Thursday, April 29, 2010
"Standards of Race?"
Race is an issue that has been around for centuries. Personally I think race is only what us as humans allow it to be, and the power we give it, just like we give simple words the power to be racist. Words that I myself will not say because I have been told that they are as bad as swearing. So I will let the movie clips above say them for me. What "standards" do we as humans, black, white, yellow, etc, give each other for what is acceptable and what isn't? Is it acceptable for a black person to make fun of a white person, but not vice verse because of what happened in the past? Is it acceptable for any race to make fun of another even if it is just for fun. I myself have laughed at racist jokes made by a person of any race.
I also find stereotypes laughable and funny, and have made fun of myself plenty for dancing like a white girl. And who am I to say if one white comedian is allowed to make fun of blacks, or if say a comedian like Dave Chappelle is allowed to call white folks "crackers". My view is that jokes are just jokes and that yes there are some underlying meanings but a joke is just meant to be fun, and whoever gives it the power to be hurtful has done that themselves.
On another note words like "cracker" and "haole" (a Hawaiian; or as the census calls them Pacific Islanders, but a few of my Hawaiian friends I play volleyball with say they would rather be called Hawaiian; word for foreigner that has recently been used as an insult for white people) aren't hurtful to white people unless hurled as an insult, while the more vulgar words such as the n-word or the word in the Clerks clip are taken more heavily just because they are used to insult a black person. Shouldn't all hurtful words be taken the same, and not so lightly? That is just my opinion. Every prejudice thing should be seen on the same level, no matter how guilt whites feel about the past. It is the present and, sure although the past can teach us things, it is not good to dwell on what happened, but what we can do to change the future.
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Natalie, good job of using and analyzing some media here. You raise some good questions about the use of racial slurs. I'm not seeing a deep understanding of course concepts here - I'd like to see that you really understand the argument that derogatory terms about people of color are more hurtful and damaging than derogatory terms about whites. You also seem to imply that racism is a thing of the past. You are free to make these arguments by all means, but we do need to see a demonstration that you fully understand the course concepts presented.
ReplyDeleteIts not that I think racism is a thing of the past, I just see it as there is racism going on towards all people of color now, including whites, because of the hate of what has happened in the past. I personally see racism as hate that is shown through any form of prejudice. And in todays world every race has shown its own side of prejudice at some point and then acted on it in any form to produce racism. But i do think that whites have a lot more hoops to jump through in order to be seen as not prejudice and need to be a lot more careful what they say because of what did happen in the past, and the guilt that people feel give them a lot more incentive to make up for what happened in the past. One rule that I live by though, is that life isn't fair. We live it, try to do the best we can, and then die. How we choose to treat other people is how we wish to be treated ourselves.
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