Example of Academic Indoctrination

This is the transcript of a video I had to watch and comment on for this week's assignment for my online university. It is a great example of academia's indoctrination of white privilege. We are to write about which person in the group we identify with and why. I know if I say I identify with David, the White male who "doesn't get it" I will be that person to my classmates - which seems to be the point of this exercise. I would appreciate any helpful comments. My reaction to this is, ok if I do understand and acknowledge that there is still racism where does that leave us? Doesn't it still come down to each individual's behavior? Or, as Rev. King said, the content of one's character? In any case - thank you and I thought I'd give you an example of what I'm up against as a graduate student.

(Moderator) Chinese-American Male Speaker You know as I look around this room I realize, the connection is really me, because I actually know each one of you in a very special way; some of you I just met actually. Each of you were picked very particularly and it took time to do that. Each of you were picked for your honesty and for your directness and for your sincerity and for the work that you do too on yourself, and that is why I really wanted to have you on film.

(David) White American Male Speaker 1 I am American. Generations back we came from England and Denmark, but mostly when they got into America here, whatever happened, we got mixed up, so I am American. White American I guess.

(Victor) Black-Cherokee Male Speaker African, and in some ways back, Cherokee descent.

(Gordon) White American Male Speaker 2 I am seventh, at least seventh generation Euro-American. My family is, on both sides is Scot, and on my father’s side is also English and German.

(Roberto) Mexican Male Speaker I am Mexican, I am Latino, I am Mexican, Mexican-American/Chicano.

(Moderator) Chinese-American Male Speaker I am Chinese and I am Chinese-American.

Asian-American Male Speaker I am an American also. I am an all-American man, and the reason I say that is that I was born here, educated here, and that makes me American.

2. WHY CAN'T WE JUST BE HUMANS? (David) White American Male Speaker 1 So I see here an attitude expressed by Yutaka and by Roberto that says, how can I be an American, I cannot, and so I will not. I am going to cling to my heritage. Is this clinging the problem? Is this belief that you cannot become American the problem? For years I have said, why do these guys have such a problem being a color, why cannot they just be individuals and go out and make a place for themselves? And I hear you saying that we Whites do not allow that. That we keep you down. Why are we not just humans? I mean, why are we not just brothers?

(Victor) Black-Cherokee Male Speaker There is a certain, sort of, silent consciousness about what it means to be American, that I sense coming from White folks that I would like to talk about. But before I do that, I would like to say one more thing that is hard about talking about racism and that is that, people of color are spilling their guts and doing education to White people, let me explain to you how you have got this wrong, let me explain to you how you have got that wrong, let me explain, and then we get cross examined and it is like, well, maybe your problem is blah, blah, blah, blah.

And it is always, you know, racism gets looked at as a person of color’s problem, and it is not. We are like on the receiving end of the problem but we are not the problem.

I walk in a world where Black people, where Latinos, where Asians, where Arabs, all these different people are experienced as problem people, and that well, we are going to deal with the person of color problem when in fact racism is essentially a White problem. And that, for you understand what racism is about, you are going to be so uncomfortable, you are going to be so different from who you see yourself to be now that there is just no way for you to get it from where you are sitting.

I am not saying that you could never get it, I mean, but you need to step outside of your skin and step outside of what seems really comfortable and familiar to you and launch out into some real, for you, unknown territory. You have not gone out there, like you have not gotten in proximity to Black people as you say, because you do not have to. That is part of what it means to be American, to me, is to have all these things that you can do if you want to, that you do not have to do if you do not want to do, and there is a way in which American and White and human become synonyms.

That, why cannot we just treat each other as human beings, to me, when I hear it from a White person it means, why cannot we all just pretend to be White people. I will pretend you are a White person and then you can pretend to be White. Why do not you eat what I eat? Why do not you drink what I drink? Why do not you think like I think? Why do not you feel like I feel? Goddamn it, I am so sick and goddamn tired of hearing about that, I am sick of that. That is what it means to be human being to me, that is what it means to be White, that is what it means to be American. Why do not you come the hell over here, that is what I hear every goddamn day, and you know that I cannot come over there.

You know that this skin and this hair, and it is not White at all, and that I am thinking I will never, ever get included because I am unpalatable to this goddamn nation, I am unpalatable. You cannot smile on me, you cannot taste me, you cannot feel me, because you do not want to. You think that you can survive without me but you cannot man.

