how many think not being PC is racist/sexist?

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In my humble opinion, racism will never go away until race in any form is no longer a topic, or a part of the societal stories we live by. When we forget slavery, when we forget Martin Luther King, Jr., when we forget that people have different colored skin, when we forget that there is even a such thing as race, only then will racism go away.

Until that day, there will be racial hate, and racial pride. Both contribute equally to the subject and continuation of racism.

Note: Sure I'm 75% british and 25% welsh, but I don't give a flying rat's arse about the UK, I'm an American, I care about America (and fixing my broken nation).

See, I think you should be proud of your British ancestry. But then again I've always been somewhat of an anglophile (I have some british ancestry).

I really think the people who promote hatred are too STUPID to comprehend pride without hate. It is possible, they just can't figure out how (it's not like they want to though, right lol).

By no means do I hate the UK, and I would love to go see the homeland of my ancestors, most notably the Borough of London my last name comes from, and to visit any long-lost relatives due to my great-great-great-grandpa's being disowned from the family because of his conversion to Mormonism.

My point is simply this, I was born in America, I am an American citizen. As much as I may hate it 99% of the time, it is my home, and it is my responsibility to do what I can to make it a better place and well... keep it alive. Until, of course, I move out of the country and get citizenship somewhere else hahahaha!

Dude, there are other months nationally recognized to celebrate other cultures. White people just don't pay attention to them. September is National Hispanic Heritage Month. November is National Native American month. May is National Asian Heritage Month. Without looking at the calendar, I think those are the months. As I stated in another post, there are many opportunities for celebrating these events in places close to where I live. They're advertised in the newspaper, radio and television. When you go to these events, you'd be blown away at the number of people who attend. Just because White American doesn't taken them seriously, it doesn't mean the cultures themselves don't take them seriously.

We've exposed my kids to living history at these events and they've had experiences most White kids in this country will never have, understand or appreciate. My kids have met several of the last remaining Flying Tigers from WWII. They've been to a real Pow Wow and learned native American dance. They've taken Origami classes and learned to write their names in Chinese. They've been exposed to this stuff because my wife and I feel it's important to know culture and will help them get along with others when they grow up. This is particularly important raising an Autistic kid who has social issues. More than the rest, he needs to learn about other people and how to relate.

We've never been to anything where victimhood was a part of it. Nada.

Merr, I agree that history needs to be taught differenty. Regardless of what month we may set aside to celebrate a culture, when it comes to the classroom, African American history needs to be inclusive and mainstream books should not skirt the major contributions they've made. I did not fully understand the economics of slavery until I was in college because nobody taught me. Growing up White and upper middle class in 1960s America, secondary schools did not give you that type of education. All they did was praise the Founding Fathers, whom I admire, but they didn't teach that we would have lost the American Revolution had it not been for the Africans in this country because there weren't enough White men to fight the war. You talk about a major contribution! We'd still be speaking the Queen's English today had it not been for those contributions. I didn't learn that until I was a freshman in college. We also don't talk about how slavery built the economic foundation of this nation and had it not been for free labor, there's no way this country would have progressed in the amount of time it did. All we hear is about how hard other immigrants worked to build America when they came, but 150 years before they got here, Africans were doing that job without getting paid for it.

My concentration in college was science. It was only studying this field that I learned about people like Benjamin Banneker, Percy Julian, Ernst Just, Charles Drew... Even under some of the most poorest circumstances, we had African Americans achieving in areas of science but all we were taught in grade school was Benjamin Franklin and Einsten. And, from what I see, what they teach today hasn't improved much from when I was a kid. So, I do think African American history needs to be more mainstreamed. Then, people will see that not all of them play the victim card and hate America. Many of them made America what it is today.

P.S. Pretty much all the medicines and food products we injest today could be the byproducts of discoveries made by Percy Julian.


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/julian/

Educational outlets about culture don't always preach victimology, but BET and this "hip hop culture" often do. I'm not saying all rap is that way, there is a lot of positive rap out there. But culture is always created from the top, it's being exploited by rich powerful white men so they can use it as a propaganda tool to influence the black population. BET is ran by rich powerful white men who use this propaganda machine to fuel negative stereotypes about black people. That much is very obvious. Most of my friends here are black or hispanic, there really aren't very many white peers in my neighborhood. Criticism is not discrimination. They can criticise whites too, I won't take it offensively. This is how we learn about eachother, by not being too f*****g pansey to inquire, and not being too self-loathing like the average white liberal is to face the PC double standards. I assure you I'm not racist.
I'm not making a "racist" statement, I'm making an observation. Maybe they do have asian history or hispanic history months, but how would I have known? You come off like your condemning me for not having known, well it isn't like anyone ever told me, it's not like our country ever celebrated their history months. So how the hell was I supposed to know? The fact remains, I still believe they should teach more about EVERYONE'S history in school. That even goes beyond race, into other things like gender, disability, hell sexual orientation too.
Sounds to me like your probably faster to get offended than an actual black person. Because of your undying loyalty to a political label. Graduate high school and stop thinking in cliques, deal with unbias facts, then talk to me. I'm not liberal, I'm not conservative, I'm me. Did people not tell you in high school that you should stop being "punk" or "metal head" or "prep" or whomever you followed, and just BE YOURSELF? I don't understand why people need to define themselves by labels. I graduated out of this when I got my diploma.
The only difference between right and left is that the right is biased against minorities, the left is biased against majorities, I prefer to think for myself and call things down the middle, fair and equal, to both majorities and minorities. Not being biased against myself does not make me "racist".

