Equal opportunity racism at UVa

[RACooper]

Originally posted by MysticCat81
Why is it a discriminatory definition? And how does it excuse acts from one group?

That's like saying one excuses defamatory statements that are not in writing by refusing to call them "libel." But such defamatory statements are not excused, they are just given a different name -- slander -- because they don't fit the definition of libel.

By that same token, and again assuming the more limited definition of "racism," saying that an act like the one described at the start of this thread is not "racist" doesn't excuse the act; it just says that "racism" is not the correct label for it.

Personally, I think there is some value in insisting on precise definitions of words like "racism." Otherwise, such words can become so vague and overused that they start to lose any real meaning.

I just felt that it was a discriminatory definition because it was based upon a social power structure.... I've always seen racism and bigotry being different sides of the same coin, both operating on different levels but equally damaging to society.

To me "Racism" is based on the misguided and ingnorant belief that attributes such as intellect, or moral character are genically determined - usually based upon the false foundation that one's ethnic background is superior to others - whether or not that belief is mirrored by the power structure of society - to me power is an aspect of racism but not the primary determining characteristic.

[Tom Earp]

Good, Bad or indifferent, We have become so Political Sensatized that there is no way anyone can give credit to anyone of any color.

No, No, No, that is wrong via someones defenition.

Just who ever this person was, maybe He was jsut trying to have FUN, You Know What FUN is dont any of you!?

RC, Rudey, Give it a Friggen Rest. You are not impressing anyone with your shit!

Wonder how mature you are!

Yes, ???!

Is there Goose and Gander, Tit for Tat on here? It is one way, but not the other?

Dont bring up Histoy for crying out loud!

We have to may other things to worrry about! Staying on Campi no matter whether of Color or any damn thing else!

[NewBee]

Um what about the movie White Chicks?

[Dionysus]

Originally posted by NewBee
Um what about the movie White Chicks?

Funny, funny movie!

[Rudey]

Originally posted by Tom Earp
Good, Bad or indifferent, We have become so Political Sensatized that there is no way anyone can give credit to anyone of any color.

No, No, No, that is wrong via someones defenition.

Just who ever this person was, maybe He was jsut trying to have FUN, You Know What FUN is dont any of you!?

RC, Rudey, Give it a Friggen Rest. You are not impressing anyone with your shit!

Wonder how mature you are!

Yes, ???!

You never learn do you old man? Never huh?

Well while your busy cursing at me, keep protecting your brother who brags about people calling him a racist and anti-semite in real life. Keep protecting your brother who takes joy in murder and makes death threats.

You never learn. You don't even listen to your own brothers and other Greekchat moderators who told you to stop talking to me and stop trying to pick fights with me.

Well of course you would also stick up for RACooper when you told blacks to go back to Africa and said Jewish girls were sluts. Maybe I should add your quotes back into my signature since you just can't learn and can't stop harassing me.

-Rudey

[IowaStatePhiPsi]

if whites should accept "whiteface" then it is only fair and equal that blacks should accept "blackface"
If you dont like "blackface" then dont tell people "whiteface" is ok.
Unless, of course, you like discriminating against one group and not another...

[KSigkid]

My understanding has always been that whiteface just doesn't have the same historical significance as blackface. While whiteface can be seen as tasteless, blackface had a very real historical racist meaning for long period of years, and still to this day.

Personally, it doesn't matter to me if someone's in white face or not; I think there are more clever costumes out there, but that's just me. As for blackface, I feel like it's another level. But I'm not exactly an expert on this, being a white kid from New England.

[PiPhiGirl2005]

Originally posted by Kimmie1913
What exactly was the derrogatory stereotype being depicted in the whiteface incident?

I am just curious as to what other than simply the whiteface makeup, made his depiction so offensive and demeaning to white people.

It's not that the incident in and of itself is offensive or necessarily demeaning. It is, however, ridiculous and offensive that the black student who intentionally portrayed white stereotypes is not receiving the same treatment as the white students who intentionally portrayed black stereotypes.

I have to agree with Wine&SilverBlue when she says that groups should be held equally accountable for equal actions. And regardless of history or what racial group is being sterotyped, one group is intentionally and negatively portraying a stereotype of another group. That's not right no matter who does it.

[SigmaChiGuy]

History can kiss my ass. Hypocritical is hypocritical - yesterday, today, tomorrow. If someone who is black and wears whiteface, it is just as bad as some white kid wearing blackface. I don't care what my buddies grand-daddy did to your grand-daddy. That was then, this is now.

[valkyrie]

Originally posted by SigmaChiGuy
History can kiss my ass. Hypocritical is hypocritical - yesterday, today, tomorrow. If someone who is black and wears whiteface, it is just as bad as some white kid wearing blackface. I don't care what my buddies grand-daddy did to your grand-daddy. That was then, this is now.

If you were the grandchild of a slave who was beaten and raped by her "master" I can damn well bet you wouldn't be saying that history can kiss your ass. If you think people just get over hundreds of years of abuse you're incredibly lacking in empathy.

