Is it just me or was Jessie Williams' "amazing" acceptance speech against racism pretty racist?
| We’ve been floating this country on credit for centuries, and we’re done watching and waiting while this invention called whiteness uses and abuses us, burying black people out of sight and out of mind while extracting our culture, our dollars, our entertainment... |
Shouldn't the narrative be geared towards unity and not divisiveness? And it's a little hard to take this multi-millionaire seriously about the white man keeping him down. White housewives are like 90% of the people who watch his stupid show.
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50% of the nation is racist? WTF?
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why white people immediately become offended when something like this happens.
Agree. It does seem like the people that whine about everyone being "PC" and minorities being "easily offended" are the first ones to get offended when they feel they are being slighted in anyway. . I don't mean to say the original poster was doing that but it's certainly a trend I've noticed in general.
Agree
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Racist come in all forms.....it is more accepted from the minority but just as wrong.
I personally think it is a waste of time, none productive, and more perception than reality.
Certainly minorities have less opportunity but they have been lied to for 50 years. They have less opportunities not because of their race but they have less contacts and connections to success. There is competition and you must persevere as the odds are against you. Dependency on government is just like any addiction....makes you weaker and even less likely to reach independence.
I feel like it's a very broad solution to an incredibly nuanced societal issue.
No disagreement here.
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"Life's not fair, raise yourself up..." Sort of philosophy? I raised my kids that way, tbh.
I feel like it's a very broad solution to an incredibly nuanced societal issue.
I only know that I feel (and let me stress this as emphatically as possible...you do not have to feel the same way) as an individual, it's incumbent upon you to surmount them. If you give in to self-pity, even if God truly does hate you, you will paralyze yourself. So, to whatever extent you can, suck it up and deal with life. I don't think it's a particular horrible philosophy.
LOL.
Did you stop stealing from people?
Here's my words of advice for you: eat shit and die.
Here's my words of advice for you: eat shit and die.
I only know that I feel (and let me stress this as emphatically as possible...you do not have to feel the same way) as an individual, it's incumbent upon you to surmount them. If you give in to self-pity, even if God truly does hate you, you will paralyze yourself. So, to whatever extent you can, suck it up and deal with life. I don't think it's a particular horrible philosophy.
Bill L - for the most part I agree 100% with you BUT there have been... continues to be... and will most likely always be challenges that are not issues that can simply be 'sucked up' and be told to 'deal with'. THAT'S the issue. I shouldn't have to 'suck up' to being stopped because I happen to be driving a nice car or in a neighborhood that it's believed I shouldn't be in. I shouldn't have to 'suck up' to seeing young black men and women being treated unfairly... or worse gunned down needlessly. I could go on and on but I'm sure you've already heard everything I'm about to say before so I don't see the need to waste my breath.
And 'wasting breath' is exactly what I thought of when I see guys like Jessie Williams make speeches like the one he made at the BET awards. Why? Because his message isn't going to reach the people it's supposed to reach. Just like when (insert whoever you want here) has marches... puts out songs... or starts organizations that are supposed to stop black on black crime. It's a waste of time to me because you're not reaching the folks who NEED to be reached. Call me a cynic but to many times singular events like this speech happen... and for a few days, maybe a week or so... everyone feels uplifted and feel like 'maybe THIS will make the change we all want to happen happen!' and then a week later you hear about some young black kid being killed in the park because he's playing around with a toy gun. It's why I never wasted my time going to either of the 'Million Man Marches'. For what? He's going to stand up there... call for 'Atonement' and ask black men to be better fathers and stop killing each other... and lead everyone Kumbaya... and then those very same guys who just got finished singing are going to be right back out there in the streets robbin and stealin and not taking care of their kids.
I wasn't going to post on this thread... still not sure I want to hit 'Submit' yet as I type this... because I feel like I'm wasting my breath here as well. Not one person's mind is going to be changed by anything I have to say so I'm not sure why I'm wasting my breath here and now. All I will say is that unless you're living it, you'll never really understand the frustrations that black people go through in the country. Most of you will downplay it... ignore it... or believe that it doesn't exist... for whatever reasons you may have of your own. But there was a poster here (who doesn't post here much any more) who was married to a black woman and I remember him saying on here once that it wasn't until he saw what she experienced that he started to understand... and even still he said he doesn't COMPLETELY 'get it'... and I thought that was one of the more truthful and honest posts I've ever read on this site.
