Karenmania running wild
- Thread starter NYShoreGuy
- Start date
This can be true of many communities where there is a majority and minority group. If I started a business in Harlem or Chinatown, I would face barriers and not get the benefit of the doubt compared to others. Should we call that Black or Chinese privilege? When a poor and uneducated kid from West Virginia comes to NYC, and people look at him differently or as a threat is that urban privilege?
Using skin color in divisive phrases doesn’t move the ball forward. It’s actually racist.
I guess the question is how far do we go with reputations? How many people do you know where you say the father is a good man so I assume the son is a good man. Or the father was a good ball player so the son should be good. Those preconceived notions happen in everything we do. It happens both positively and negatively. Is that something we can knock out of culture? I doubt it. We’d have to robots with no emotions in order for that to happen in my opinion. However we can change perceptions. When school starts in September that second child in my example will likely have a target on his or her back. However by October that preconceived notion is gone and will have taken that target off their back based on their actions. Maybe I’m wrong to believe this but if we have 2 straight years of white men committing the most violent crimes in society, police will focus on white men.
It's an all encompassing phrase which covers many different aspects of life across an entire country. If you are narrowing on a zip code to make a counter argument, you are kind of missing the point. Yes, it would be more difficult to open a store that caters to white people in a black neighborhood. Luckily they have the rest of the country to choose from.
That's part of the point. If that person is white, they will receive the benefit of the doubt in more parts of this country based on the color of their skin alone.
It's not divisive to me at all. You are interpreting it in that way.
It's just recognizing that the life experiences of a minority group are different than the majority group.
Whiteness is normal in our culture. What year did band-aid first market "flesh colored" band aids? What year did they market one that woul be a closer match for black people?
Growing up, watching TV or collecting comic books did you think about why most characters were white? Or did you just think that's normal? Were most of your teachers white? Police officers? Politicians? When you went to the store, did your parents have to explain to you why you can't find the products they need in the general sections of a store and were in the ethnic section instead.
It doesn't mean that the intentions behind any of that were inherently racist, but there are some psychological implications growing up in a category of "normal" vs "other".
That extends further to other aspects of life as well. Hard to summarize it all on a message board
You are making a rather narrow and racist response here. Why would you assume the store would only cater to "white" people? If I am opening a store in that community, I would face barriers and acceptance purely based on the color of my skin; similar to what you are indicating on a national level. What if I grew up as a minority in Harlem and had family or responsibilities where moving was not an option?
Most of what you are describing is marketing activities and companies strategies at that point in time. We have an incredibly diverse in our country today and those same products and commercials have representation of races, but also lifestyles.
We are all shaped by the environments we grow up in but to boil everything down to black or white is superficial and myopic. If I grew up in Harlem, my "normal" vs. "other" view as you termed it would be quite different.
BTW, I grew up in an ethnically and racially diverse blue collar town and "Italian" food was found in the ethnic section and was pretty awful.
The life experiences of a minority group are always different than the majority group, but to limit the conversation to "white" and "black" is a disservice to any/all minorities and is divisive just in the terminology that is being used.
Holy cow, this is nuts. I expect better from you.
Band aids are racist! TV is racist! Comic books are racist! Schools are racist! Police and politicians too! Even grocery stores!
We are doomed with people who think like this out in the world.
Not remotely close to what I said. I actually specifically said they aren't racist.
I used to share the opinions of the consensus here until I talked to black people and researched the studies on what white privilege actually meant.
When did you start "talking to black people"? Probably something many of us have been doing our entire life. I can now understand why you have this guilt.
See this is why it gets pointless with you. I try to have a good faith conversation and you keep trying to find something to nitpick about
I was clearly talking about when I spoke to black people about this issue, and my answer is while I was in college.
If your takeaway was that I was suggesting that those things are racist after I said "It doesn't mean that the intentions behind any of that were inherently racist"... then no you don't.
lol...pointless to have a discussion, when I posed the question earlier about how the black experience can be different based on how you define black. I'm trying to have a discussion beyond "black and white" which does nothing but create division and broad statements that don't enable any kind of fruitful discussion on solving the problem of racism.
Maybe I'm fortunate, but I never looked at this as getting enlightened on the subject, since I have gone to school, socialized, lived, and worked with minorities for my entire life.
Again, a lot gets lost over a text discussion... but if me saying that those things were not inherently racist was not clear to you... let me rephrase.
Those items I listed are not racist. They are just examples of a different experience.
You're privy to the presence or absence of adversity that total strangers have encountered, or if and for how long they had their parents? The only thing apparent is your ignorance.
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I think what Merge is saying has some merit. At first, I was appalled by the "white privilege" term, but if you look at it as "benefit of the doubt," I think that removes the connotation of wealth and being handed things without hard work. That said, implicit bias is something we all have. Blacks prefer blacks, and whites prefer whites, by and large. It goes back millennia. So, because whites outnumber blacks 9:1 in this country, it presents a problem. How we fix something so tied into human nature, I don't know. Drawing attention to it, without the "Karen" pejoratives, is a good start. Past that, I've got nothing.
https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2020/07/13/1-year-old-boy-shot-to-death-outside-brooklyn-playground/
In the meantime....awful, very sad.
In the meantime....awful, very sad.
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