To WP: What Can Black People Do to Improve Race Relations in this Country?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope that Jeff closes this thread. It is ugly, divisive and not constructive at all. What the OP has done is made it open season on AAs. People can, without identifying themselves, tell another race what is wrong with it. I am bi-racial and I have seen the best and worst of both worlds. It is not about playing victim or being defensive - those are buzzwords that automatically chill any type of meaningful dialouge. It is not about what race can do to make another race comfortable - that answer will ALWAYS be "well, be more like MY race." People talk a good game, but no one wants to come out of their bubble to truly understand each other. MOST of us want the same thing - but we focus on the most negative examples from each other and run with those. It is tiring.

I agree. Reading this thread makes me feel sick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like it would go really far for black people to:

1. Strive to appear educated.
2. Speak more quietly in public.
3. Pick their pants up.
4. Smile sometimes. Every black mother I am friends with on FB who has a teen or older son has zero pictures of them smiling. They all look angry and menacing.

5. Stop snapping your gum in public--it says you don't care about others around you.
6. Teach kids and teenagers that it is not okay to do passive-aggressive behavior to whites i.e. take up the whole side-walk and walk very slowly when you know someone would really like to pass by. Or wait until you are right next to the ear of someone else to bark at your friend across the street.
7. Try not to assume that every white person is probably racist and dislikes you. It's not true.

This is a tough question to answer but for me I really feel like it starts with the attitude of the black person I meet. It's a problem of not being able to leave the past behind. I find it worlds easier to get to know and stay friends with blacks who are African they are more trusting and less suspicious than African Americans. You feel like you are not categorized as "the enemy" or "potential enemy."

I am no way saying that whites haven't contributed to the problem but I am expressing what for me, would make things easier. Mostly, I am just so tired of being uncomfortable around blacks.

Wow, do you have any idea how ironic this bolded statement is? Try not to assume that every teenager of dark hue is being annoying because you're white (or at any rate not black). In my experience, teens can be annoying for a wide variety of reasons. You can't read their minds to know why they seem rude to you just like they can't read your mind to know whether your behavior is motivated by racism or not. You want them to keep an open mind? Maybe you should resist jumping to conclusions yourself.

Oh and for the record, I know a number of nice, polite native-born black teens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OK, so OP posted this topic, asking for feedback. And then derides all the comments that are posted. Having fun?

How do you know which responses are from OP?
Besides that, it was an idiotic and incendiary question.
It did nothing but invite idiots to post dumbass stereotypes and mindless insults.
It most certainly did not invite thoughtful contemplation of better understanding between people with differences.
How helpful is it to tell a whole group of people to tell strangers who happen to look like them to pull up their pants and value education??

NP here:

How would you have preferred for the question to have been phrased?

Honestly it should not have been asked. It is a "clown question." But I will bite. It was not helpful to ME as an AA because I don't (and no one I know that is AA) displays the behavor that is put forth as examples in this thread. The question itself implies that all AA's act the same, that all AA's approve of some of the behavior and that, as an AA, I can actually control someone else's behavior.

White people get up in arms when someone say something like "White people are racists." The standard response is the AA should not generalize and paint all White people with the same brush. This is what this question is doing to AA's. IF some White person thinks that "snapping gum in public" or rude behavor is a AA thing, then that is YOUR problem, not mine. I think that some of the White kids I have encountered are rude, lack home training and would NEVER get away with that crap in an AA family I know. But I have enough sense and decency to not attribute it to them just being White.

Nailed it, pp!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This question is directed chiefly toward whites (though others may chime in):


What role would you say that African-Americans play with regard to improving race relations in America? In other words, what can we do?

Are there things that you wish people would say (but don't) when discussing race? In other words, what are some alternative ideas/viewpoints that you wish would get mentioned?

Why do you suppose that race relations continue to be tense--nearly 50 years after the civil rights movement?


BW here, btw.

Black people are not a special category. In order for ANY human being to be a contributing member of society, "Ask not what can my country can do for me, but what can I do...."

Right or wrong?

[Anonymous]

I don't understand how the OP's question was offensive. To me, it seems like she was looking to hear the other side of an issue. There are usually two sides to most issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand how the OP's question was offensive. To me, it seems like she was looking to hear the other side of an issue. There are usually two sides to most issues.

No. Most issues have many more than 2 sides. Get your head out of the sand...it's not that simple.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand how the OP's question was offensive. To me, it seems like she was looking to hear the other side of an issue. There are usually two sides to most issues.

Because it was a question that essentially asks "White people, what things do you think are wrong with AA people that they need to change so that you accept them?" It is patronizing and condescending.

As I said earlier the question itself implies that all AA's act the same (WE DON'T), that all AA's approve of the same behavior (WE DON"T) and that, as an AA, I can actually control someone else's behavior (I CAN"T).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand how the OP's question was offensive. To me, it seems like she was looking to hear the other side of an issue. There are usually two sides to most issues.

Because it was a question that essentially asks "White people, what things do you think are wrong with AA people that they need to change so that you accept them?" It is patronizing and condescending.

As I said earlier the question itself implies that all AA's act the same (WE DON'T), that all AA's approve of the same behavior (WE DON"T) and that, as an AA, I can actually control someone else's behavior (I CAN"T).

Excellent response. This thread is bullshit. Unsurprising, but bullsjit nonetheless.

[Anonymous]

Because it was a question that essentially asks "White people, what things do you think are wrong with AA people that they need to change so that you accept them?" It is patronizing and condescending. [code]

Yet, whites are faced with this every day. How ironic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Because it was a question that essentially asks "White people, what things do you think are wrong with AA people that they need to change so that you accept them?" It is patronizing and condescending. [code]

Yet, whites are faced with this every day. How ironic.

That's BS!

[Anonymous]

I hate when people misuse the term "ironic."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Because it was a question that essentially asks "White people, what things do you think are wrong with AA people that they need to change so that you accept them?" It is patronizing and condescending. [code]

Yet, whites are faced with this every day. How ironic.

That's BS!

For one thing, Whites do not have to answer for the behavior for every other White - they get the benefit of being individuals. Some of the examples cited to this thread are things that Black AND White people do (especially teens). Somehow, the PP's believed that this were AA only things.

Besides that, in EVERY intergrated environment that I have been or my kids have been in, WE have had to be the ones to assimilate. Whites don't have that problem by and large.

[Anonymous]

Whites do not have to answer for the behavior for every other White - they get the benefit of being individuals.

+ 1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate when people misuse the term "ironic."

Ok, pp, you're very smart. I am verbally patting you on the head and rewarding you for demonstrating that.

[Anonymous]

Must have touched a nerve. Eh.