And you think that, hey, it will all be fine when we just treat each other like human beings, and what that says to me is, do not be yourself, be like me, keep me comfortable, connect where I am ready to connect, come out to my place, or maybe I will come down and get some artifacts from your place. Uh-huh. That is bullshit.

When you say that your ethnicity is American, there is no American ethnicity. You had to throw away your ethnicity to become American, that is what it means. That is what it means. You give up who you are to become American. And you can pretend that it is OK because you are White. When we give up who we are to become American, we know that we are dying from it. You are dying from it too, but you do not know it necessarily. Get ethnic, you know.

I am not going to trust you until you are as willing to be changed and affected by my experience and transformed by my experience as I am everyday by yours.

3. I'M INVISIBLE Asian-American Male Speaker This is emotional and this is totally normal to be so emotional about this topic, and I think I feel lot of frustration here David, and I think you have to listen to our experiences because they are valid.

Asian-American Male Speaker Well, I do not think you do, because let me tell you why I do not think you do. It sounds like you are bouncing it back to them and saying: It is your problem, why do you guys act like this? You guys can drive down the street, down Highway 101 up here.

Asian-American Male Speaker You have got to listen to me. When I drove down Highway 101, I did not feel quite comfortable either.

Asian-American Male Speaker But let me tell you my experience, where I am coming from. I grew up —I went to high school in an all-White environment. I was the only person of color in my high school. I resented being Asian because I was not White. This kind of racism is in place so that people who do not even think about it, it just happens. I just feel left out. When I stand in line in a counter to be served, to buy something, and the White person who comes after me gets served first, is not that done on purpose, because the person does not see me, I am invisible to that White person, to the clerk, you see. I am invisible, that happens to me.

4. WHAT IT MEANS TO BE WHITE (Victor) Black-Cherokee Male Speaker What I see from White people generally is they do not talk about themselves as White people; they talk about themselves as human beings, as if it means the same thing.

Now, what I want to know is what it means to be White, not what it means to be a human being, because we already know that you are a human being and we can already relate to the universal human experience. What is the White experience? When I look at you manifesting your White experience, I also see you not naming it. I see you wanted to blur the distinctions between just being a person and also, most particularly, being a White person and what that means. I think that part of what it means to be White is never—it means never having to say you are sorry, but it also means never having to admit that to be White means something different than to be a person of color, and that there is an experience that you have that is very different from what the experience of people of color is.

5. WHITE IS BEING A HUMAN BEING (David) White American Male Speaker 1 I never consider myself, as you do, a part of ethnic group. I think that is what you are looking for and you are not going to find that among us, because we do not look at ourselves as an ethnic group.

(Victor) Black-Cherokee Male Speaker I am telling you that, that means something.

(David) White American Male Speaker 1 I am trying to answer your question Victor, and as you were asking that question, I am saying, well, gosh, I never considered myself part of a white group.

(Victor) Black-Cherokee Male Speaker I just wonder, does not it seem kind of deep to you that you do not have an answer to that question, that you have no—do you have any notion that the fact that you have no answer to that could actually be a source of meaning, experience, or knowledge?

(David) White American Male Speaker 1 The opposite is how I feel about you Victor, that you have no comprehension that the world is open to you. You think that the White man is a block and a dam to your progress, and he is not. I think you put up that dam and that block yourself in your regard to the white man.

Black-American Male Speaker See, I think that is one of the major problems with racism. I think he did the answer the question. As a White man, he does not have to think about his position in life, his place in the world, the history books tell him as they are written that this world is his. He does not have to think about where he goes, what he does. He does not have to think like a white person, the way the world has been set up, America in particular, white is human.

Black-American Male Speaker Right, that is what a human being is. So he does not have to worry about what—how do I think like a white person? That does—I do not know, but I would assume that does not enter a white person’s mind, because they do not have to deal with that from day one. They step into a world that is theirs.

6. BEING WHITE IS SPECIAL - SO ADVOCATE (David) White American Male Speaker 1 Why is being White such a unique thing? Why is it such an important thing? I have never felt that way.

(David) White American Male Speaker 1 Well, it must be, you are telling me that being White is special, and I am not feeling special, and I have never felt special because I was White. You have pointed out to me where—yeah, I have racial prejudisms and I have expressed them innocently and naively by just little questions and statements that I have made. Yeah, maybe I really am that way.

