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Are we all tired of being classified by a color, or what???

I hate racism.
Most of you still dwell in it though..
With your black-this and white-that...
It's childish, isn't it?
We are human beings with different skin tones.
?
If you want to classify people, why not start with cultural standards?

FinchiMcQ 6 Apr 11
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34 comments

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0

When I march, the sign I carry in my car covers a lot of ground...it says " NO LABELS"
I did have to make a new one for the Gun Awareness stuff, it says "I VOTE".

9

The prejudice issue I left at home when I left at 16. My Archie Bunker-like stepfather is still as big a bigot now as he was back then. I know and appreciate too many people to even think that way. The issue when it comes up is like sewer water.

7

Totally agree - Diversity is the key.

5

I take issue with the assertion that most of us still dwell in it (racism). I don't think you know what you're saying.

5

Racism serves no purpose. End it and we can live together more peacably. We as a people need to grow up.

Gohan Level 7 Apr 11, 2018
5

I'm sorry, but I'm guilty of judging people by how they drive and how many tickets and accidents they have on record. #drivingsnob #imanexcellentdriver

Lani Level 5 Apr 11, 2018

That's actually quite funny..?

4

Wise man.

3

Yes, I hate being told that I'm part of a massive historical issue because of the colour of my skin. I've had people verbally attack me because I'm white and then more so because of my English accent. It sucks. Sure I feel really bad about how society has been and is descriminatory, (but to be held personally responsible and by strangers, is very difficult!) I've always gone out of my way to be educated about differences too and try and be part of a solution not the problem, but I go by the following meme...

It's much more difficult however if your ancestors were a party to the wrong end of the triangular trade.. The crime rate figures still reveal unjustified massive racism in the UK police and stop and search is biased to minorities. This also goes for employment ... There are a lot of reasons why you need to suck this up.. One of them is the pensions system in the UK (run by Barclays) was formed directly from the back of slaving money.. Nobody in the UK would have a state pension without the slave trade matey.. I have studied this very deeply .. I suggest you just have to suck up that white privelage 😉 It is not nice and no one should ever pre judge anyone .. I get it too .. I can't explain to people I understand so suck it up .. I just know me sucking that up is nothing compared to what was done in the past.. Again my family were not involved in that horror (they were victims), but you can see why people who only three generations ago were branded like cattle and put in leg irons may find it all a bit confusing still.. Some people want to forget - some don't.. I have many African friends .. and as Africa still suffers from the effects of the West you can imagine their view varies from Western people .. !! It's all very interesting .. when you learn about what happened in the past though and that white privelage is very real, what we face as people in the UK seems very mild !

[theguardian.com]

Yes, I do suck it up, but it still sucks. Many of us (privileged) were also property not long ago; especially women in the not so distant past. I think it perpetuates the issue to think in divides, but I'm not going to discuss it with someone who is attacking me and so has quite obviously made their mind up that I'm part of their problem. (Not you my friend, but those that have a go at me in public). I have friends that are over it too, coffee coloured people that are treated as potential terrorists, people that are a different colour to their ancestors and get to experience a different life due to that. It's a mangle, but it's good when you find those that can see beyond the skin to the person inside.

@girlwithsmiles Yeh I get that!! It does suck .. fact is though we all owe Africa billions matey 🙂 We wouldn't have a benefits system without it .. It does not perpetuate anything personally as I don't think In divides... the fact is racist people think in divides and we all have to deal with them. The thinking in divides obviously isn't coming from political activists fighting racism is it lol !?! 🙂 and yes as a woman you were property.. but as a woman of African descent it was way worse.. Everything falls worse .. Mental health - employment .. you can pretend it doesn't but sadly that hasn't worked for four hundred years !!

So what would you suggest as a way forward?

@girlwithsmiles You are welcome to join me on FB for the ride ... There are some very interesting people there.

