people really should make other black people commit less crimes (60% of fucking homicides) and be more respectful to police.
Spoken like a true anonymous pussy. Ever sit back and wonder how and why black people have historically been in the position they’re in?
Why am I a pussy? Because I don't want to be tracked down and be hurled death threats at like any online trump supporter?
Largely because their culture doesn't value education or effort and blacks "in the hood" will shame children for trying to hard in school or for being too smart.
He's likely not a racial minority or cognizant of the challenges/difficulties that racial minorities have had to historically face in the United States.
I didn't want to post on this thread but I just want to point out the fallacy of this argument using good ol' numbers:
Sure, black males commit a disproportionate amount of homicides - we won't even get into potential reasons why here. Let's assume it's b/c they're black. There were a total of 4,778 arrests of black ppl in 2018 for murder - let's assume that all those arrests lead to convictions and each arrest was of a unique individual (aka no repeat arrests). The black population is ~41 million - let's assume half are male (~20.5 million). That would imply about 0.02% of the black male population was arrested for homicide in 2018...
This is the truth of "60% of homicides" number used to justify the hate in people's hearts. In reality, the number means nothing in a larger context - it's sounds so big when you say 60% of murders though. Terrifying even.
As for being more respectful to police.... well I don't have stats on that. I'll just say alot of people that speak on freedom are happy to cede power and control to PDs around the nation in order to justify their narrative.
I was also a little hesitant when creating this topic because I knew that half of the people here would label me as a social justice warrior. Although, it is not entirely clear to me why showing empathy is a bad thing
point made
I know plenty of black people, treat them the same as everyone else.
If you deal drugs and get arrested or steal shit you are trash and I hate you.
I noticed when I was mugged by a black person in NYC I was a little more wary of them if they look like they are from the hood, but that's about it.
As an African-American, I have to say its been really nice to finally have some of our voices and experiences heard. It's been a difficult experience working in corporate American and I'm fortunate I have non-black friends that care enough to actively combat racism and prejudice. It's actually a relief that a lot of the prejudice people are experiencing are finally being seen and acknowledged. Just my .02.
I think it is great to see broad support here. People who would not normally come out to protest are doing just that! I am not sure why the George Floyd tragedy became the tipping point for some people but it did which is good thing.
I had (and still do ) have a lot of sympathy and support for the protests when it was initially focused on police violence, brutality and institutional racism. However now it has morphed into a protest about there not being enough black ceos, media portrayal of angry black women, slavery, white privilege etc and my support has dwindled.
My view is black community need to take some responsibility to pull themselves in a better plight. Slavery happened 400 years ago, yet we still have modern day slavery in Saudi UAE and Eastern European gangs - in what way does pulling down statues of slave masters help them? Many also conveniently forget that blacks and Arabs were slave traders too.
So why is it always blacks that are victims? I can accept there is institutional racism in the police force, I can accept that they are racially profiled but I compare it to every day muslims who have been scapegoated internationally every single day since 2001. They don’t speak of white privilege neither do Jews who suffered racism xenophobia and mass extinction by the ultimate white suprematist.
I think until blacks take some responsibility and look to change themselves and continue to play the blame game ( by removing the use of the n word from mainstream culture for one) we will continue to have this conversation for the next 400 yrs.
Jim Crow Law was literally among us just 50 years ago. The Civil Right Act wasn't enacted until the 60s. I think it a tall order to expect descendants of American chattel slavery to act civil when their mothers, fathers and grandparents weren't given the same treatment.
I get that and understand the anger, bitterness and resentment that can cause to the generations of today in the USA. I have so much respect for individuals like Rosa Parks and esp Muhammad Ali ( whose life and work has been a huge inspiration to my life and character) but with respect, their struggle was the struggle specific to their time and things have changed.
The only solution I see to set the wrongs of the past right is reparations and empowering reminders of the past. As such I think this should be a legal fight, not riots and protests that is the constant go-to and solves nothing. What do ppl think Nuremberg trials were about? Closure. Justice. Acknowledgement of wrong.
BLM have however isolated this protest by turning into a protest against everything that is wrong with being black, some of which has nothing to do with white ppl. protests would have been so much more powerful if they had stuck to the initial catalyst of police brutality and corruption and seen it through to the end.
Whilst I am on my soapbox can I also say that I think Black Lives Matter was a foolish name for this movement that sets up an unnecessary us against them, black v white psychology and it needn’t have been this way.
Wanted to add that I am in the UK so if I have a distorted view of race relations in the US pls feel free to correct me.
During WWII, all Japanese-Americans were forcibly removed from their homes and locked up in internment camps for years. This was an extremely traumatic experience in itself, and its effects were compounded by the fact that they lost much of their property and businesses in the process. They emerged from the camps at the end of the war with little money, and facing a lot of hostility because of their ancestry, since Americans had just fought a war against the Japanese.
Although the internment itself only lasted a few years, it is hard to see how the internment and its aftermath weren't as bad as Jim Crow while they were happening. Arguably the experience was significantly worse.
