And furthermore, my family put no one through bullshit. My family came over here from Ireland in 1914. Nobody in my family owned anybody else. EVER.

Someone here is showing racial hatred. Three guesses.

You know what's shameful? That we're sitting here arguing about that silly woman while a TRUE leader for his race, a man who fought for justice for his people is lying in a hospital in South Africa, in critical condition. Some news sources hinting that this icon is nearing the end of his days.

God Bless Nelson Mandela.

I must say that I agree here. It's not fair to group all white people together just because of a terrible few. While we still have a long way to go in terms of racism, reverse racism doesn't help the situation, in my opinion.

The bolded cliche' is a quick fix fantasy that has been used for generations. It is the foundation for acculturation and assimilation in the United States of America. The technicality of dropping hyphens is the same thing as "colorblindness". It boils down to a false rainbow pissing pony routine of pretending as though every citizen of the United States of America is the exact same. Then it involves shaming groups of people for identifying with their racial, ethnic, cultural, language, religious, and cultural origins that span beyond the United States of America. Humans cannot multitask and therefore everyone has to pretend to be carbon copies of whatever defines "America" for that generation.

IotaGuy's language is shortsighted and colorful (definitely no pun intended) but IotaGuy is definitely not too young to experience social inequalities rooted in race and ethnicity and the remnants of slavery, Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights Movement. If a 20-30-something year old homosexual man said that he experienced heterocentrism and oppression on the part of heterocentric individuals and institutions, he would hopefully not be told he is too young to know what is going on around him.

;) Well, since you took this discussion personally and falsely believe this boils down to your family and slave ownership, you should read historian Noel Ignatiev's How the Irish Became White.

This is a common response when discussing social inequalities. People pretend as though we cannot multitask (similar to the "we are American" thing). Certainly you do not think Greekchat should shut down all of its threads until 94 year old Nelson Mandela either recovers or is blessed to transcend into the afterlife.

By the way, do not use the phrase "leader for his race". Mandela fought for justice, is someone who I was raised to research and know a great deal about, but Mandela himself would not want his battles to be reduced to leadership for a particular race and ethnicity. Nelson Mandela is a leader in the world, period, and his impact is not relegated to the racial and ethnic category with which he proudly identifies. Just as you would not call the many white icons and leaders around the world leaders for the white race.

:) But thanks for reminding me of how annoyed I was with this article a few days ago: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...ep-segregatio/

Dear Whites,

Please stop using this phrase. And please stop confusing discomfort with racism.

With Love and Respect,
DrPhil

Thanks for the lecture, Phil. You imply that AMERICANS cannot recognize, nor can they respect the fact that indeed we are all from different backgrounds and have such a varied historical heritage. I happen to think it's way cool, actually.

As for the other, I don't care. I'm glad you have love and respect, however.

I see that you failed to start a thread on Mr. Mandela, yet you chastise those on this board for not discussing that current event. Were you serious?

At this point, he is an icon for the world and not just those of African descent. But keep on digging that hole.

Wow, sucks to be some of you! All that bitterness must sting :(

We can recognize it, as long as we recognize the systemic attempts by the white majority to wipe out all African cultural heritage for the first, oh, 400 years that whites were on this continent.

I think someone has been watching too much Fox News.

Mizeree I2K is right and you are wrong. After every black man whose neck was hung and stretched from a tree. After every black man whose testicles were cut and castrated. After every black man whose body was stoked and burned to ashes over fiery coals. After every one of the black women who were violently gang-raped over and over. After every pregnant black woman who was savagely beaten until the unborn child fell from her womb…you have the nerve…the nerve to open your mouth and speak such vile ignorance? You are a disgust not only to your own race, but to the human race. You need to take your own hand, and just smack the hell out of yourself.

Talking about "Slavery is in the past"? No, slavery is in the present! Locked-up in our slave brains, because we are still being a devil-damned slave to the white man, today!

"European Americans" have inherited what our parents have passed on to us. The children of slaves, and they, the slave master's children, have inherited all that our fore parents have accumulated yesterday. The question is what is the difference between what we have inherited and what they have inherited? They ("European Americans") are the beneficiaries economically, attitudinally, politically, and socially.

We are the inheritors of everything that our fore parents accumulated as slaves, economically, attitudinally, politically, and socially…which turns out to be a big bunch of pain. We inherited the consequential after-effects of centuries of mental, emotional, and physical abuse, while our white counterparts today, are directly benefiting today, from the suffering of our parents, yesterday.

Our little white "friends" that we compete with today have started off many laps behind the game in handicapped conditions of injury. And they are still deathly afraid to run against our greatness. There is no true equity.

We inherited the past. As a result of slavery, we inherited stress, inferiority, self-hate, insanity, and an automatic social condemnation. As a result of slavery, our little white "friends" inherited a self-confidence, money, and automatic social status. Yes, today is effected by yesterday.

"European Americans" are benefiting from what happened then, although they may not directly know it. We are suffering from what happened then, although we may not directly know it. And for those of you "other" white people who believe you are free and clear of guilt, you are not. Whether you are Irish, Italian, Polish, German, Scottish, British etc. etc. etc. as long as you are living in America, you are also DIRECTLY benefiting from the same thing.

The oppression of slavery hasn't changed, just the technology of that oppression. Ancient to modern. Yesterday to today.

meh.. oppression olympics as previously noted. Let's also recognize that whites did the same thing, perhaps worse, to Native Americans, and did it in a more overt way by slaughtering them and then attempting an overt cultural genocide.

Historically, black Americans' plight really isn't all that different or special. It is just one group which was oppressed and/or enslaved for a period of time. Historically speaking, those groups tend to do better when they assimilate rather than not.

Also, while I hear a lot of gritching about this dominant culture, what is the alternative to assimilation? Making up your own culture from scratch just because of your own perceived differences in skin pigmentation? Isn't it true that many, if not most black Americans have some European ancestry as well? Is that insignificant in your forming of your cultural identity?

I was really trying to stay out of this thread, but this is just so arrogantly stupid!!!

As a white female from a middle class family born in the eighties I think I will never know oppression the way a lot of minorities have in the past, and a lot of those groups still experience it today. Who am I to decide for another when they get to feel oppressed. I think a lot of people with my background, are very unaware of the fact that, usually, it's a lot easier to be white, and that a lot of oppression and discrimination based on skin color and heritage still occurs.

I think a lot op people try not to be racist, and "not see color". But, from a psychological prospective, people tend to feel most at ease around those they perceive to be "like them". Does feeling more at ease around people who look, act, talk like you and have the same cultural background make you racist? Not in my book. But to me, excluding, oppressing, distrusting and avoiding another culture does.

HEY EVERYONE SEN'S BACK HOOORAYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

<3