@girlwithsmiles WE have to do both ... We have to ignore the people vying for attention .. and face it head on when someone is out of order in our personal lives or work situations .. For instance if me and my friends see a kid from a minority being bullied by the police (genuinely not a kid who is a pain but a good kid lol) mobile phones out asking the police what they are doing. What are their names and collar numbers. IF they aren't acting professional they will always bail . . So I agree ignore it as much as possible as long possible but when it rears it's ugly head give it no quarter ... learn and use the law.. I have had a row with a guy this week on FB.. He told me it was, "his right to discriminate against anyone in the UK on grounds of race as a white person" .. so I got out the Race Relations Act .. The European Rights Act and used the legal terms to explain to him why and how I could now have him arrested for some of his view and how he was being offensive online to people .. he was trolling on race issues.. I don't often give them the time and would normally ignore but I could see I could use the very legal statues to make an example of him .. By directly quoting the law I used it to destroy his argument and the other 500 people who liked the article this stemmed fro would see the argument and see how the law works and also see that people like me are here and will not back down for anything .. He was race baiting a Muslim girl who was about 12 and really nice from the UK .. so I thought I would show him what happens when you meet someone who has experience in dealing with this stuff.. In the end the ended up liking my comments and giving in and admitting he was wrong.. I gave him no choice.. I think it's pick your battles wisely ... be you ... be the sunshine you are .. but don't back down if you have no choice but to face it .. as long as you aren't going to put yourself in danger anyway.. 🙂 just keep on being sunshine and loving everyone and that is the best thing .. I am just saying sometimes as much as I wold love to ignore it you can't .. Just a case of being mindful we don't ignore it so hard the right makes ground.. Right now there has been a massive rise in the right in Europe .. not just people who are a bit disorganised and racist. Tech savvy highly organised people in may groups training in combat .. Ignoring them is definitely the best option .. but you have to be aware suppose is what I am saying .. sometimes you just have to face it 🙂 .. love is the answer. .. Don't get angry .. anger is where we all lose .. I don't think you would get angry but that is definitely where the cracks start!! its so divisive !! [facebook.com]

@girlwithsmiles for one thing, you have a good heart and good intentions, go forward without owning the actions individuals in your culture were guilty of. Make it clear you had no part in bad behaviors. And more, go forward advocating for yourself and declaring that not all white people are guilty of bad behavior. To lump all white people as prejudiced isn't the way forward. Lots of good white folks, too. Actions of others shouldn't fall on your shoulders.

Thank you @crazycurlz.

3

I don't see color as something we do to ourselves as much as something we do to others. An immature self image leaves us feeling inadequate. We wrongly try to elivate our sad selves by deminishing others.

2

Personally - come to my facebook page.. I am a musician and activist who has fought this my whole life.. My friends are all the same and many of them roots Rastafarian and activists .. Sometimes i deal with it by directly addressing issues with people .. sometimes by ignoring it into obvlivion .. Unfortunately the rest of the world isn't quite ready to forget so sometimes you have to face it head on.. Really wish people would wake up and understand !!

2

This is a good approach if you are on the right side of the dominant cultural privilege. If you are holding the shitty end of the racial stick where you have to live, you view things from a somewhat different perspective. It may be childish in theory, but when it's you on the bottom for no reason other than your color, it's not theoretical. I agree with your point. Good luck getting rid of it, except in your own life, and even then it's harder than you think. The point of racial privilege it's you don't even realize when you are exerting it. I wish it wasn't that way. Lots of things I wish.

2

We are all different shades of the same thing. there is no black or white. there are much more important things to think about.

2

Yup. I'm telling you, one day all humans will all be the same shade. I may not live to see it, but then what are all these racists gonna do?? Hopefully attitudes will have changed by then. I want to see a Netflix special or something where they sit these people down and show them their genetics and ancestry - the looks on their faces would be priceless when they find out we all mostly come from the same place. I don't have time for that ignorance in this era. There's no excuse for it.

@SamKerry Super cool. I would love to travel to all the places in my DNA.

@WickedNicki that's a good bucket list!

2

Ohhhh Finchi, you're getting me started! Especially irritating is the way Americans (of all 'colors' ) look at this.

This could (as usual) get lengthly..

When people ask about my heritige I usually anwer mostly Irish with some Czech and French. Nobody bats an eye. If, however my French great grandmother had come from Ethiopia instead of France, I would be considered "black". How crazy is that? It gets worse than this old attitudinally held-over Jim Crow crap.

Same answer but applying the same social 'rules' prevalent in our sick society in the case of African ancestry:

'I'm mostly Irish with some Czech and French'. From the Franco-Americans would come a frenzied indictment! WHAT DID YOU SAY? ARE YOU ASHAMED OF BEING FRENCH??!!!

Poor (rich) Tiger Woods got this treatment after acknowledging/including his Asian ancestry and that was his mother, not two generations hence..

