Anti-racist week....does it make sense to you ?

[BruceVC]

7 hours ago, rjshae said:

I'm Anglo-Saxon by heritage. I don't consider myself "white" as such because to me that represents a number of different ethnic groups.

You make me laugh because this is something I have considered explaining on talk shows in SA. Sometimes we have some strange debates in SA around race and racial identity and these debates are not common say maybe 2-3 month on some talk shows or sometimes in a University on a specific public holiday and the topic could be something like " Were we sold a lie about our Democracy by Nelson Mandela  " or " Unpacking the reasons for Whiteness" and in these debates they normally last about 1 hour or so and the panels would normally be people who I consider more activists than people who have studied history and economics and this generally includes panelists who  are also white. So you generally accept that the topics and responses are sometimes not based on real historical context or actual data around something like economic inequality. But I try to watch them on TV because they interesting and you can learn new things, you just learn to ignore any uninformed or anti-white generalizations 

And sometimes someone brings up " how offensive it is to be called black" or sometimes even more rare " its offensive to be called black by a white person " and people insist they must be referred to as " African " and not black 

Now what always happens  is 99 % of all people after these debates go back to the normal way of referring to each  other as black and white because actually black people dont really mind calling themselves black as its just a collective term because in SA we have different black tribes and it would be impractical and basically impossible to know the actual correct name of the tribe or ethic group by just looking at the black persons appearance  so people just never do it. So we understand their is no such thing as " black " as its just a way of making a point that is around all black people in SA...it is not suppose to be seen in anyway as offensive 

But in closing their is also no such thing as " white" either. We are different ethic groups as you mentioned but the reality even the Europeans would mostly refer to themselves as white  in debates. So almost all my descendants can be traced to the UK, not all English as some come from Ireland and Wales,  and France. But we all actually Anglo-Saxon by real ethnic group. 

Now imagine what would happen in SA, and most of our countries,  in one of these debates where people are expressing " outrage " about white people calling " black people black " if you stood up as a white person and demanded that all people  "stop referring to you as white person because it is equally cultural insensitive to be called white because you are Anglo-Saxon "  

It would create real bedlam and chaos because many white people I know dont know their ancestral tree, and its easy to find out if you want to, and are happy to refer themselves as white

So I do agree that their is no such thing as white and we can argue this point and say I am Anglo-Saxon but the reality is its just a collective way of describing all white people in a normal way we debate and refer to ourselves so I would always encourage any white person to not get offended or think its something that we need to clarify because it just leads to more confusion or unnecessary invective when we all could be debating more substantive issues  

 

[Gorth]

5 hours ago, BruceVC said:

But in closing their is also no such thing as " white" either. We are different ethic groups as you mentioned but the reality even the Europeans would mostly refer to themselves as white  in debates. So almost all my descendants can be traced to the UK, not all English as some come from Ireland and Wales,  and France. But we all actually Anglo-Saxon by real ethnic group.

...as long as people don't lump me into the same group as Swedes and Norwegians (I'm so used to being asked if I'm German by now because of my accent I'm almost inclined to just say 'yes')

[Malcador]

Or worse, they can call you Australian

[rjshae]

17 hours ago, BruceVC said:

So I do agree that their is no such thing as white and we can argue this point and say I am Anglo-Saxon but the reality is its just a collective way of describing all white people in a normal way we debate and refer to ourselves so I would always encourage any white person to not get offended or think its something that we need to clarify because it just leads to more confusion or unnecessary invective when we all could be debating more substantive issues  

Well I'm not really sure what "black" means, so there's that. Is it just people from Africa below the equatorial belt? Is it people above a certain minimal level of melanin in their skin? If so, how much? It's such an ill-defined term.

[ComradeYellow]

Fun fact, some of the best destroyers of racists were in fact racist!

Spoiler

 

[kirottu]

On 3/20/2021 at 3:10 PM, Gorth said:

...as long as people don't lump me into the same group as Swedes and Norwegians (I'm so used to being asked if I'm German by now because of my accent I'm almost inclined to just say 'yes')

I wholeheartedly agree. I hate only two things: the racists and the swedes.

[Azdeus]

1 hour ago, kirottu said:

I wholeheartedly agree. I hate only two things: the racists and the swedes.

Agreed.

[rjshae]

1 hour ago, kirottu said:

I wholeheartedly agree. I hate only two things: the racists and the swedes.

That's the thing I find about Europe, everybody there hates somebody else. Pick any country and they hate some other country.

[Gfted1]

 

[BruceVC]

On 3/21/2021 at 2:02 PM, ComradeYellow said:

Fun fact, some of the best destroyers of racists were in fact racist!

  Reveal hidden contents

 

We know Stalin was a racist, no mystery their?

[BruceVC]

20 hours ago, rjshae said:

That's the thing I find about Europe, everybody there hates somebody else. Pick any country and they hate some other country.

Its not really hate, more like friendly cultural and nation rivalry 

Hates too strong of a word IMO ?

[ComradeYellow]

11 minutes ago, BruceVC said:

We know Stalin was a racist, no mystery their?

Look at Churchill's past and look at FDR's campaign rhetoric to win the Southern Democrats.

Also look at Lincoln's policies and campaign rhetoric in his early days.

Fact is, some of the most successful and virulent anti racists have a checkered history with racism.

I like how you single out Stalin btw, you astroturf weathered Anglo-extremist pro-western rhetoric like champ.

Edited March 22, 2021 by ComradeYellow

[BruceVC]

1 hour ago, ComradeYellow said:

Look at Churchill's past and look at FDR's campaign rhetoric to win the Southern Democrats.

Also look at Lincoln's policies and campaign rhetoric in his early days.

Fact is, some of the most successful and virulent anti racists have a checkered history with racism.

I like how you single out Stalin btw, you astroturf weathered Anglo-extremist pro-western rhetoric like champ.

Comrade you sound upset? Do you want talk about it?