[Munchkin03]

Originally posted by Rudey

Well of course you would also stick up for RACooper when you told blacks to go back to Africa and said Jewish girls were sluts. Maybe I should add your quotes back into my signature since you just can't learn and can't stop harassing me.

Don't forget, he's also dropped the N-bomb on GC, before he was called out on it.

I'd trust my 4-year-old nephew and his T-ball team to discuss matters of race more articulately.

[Tom Earp]

Please give your whormones a rest R. U show your jockey shorts like a flag

The problem with your analogies is that they are always taken out of context as usual. God, leave well alone enough alone instead of makeing more of an ass out of yourself.

White/Black/Yellow/Red/ just what the Hell does it matter in the small part of life when We as Greeks are trying to Grow when so many are trying to tear us down.

Self importance gets very underwhelming when We are all gone.

munchkin, I would expect more from you than this! WOW The N word, used in a context, not calling anyone that word!

God it is so sad from some who profess to be so smart.

[gphib_95]

Personally I don't find anything wrong with this guy dressing up as a white person. But I also did not see anything wrong with the white guys that dressed up as rappers for halloween either. But if you want everyone to be treated as equals and one group gets punished, I think the other group should be punished as well. If we don't do this, who will be the judge of who gets punished and who will not? Lets just treat everyone the same.

And for the person who said that this guy was not doing this to make fun of white people, how many white guys do you know that wear pink polo's with a shirt over their shoulder? He was obviously catering to a stereotype.

One last question. When I was in 6th grade, me and two of my friends were Diana Ross and the Supremes for a Lip Sync contest. We painted our skin black and wore black wigs and sequin dresses. Was that wrong? I did not think it was, but it might have offended someone. Was dressing as a rapper or a preppy white guy wrong? Who gets to decide? Just a thought.

[hoosier]

Originally posted by TheEpitome1920
I like this definition of racism:

Racism is an ideological, structural and historic stratification process by which the population of European descent, through its individual and institutional distress patterns, intentionally has been able to sustain, to its own best advantage, the dynamic mechanics of upward or downward mobility (of fluid status assignment) to the general disadvantage of the population designated as non-white (on a global scale), using skin color, gender, class, ethnicity or nonwestern nationality as the main indexical criteria used for enforcing differential resource allocation decisions that contribute to decisive changes in relative racial standing in ways most favoring the populations designated as 'white.'

--Taken from the Center for the Study of White American Culture

I don't think much of it.

The Center (I'm sure it's wonderful) must get paid per word, not per intelligent thought.

What is an "institutional distress pattern"?

Are mechanics which are "dynamic" beter or worse?

Is a "differential resource allocation decision" not just a choice?

It's just an attempt to pass off garbage as academic work.

[Lovely_gurl]

Originally posted by Wine&SilverBlue
Forget the definition of racism.

I think that if it's bad for a white person to do [xxxx] to a black person, it should be equally bad for a black person to do [xxxx] to a white person. Or an asian person. Or indian person. Etc.

I've seen plenty of situations in which a group of people of a minority race said/did things that would make headlines if the groups were reversed.

All I'm saying is that I think groups should be held equally accountable for equal actions.

/endrant

That is just it. The action is NOT equal because the two races are still NOT treated "equally" in our society. (And unless YOU are an African American person in our society, you do not have the perspective or right to state otherwise.) While some may argue that the environment has improved considerably for minorities in our country, we still have much further to go. And even when/if we get there, because of the deep historically negative and ugly roots of black opression (not to mention the conotation of "blackface") in our country's history, a Halloween costume that has a white person painting his face black will NEVER be funny. It will only be threatening and/or obscenely insensitive to anyone who is non-white.

Think about the movie "WHITE CHICKS" that was released this summer....stupid, but dang funny!....because it was COMEDY! And, as several others have pointed out, it's not the "race in power" making fun of a race in the minority. Rather, it's the opposite....no harm done at all....nothing said or done hurts or conjurs up negative images of past oppression because we were NOT oppressed in this way...it's just comedic.

This movie, if reversed, would NEVER be viewed with humor...and you can call it "double standard" if you like....but the "double standard" is because there is nothing negative or inherently threatening to "whiteface"....not in the way that a white guy painted up in "blackface" evokes hurt, anger, resentment, and conjurs deep wounded memories of a horrible, fearful time in our nation for generations of an entire race...and not "100 years ago" either....but a mere 35 years ago in this country...widespread laws that separated the races....(and most would argue still exist on a non-legistlated, informal level today)... And this adverse culture and climate was CREATED and is often still perpetuated by white America's "superiority" and dominance over an entire race of people...so if in fact, there is a double standard, we have earned it and must accept that with a little less defensiveness. Those of us who were born white Americans have never had to "walk a mile" in the shoes of those who have been subjected to this kind of hate and blind prejudice by people who had/have the power to deprive us of our wants and desires. So, in my opinion, until we are in that position, like it or not, we don't have the right to cry "racism".