Race

[Mysticbeauty]

This thread is about what different colors and races make in todays community. Here's a common stereotype: if you're an African American male people assume that you will steal or will end up in jail. Disscuss and Debate :D The stereotype above was strictly taken from the images TV interprets.

[theOperaGhost]

Although stereotypes don't label EVERYONE in an entire race, they are stereotypes for a reason. Statistically, stereotypes will follow what the MAJORITY of the people who fall under them do.

Is every black man a criminal? No. Are the majority of criminals black? Yes. Is this a bias in the corrections system? Possibly, possibly not.

Statistically, stereotypes are justified. By using my reasoning however, you can't even come to the conclusion that the majority of black men are criminals. I follow statistics, not stereotypes.

[Perseus]

I hate how black people say they're African American, when the most of them weren't born in Africa. I would only call a black person African American if they called me European American, otherwise I refuse to call them that because it makes no since at all. Why did they start calling themselves this in the 90s?( thats what my mom told me) Its just stupid. You're not African American unless you were born in Africa and moved to America. Sorry if that got racist, I just had to let my views out, I was actually thinking about making this kind of thread today.

[Mysticbeauty]

Because we came here as slaves from Africa. Doesn't mean we are saying we are straight from Africa because we would just say we were African but we are saying we're African American. MEaning we orginated in Africa but were put in a American enviroment. I really do not know why Cauasians are called European Americans. Some people in my school do call some Causasians that.

[Zephyr]

I'd have to say I agree with DaTrooper.
I don't consider myself Syrian-Swiss-German-French American,
Even if that's my ethnic background.
I don't even like the term Caucasian.
I'm AMERICAN.
America is the melting pot of the world,
It's time we start acting together rather than separating ourselves.

Yes, keeping ethnic traditions is more than okay,
Variety and culture are what make the human world so fascinating.
Our ethnicity is a part of who we are and it is a big part in shaping who we grow to be,
But let's not let it stand in the way of uniting as a whole as well by getting along :wub:

[Perseus]

Because we came here as slaves from Africa. Doesn't mean we are saying we are straight from Africa because we would just say we were African but we are saying we're African American. MEaning we orginated in Africa but were put in a American enviroment. I really do not know why Cauasians are called European Americans. Some people in my school do call some Causasians that.

But what Im saying is most black people will be like Im African American, not black, do not call me that. Im then like okay then, if you're African American, Im European American, they're like no you're not you stupid cracker, and I was like what the fuck you ignorant son of a bitch!
And another thing that just pissed me the fuck off today was this I heard on the raido on my bus on the way to school. "Michael Vick was only put in jail because he was black, white people were just mad because the best NFL player was black. And Im like what the fuck!? I hate how some people are so racist and ignorant to think that everyone white person is racist and black people only go to jail because they're black!

[theOperaGhost]

I agree with DaTrooper00 and Steph. If you were born in America, I consider you American. I'm not a German-American, I know very little of the German culture, I've never been there, how can I call myself German-American? I doubt that every black person knows their specific African culture all that well. They are Americans just like everyone else born in America.

[INFERNO]

Because we came here as slaves from Africa. Doesn't mean we are saying we are straight from Africa because we would just say we were African but we are saying we're African American. MEaning we orginated in Africa but were put in a American enviroment. I really do not know why Cauasians are called European Americans. Some people in my school do call some Causasians that.

OK, some theories on human evolution put humans to have originated in Africa. So, why not call everyone African - [other races]? After all, we all came from there? Heck, why not label where our other ancestors were from as we came from them, so we could have African-German-Dutch-Swiss-Canadian-American-Australian-Jamaican.

If they refer to me specifically by what races I am, I'll return the favour. Until then, too bad. If you were born, say in America and so were several previous generations but before that, you were from Africa, I'm calling you American (assuming the same with the people who married in).

As said already, the stereotypes are statistical generalizations. They won't apply to everyone in that group but they will for many or the majority. There are some rather interesting studies done, where they examined people's reactions if a black person commits a whiite-collar versus blue-collar crimes. They then did the same for a white person. For the black person, a white-collar crime was due to situational causes, whereas a blue-collar crime was due to dispositional causes. The exact opposite reactions occurred from a white individual. Taken from Gordon, 1990 for an example in a paper by Wirth and Bodenhausen (2009), The Role of Gender in Mental-Illness Stigma.

