DISQUS

GIB · 2 years ago

i think blacks can be just a racist as any other group. in my youth i heard a lot of comments about asians, mexicans and, of course, whites. i don't buy the power argument. i find it a rather unfortunate and ineffective way to try to reclaim any dignity or assert any strength. i do understand it as a knee-jerk reaction to years upon years of maltreatment and inequities, though.

i think the phenomenon you speak of is also reflected in entertainment. black comedians and entertainers have a lot more leeway satirizing and mocking other cultures than whites do. but, i could see how whites, for instance, who perceive themselves to be in a position of power or superiority could "look down" on said behavior and laugh and not make a big stink. after all, we may be able to crack jokes and entertain, but there is still so far to go to get to the same "level" of power, influence, legacy and opportunity.

on the other side, we have to make a stink. because not only would we have to deal with the offensiveness, we still have to deal with how the offensiveness and the prejudices and stereotypes related to them can keep us out of school (dying affirmative action), get us trapped, assaulted and beaten in a home for a week (google "6 arrested in weeklong attack on woman"), or disenfranchised generally.

Fredric · 2 years ago

i thought racism implied hate and bigotry because of a person's skin and nothing more.

do most blacks have issues with white people because they are simply white (i.e. look different) or because of the implied intention and history of white culture with respect to black culture?

i've never believed in 'reverse racism'. how can you be prejudice against a race that has implicit privilege?

taeAmin · 2 years ago

LoL! @ the fact that I have applied for several part time positions at hotels and I know I did not get the job because I am over qualified. However, I didn't think it was classist; it was true. More than likely someone with 2 degrees applying for a part time job is simply just trying to find a job until they reach a certain financial goal. The money, time and effort put into that employee is a waste compared to someone whose educational level does not afford them an opportunity at a higher paying job (in theory.) So no...not classist...nobody is trying to hold you down even though it may feel like it, they are just trying to make more paper.

I too, took similar sociology and Afam courses so I am familiar with the definition of racisim. As far as definition goes, I don't believe minority groups can be racist. We can however, be discriminating and ignorant to the point that its harmful. We can breed hate and pass on ignorance.
In my isolated experience, I have been in positions of hiring people. That puts me in a position of power where I can affect the life of an individual but not a whole race. I can, in this position, effect one person's livelihood but I in this position could never oppress a whole people.

I guess that is the difference in all of the "isms" verses discrimination.

Jam · 2 years ago

Oppressed people can not participate in the "isms" or be "ists." These things really do require power. Check out the Wikipedia entry on racism. Here's a snippet.

Some sociologists have defined racism as a system of group privilege. In Portraits of White Racism David Wellman (1993) has defined racism as "culturally sanctioned beliefs, which, regardless of intentions involved, defend the advantages whites have because of the subordinated position of racial minorities,” (Wellman 1993: x). Sociologists Noel Cazenave and Darlene Alvarez Maddern define racism as “...a highly organized system of 'race'-based group privilege that operates at every level of society and is held together by a sophisticated ideology of color/'race' supremacy. Racist systems include, but cannot be reduced to, racial bigotry,” (Cazenave and Maddern 1999: 42).

Latoya Peterson · 2 years ago

We're actually discussing this right now on Racialicious - feel free to join in on the debate:

http://www.racialicious.com/2007/09/13/bigot-pr...

Brittania · 2 years ago

I think oppressed people can always oppress others in the same or a lower position, so I do believe black people can be racist.

Sportaphile · 2 years ago

Yes I believe blacks can be racist, just like any other group can. However the fact that whites truly run America economically and politically gives them the power to oppress.

A black racist doesn't have the means to truly be a destructive force.

David McQueen · 2 years ago

Of course blacks can be racist. Any racial group can "make a prejuidical assumption based on their perception of that race". Racism exists in most societies. Standard, all this thing about power is misleading and if that is the case then what of black majority countries in Africa. Are they then not racist if they discriminate against others?

Jo · 2 years ago

Africa's black majority is irrelevant. Apartheid, anyone?! Racism has nothing to do with numbers.

JD · 2 years ago

prejuidical feelings are something that can be used without having a negative impact on one's race.Blacks cannot be racist because actions have little impact on the white race as a whole.

The Urban Scientist · 2 years ago

Yep! But I'd offer an alternative. ALL people are capable of being ELITIST! Discrimination or racist, sexist, classist or any kind of-ist is about exercisng power -however temporay or limited related to particular circumstance.

So, yes. Sometimes better educated or financially capable people are discriminated against by less priviledged people. In some circumstances such people may have power over a situation and make discriminatory decisions - excluding you and favoring someone more like them.