White American Male Speaker 2 I have a real difficult time talking with you about your experience. I can relate to their frustration, it just does not feel like anything is getting through.

Mexican-Irish Male Speaker Working up my courage to ask you something, a request, and also, there is a question with it. The request is for you to not give up on David, to go after him. I am not able to get through and many in the room are not able to get through, and we have given statistics and we have given personal stories and we have given histories and we have, dah, dah, dah, we have yelled, we have screamed, we have cried, you know, it is not getting through. I am sure you have met other White people that you just have said, "Bye, forget it. I do not need to deal with you," that kind of thing.

I do not have the privilege of not dealing with the David's in the world, so I am asking you to do that. I am actually boldly expecting you to do that.

If I were standing in front of a whole room full of White people, I would tell them much of what I have told some of the men in this group this weekend, the White men in this group. I would tell them that it is their responsibility to go educate their White brothers and sisters. I would tell them that it is my expectation; I expect them to eliminate racism. I expect them to go out and intervene whenever they see racism going on. I expect them to be as outraged about racism as I am outraged about racism, as Black people are outraged, as Asians are outraged, as Indians are outraged. I expect that of them, and that is what I would tell them. I would tell them what I expect. I would tell them what I never want to hear from them again. I never want to hear stuff about, my experience is not valid, or why cannot I just pull myself up by my bootstraps. Those are the things that I would tell them about, and I would tell them that they have got to end it, they have got to end it.

7. PARKING GARAGES (Victor) Black-Cherokee Male Speaker I see that we are living in two completely different consciousnesses and I think that I get your's and that I have to be able to understand your's in order to survive. You live in a world where it is not necessary most instances for you to understand my consciousness and my experience.

It is like one of those parking garages with the spikes coming up. You live in the world where when you drive your car past, the spikes lay down, and I live in the world and the men of color here live in a world where when we come up to the spikes, man, they are facing right at us.

(David) White American Male Speaker 1 The thought comes to me, Victor; you are going the wrong direction. If the spikes are opposing you, does that ever occur to you that you are going the wrong direction?

(Victor) Black-Cherokee Male Speaker That is a beautiful statement to me that I am going in the wrong direction. It is a marvelous illustration of the consciousness of White supremacy.

(David) White American Male Speaker 1 Let us just say this is where—as you speak this analogy, and I am thinking to myself, Golly, why does it always have to be in opposition to the way things are structured? And I constantly sit and think, why is he taking this direction? Why do not they as a group, why do not you, with your people, look for something within yourselves that can make you feel equal to us. Because what I hear is you are not equal, and I do not feel that.

Moderator/Chinese-American Male Speaker So what is keeping you from believing that that is happening to Victor, just believing. Not to know why that is happening to him, but what is keeping you from believing that that is happening to him?

(David) White American Male Speaker 1 Because it seems like such a harsh life, and I just do not want to believe. I would assume Victor that your life is really that hard, difficult, and unpleasant.

Moderator/Chinese-American Male Speaker What would it mean David then if the life really was that harsh, what would that mean in your life, if it really was that hard?

(David) White American Male Speaker 1 Well, that would be a travesty of life. You have here something that should not exist.

Moderator/Chinese-American Male Speaker What if it does? What if the world were not as you thought that it actually is happening to lots of human beings on this earth? What if it actually were and you did not know about it, what would that mean to you?

(David) White American Male Speaker 1 Oh, that is very saddening. You do not want to believe that man can be as cruel to himself or his own kind. I do not want to accept that it has to be that way. Maybe it is, and it must be because you express it and others in the group express that it is.

8. MINORITY VS. MINORITY Black-American Male Speaker Certain Asian people have reacted toward me and that really hurt me, because I felt they were—they took their cues from White people. Like I have walked by Asian women and you can see them tense up, and that really bothered me that here was somebody, who was another minority, and yet they had all of these—they treated me in a way that they would not want to be treated. It is like they were treating me like some kind of a thug off the street and I really hated that.

Asian-American Male Speaker At the table behind us were two young Black women and they were laughing and then looking over at my table, where I was sitting, and I heard one say, all Chinese lookalike. I got up and I walked over to them, and they just would not look at me; they kept kind of giggling, not looking at me. I said, I heard what you said and I disagree with that. Do you think all Blacks look alike?

