Having said that, white people sure do have a long way to go yet don't we?

of the St. Louis-area news media might quickly disabuse Rock of his confidence that white people have progressed much).

No need for social media in St. Louis and surrounding counties white people have lost their minds.

A nation built in part on ethnic privilege is going to take a long time to train itself into better ways, and it'll happen as a result of various demands from the oppressed and from more enlightened members of the privileged class.

He makes a great point, but we are only taking baby steps IMO

i had to read it a couple of times...

when it sank in,
i thought it was brilliant
a different take
which i always appreciate




peace,
kp

It was brilliant!

weak sauce. Look again and you might see it.

it is a quote of what he said, delivered in the rapid-fire/stream of consciousness style of his stand-up routine.

here are some of my favorites.

ON


!

Racism is not our fault or our problem to solve. We are the victims, not the cause. I'm tired of black people being told it is up to us to end racism. If we had the ability, it would have been ended long ago.

Reads like this =

I was thinking about that when I posted it. Also survivors/rape. It applies to so many things.

I respect way more than the video about how not to get your ass kicked because it is not about NOT getting your ass kicked at all.

It is about HOW the PERSON in CHARGE handles their self.

That is the issue.

Just like the bullies in grade school, jr high, high school.....they attack, and then they--and everyone else--thinks it's your job to not get bullied.

and battle the to death if you can't until you can.

I got bullied early and often, when I understood it was my responsibility to fight them tooth and nail and take them out by any means necessary the bullying really slowed down to near nothing.

What your job isn't is to beg, convince, and appeal to stop it while playing punching bag until they have a fucking epiphany at some hoped for time down the line.

There's another piece, though. The bullies need to be seen clearly. Putting all the onus on the victims, if there's no awareness, no checks on the victimizers, keeps everyone stuck, too.

Women must change behavior & use defensive tactics to avoid assault; women in developing countries must have education & schools (obstacle being patriarchy!). All is on women, not on men in the view of plenty.
But men have to work towards equality & justice as well, and take responsibility.

How they handle their selves is every bit as important (even more so) than the one who is Not in charge.

Each Individual should always bear responsibility for their own actions.

I don't think the US even recognizes Crimes of Passion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_of_passion

substitute income inequality for racism or sexism and "the 99%" for black people or women and it all becomes really, really clear.

only color that matters is the Greenback Dollar.

I do believe we have arrived to this point.

That certain set of socioeconomic demographic of the Middle Class White Man is the last of the pyramid and, he is quickly (albeit, kicking and screaming) coming to terms with this fact. It is the last tier.

Since DU3 seems to cater to that last bastion of "old school" couching it in those terms should really help ALL ON HERE to understand. We are ALL in this together and thermodynamics will very possibly outtrump in this race to kill the planet.

*Not sure if you were being sarcastic but, on the chance that we are trying to edify all those reading I took the chance and played this straight.*

Kind of,
Racism isn't our fault, and it isn't our problem to solve.
However if we don't do what we can to solve it, it may
never get done. Whites are fat, happy and satisfied in their
position in the race chain, their lives are good, and have
need of little. What would motivate them to fix race issues?
Answer is nothing. Race issues go on, they don't care or even
notice. Its up to us to "productively" rock the system and get
this done. Is it fair we should have to be the victim and do the
work of fixing this? no but in the end we are the only ones who
can work to get this fixed.

Todays Jackson, Sharpton and Obama to a lesser extent are doing
us no good in race relations.

The victim will fight back by any mean necessary. It is what we have to do. We HAVE been doing the work for centuries. Now it is time to grow the fuck up and realize that skin color does not make anybody special. It's over. We will never go back.

And whatever the fuck about Sharpton and Obama and Jackson. Have no idea why you think it's their job to fix race relations, but name not one white person who is doing US no favors. Seems to me that the leaders of the White Community may need to start doing their parts instead of waiting for black people to do all the work for them. This ain't the Plantation. Everyone must do their share and we have done more that our fair share. Much more.

fighting by any means necessary keeps racism alive. we have to be smart about
what exactly it is we do.

I have no idea why you think that I think the sharptons of the world are supposed
to fix race issues, I said they are hurting us and they are.

It is up to us to finally, as a people, reject the notion that we somehow deserve what is being done to us and to stop pretending that there is some box we can put ourselves into that will cause racist whites to just magically wake up and act right.

Sitting down, shutting up, being nice about it, working hard, not back talking, dressing like they want, speaking proper american english, will still not fix racism. We are not robots to be programmed. We are humans and deserve fair and equal treatment and we do not need to ASK for it. We need to demand it.