I've said it before and I'll say it again here... don't get it twisted... I readily admit that we as a race bring a bunch of our issues on ourselves. It pisses me off every time I see a video where a black man or woman is fighting a police officeR while being arrested and the people around them are yelling 'POLICE BRUTALITY!!!!'. Really?!!! So we have a lot of shit we need to work on ourselves. BUT, there's a lot of shit that we're being put through that's because of the color of our skin that we shouldn't be as well. To ignore that makes you part of the problem as well.
I apologize in advance for jumping in this thread and posting and probably not being to post again for a while (I AM at work after all)... but I just needed to get this off my chest.
Oh yeah... and with all due respect... that post from George in PA was downright silly and borderline insulting.
Your next good post will be your first.
OK, I laughed!
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get a life. Your contribution here is a net zero. Why don't I just start a thread about Weber Grills, maybe you'll be preoccupied over there, since that's the extent of your actual good posts here.
Your next good post will be your first.
That's entirely subjective, I rarely interact with you unless you come out of left field to derail a topic. Go post about BBQing.
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I assume that they are not.
I only know that I feel (and let me stress this as emphatically as possible...you do not have to feel the same way) as an individual, it's incumbent upon you to surmount them. If you give in to self-pity, even if God truly does hate you, you will paralyze yourself. So, to whatever extent you can, suck it up and deal with life. I don't think it's a particular horrible philosophy.
Bill L - for the most part I agree 100% with you BUT there have been... continues to be... and will most likely always be challenges that are not issues that can simply be 'sucked up' and be told to 'deal with'. THAT'S the issue. I shouldn't have to 'suck up' to being stopped because I happen to be driving a nice car or in a neighborhood that it's believed I shouldn't be in. I shouldn't have to 'suck up' to seeing young black men and women being treated unfairly... or worse gunned down needlessly. I could go on and on but I'm sure you've already heard everything I'm about to say before so I don't see the need to waste my breath.
And 'wasting breath' is exactly what I thought of when I see guys like Jessie Williams make speeches like the one he made at the BET awards. Why? Because his message isn't going to reach the people it's supposed to reach. Just like when (insert whoever you want here) has marches... puts out songs... or starts organizations that are supposed to stop black on black crime. It's a waste of time to me because you're not reaching the folks who NEED to be reached. Call me a cynic but to many times singular events like this speech happen... and for a few days, maybe a week or so... everyone feels uplifted and feel like 'maybe THIS will make the change we all want to happen happen!' and then a week later you hear about some young black kid being killed in the park because he's playing around with a toy gun. It's why I never wasted my time going to either of the 'Million Man Marches'. For what? He's going to stand up there... call for 'Atonement' and ask black men to be better fathers and stop killing each other... and lead everyone Kumbaya... and then those very same guys who just got finished singing are going to be right back out there in the streets robbin and stealin and not taking care of their kids.
I wasn't going to post on this thread... still not sure I want to hit 'Submit' yet as I type this... because I feel like I'm wasting my breath here as well. Not one person's mind is going to be changed by anything I have to say so I'm not sure why I'm wasting my breath here and now. All I will say is that unless you're living it, you'll never really understand the frustrations that black people go through in the country. Most of you will downplay it... ignore it... or believe that it doesn't exist... for whatever reasons you may have of your own. But there was a poster here (who doesn't post here much any more) who was married to a black woman and I remember him saying on here once that it wasn't until he saw what she experienced that he started to understand... and even still he said he doesn't COMPLETELY 'get it'... and I thought that was one of the more truthful and honest posts I've ever read on this site.
I've said it before and I'll say it again here... don't get it twisted... I readily admit that we as a race bring a bunch of our issues on ourselves. It pisses me off every time I see a video where a black man or woman is fighting a police officeR while being arrested and the people around them are yelling 'POLICE BRUTALITY!!!!'. Really?!!! So we have a lot of shit we need to work on ourselves. BUT, there's a lot of shit that we're being put through that's because of the color of our skin that we shouldn't be as well. To ignore that makes you part of the problem as well.
