It’s not true that we don’t have speech rights in this country.
In fact, you are free to republish and distribute pretty much any type of race-based commentary you like…
White girls theyre pretty funny
Sometimes they drive me mad
Black girls just wanna get f*cked all night
I just don’t have that much jam
So long as you set it to music.
And you need a spell-checker, richfisher.
A’dam:
“Were these three details – age, gender, race – used only to paint a more vivid scene?” – Not exactly, they are used to relate how he experienced the situation. It’s normal to notice and mention race and other generic stuff as it’s experienced in a public situation where you don’t otherwise know much about the person. It would be quite artificial to not mention race if it was part of one’s experience.
“if the child had been white, I suspect his anecdote wouldn’t have mentioned race at all” . . . that’s right, because, as I explained, it’s not normal to mention the race when that race is the majority. It’s redundant. In a mostly black context, I will probably mention if someone is white.
“on a blog that has a history of perpetuating and condoning racial stereotyping” – A’dam . . . here I think it is YOU stereotyping people on this blog . . . thinking we’re all red-necks or something (metaphorically speaking – I personally have nothing against people with red necks). What is the case, however, is that people on this blog do tend to be less reverential about political correctness. Personally, I find this refreshingly honest.
Kate was bang-on with her assessment, A’dam…you are dense!
As I said before, “white” is not an ethnicity. Whitmore is a white pedophile…with a name of Whitmore, I suspect he has an English ethnicity, but this is not for certain. I am not aware of any statistics that indicate that that the English are more prone to pedophilia than any other ethnicity. Are you?
For that matter, I’m not aware of any statistics linking ANY ethnicity to a propensity for pedophilia. Therefore, when talking about a pedophile, race is apparently NOT a factor.
There ARE statistics that indicate that blacks (particularly Jamaicans, in the Toronto area at least) and aboriginals account for an inordinately large percentage of the violent crimes (and likely other anti-social behaviour) in Canada. So, when talking about violent crimes (and, potentially, other anti-social behaviour), race/ethnicity IS a factor.
Duh!
If we were talking about organized crime, we’d be primarily fingering the Italian mafia (exclusively “white”). So, when someone says “organized crime”, everyone first thinks “Aha! Those durned Italians!” and NO ONE squeals about racism, even though the same arguments you’ve been putting forward would apply. Not all Italians are involved in organized crime, but an inordinately large percentage of “organized criminals” are Italian…not all Jamaicans are violent criminals, but an inordinately large percentage of violent criminals are Jamaican.
Get over it, buddy.
A’dam — since you asked, I think that Sheik’s latest comments identify a real problem — a problem that I have heard described by members of the Black community itself . . . young black males lack positive role models. Political correctness may try to prevent us from naming something like this, but if we do not name it, recognize it, then nothing can be done to address the issue. Young Black males lack positive male role models for a very understandable reason . . . marriage before childbearing is not a central part of the culture, and I also believe that this cultural reality is a residual effect of slavery where cohesive family units among Blacks were deliberately prevented. The lack of positive male role models is also an important force in Black gang culture. (There are other types of racial gangs, of course, but here I am primarily talking about what I think is a specific driver among Black youth gangs.) I am not sure what would account for the apparent indifference of the mother in not disciplining her child in Sheik’s original story . . . maybe some of the women in this group have just given up — and who could blame them? While the difficulties being experienced in our Black communities are understandable, it is also important for all of us to find some way to fix these problems. I think that to some degree, refusing to name the problem in an effort to be politically correct is akin to putting on blinders, and it does a disservice to everyone.
I used to work in a call centre in eastern Scarborough. It was a racially mixed environment; I’d say roughly 1/3 white, 1/3 black, and 1/3 “other” (middle eastern, asian, south american, etc.)
My team of ten had three black members, two women and a man. The man was married to a woman who worked on another team at the company; both of them were as polite, well-mannered, and professional as anyone I’ve known, and I always enjoyed their company, both at work and at social events. (Both were top performers at their jobs, as well.)