9. INTER-RACISM Black-American Male Speaker And I do agree that you have to look at inter-ethnic racism within the context of White supremacy, but I disagree with the fact that you cannot cover that up because it is there and we have to deal with it. Before we can do anything about White racism, we have to deal with that conflict, because it is there, and in my opinion, it is growing. By exploring inter-ethnic racism, we have torn apart the unity that we built up earlier, when we were just attacking White people, and I wanted—

(Victor) Black-Cherokee Male Speaker The bit about attacking White people rather than attacking White racism. I do not think it is about attacking White people.

Asian-American Male Speaker There is some anger, underlying real anger, and we are afraid to express it because we want to, as Victor said, maintain some kind of unity here that we have established. Maybe we should take the risk and lay it all out.

Mexican Male Speaker I mean, talking about it helps. Bringing it out into the light helps. It loses some of its mystery, some of its power.

Asian-American Male Speaker Growing up, I picked up stereotypes that Blacks were lazy, that they were violent, that they were dangerous. I mean, there is a tape in the back of my head that plays back all the time, but there is another tape that I have developed that says, this is not true.

(Victor) Black-Cherokee Male Speaker When I see Asian people being praised for intelligence and Black people invalidated and for being stupid, I feel bitter about it, because I know I am very smart, I have always been very smart. It hurts me to see that acknowledgment given out to other people when it is taken away from me.

All of the people in my community, with very few exceptions, where I grew up worked very, very hard. My mother worked hard, my grandmother worked hard, my aunts and uncles worked hard. They work themselves to death, and they pulled and they pulled on their bootstraps, and those suckers just tore off, and they did not get to no place.

Black-American Male Speaker You leave home everyday, your parents instill that to you that you are a good person, you are a moral person, yet when you go out into the world, just because of the color of your skin, people avoid you. They look at you as if you are a potential killer. They do not think you are as smart as they are. You watch the news, who do you see being taken away in handcuffs all the time, it is somebody that looks like you. Somebody that could be you. You are always under suspicion, so at times you do wonder if it is you.

Moderator/Chinese-American Male Speaker In my father’s restaurant, it was, make sure we do not have Blacks come into our restaurant, because it will mean that White people would not come into our restaurant. White people do not want Blacks in the restaurant. But all that time, the Whites were really encouraging that, without knowing it. That is why when I hear about the Black and the Asian community, I feel so sad about that, because I think that there is a way which we have been really used, used to put down Black people, especially in the LA riots, the poor little Korean grocer. If only Blacks could work as hard as us, with such great family values, look what they get, and the Black people beat them up, burn down their stores.

The fact of it was we were both being exploited. We have been both taught to be really scared of each other. It hits me here, because many of you know because my mother was murdered by an African-American man, and I can be just as angry and buy into my father’s stereotypes about the African-American men. But I knew where he was headed with that, I knew where he was headed. That all African-American men murder and kill. He wanted me to pass that on to my child.

But I know the stories he told me about the racism that has happened to us. Somehow I just want to say, remember what happened to us. Just remember what happened to us happens to everybody else. I know he wanted somebody to stop that. He wanted another Asian man to stand up for him. He wanted another Black man to stand up for him, and maybe another White man to stand up for him.

Asian-American Male Speaker But I get the impression sometimes from the African-American community that Asians are perceived as privileged that educationally we have achieved, economically we have achieved, we are almost like White people damn it, and therefore we are hated just, I mean—

Black-American Male Speaker What you can do—and maybe I am putting too much pressure on you—but I think what you can do is make people understand how you achieved what you achieved, show them how you worked hard for it, that you are not giving anything.

Japanese-American Male Speaker Again, I wanted to spell it out that all Asians have made it economically, because that is not the truth. But the ones that do are very visible.

(Victor) Black-Cherokee Male Speaker I was just thinking, the model minority, and that it is what is set up. It is like, oh, why cannot you people be more like those people and then you would not have the problems that you have.

Asian-American Male Speaker I think we are comparing each other based on White people. We are not White enough and therefore we chastise or criticize each other for not being like the White model. I think that is why I call it internalized racism, because I do not think that I in a vacuum am racist against Blacks, but because I come from a White context that Blacks are not like Whites and therefore I should be against Blacks, or Asians are not like Whites, therefore I criticize Asians for not being like Whites.

11. AM I DOING ENOUGH? (Victor) Black-Cherokee Male Speaker When you share that you do not take up for Black people sometimes, I feel some disappointment, but it is very small, it is very small, and I can appreciate that it is difficult, because I do not always stick up for me or other people of color also. And in fact, sometimes I am the perpetrator.