The smart thing to do is to realize that when you are in the right you are right. Racism is wrong. Asking the victim to fix the problem is wrong. Demanding change is right. By any means necessary is the only way to win a war. This is a war. A war for our lives and freedom. I will not let my kid die in a nation that expects them to take abuse without recourse just because of the color of their skin. White mothers of white children are not expected to do that! Ain't I a mother? Ain't I a woman? Ain't I a human? I shall not go to my grave knowing that those who died so I could live did it in vain!! I want my kids free. Free like the white kids. Free to hope, to dream, to seek, to explore.....

You are a very gifted writer, and very well educated, whether or not you have the degree.

Keep writing and talking.

I feel bad when people think I finished, I only was able to go for a few months. I suppose I could go back....

then racism will begin to diminish in tidal waves. And this tidal wave is beginning to swell.

I feel it too, I hope i'm not wrong.

Which is thinly veiled code, of course.

Just because someone is feeling victimized, by no means will mean that they'll embrace progressive social change. Actually, history is replete with examples of the opposite happening.

But the boot on the neck is heavy these days. And it is on the neck of the majority now, not the case in the past. Things are going to change. REAL QUICK.

heap upon them, then perhaps.

Thom Hartman says, not quoting, that when people's expectations no longer meet their reality then change will occur.

BRAVO

need to "play nice." amerikkka's race problem will not go away until white people realize that they are the ones who cause it. they are the majority. black people did not just show up here and decide to start calling white people racists. and since they always want to be first with everything and take credit for everything, they absolutely have to be the first ones to "play nice."

One people can accept their role, they can change it. America has to accept that what they did was horrifying and that only America can fix it. Not Black America. Ain't we been working on it since we got here? I just feel like we as a people have done America many favors, now they can do us a solid and just grow the fuck up now. That's all I really want. Fuck Reparations. Just get the boot off our necks and we can rise.

Pres. O, and Jesse Jackson are all the emperors of the Black Community. I'm shocked you didn't know that!

I had forgotten about how magical negroes are.

And who the hell puts Obama and Al Sharpton in the same sentence when it comes to "improving our race" anyway?

I'm Black and I find a lot of your post is offensive. You're saying that Whites are basically fat, dumb and happy. There have always been forward thinking White people who seek a more just and equitable world. And if you think it's just going to be "us" who will advance the cause of race relations and social justice, you are sadly misinformed.

Yes we need to rock the boat but to say that Whites or even Latinos and Asians have no role in advancing the cause of racial equality is just plain silly.

And I have no clue why you decided to dump on Jackson, Sharpton and Obama in your post especially since the point of the OP was about the advancement of folks outside our community.

I said its up to us all (races) to fix the race issues we have, but if us minorities
don't initiate it, it aint gonna get done.

You are the problem, or you are the problem if you attempt to solve the problem.

Cause shutting up just ain't in the cards.

for me, either, my friend!

He's a great example. He might not put it on his business card, but he is, just the same.

He's had a lot of brilliant observations.

He tweeted the other day, "Just found a great new app to tell you which of your friends are racist. it's called Facebook."

I love what he says in the OP because it's such a great change of perspective. He's so right.

Is Chris Rock's comment going to cause you to have trouble finding or sustaining employment? Will you have trouble getting home financing if needed because of it? Will it cause you to be more likely to get shot by police? Do his words create or perpetuate an environment where any of those kinds of problems will become greater for white people?

what effects of racism are caused or perpetuated by Chris Rock's words.

It's the fact that he was able top say those words with out fear of reprisal.

People of color are personally affected by racism. They don't just see uncomfortable words. Those words perpetuate a society where their lives have less value, where they are less trusted, where they have more trouble finding work, etc.

You just don't like how it makes you feel.

The effects absolutely matter.

Sorry, but all this year, we have found examples where black people have hadmore than their fair share of "fear of rerpisal" like tray martin getting shot for the crime of buying Skittles.

And an older white woman in America says "You expect me to take a mint from that bowl (at a restaurant) after THAT child did". Then mutters under her breath 'nigger'.


These days - she just won't take candy from the bowl and keep her opinions to herself.


That's less crazy. That woman has progressed.

In 1978 - maybe her new version was in her 30's at that time - and is now into her 70's. She's the progress of white America. It doesn't mean she doesn't THINK it - but she doesn't say it.


I don't think that's racist on Rock's part to point out that indeed - those of us who are old enough to have had those experiences - do indeed hold that view of white America as dominant culture/monolith.


It's a compliment.


The harsh reality is that having spent my first 5 years in West Germany - with many elderly and older Germans who were total sweet peas to me . . . the older white American as a CULTURE - has caught up with their former Nazi peers in the 1970's. And to that I say "right on Christ Rock!" and bravo to the majority of white Americans.

