Thanks for Racism?

[Jeremy David]

On 6/2/06, Chris Rapier <rapier1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >         Excuse me, I don't mean to put words in anyone's mouth, but are you
> > honestly trying to justify saying that one racial / national group
> > are more reliable than others? Because that's is a generalization
> > that we most often refer to as racism.
>
> Yes and no. Manny was talking about culture and upbringing which
> doesn't necessarily have anything to do with race. Either way, Manny
> is correct in what he is saying. Some cultural groups place a
> different priority on things than other groups and the classification
> can be pretty clear cut. Like, I'd be much more likely to rely on a
> german to show up on time than an italian, or god forbid, a brazilian.

Let's not be silly here. Manny said that someone made a mistake by
doing business with what he called, "swarthy Middle Easterners looking
for a quick buck." Manny was clearly talking about race, not culture.
Manny is clearly saying that the owner of the Sphinx Cafe is
untrustworthy based on the fact that has dark skin. The word "swarthy"
clearly and specifically describes skin color, never culture. The
words "Middle Easterner" denotes no culture, since the Middle East is
a tapestry of dozens, if not hundreds of distinct cultures. Manny's
hateful remarks are clearly directed at Arabs and perhaps Farsi or
Persian peoples per any reasonable reading of his statements.

> Additionally, even though we may say "oh I would neever let that
> influence me", we'd be lying. We do let these things influence us and
> our interactiosn with other people. Anyone who says they don't is
> deluding themselves.

Yes, that's all true. But it's one thing to understand that you have
hidden motives when it comes to race relations, and it's quite another
to publicly deride an entire minority race of people.

Conversations like this really depress me in every sense of the word.
They make me sad, and they make me question the potential of trying to
do anything worthwhile at all. It's the 21st century, and we still
have to explain to Manny that his light colored skin doesn't make him
better than anybody else. I know that I live in a social bubble when
it comes to problems like this. I guess it just makes me pretty upset
to be reminded that this is how many people in the world think. I'm
sorry if dragging this conversation out aggravates people, but I feel
like if somebody doesn't speak up against this kind of dangerous
thinking, the problem will get worse not better.