David McQueen · 2 years ago

Jo, I was making the point that often racism is seen within the context of the local country, rather than as a whole. In the US and UK blacks feel the force of racism within a socio-economic context more because we are a minority.

Sometime it is about numbers as well as force. Apartheid of course stands as an example to buck that trend but then was Idi Amin's behaviour not racist when he expelled Asians from Uganda? What of the conflict in Sudan between the more Arabic northerners in comparison to the Southerners? And what of Mugabe in Zimbabwe?

David McQueen · 2 years ago

"Blacks cannot be racist because actions have little impact on the white race as a whole?"

I am not sure I follow this line of thinking.

Jo · 2 years ago

I meant blacks can not be racist against whites - the ultimate oppressors. I have to analyze the Idi Amin situation more, but my first reaction is to say I'm not sure.

Again, numbers have nothing to do with who cna and can not be racist.

David McQueen · 2 years ago

"I meant blacks can not be racist against whites - the ultimate oppressors".

How so? Or is this just an American thing?

Will · 2 years ago

it's not an American thing. It's philosophical more than anything else. Go to the wikipedia page about racism and read the sociological definitions on racism.

David McQueen · 2 years ago

I posed the question about African countries where blacks are the dominant race. I could say the same of the Caribbean where my family are from. In these societies racism does exist whether between blacks, Arabics, white or Asian. To say that the white race is the ultimate supressor is a bit small minded and is probably more local but then of course wikipedia is but one voice (albeit random) to the definition of racism.

Both here in the UK and of course in the US blacks represent 4% and 16% respectively of the countries therefore we would see whites as the oppressor because they are the dominant race and because of the more recent histories of Jim Crow, colonisations, etc. Would we say the same if we were in the Middle East, or South East Asia for example? I doubt it, hence my comment about whether it is an American position.

Racism is simply a prejudicial thought, belief or word about a race collectively. Perpetuated mainly by the dominant culture of that country, whether it is in the US, Sudan, Japan or Australia.

David McQueen · 2 years ago

or any other country....

Jo · 2 years ago

Once again whites do not have to be in the majority to oppress. Read your history.

David McQueen · 2 years ago

You have obviously missed my point.
For the record I lecture on history across the diaspora so don't get it twisted.

Jo · 2 years ago

And you, mine.

God knows what you're teaching given the obvious questions you're asking here.

David McQueen · 2 years ago

If you would like to know I would be more than willing to furnish you with it. Failing that just read my blog. Who knows. You might learn something.

Mes Deux Cents · 2 years ago

And to think for the last 500 years 'rednecks' thought that they were racists. Someone ought to tell them that because they are poor and uneducated, therefore having no power, that they are not racists.

Jelly · 2 years ago

I this you missed it Mes. Being poor and uneducated wouldn't make rednecks racist. Having the power to discriminate against blacks would make them racist. The question is could they be considered classist if they discriminated against the rich.

K.Nicole · 2 years ago

In my own opinion African Americans cannot be racist. I am a young African American college woman (real HU, Howard) who has seen white racism and felt it. As I see it and many scholars I learn from racism correlates with power. Any body can be prejudice but those who hold power can be racist. Since, whites have taken African Americans power to define back in 1492 we cannot be racist. Personally speaking everybody is prejudice. Even within myself i find myself being prejudice. Whites lynched us, refused us service, sold us, raped us, made us inferior, and brought on many pschological problems that still exist. So I could go on for days but yeah blacks cannot be racist.

The Facts · 8 months ago

Okay, what happened in 1492 that took away African American's power to define? Nothing.

Now, lets see, over a fifth of the lynchings that happened in the state of Virginia were white people getting lynched, so don't try and claim that you were the only ones who had that happen. Sold blacks? Yes, white people did that, but who sold them to the white people in the first place? Other black people. White people didn't go raiding black villages, black tribes fought and captured slaves, then sold those slaves to white traders. Raped blacks? Yes...But black people commit over 50% of the rape crimes, and make up only 13% of the population.