[Halibut]

i hate racism and i hate how people say chinese are like strickt and theiving. i hate how african americans are known as gangsters and shit and i hate how whites are known as goodie goodie 2 shoes

[Perseus]

Actually, what does caucasian even eman?
And where did it come from, because I do not like that term, I'd rather be called European American, than something I have no clue what it means.

[theOperaGhost]

Main Entry:Cau·ca·sian http://www.merriam-webster.com/images/audio.gif (javascript:popWin('/cgi-bin/audio.pl?caucas01.wav=Caucasian'))Pronunciation: \kȯ-ˈkā-zhən, kä- also -ˈka-zhən\ Function:adjective Date:1658 1 : of or relating to the Caucasus (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/caucasus) or its inhabitants 2 : of, constituting, or characteristic of a race of humankind native to Europe, North Africa, and southwest Asia and classified according to physical features —used especially in referring to persons of European descent having usually light skin pigmentation

Taken from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Caucasian

[Perseus]

Main Entry:Cau·ca·sian http://www.merriam-webster.com/images/audio.gif (javascript:popWin('/cgi-bin/audio.pl?caucas01.wav=Caucasian'))Pronunciation: \kȯ-ˈkā-zhən, kä- also -ˈka-zhən\ Function:adjective Date:1658 1 : of or relating to the Caucasus (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/caucasus) or its inhabitants 2 : of, constituting, or characteristic of a race of humankind native to Europe, North Africa, and southwest Asia and classified according to physical features —used especially in referring to persons of European descent having usually light skin pigmentation

Taken from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Caucasian
Ok, that makes a lot of sense... now I feel stupid..

[dyslexiaa]

Before I get into fun stuff, I'll just say that Americans put a lot more focus on race than people from other countries do. I guess you could explain that with the amount of racial variety in America. Regardless, the amount of intolerance is still pathetic when we supposedly conquered this fifty years ago.

I hate how black people say they're African American, when the most of them weren't born in Africa. I would only call a black person African American if they called me European American, otherwise I refuse to call them that because it makes no since at all. Why did they start calling themselves this in the 90s?( thats what my mom told me) Its just stupid. You're not African American unless you were born in Africa and moved to America. Sorry if that got racist, I just had to let my views out, I was actually thinking about making this kind of thread today.

After 400 years of slavery, the only compensation the African-American community has gotten is slums, segregation and discrimination. Is it really that much to ask to have a different title? Especially if you consider how many African-Americans wanted to move here.

And this isn't white guilt, it's empathy.

I hate how some people are so racist and ignorant to think that everyone white person is racist and black people only go to jail because they're black!

"The existence of much larger racial and ethnic differences in arrest rates than in self-reported violence is a matter of great concern. On the one hand, there is no reason to expect similar distributions, because these measures were designed to assess different aspects of violence. But if both measures are valid and reliable, the discrepancy suggests that the probability of being arrested for a violent offense varies with race/ethnicity."
—Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General, January, 2001.

Take a look..

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/van-jones/are-blacks-a-criminal-rac_b_8398.html

[Perseus]

White guilt?

[Sugaree]

White guilt?

It's a racial thing I believe. Black people making white people feel bad for what their ancestors went through among other things. I don't have any guilt.

[Perseus]

My dad's side of the family probally never had any slaves because they were not rich and slaves were fucking expensive, so I cant have any white guilt..
Most people actually in the state of Georgia(Im form Mississippi though) a lot of people didn't have a lot slaves because they were expensive.
AND another thing is some African goverments would sell the Americans slaves.. so the whole "poching thing by white men" sorta died off.

[dyslexiaa]

My dad's side of the family probally never had any slaves because they were not rich and slaves were fucking expensive, so I cant have any white guilt..
Most people actually in the state of Georgia(Im form Mississippi though) a lot of people didn't have a lot slaves because they were expensive.
AND another thing is some African goverments would sell the Americans slaves.. so the whole "poching thing by white men" sorta died off.

..so, that makes slavery right?

African governments were colonized by Europeans during the time of slavery, so it's still white dudes being evil. Even if you didn't have slaves, slavery was accepted as commonplace. After that, segregation and after that, discrimination. There's a pretty solid history of horrible things that happened and even if someone doesn't take part in it, nobody really stopped it.