It really is daunting to see so many people who already have an irrational stigma associated with their racial heritage be so severely complicit in their own oppression! Why? This was the dream of America to be 'one from many'. Today, the attitude, instead of improving among many, has given way to political and social forces that seek to separate us.

We are all African, incidentally, if one goes back far enough in the human family. It is no great mystery why people spending more generations in sunny parts of the planet have more melanin protecting them than people dwelling in overcast areas, where they are lighter. Color isn't the only racial (environmental) attribute. Why people with huge rib cages and lungs live in higher altitudes, or people with long legs and great height live in the tall grass, where those who spot predators first and run the fastest survive or those who climb trees in rainforests are lighter skinned and smaller, etc.

O. K. Finchi, yeah, you struck a nerve.. Rant over. 😉

We all come from the Great Rift Valley in Africa.

2

I agree. I often wonder if it is perpetuated, in part, in the simple need to describe someone to another person. Finding the words to refer to share a story for example - ' I was hanging out with Madeline. You know Madeline? I go shopping with her sometimes, with the beautiful curly hair?" - but all to often, the easiest adjective that comes to mind is black, white, brown, asian, etc. We need a list of adjectives beyond color and weight. Much better choices could be classy, laid back, outgoing, bubbly, shy, quick witted.

Somebody asked me one time how many black people did I go to school with, I said I didn't know and I still don't. It never occurred to me to count. I don't know how many Latinos, Italians, jews or any other type of people I went to school with, I was to busy having fun to worry about what kind of people were around me. In all fairness this was 35 yrs ago, I didn't have to worry about mass shooters, race riots, gang violence, bringing guns to school or getting arrested for bringing butter knives or nail clippers. All I worried about was getting high, partying and keeping my grades up to play sports.

1

If you’re tired of it, imagine for one second how sick POC are of living it?
Claiming Colorblindness doesn’t help or fix anything.is anyone “guilty” of past transgressions? No, but you are responsible for your part in dismantling privilege today.

1

Yeah, that worked really well in the 1930s in Germ,any. I am still suffering from the consequences of that strategy. How about we let our action take care of changing our prejudices. It's more work but will eventually work all the kinks out of our Weltanschaung.

lol how embarrassingly public! How did you know my Weltanschaung was kinky?

hahaha what a fun word! My equivalent is 'humans are one pretty screwed up species'.

1

I can't wait for the day when we just judge people based on their merits alone. As far as I'm concerend nothing else matters.

1

It doesn't matter what we think..it's how the world perceives us, and for some weird reason, white people are currently the top status in color.

No matter where I've lived, to my shock, people still judge you by your skin color..even in Haiti where almost everyone is coal black, and very African. If your skin is lighter, you are often assigned "elite" status.

1

This just a side comment but with DNA sampling a lot of us are finding out we are not what we seem

Shep Level 4 Apr 11, 2018
1

I agree, and when asked I just say that I'm a human being, and that usually shuts them up. I disdain identifying with labels.

1

I am color blind..... nuff said

1

I don't approve of prejudice of any kind and agree it's childish. Not many individuals in this group seem to dwell in racism, FinchiMcQ. You might be preaching to the choir here.

I have learned to see skin tone as a superficial spectrum from light to dark. My brother got his genome and our ancestors come from North Africa. My understanding is that the human species as a whole originated in the heart of Africa and that Africans today are their direct descendants. When a splinter group formed from that original group and headed North, I have genes from that second group and I am Jewish, Greek, German.

There's no need for prejudice, we're all related. And the only reason I see for classifying anything is for further understanding.

Curious what you experienced here that made you post this.

0

What piss off the religious especially the racist religious is science has proved that we ALL are descened from from one african male 60 thousand years ago and one african female over a 200,000 years ago . For this is enough for them to hold oh to their delusion

Shep Level 4 Apr 15, 2018

You can't believe everything, but lets keep an open mind...

DNA supported

0

I notice colour who doesnt - I am not colour blind but it doesnt affect how I am with anybody if someoen is ok with me I ma ok with them - Lots of twisted peopel of all colours and to call white people white, is weird I am only white when I have a shock or are sick, I am sort of yellowy browny pink.

I think that today the most racist people around aren't even white!
and I'd like to add that Religion is the worst.

0

I agree, except for cultural standards. Sadly for me, there is only one culture, the industrial culture. Before that there were many, each in response to the environment in which it evolved.

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