diana · 1 year ago

EVERYONE CAN BE PREJUDICE, BUT THE RACIST ARE THE ONES WITH THE POWER TO EFFECT NEGATIVE CHANGE AGAINST ANOTHER RACE. The European race is the ultimate racist. They conquer all that they befriend. The native Americans are extinct due to the white man,The buffalo are almost non-existent due to the white man's greed, The African American's true identities were snatched from them by the white man, If they research the family tree it leads to a plantation...to white names, The Continent of Europe did not exist until the white man conquered that part of Asia and called it home, Africa use to be named Ethiopia until a white man named it after himself(Africa),South Africa's good land was stolen and the natives were lead to the swamps by the white man during Apartheid. Now Oprah opens a school for poor blacks, because the good white schools in Africa are Univiting to the darker complexed, and the white man complain about why his white child can't get in Oprah's school. The Gold and diamond minds were taken by the white man after they tricked the native American Indians into revealing where they got gold from(referring to the gold that was brought to America by the Ethiopians for trade with the Indians long before Christopher(lying) Columbus so called discovered America. The Haitians can't even enter America because they did not allow the white man to conquer their land as they had every country they visited, and the Haitians are being punished to this very day. America is terrified of the pure mind set of the Haitians because That was one culture they did not have a chance to create an inferiority complex in as they have every other place they have visited. People ask what make other races so different because they fight amongst themselves and cause the same devastation. That's just it, They FIGHT AMONGST THEMSELVES and don't pan out to conquer other races, but the white man goes outside himself to conquer and still.Today Bush continued the trail of his ancestors, and conquered for greed of oil, and he used the people of his country to do his dirty deeds. He went against all safe guards set up to prevent dictatorship (The UNITED NATION, CONGRESS, THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, THE CIA, ETC) and became that in which he claimed to want to destroy (A DICTATOR) He destroyed a country on the tail of a lie, but he accomplished his goal,and got the oil. He made his ancestors proud "That's right Bushy boy, if they don't hand it over go and take it by all means necessary". If your read the bible God talks about Satan's children will rule the world for 6.000 years and at the end of that time he shall allow the meek to inherit the earth once again...I wonder who he was referring to, you do the math.

axelotl · 1 year ago

You need to learn why your own mind thinks in this way about racism - the answer lies in the fact that you, as so many others worldwide, have been conditioned by 'Frankfurt School' politically-correct thinking dogma which was introduced early in the 20th century to Europe and after WW2 to the USA.

You have uncritically and probably unwittingly adopted such a way of thinking, and are clearly beginning to realise that, whilst racism exists of course, it is in fact practiced by both black and white and that not every incident of what appears to you as a black person as racism, is in fact as a result of your skin colour.

See this documentray video on ythe Origin of Political Correctness:

http://swindonnationalists.blogspot.com/2008/02...

The Blackguy Executive · 1 year ago

I do think that the Black community, especially those with collegiate and above pedigree can be classist and even racist. I am an a graduate from a small private liberal arts college that hold a higher status in the collegiate community and have felt this class divide. I have been called "bougie" and some of my mentors have called me a member of the "Black Elite. W.E.B. Du Bois said in his talented tenth arguement that, "the Negro race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men. The problem of education, then, among Negroes must first of all deal with the Talented Tenth; it is the problem of developing the Best of this race that they may guide the Mass away from the contamination and death of the Worst, in their own and other races." This point of view clearly depicts a classist divide. Many of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities are creating a classist ideology for many of it graduates.

joyjoyfuljoyous · 1 year ago

Well, I think you are just complaining about isolated incidents or discomfort that threatened your privilege. And, by the way, it's happened to me too. Racisim and classism are forms of prejudice that require power. Heavens yes, poor people, African Americans, and everybody can be prejudiced and have their prejudices. However, your complaint is not too different than the cries of reverse discrimination. Leaving alone that you can't discriminate backwards, the implied comment of both complaints is a right to or an implied deserving of the position. That is why I say that you are complaining based on perceived and perhaps actual threats to your privilege - in your case the privilege being education. I'm not saying that as a judgement - more so a call for how we as YBP sometimes look at other Blacks (or anyone for that matter) who are not professionals, didn't attend college, and etc. Taking this approach requires us to look at our motives, attitudes, and for those on a faith walk - our integrity in that area as well. Very brave of you to look at this and ask these quesitons.

blackjack tournaments · 1 year ago

I think that the black people can' be racist, one of the reason is that even in today's society there are numerous black people who are being targetted and exploited on account of racism. Due to their color.
Still if there are such incidents taking place where white people are critisized by the black ones, it can be taken as an exception.

office space · 11 months ago

Kinda agree with most comments.I think oppressed people can always oppress others in the same or a lower position, so I do believe black people can be racist. But what I believe is that black or white,irrespective of race, anyone can be racist to others and to their own race too.

SEO Updates · 11 months ago

I think oppressed people can always oppress others in the same or a lower position, so I do believe black people can be racist.

$natch · 10 months ago

im a white male, but i do live with a black man. he is almost my brother. but people think im racist cuz i have yelld at many black men. but i have only yelld at them because thay thought they were better than every one else, also for yelly at my bro. for hanging out with little O' me. Cuz im white? why would they do that?