[Perseus]

No, I never said it was right but my family never owned slaves.
But if I lived during the 1800s before the Civl War, I would be nice to them, unlike some people. I most likely wouldn't even had slaves because it isn't right anyway..

[CaptainObvious]

No, I never said it was right but my family never owned slaves.
But if I lived during the 1800s before the Civl War, I would be nice to them, unlike some people. I most likely wouldn't even had slaves because it isn't right anyway..

I can confidently say that, no matter your opinions now, you have no idea how you would've treated slaves had you grown up in the 1800s. Much easier to look back from the perspective of a life where you were raised to understand racial equality and condemn slavery and then say you would've believed that all along, when that's definitely not necessarily the case.

[theOperaGhost]

Morals change over time. People had much different morals in the time of slavery. To be honest, some of the morals of slave owners can still apply today, it's just not nearly as severe as it used to be. In the time of slavery, Africans were property. I feel that in today's society, families have been weakened so much that children are considered more to be property than family. There has been a bit of a switch. Family was much more important in that time than it is today.

That was a completely irrelevant tangent... sorry.

[Zephyr]

My family had 'slaves'...
They weren't slaves per say.
They got paid decent wages,
But were claimed as slaves to keep them out of the market.
My family rawked = ]

[INFERNO]

No, I never said it was right but my family never owned slaves.
But if I lived during the 1800s before the Civl War, I would be nice to them, unlike some people. I most likely wouldn't even had slaves because it isn't right anyway..

There's a big problem with what you're saying. First, consider the time period and the values associated with each time period. If everyone else around you is having slaves and you're not, consider how you would look to them. Also, there's the issue of you not being in such a situation. For example, if someone says they'd never kill someone, then consider this: what if they were given a choice, kill someone or have your family tortured and killed infront of your eyes. If you are in such a situation, then your thoughts change. I know this example may at first seem a bit left-field but the point I'm trying to make is you weren't there at that time period so you cannot accurately say what you would have or wouldn't have done.

Of course now it would seem ludicrous to have slaves but not only would the morals you have be different back then, so would everyone else's. You'd have been raised in a family where those morals were instilled into you, you may even have family slaves. Something like that, when it's in your environment, it gets learnt as part of what is the norm, what is acceptable, etc... .

Although now you may have good intentions, you cannot accurately say how you would have been back then.

[Perseus]

If I lived during my way back family did we wouldn't of had slaves because they were poor and like I said before slaves were expensive.

[Mysticbeauty]

:wub:Well then I'm American
My dad says to say I'm a "world citizen" :}

Ohk I have a question: Do you think having a black/white president will change anything?

[theOperaGhost]

I don't see why the race of a president should even matter or change anything.

Anyone who voted for or against Obama solely for his race destroy democracy. People should be voted for or against because of their abilities and policies.

I personally think Obama received an overwhelming amount of votes BECAUSE he is black. I can guarantee there were a lot of people who voted for him just because of his color. I have as much of a problem with that as I have with the people who voted against him because of his color.

Elected officials should be elected on their qualifications and such, not on their race.

Will having a black president compared to a white president change anything? Well, anything is rather vague. A positive is that it COULD lessen the presence of racism (I personally feel racism will never be completely gone). As for war and economy and other government issues, I see no reason why the color of their skin would change anything.

[Mysticbeauty]

But if they were basing on color it wouldnt matter because he's both black and white.

There are a lot of people that voted for him because he is black. Then black people could make songs and stuff about our president being black. Some blacks wonder why they did not want to vote for Obama because on TV and most places you go you see a rap song with girls wearing practically nothing and then them talking about doing a hoe or smoking weed etc. Do not get me wrong there are alot of black people who are smart and powerful but you mostly see these things about black people.
Blacks rejoice in the fact that the president is black because America has its racisim. Having a black president wouldn't bring racisim to a hault. It may decline it an small amount but not a noticeable amount. Some people were afraid to vote for John MCcain because he was old and afraid he might die in office and we'd get Sarah Palin (people thought she was a bad polictian). So those people decided to vote for Mr. Obama.