One of the women was a mother, living with her husband and their three kids. Besides working a full day at the call centre, she also painted and sketched, and one of her proudest moments was announcing to our team her showing at a local art gallery.
The other woman had been working as a stripper, and she wanted to get out of that life. However, the vastly higher amounts of money she was offered to take her clothes off won out, and she left the team after about six months.
But that was my team; on other teams, there were blacks who dressed in strict ghetto style – do-rags, pants falling off their waists, NBA jerseys, etc. While standing near their group during breaks, I began to hear terms such as “baby mother”; for those who don’t know, that’s a woman who the “man” (and I use the term loosely) has had a baby with, but has no significant relationship with the woman.
And I remember one day when the women on my team were all huddled together, discussing something in shocked tones. After some probing, they admitted to me that someone had gone into the women’s washroom, and smeared feces all over the walls and sinks. I too was shocked, and asked “Who would do something like that?”. The (black) artist woman I mentioned earlier looked me straight in the eye and said “Some nigger.”.
My point? There are many black people in Toronto who are just like every “normal” citizen I know; they live by the law, they work, they marry, they have children they love and try to raise to be good citizens. I’ll go so far as to say that most black people in Toronto fit this profile.
But there is also a black sub-culture where men abandon their children, where women give birth to kids from several fathers (did no one else notice that Ephraim Brown’s sisters had different last names, “Brown” and “Taylor”?), and where 11-year olds have birthday parties lasting until 1:00 am in the morning. I’m not saying any of these type of behaviours are unknown among white people, but I will say they are relatively rare compared to the black community.
Unfortunately, the decent, hard-working, family oriented black people I described get zero press, just as all the good things our troops are doing in Afghanistan are minimized while every death or injury gets front page coverage. I would never
paint every black person with the “Jane/Finch” brush, but to ignore that there are a lot of aggressive, armed, angry young black men in Toronto is to stick your head deeper in the sand than David Miller has. And where do those armed, angry, aggressive young black men get their start? By being angry, aggressive black kids whose mothers don’t bother to discipline them, and who don’t have fathers around to take up the slack.
So I understand Sheik’s post; he sees the cycle perpetuating itself, and he feels compelled to mention it. I don’t blame him. We used to live in a world where ‘shame’ was a moderating force. Now, pace Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and Nick Nolte, shame is just another tool for amping their publicity.
Am I prejudiced? Probably. If I meet a black man who is dressed in a suit and tie, who speaks English properly (not “Yo, man, wassup?”), and who seems to accept the same basic values that I do, I’m more than willing to treat him like I would treat any white man who met the same criteria. And when I see a black man dressed in “gangsta” clothes, with corn-rows or dreadlocks – I’ll cross the street.
When anyone puts on clothes, makeup, and styles their hair, they are deliberately putting on a face for the world outside. So long as a persistent black minority wants to portray themselves as “gangstas”, the white majority (and the Chinese community, who almost uniformly loathe blacks) will continue to distrust and fear them.
A’dam may not like any of this, but this is an honest reflection of Toronto’s reality; if he doubts it, I encourage him to contact me directly. I’ll show him what he needs to change his mind.
KevinB: Am I prejudiced? Probably.
THANK YOU, KevinB! Hell, I’m prejudiced too. At least acknowledging THAT is the first step towards a less prejudiced society. That’s all I’m trying to get people here to admit.
***For those who believe themselves to be free of racial prejudice, I recommend going here and taking the “Race IAT” demonstration test. I guarantee it will open your eyes.***
Unfortunately, the decent, hard-working, family oriented black people I described get zero press…
That would be one example of the systemic structural discrimination I referred to earlier. You’ll also note that I referred earlier to the need for the black community to address its own problems, including critical reflection on the “ghetto subculture,” parenting arrangements, the relative lack of positive role models, etc. So, we are mostly in agreement here.
I would never paint every black person with the “Jane/Finch” brush…
And this is the crux of the issue for me. The fact is, there are certain posters here who would paint with that brush. My problem is with them.
“My problem is with them.”
A’dam
Your problem is with you.