I apologize in advance for jumping in this thread and posting and probably not being to post again for a while (I AM at work after all)... but I just needed to get this off my chest.
Oh yeah... and with all due respect... that post from George in PA was downright silly and borderline insulting.
The catch 22 in policing rough, usually predominately minority areas is this: it is very difficult to be effective without being aggressive, and it is very difficult to be aggressive without pissing off law-abiding people (and perhaps people with somewhat unsavory pasts but who aren't doing anything bad at the time). And if they're not effective, the ones who suffer will be the latter category (ordinary people just trying to get by). So walking that tightrope between being ineffective and brushing up against the rights and even just the dignity of ordinary people, it's a difficult job and one I certainly could not do.
The "privilege" stuff that lefties love to use lately fits that bill too. How privileged is the white kid from Bumfuck, Kentucky, who has never met his father and lives with his alcoholic mother and meth addict siblings in a double wide? Not to say that, to use a trite golf analogy, that minorities often are playing with a higher handicap than whites, but yammering on about how privileged all white people are as if they're all a bunch of monocle wearing Rockefellers is needlessly antagonistic. Shit, my grandmother grew up dirt poor, the daughter of a Georgia sharecropper (yes, there were white sharecroppers). Her little sister died for completely unknown reasons - I've got a copy of the death certificate that I discovered doing some family tree research. The cause of death is simply listed as "no attending physician", since they lived in the middle of nowhere and had no money to pay a doctor anyway.
Now, growing up in 1920s and 1930s Georgia, was she in a better position than an equally poor black child? Absolutely. I still wouldn't call that privilege by any stretch of the imagination.
Big Dork.. er Al - " I would think someone like that might a better understanding of what Black people go through but sometimes also see some of the paranoid thoughts this could lead to when the evidence of the situation does not always merit it."
I'm sure you do know who I'm referring to and I miss his posts. We both actually know yet another person who's in the same 'situation' as well don't we? Which makes what you said above all the more true. I'm just glad you inserted the word 'sometimes' in your post because sometimes that 'paranoia' does have some merit.
Dunedin81 - Excellent post and I agree 100%. It IS a tightrope that law enforcement have to walk every day and I too am not sure I could do it. It really pisses me off that some of us (referring to black people) think that we can act any kind of way we want with regards to law enforcement but the moment they respond back in kind... in most cases because they have to for their own safety... some of us start yelling 'Brutality! Brutality!'. I'm like 'If you'd just stop acting up and let the cop arrest you, you wouldn't have a broken jaw now would you?'. Now... with that said... there are times when having your jaw broken was NOT warranted... and it's those times that Mr. Williams was addressing in his speech. Thing is though, some people can't or won't accept that those things can and do happen and in some cases and areas it's disproportionately happening against minorities. Some can accept that... but many don't or won't. But cops do have it tough out here... no doubt about that.
Greg - what I think you're missing when it comes to discussing 'white privilege' is that even the 'white kid from Bumfuck, Kentucky, who has never met his father and lives with his alcoholic mother and meth addict siblings in a double wide' STILL can enjoy certain... advantages (I'll call them)... than a minority kid in the same economic state. I do see your point and I'm still wondering just how much I'm choosing to believe in that phrase 'white privilege' myself, to be honest. But when you have a black kid get double the amount of time for the same offense as a white kid who did the exact same thing... I believe that's what they're referring to when they say white people enjoy 'white privilege'. 'Privilege' doesn't have to only refer monetary or economic state that two separate individuals (one of black and one of white race) enjoy.
I agree with your first paragraph completely by the way.
But I still stand by my point that rural poverty looks like rural poverty, regardless of color, and urban poverty looks like urban poverty, regardless of color. The vices are similar, the statistics on social ills (illegitimacy, domestic violence, substance abuse) are similar. Experiences vary by ascriptive characteristic, but the variance is much greater across income levels.
Of course the caveat to this point is the fact that although poor black kids may have more opportunities to subsidize their education than similarly poor white kids, non-educated whites are still twice as likely to gain employment than non-educated blacks. For blacks, a subsidized education is an equalizer not an advantage.