To some black people it seems as if racism is one way: White people being racist. But racism even comes from black people. Having BET (Black Entertainment) I felt was was wrong because then black people get angry at whites for having CMT and such. True it is good to show your stripes but we as a melting pot need to learn how to do this in unity.

We got channels dedicated to all different people but we need to learn how to incoperate other cultures in to.

[Rutherford The Brave]

People, automatically assume I can hunt, scalp, build (run fast bearfoot) Let's not forget that me people where nearly whiped off the face of the earth. Now I'm not saying, I'm better than african americans. But don't Native Americans sort of belong in this topic, asians too because African American isn't the only race out there.

[Mysticbeauty]

Yes they do! Native Americans did go through a lot back then and now with all the bombing. Americans are invading their country and then Americans call them terroist. *shaking my head* People assume if you're Native American then you're a terroist. Because of the whole 9/ll and Osama Bid Laden. I do not but that's just stereotyping. Native Americans are people like all people so there's really no need for stereotyping.

Asians? They have a lot of great achievements. The great wall of China and paper etc. People really do not see them as bad or a threat just friendly people. I do not know much about Asian culture. Anyone know anything about Asian culture?

[theOperaGhost]

Yes they do! Native Americans did go through a lot back then and now with all the bombing. Americans are invading their country and then Americans call them terroist. *shaking my head* People assume if you're Native American then you're a terroist. Because of the whole 9/ll and Osama Bid Laden. I do not but that's just stereotyping. Native Americans are people like all people so there's really no need for stereotyping.

Asians? They have a lot of great achievements. The great wall of China and paper etc. People really do not see them as bad or a threat just friendly people. I do not know much about Asian culture. Anyone know anything about Asian culture?


I don't really get what you are saying.

Native Americans and Muslims/people from the middle east have NOTHING in common.

Native Americans are the people the Europeans pushed onto reservations. Native Americans were in America before any Europeans.

[Mysticbeauty]

I Meant Indians sorry

[Perseus]

Wait, did you call Native Americans terroists?

[theOperaGhost]

I Meant Indians sorry


Indians are people from India, which are still not really the terrorists.

[Mysticbeauty]

lol do not mind what i said. I dont think I was thinking. Just really. dont mind it lol

[INFERNO]

People really do not see them as bad or a threat just friendly people. I do not know much about Asian culture. Anyone know anything about Asian culture?

No, they were seen as a threat. During the Second World War, Japanese Canadians were for some reason considering a major threat. Even after the war ended, they had to carry around ID cards. Granted, this doesn't occur anymore, however, I wanted to point out that some people may find them a threat or bad. Why they would, I'm not entirely sure, however, you cannot fairly say people (as in everyone) don't see them as bad or threatening.

As for the Aboriginals, they are now getting more and more attention. In the last 9-10 years or so, various psychological studies have been done on Aboriginals while they're on reserves. However, they have a lot of discrimination and hatred towards them, especially from people who wish to do explorations on or even around their land. They have to negotiate if the area they wish to use is a good distance away from the Aboriginal's land, and also have to hire some of them (not sure if the hiring part is true but I know the negotiations is true and does cause massive trouble). Also, there's more tension with the natives because in some respects, they're not equal, they're more than others; if you want to work in areas away from them where you wouldn't physically or verbally interact with them, you still have to negotiate. In some respects, this may be due to the government trying to restore its previous damages it caused, however, this unfairness does cause some upset.

I'm not sure how many people on here have education in psychology, however, there's nifty little (or rather big book, heavy to carry around) book called the DSM-IV-TR. Well, there will be a newer one, the DSM-V. This one is supposed to incorporate different cultures and backgrounds, as providing healthcare to immigrants can be a real challenge. So, they're trying to overcome this by adding in some stuff to make it more applicable and to consider the various cultures. When the DSM-V is meant to be out, I have no idea, as far as I know, its release has continually been delayeda few years each time. I have 2 (or if I want to take more courses, which I do, 3) years and then I'll have finished to get my Bachelor's (then go for master's, and doctorate). So hopefully it is out by then =/. Anyways.... this seems to have gotten a bit side-tracked. Well, whatever, somehow it applies and fits in perfectly.

[Antares]

Stereotypes exist because they are true, or believed to be true.
Its just bad to do it becuase they aren't always true :P

Umm...racism exists.
Its sad. Stop being so damn racist people :P