It feels very strange to me to have White men bearing witness to this conversation and that feels real vulnerable to me. First of all, to share the sort of tender parts or the hurts of racism or internalized racism the way we play it out amongst ourselves as people of color. I feel like I want a higher level of trust between me and you or me and you before I do that. I am really fearful that you listen and nod your heads and say, uh-huh, they are just as racist as we are. I want to hear your best reassurance that you will not misuse this information.

12. IT'S NOT THE SAME (Moderator) Chinese-American Male Speaker Roberto, would you trade places with Gordon?

(Gordon) White American Male Speaker 2 What a person of color, a Latino, does with a Black man or any of that does not seem any bit the same to me. I do not even term it racism.

(Gordon) White American Male Speaker 2 A lot. They have little or no power. I am not big on politics in understanding that whole thing, but to me it is a system that we consciously and unconsciously use to keep people of color down.

(David) White American Male Speaker 1 I understand the problem that people of color have with the White race. When we are talking here about a man of one color offending or giving difficulties to a man of another color, I look at that as, I am a color, they are a color, each one is a color. It is the same, man to man. Why is it different when it is one color to another than White to a color?

(David) White American Male Speaker 1 Yeah, I hear you tell me all the time for many hours now that White is on top, and I believe you, and I believe that you have that feeling. I have never had that concept that White is on top, that I am on top.

Black-American Male Speaker Look at the CEOs of the companies that run this world.

Black-American Male Speaker So do you think they are going to think about me or you?

Black-American Male Speaker No, wait a minute—me or Hugh, or David when they make a decision.

(David) White American Male Speaker 1 No, they are cutthroat, they think nothing of people really.

Black-American Male Speaker But their decisions will most hurt people who look like us, not people who look like you. When we fight each other, when we do not take up for each other, that hurts us a lot more than it hurts you. And I never realized that until I sat here and just sat back and listened to what Victor was saying, and then your response to it. But now it scares the shit out of me to even continue this conversation in this vein, because I am going to multiply you by, let us be nice and say the 20 million or 50 million who will see this film and think, why should we change. These rats cannot get along with each other.

Black-American Male Speaker I am getting seriously depressed here. I was thinking we were making progress and I just do not feel like we are making much progress anymore.

Black-American Male Speaker It feels like shit. I am ready to go outside and run my head through the wall.

(Victor) Black-Cherokee Male Speaker What do you need from us; from me or from the other men here?

Black-American Male Speaker Just to know that we are all still unified, that we are all still working toward the same thing.

13. HIRING MINORITIES (David) White American Male Speaker 1 Among the Whites, my peers at any rate, my colleagues, my acquaintances, we are becoming more and more alarmed at the tendency or the trends to seek out and hire ethnic groups over the White, and that is disturbing to us in some ways.

(David) White American Male Speaker 1 And it is. I have five daughters and they apply to different schools. The minority races are many times given added points. They give them a boost above the total points of the White race. So it is not just that it is all against you, there is much against us also.

Mexican-Irish Male Speaker I am disturbed that anybody is not getting into college, including White women, including White men. I am disturbed that White men are out of jobs; however, what I get back most is, pointing the finger at the people of color and the women for taking the jobs and not at the corporate heads that are sending the factories to Mexico, to Indonesia, etc., etc., to make more money.

(Moderator) Chinese-American Male Speaker I want to kind of just play devil’s advocate here and that is, what if I had said to you, well, that is just a few folks and that has not been my experience, I think your kids should just try a little harder. I think your girls should just get those three or four more points. I mean, everybody gets a chance in America to get education. How would you feel if I say that to you given some of the disturbance you were feeling?

(Moderator) Chinese-American Male Speaker Does it make you feel like it is real anymore?

(David) White American Male Speaker 1 You hear me but you do not want to put much importance on it, yeah.

(Moderator) Chinese-American Male Speaker I think what you might end up doing is trying to defend that it actually does exist, huh?

(Moderator) Chinese-American Male Speaker Yeah, just like the men in this room have been doing with you today.

(Moderator) Chinese-American Male Speaker One story after another, they are trying to tell you it is real. You might even call on some of your friends to prove that it happened, maybe you show some documents. That is what I am talking about.