You do hear people talk about it now, but not that much really. And when they do, the focus tends to be on the bigotry and discriminatory behavior of the government, not the legacy it left on the Japanese-Americans themselves. The reason for that is simple: they more or less recovered from it fairly quickly, and now Americans of Japanese ancestry do as well or better than the majority of the country.
1.) The emancipation proclamation occurred ~157 years ago so idk where you're getting 400 from. That means if you're an ~80 year old black person you could've easily had a grandmother that started life out as a slave. Think about that. We like to think it was sooo long ago being young but I think that really puts things into context.
2.) There was at least another century of legally codified discrimination after the emancipation proclamation.
This makes your argument stupid from the get go which makes the rest of your post worthless.
As an Asian immigrant, I wasn't really able to sympathize with African Americans for a long period of time. Asians experience racism too, from both White and Black and other races, yet no one seems to be interested in speaking out for us, and when we speak out for ourselves, our voices go unheard.
Then it was several years ago, I was driving back with a black colleague from a company event in a mountain resort, at 12am, in one of the red states. I mistakenly got off the highway onto a narrow local road. As I continued to drive on the local road, my black colleague visually got nervous, and told me a story about how two of his friends, both black and gay, got beaten up by White Supremacists at night in another Southern state at a gas station. He said something like we wouldn't be in a better position here, implying a black person and another non-white person in the car, and urged me to get back to the interstate ASAP.
It was after that night that I really started thinking about racism against African Americans in the US. Yes, there is racism from and against all races. Yes, Asians, and even Caucasians can be victims of racism too. But I think racism against African Americans is a whole other issue.
For one, I'm not in this country because my great great great grandfather was a slave. I'm here because I chose to, or for many of my fellow Asian Americans, because their parents or grandparents chose to. For one, I'm not stuck with this country. I can always go back to Asia if racism in the United States is out of control. For one, I don't fear for my life when I see a cop. They are supposed to make me feel safe. It's one thing to have a bamboo ceiling, it's another to worry about getting shot by the police every day.
I guess it's a long way of saying to those all lives matter folks, yes we need to address racism against all races, but racial issues regarding African Americans, because of the slavery history, because of the continued segregation and suppression until the 1970s, because of their inferior economic status and education levels as a consequence of those, is a whole separate conversation, and should probably take priority right now.
In my experience, many recent Chinese immigrants to the US are more blatantly racist towards black people than white people are. Although I haven't been to China, I've read a lot of accounts of similar attitudes there.
" I'm not stuck with this country. I can always go back to Asia if racism in the United States is out of control."
The Chinese government's treatment of the Uyghur minority is vastly worse than the US government's treatment of any group for generations.
When 99% of your population has never interacted with anyone other than his own race, there surely will be racism, and that vastly comes from ignorance. This applies to China, Korea, Japan, and any other Asian nations that are single culture and single ethnicity.
Also, don't hijack this thread into bashing the Chinese government. I'm just pointing out that if racism in this country is affecting my life, I can always go back to China, and my life can still be good. Same for Koreans and Japanese who are first generations. But for African Americans, they are stick with the US. There is nowhere to go back to. I'm just illustrating that African Americans here have a tougher time than other minorities.
I appreciate the comments. I think they there is less empathy for Asian discrimination in the US, because substantial percentage of Asian Americans have become very successful in the United States. I think the success also leads to other groups being envious of them. It is no secret as why Asians are successful in the US - emphasis on education and probably family structure
A few things to add. And I really didn’t want to add here but I couldn’t resist.
There are a lot of poor Asians. Although as a general population Asians are “well off” the disparity between rich and poor is a big one.
The level of education of Asian migrants is high. In other words the US gets the best of the best from other countries. Smart, educated, hard working Asians want to come here. One could argue those people generally have a high standard for education. But that might be more an education level thing more than a cultural thing. Like smart Chinese or Indians or Koreans who went to whatever top school in the mother country will probably raise their kids the same way and push them to Harvard or whatever.
Because there are plenty of not so well educated and academically poorly performing Asians in Asia. And plenty of people who don’t care about education. Just like in any country.
That is an absolutely phenomenal trade especially from a sharpe ratio perspective. This is not to dismiss the discrimination that Asians have gotten. Not at all.
But, I find it interesting how Asians seem to hate on things like affirmative action (blacks, latinos, lgbtq etc) but seem to be mysteriously silent on things like legacy admissions or the boss’s kid getting that job when those hurt their case too.
Asians also seem to be less loud on the lack of representation at the board and senior management level of companies. I mean they are the highest achievers right? Surely even if (for some cultural or skin color reason Asians, who are apparently all the same - now I’m really stretching it - are quiet hard workers who never integrate) - surely there must be a bunch of exceptions who can make management and senior positions. But they don’t. Instead plenty of Asians are focused on ripping on people of color on boards like this instead of working together. Smh
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