I Am Not a Costume!

[DrPhil]

I do not think southernbelle14 understands that it was predominantly (or only? I don't know) the white GCers who said the whiteface is not offensive.

Originally Posted by southernbelle14

B) DrPhil, you seem extremely hostile toward white people.

This common response is only worthy of other common responses:

"I am still waiting on my 40 Acres and a Mule."

"Some of my bestfriends are white."

"I have white people in my family."

"Why can't we all just get along."

Originally Posted by southernbelle14

If you want to make a valid argument, I personally believe you need to leave out all your generalizations of white people. It's the same as if I made some generalization about black people, which I'm sure you would not appreciate.

Valid arguments actually work best when they are based on generalizations instead of individual perspectives and opinions. There are millions of people in this world so these topics are not limited to "I" and "you." Imagine how many social movements would have been lost if people were unable to see the larger pattern and instead said "but not EVERYONE feels this way so that means it can't be even remotely plausible!!!"

But, I am sure you were really talking about stereotypes rather than a generalization. They seem similar but they are not the same thing. So, if you can think of a generalization (based on trends and patterns across Black people) that is actually accurate, have at it. Here is one for you in case you are confused: African Americans are often not (read: generally speaking) conscious of racial sensitivity when it comes to depictions of white people.

That generalization does not mean that all African Americans are unconscious of this or that all African Americans are racially insensitive towards white people.

As for why this generalization may be the case:

There are generations of theorists, researchers, and practitioners who examine this and there are a number of possible explanations, including what some GCers have already stated or implied. Negative depictions towards whites are relatively rare across most contexts and there is a question as to whether there is a lasting negative impact (which can be different than the lasting impact of negative portrayals of various white ethnic groups). That does not mean that negative depictions of whites are not racially insensitive or dumb. It means that racism and discrimination are rooted in power. "White Chicks" and other rare media depictions of white people would never have occurred if the white bosses (read: the bosses of these Black people) believed that the social cost of depicting white people outweighed the financial gain.