It seems to me that these days there are many more millions of white people that would lift that little 5 year old black child up so he/she can more easily choose the mint, then set her down, smile and grab one or two for herself.

50 yrs ago they would have huge marches attended by thousands.
Today, and for the past 10-20 yrs I'd say, you might see a couple dozen marching and thousands of mostly white spectators jeering at them as they pass. The MARCHERS are the ones being protected by the cops because they are so outnumbered.
Of course, things have changed. Back in the 90s Colin Powell was a top favorite to run for president as a REPUBLICAN! I believe he could have won had he run at that time. Of course, he's changed a lot since being lied to by Dick Cheney.

The Republicans took congress on the Welfare Queen meme.

Dont' feign naivete. You know DAMN well they ran on one long winded racist diatribe against us black women.

It's true. Even Pat Buchanan and Newt Gingrich have admitted to it.

The 90's were just peachy keen - if you weren't a young black women getting blamed for a bunch of lazy white guys who couldn't cut the mustard.

though I suspect he would now too. And he had some popularity outside Louisiana as well. But yeah the 90s weren't any utopia.

Forbid that woman from ever entering again. My parents were good friends with he and his first wife. He had served under my father in the military. My mom and he drew up the prototype for Microtels.

But back then - he was in His early 30's. Mr. A if he was alive - Would be the elderly person who would lift the kid up. Right in front of the person he was going to eject.

It was very bizarre moving back to the US in the late 1970's.

I seriously didn't understand the concept of white people bring prejudice. There was an elderly man that owned a candy store in Weisbaden that sold these two and a half inch high Gummy Bears. He was Herr aka Mr. Himmler. No relation - but when I started learning ofthe Holocaust and WW II I started asking questions. And my parents informed me he had been an SS Officer. He was fascinated by my Green Beret father.

And he was very very kind to my brother and me. All of those elderly Germans were.

get over yourself.

And so is slavery by any other name.

Yep, less crazy is pretty dead on.

You've come a long way baby! Slavery and genocide are moving into the rear view it seems and a fair amount of whites in very recent decades have accepted and even embraced the idea the other folks are actually human!

You realize that in living memory by fucking law our shit wasn't good enough to mingle with yours? That in easy living memory men have been murdered for looking upon a "Clarice"?

It blows my mind that the folks who brought us the trail of tears, slavery, the klu klux klan, Jim Crow, the drug war,"Sunset" laws (that still actually exist to this day), internment camps, "citizen border patrols", a racist police institution, a phony justice system, and segregation are sooooo fucking sensitive.

Less crazy is being kind, open a history book as well as your eyes.

First amendment baby. Ahhh poor thing, black people talk loudly about injustice and this upsets you. Too fucking bad.

If you can't understand

Please read in the African American forum about what racism is and is not.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/11879749

this is a great thread to read.
here is a great article provided in that thread
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/11/26/us/ferguson-racism-or-racial-bias/index.html?hpt=hp_t5

You know exactly what you said and you know what it means.

"Words are powerful things."

Almost as powerful as our ability to infer an obvious context and meaning (that is, when we selectively decide to do so...).

just saying.

maybe he was talking about how offensive and CRAZY this was:

His example of Ike and Tina Turner is excellent. Did she do anything to deserve the abuse? No, and consequently there was nothing for her to do to improve her relationship with Ike. Likewise, did African-Americans do anything to deserve being dragged from Africa here, often not even surviving the journey, to be sold and kept as slaves? Have African-Americans done anything to deserve the deep racism that still exists in 2014, which forces many of them to live in poverty and allows people like Darren Wilson to get away with murdering black youths? NO!

So what have African-Americans done that ended slavery and gave them voting rights, and what could they do to end the racism that still plagues this country today? Nothing, for they are the victims, and race relations are not some two-way street where everybody needs to make an effort. Slavery ended only because enough of us whites decided it was inappropriate. African-Americans can vote only because us whites decided it was appropriate.

True equality can exist only once we whites finally open our eyes to all the racism that still exists and put an end to it. That is our responsibility.

was while there were always a number of white people willing to vote for a "person of color" for President, it wasn't until recently that the number grew to a significant enough figure to allow such a thing to take place.

Par for the course

That is a little more current.

when you stop espousing right wing views

Do you wear a little hat ?

There are plenty of places to spew right wing wackery were your views would be more in line

You are free to find a right wing wackery site we're they'll fit right in

It must be ... because if its racist for Chris Rock to criticize whites, the same behavior by whites, that must also be racist.

Last edited Mon Dec 1, 2014, 09:42 PM - Edit history (1)

This is an exerpt from the article Why There’s No Such Thing as Reverse Racism.