(David) White American Male Speaker 1 I have allowed myself to feel in my soul, in my heart what other men are experiencing, and that has caused me to take down the walls and barriers that my mind has placed before me regarding men of color, and I have found that they are good men and that I can love them.

Probably it would be difficult for me, but—so you understand, I was raised by a father who was very much opinionated and racist, I would say. Oh, my father would always tell jokes about the colored people that would put them down or would demonstrate to me that they were an inferior group of people. The way he would refer to them, calling them niggers, implanted in me that they were an undesirable people.

14. DAVID UNDERSTANDS (David) White American Male Speaker 1 And I carried all of this into a pattern of working, to avoid dealing with reality, I guess I would say; and all my life that is where I have been. I work hard, I work long hours, and I keep myself content in my work, and I am away from the pain and the strife of the real world. I know when you tell me your experiences; I tend to minimize them so that I do not have to deal with them. But it is not that I do not want to, and it is not that I do not feel your anguish and pain as people of color. And I am deeply hurt that you would consider my race as the oppressor, because certainly I have never thought myself that way. That disturbs me to know that you consider me and my color that way. Please accept whatever I can do or say to you to lay to you the feeling that some of us White men really are not aware that we are such a problem to you. And when we say to you, well, just cannot you be like us, we do not really understand the differences between you and us.

15. THE ROAD AHEAD Mexican-Irish Male Speaker That is really important for me to know how you have survived, and as a White man to know how you dealt with things, to know how you deal with things when they come your way, that is what Victor was asking, I think, in asking, what does it mean to be White? What is it like to be White? And I appreciate you for exploring that, and for getting in touch with what it means to be White, and I appreciate your survival. I am glad you made it.

Asian-American Male Speaker I just want to say that I appreciate very much your candor and your openness to hear us and try to understand yourself a little more deeply. I just also hope that you will keep in mind that there is no quick fix, you do not change and become a non-racist overnight. You, I think, have just barely tapped into what racism is all about, just kind of touched the surface of it. I think there is a lot ahead of you. You are developing a new consciousness. You are just starting to see how we as people of color feel. You are getting to find out a little bit of our reality, and it is going to be a long process to really, really fully understand it.

16. TOLERANCE TOWARDS ACCEPTANCE (Gordon) White American Male Speaker 2 I really worked to keep my expectations out coming up here, and what I could not keep out was fear. Because I represent the oppressor. I am the oppressor. But I really see my responsibility and the Euro-American responsibility to get together with our brothers and talk, come clean on what we have done and what we have participated in, what our ancestors have participated in, put a stop to it.

And one of the things I really appreciate from all of you is tolerance, because we have not given you much, and it really felt good that I was not treated by you the way we have treated you, and I thank you.

17. I CAN REST NOW (Moderator) Chinese-American Male Speaker I think one of the first thoughts from me was that I think I really wanted something for my father to see, because he thought that White people would not listen or come and see a film and then get really angry if they saw a film on racism. Besides that, I think he also has indoctrinated me for years that people of color and Whites cannot get along, there is no way that is going to happen on this earth, it is going to keep going on and on and on.

David, I liked it perfectly when you said, you know that—about you like the anger. I mean, it was needed and it was honest and it was appropriate; those were the words you used, but that we do need to get that anger out, because underneath all that anger is all that hurt, that has never been allowed to come out for us.

And then on the other end, it is I think that what we all saw, what David and Gordon also saw was that at the end of it was a possibility to get along, if they could just be heard and acknowledged.

I remember on Saturday evening I just broke down and I cried on Hugh's shoulder, because I told him that I think that I could rest now after this film, that I could say I left something for my son. And I know he is going to go out into the world to see what I had seen. I wanted to let him know that I was with him in some way, but I wanted the world to be different for him. I wanted to know him to know that he was not crazy, and that I shared with you David that I wanted my child to meet your children some day on an equal basis and I want that.

I will remember everyone of you for the rest of my life. I mean some of you I have known but never quite in this way, and for the rest of your life you too have this film for your children and your partners.

And Victor, you did your people proud. Each of you did that. Your fathers, your grandfathers, grandmothers, you did it for them. And for that, from deepest part of my heart, I want to thank each of you.

Group (Singing) May the work that I have done speak for me. May the work that I have done.

:: The classification of individuals based on any sociological, ethnic or economic status is inherently racist. It categorizes and divides humans in an effort to measure something AGAINST something else. ::

Methinks you have your opening statement, right there.

