favoritecolorblu

That's what I was thinking. Too many things are missing from the story. I think maybe it was assumed to be that she got beat because she was white. But I don't think that was the case, unless she can prove otherwise and say that they specifically said that they beat her up because she was white, then I'm on the fence with the story. Something doesn't add up. If they were beating her up because she was white they would have said much more derogatory things than "Hey whitey". And if it effected her as much as she says it did, then wouldn't she have remembered the things they said to here, just as much as she remembered "Hey whitey"?

geeky

I don't doubt that white people occasionally get beat up or insulted by black people for being white. And I don't want to minimize the pain that anyone that's happened to feels. But there is no systematic oppression of whites going on. That's the difference.

When I was a kid I had an incident with a group of black girls. I was not beat up but I was pushed and insulted and spat on and harrassed. I can't be sure it was because I was white, maybe it was because I was dorky or because young kids just do mean things to other kids for the hell of it, but I do know that it FELT racial to me and that it felt just awful.

But you know what, I grew up, I left the neighborhood, I went to a good college where no one assumed I was too stupid to be there and got in just because of affirmative action. I could drive around my college town without the police stopping me randomly because I must have stolen that nice car. I can take as long as I want browsing in the aisles of stores without being followed as a potential shoplifter. I can hail a cab any time I want. I can walk around pregnant without people assuming "there goes another one of those welfare queens living off the tax payers". The list goes on and on.

If you are black and you get beat up by white kids when you are younger, you can work hard and do well and become a Harvard Professor, but the cops will still arrest you for 'breaking in' to your own house. You can become the President of the United States and people will send around pictures of you as a monkey or with a bone in your nose. You can attend a good college and still get called 'nappy headed ho' by a national radio personality.

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To Trenell, MizKerri and geeky:
I pray none of you ever has to live in a communist state.

Geeky is my hero. She's the true badass. The badass who doesn't even need to be a badass. There aren't enough O's in cool to describe her.

favoritecolorblu

It's not that I'm minimizing it (if you're talking to me), it's just that I feel some parts are missing.

Kilajo

Does anyone else think the OP used us all as pawns for her/its own amusement? Anyway just a thought I had and I said I was done, so I'm backing back up out this thread...

On my EVO

midgi

I really wish we could "like" stuff on the Curltalk App. +1000 Geeky. Sometimes it's so hard to put your feelings into words when it comes to difficult (read: controversial) topics. Very well said.

Sent from The Brick

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I just want to do what I want to do when I want to do it.

thelio

my family drove through mississppi and got lost. they ask a white man for direction he told them: "You dont belong here"

I had several white friends attend our prodomantly black high school. they were often told, "you dont belong here".

it was because of the color of their skin.

the histories of blacks and whites are nothing alike. whites never indured what other races had to face. but two wrongs dont make a right. disliking someone, being prejudice, or races, a bigot or what ever any one whats to call it is stupid! Its 2011! this idoitic behavoir only hinders progress. if any one is beat because of the color of their skin, this is a hate crime!

We all need to quit so much at race and into peoples heart. (i dont mean to sound corny) I know this wont happen over night. i know this wont happen with everyone. but i think if we make the ignorant fools the minority, eventually it will fade away. maybe my grandkids can look back and say, "what the hell was wrong with those old timers? whats race anyway?"

Xyz

I'm way late to this thread but I just want to piggyback on what geeky said. The black kids who beat up white kids is a different form of racism/bigotry whatever you want to call it, because the actions of those black kids are retaliatory. At least in their minds, they are punishing a wrong they see in the world on the nearest representative of the white race they can find. This is a major theme in "The Bluest Eye" and is an issue that sociologist have studied and written about for years. And as an anecdote, I know plenty of white kids and white adult males who get beat up in black neighborhoods unfortunately. It ain't that rare.

To evee, I totally feel for you in that situation and if you want to call what happened to you racist or a hate crime, I don't really take issue with it. It happened to you and I wasn't there, so I don't think I have the right to qualify your experience. In the bigger picture, I think what sometimes happens in history and in the media with "racism" is the same thing that happened here. Your experience is an anomaly among many stories of racism, yet it garners the most attention, the most controversy and the most in-depth discussion. All of this goes back to why systematic racism is the key in how your experiences differ from black peoples.

To put what geeky said another way, people pick on me for being thin often. In fact, today a woman referred to my weight as "ah, you're just potato weight." (I still don't quite understand what it means.) When these taunts happen, I feel angry and disappointed, but there are all kinds of safety nets in place in our culture to insure that my perception of thinness as an ideal is preserved. There are billboards, magazines, TV commercials, models, etc - all these promote 'thin as right' and when I speak to people like me (who are promoted as the people that count) about feeling down, they reassure me. This is the same thing that happens when a white person is discriminated against by a black person. That white person can walk, sometimes 5 feet away, and be carried out of the problem zone into their comfort zone. There is no comfort zone for a hated minority. When you are at the bottom, you know that you are at the bottom.

I still sympathize with anyone that is being discriminated against, but the key to ending discrimination is not to preach, "everybody treat everybody the same." You have to lift from the bottom. There will always be people who can identify with this group or that group, but if you can get people to identify with the lowest, the very root of their issues, they will more naturally accept people on higher levels of the social hierarchy. I would also point out, that if minorities weren't discriminated against in so many ways, they wouldn't be as angry and wouldn't feel threatened about protecting their territory and they wouldn't be beating white people in some misguided sense of justice.

The saying goes that "sometimes the needs of the one outweighs the needs of the many." Identify the bottom and recognize their issues and other things will fall into place. This is what I've read in social commentary anyway.

curlyarca

No doubt, but I thought it was a great discussion. I get to bend my brain and consider another viewpoint for a few hours. I'd rather talk about this than see the latest "I hate iroc," posts or death threats.

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"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer."

4a, mbl, low porosity, normal thickness, fine hair.