Racism Without Racist

After reading this book  I didnt realize that there were so many different methods and rhetoric used to avoid being called a “racist.” Such as, “some of my good friends are black..” But, I do believe that the book is one-sided in that it portrays all Whites to be either full blown racist, hidden racists, or someone with partially racist views. I do believe that there are Whites that do engage in discriminatory acts against minorities but not to the extent that the book describes. I think that any ethnic group  can be guilty of being racist against another and that there is a lot of discrimination between individuals of the same race. I think that if the author would have included this the book wouldnt seem so polarized.

Blacks and Beamers

This weekend I went to Ft. Myers to hang out with my boyfriend. My boyfriend lives in a really nice neighborhood, and he drives a very nice car (BMW). One day while riding in the car a cop was stationed in an area, and my boyfriend said “Watch he will pull us over”. Just as my boyfriend predicted he pulled us over. The cop told us to get out of the car so that he could do a “random search”. When he heard my BF’s Jamaican accent that made his entire view of him even worse (I don’t know why) Obviously the cop found nothing in the car, and he left. I was completely enraged, and my boyfriend said that’s just how life is, and that I should get used to it. I think that what my boyfriend said was complete bull shit. This cop basically assumed that my boyfriend was a drug dealer because he saw that he was black and driving a very expensive car, and that’s not right. He didn’t even think once,  that maybe my boyfriend had a very good job and was a decent man. Even though racial profiling is illegal, cops still do this and they get away with it. Not just white cops do this, but black cops also. That day there were many other nice cars around us that were speeding, but he pulled us over for basically no reason, but the color of our skin.

Lays CHIPS

lays chips

Let me set the story for you all… When i was 15 i started dating my first boyfriend, and he was out of my race (he was black and fine!).  We were pretty serious, and one summer when i was about to turn 17  I went to the mid west to visit family.  While there i went with my mom and grandma to visit my mom’s best friend, Sandy. We took about a two hour drive out to no mans land, where Sandy lived.  We got there around lunch time and decided it was a good idea to go eat.  Now, since my grandma was with us we thought it’d be a great chance for her and Sandy’s mom to catch up, so on the way to eat we picked up Sandy’s mom, Marsha.  At lunch Marsha was telling some story, which i can’t even recall right now, but what i do remember is what she said made me sick to my stomach.  Now, before i go into what she said i must let you all know that at that time in my life i was very sheltered.  I was born from a  biracial couple.  My mom is Italian/Polish/Irish(identifies with white) and my dad 100% Malaysian.  I was raised in California and brought up in a very diverse enviroment.  So when Marsha was telling her story, she was talking about chips and  smoothly stated that these particular chips were greasy.  Then the line that spilled from her mouth that i will never forget… “You know why those chips are greasy?  Because the chips were owned by black people.”  After that statement it gets kind of blurry, but i know she said more racial stuff, specifically about people who are black.

It doesn’t seem as serious as i am making it seem, but it really was to a girl like me who had never really witnessed someone being racist first hand.

Avatar Racist?

I was reading an article about Avatar where the author argues that Avatar was a racist movie. Before I go in the details, I personally thought this movie was the best movie I have ever seen.  But then again, even though I saw it twice, I did not think too much about the deeper meanings of the movie. I was too distracted by how amazing the special effects were. Now going back to the article, he mentioned that in most raced based movies the common theme is that they “feature a white saviour to the colored masses”. He writes that he is sick of the white man saving the day. He talks about the fact that he could not be paid to watch movies such as  the Blind Side. Even thought I love watching such inspirational movies, I agree with the trend that the author has brought up a very interesting fact. It always seems that the race, either blacks or native americans or spanish, are unable to help themselves unless the white “man” comes along and saves them from their own ways. I have not ever thought about it this way until I read this article. Do you agree/disagree with the author? and if you do disagree, can you give an example of a raced based movie in which the hero is from another race?