They all sound like women. “I feel this”, or “I feel that”.

Grow a spine and start dealing with the issues. The black guy is hurt that asian women flinch when he walks by. He needs to ask huiimself why that is. It’s becasue far too many black guys have assualted them in teh past.

No where in this entire discussion is behavior mentioned at all. The minorites don’t want to be “acting white” but they get upset when we white folk reject their chosen behavior as inappropriate.

If they want to act like their own little culture then they canot expect to be accepted into the general culture. Have they never studied history? Every society has mores that must be adhered to to be accepted.

Then they question the white guy because he doesn’t think of himself as “white”. Maybe if they stopped think ing of themselves as black/asian etc then they’d understand.

Sounds like you should call your professor out for committing the either/or fallacy! Say you don’t identify with Either person in the story, and since they both are caricatures more than characters, you hope no one identifies too closely with either of them.

I would claim to be bisexual and ask them if they understand what it like to be hated not only by heterosexuals but also regular gays who are offended you won’t pick a team. You can be the king victim!

Group (Singing) May the work that I have done speak for me.

If that were true, you wouldn't be taking this stupid course. But your cohorts work doesn't speak for them, their skin color does, and it says, "This is why I can't do the work as well or at all."

I am about a 4th generation American of German and Scots-Irish background. I don't identify with the German part at all, and not much the Scots-Irish part, either, although I do have some sense of being an ethnically Celtic physical type (tall, blue-eyed, fair hair). Actually - and I don't know why - as a kid I identified with Native American stuff, years before it became politically correct and a kind of fad.

But what these ethnic fanatics are confused about is the difference between being white and being modern. I think their real gripe is with modernity - the blandness of things, corporate culture, office culture, urbanism, modern entertainment, and such.

I teach at community college. The entire sociology dept. Is like this. I take every opportunity to ridicule them when I’m on campus - they typically will form gross generalizations based on skin color rather than on individual decisions and choices. This is disrespectful, ignorant and unfair, since many “whites” fought and died in the civil war, & also helped with the underground railroad. Many “blacks” in Africa were violently involved in & profited from the slave trade ( and continue these horrific practices in many regions today). So let’s quit with the unfair and divisive generalizations, and treat each person as a unique individual with a unique history and unique pattern of conduct.

Collectivists are lazy - they would rather form racist generalizations based on skin color than treat each person as a unique individual with a specific past worth hearing about and evaluating.

No, I won’t do that. I refuse. I will go all “Thomas Sowell” and Rev. Martin Luther King on them and talk about the nature of human beings and the importance of the individual. I might also talk about racism in other countries - African and Asian - in which there isn’t a white person in sight, and yet there is racism - sometimes barbaric and murderous. How will they explain that?

When young black males complain about the perceived need to “act white,” I feel like asking them what “acting black” requires? Does it require bad grammar and baggy pants showing their butt and disrespecting women? Is that what they think blackness is?

What I read tells me that most of the dialogue was about excuses.

These excuses become the bedrock for a harangue against ‘White.’ But underneath this is an excuse for not doing well, thinking they can make it, being authentic.

For example, a businessman doesn’t really think of people but rather of sales and profits. Who gets sold something can be classified demographically and become a market based on buying patterns and behaviors. But the businessman just wants the stats really, so he can stay in business.

All of the people need to ask themselves whether they want to succeed or not and justify their answers on those answers own merits, instead of using ‘White’ as bait for an excuse.

Collectivists are lazy - they would rather form racist generalizations based on skin color than treat each person as a unique individual with a specific past worth hearing about and evaluating.

Amen to that. That is what bothers me so much about this stupid exercise...it smacks of Mao’s reeducation camps in which people were coerced into “confessing” their crimes against the State. And the underlying message is that if it weren’t for white people and the unfair “system” (ie evil corporations) everybody would be happy and equal. Idiotic, coercive and lazy.

"So, the issue is not white racism. It is majority-ism and I would contend that if you study black-run African cultures like Zimbabwe or Asian-run countries or Arab-run countries that the majority is almost uniformly racist towards other outsiders and will seek to limit their influence and power."

An excellent point. My brother-in-law's niece was in the Peace Corps and was sent to a black African country (I forget which). She was the first actual white person the villagers had ever seen. They were friendly, but there was no doubt who the outsider was. As you say, it's majority-ism.

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