"Prejudice is an irrational feeling of dislike for a person or group of persons, usually based on stereotype. Virtually everyone feels some sort of prejudice, whether it’s for an ethnic group, or for a religious group, or for a type of person like blondes or fat people or tall people. The important thing is they just don’t like them — in short, prejudice is a feeling, a belief. You can be prejudiced, but still be a fair person if you’re careful not to act on your irrational dislike.

Discrimination takes place the moment a person acts on prejudice. This describes those moments when one individual decides not to give another individual a job because of, say, their race or their religious orientation. Or even because of their looks (there’s a lot of hiring discrimination against “unattractive” women, for example). You can discriminate, individually, against any person or group, if you’re in a position of power over the person you want to discriminate against. White people can discriminate against black people, and black people can discriminate against white people if, for example, one is the interviewer and the other is the person being interviewed.

Racism, however, describes patterns of discrimination that are institutionalized as “normal” throughout an entire culture. It’s based on an ideological belief that one “race” is somehow better than another “race”. It’s not one person discriminating at this point, but a whole population operating in a social structure that actually makes it difficult for a person not to discriminate."

Then you'll see why your comment is absurd.

On a macro (institutionalized) level, I agree 100%.

On a micro (individual) level, this is not 100% true that there is no reverse racism. Case in point - a friend just posted on Facebook a bad experience using Uber where the driver said:

"This lady picked us up and started driving the opposite way so we were trying to tell her how to go and she started yelling at me calling me a dumb white bitch and saying she was going to smash my head into the window so we pulled over and I ran out and called the police. She was coming at me and wouldn't let xxxx get his phone. It was bad. She drove us 5 miles the wrong way. I will tell you the rest in person. We are discussing it with Uber management and put in a formal complaint."

She went on to say that the ride should have only been two miles.

Is this simply being an asshole as opposed to a racist on the part of the driver?

The original post had a URL that contained a character series that created a smilie and broke the link. It describes the differences really well I think.

Makes perfect since to this white guy. I don't see the problem.

I think he got it exactly right.

Which they were. Check out the kicking and screaming plenty of white folks did, especially after Brown v. Board of Education and the Civil Rights Act. And the Jim Crow laws before that. Yes, a lot more white people were racists.

when lynching black people and passing jim crow laws?rock nailed it.

But, yeah, I can kinda see why that would be problematic in the eyes of some.

Thaks.

Making sense out of nonsense. Thank you Mr. Rock.

I always interpreted it to mean that "society" (i.e. the white majority) had progressed enough to elect an African American. I never thought it meant, "wow black folks finally got it together enough to get in the white house" or whatever patronizing drivel.
Have I just been interpreting it differently than everyone else?

But it doesn't hurt to have that notion articulated more specifically, as Rock does.

is white people saying what people of color are doing wrong "if they want to end racism." Which is stupid on its face. I mean, is there a question? Of course they want racism to end, and if they could end it, as Bravenak says above, it would be gone.

I've also heard what you're saying.

I like Chris Rocks ideas on how expensive a bullet should cost in America. Of course he is stating the obvious, only racists pretend black people are feral creatures.

Black people have had leadership skills since the time we all started walking upright. White American men just pretended black people were stupid and made sure they were kept away from literature or any kind of self-education and tortured and killed anyone that would help enlighten a slave.

The rare man might have educated a few of his slaves. The rich white man. I think that is one reason the GOP hates public education, it affords everyone a chance to an education by right of being an American citizen...if it was up to the GOP leadership only white kids would be in prep schools (there would be no public schools) and I am not even sure that includes the girls.

White people are less crazy, sadly some want to go back to those times when white people thought it was okay to own slaves. And the hordes of followers that agree are scary. They own 6 zillion guns and just went out and bought 5 million more after being glued to Foxnews and their sensationalist garbage on Ferguson.

Although I avoid my RWing relatives during the holidays - I was cornered by an uncle at a family party, Foxnews addict, and tried explaining to him that it was HIS fault there is a shortage on bullets...not Obama's...he scoffed at me and I realized he doesn't understand simple supply and demand (of course believes Obama is Satan/Stalin/Hitler/Mao). Just what I expect from a Reagan holdover.

Xlnt info

However, I think both people have progressed, just in different ways. White people, in general terms, still have a ways to go. It is true most won't pop off with the n-word, at least not in public, but racism and bigotry against AA folks is so much more than just "bad words." It is in that area where many a white person seems to be stuck in the mud, and leads many to the false conclusion we are living in "post-racial" America.

Last edited Mon Dec 1, 2014, 06:21 PM - Edit history (1)

... the wealthy. Big difference.

Edit - Sorry. Wrong Chris Rock thread. Not sure how I did that.

The host we've all been waiting for.