Maybe I misunderstood you dude, if that's the case then I'll apologize. I'm just so used to idiots making stupid and overly-emotional accusations in the name of group think. If I read you wrong, I apologize.

I don't usually think anything of it.

Dude, I didn't get offended. You thought I was offended? How do you read "offense" into my reply? Take a breath and re-read the post.

Ya think hip hop culture is bad for Black Americans? What do you think the likes of Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and Amy Winehouse do for White America? Young, White girls idolize these women! I saw a poll that said girls would rather be like Britney Spears than they're own mothers. So, if you want to bash public images seen by African Americans, make sure you include the garbage exposed to White American kids while you're at it. Because the ones like I've listed are White, pretty and wealthy, we dismiss the fact that they're drug addicts, promiscuous and out of control.

I was never defending BET. How'd you come to that conclusion. Nowhere in my post do I say I am, so I don't know why you're preachin' to the choir. And, who said you were a racist? That came out of left field. Your hallelulaj sermon is a little bizarre. All I was saying is that there are other months to celebrate minorities, but many White Americans don't pay attention to them.

If you want to bash BET programming, I'm with ya. But, please bash all the lilly White shows on every network I would never let my kids watch in a million years. All of them perpetuate underage sex, pregnancy out of wedlock, drugs, witchcraft, sexual deviance (don't even want to go there), smoking, disrespecting parents, girls walking around looking like grown women or hookers, anorexia, you name it. Nearly all the programs out there are garbage and do nothing to make young, White Americans look good or provide role models in the media the same way BET has failed to do so.

Next time, you can make your point without cussing and re-read the post. I never got offended.

Hey, we must have posted simultaneously or something because I didn't see this before my last reply. No, I wasn't offended. No need to apologize. No offense was taken and I actually agree with you on BET. But, I think the other networks need to clean up their acts, too. That's what I said in my last post. However, if they did that, nobody would watch 'cause I think the kids today expect that type of trash on TV. I'm probably much older than you are so my take on all this is coming from an "older" person's perspective. What I'm seeing is not good.

Yes, the White execs at the networks get rich off of what BET is offering. But, African American parents need to stop buying it and protect their kids more. That stuff is so embedded in the psyche that young African American kids don't even mind calling themselves the "N" word or "B." Now, Whites do it. Imus is an example. Then, everybody's in an uproar. It's not right when anybody does it, but if they don't respect themselves it almost gives permission for boneheads to disrepect them. And...something I've learned is that even the good role models that you see on there like Beyonce still have something to be desired. Beyonce and Destiny's Child are high school drop outs. My wife said those girls dropped out of school in the 9th grade. In a way, that sends a bad message because it's like, "Don't go to school. You can sing and dance and become a millionaire." That's just as bad because that community needs the education. King said the way you fight discimination is education.

I agree, this is why white kids are the biggest trend whores on the planet. I truely think the PC attitude isn't at all the right way to go about understanding other cultures, because it's so flawed. I think we need to have more freedom to learn from one another, without being pitted against one another, so that we can ask questions about other races or genders, without fearing them getting offended or defensive.... PCness feeds more into this guilt complex where we're supposed to not question anything anyone does if they just happen to be a minority. We should be able to question them, they should be able to question us too. But above all we must be able to question ourselves. And I think team work is needed, for blacks, whites, browns, everyone..... It must also be understood that there are other reasons to disagree with a minority besides being racist. Take illegal immigration for instance, I do agree that we need to help Mexico out, just not at our own expense. No matter their color, you can't regulate an economic system when you've got no idea how many people are in your borders, no idea if theyr on the run or if they've got criminal records (and how can we prosecute a criminal if we've got no record of their existence in the first place?).... There are illegal white europeans, truth be told I'd be likely to be harder on them than hispanics because at least hispanics have an excuse (poverty). This is an example of a situation where we're being pitted against mexicans, instead we both, US and Mexican citizens, should understand one anothers' situations and work together to take down the REAL enemy, NAFTA.
As long as people are ignorant, the ruling elite will have an easier time controlling us and will pitt us against one another (when we should be fighting those "elite" together).... We're heading into a police state, and the time for the blame game has long gone. We're in this together, and if we fail to realise this, we've already lost.

Big business instigates much of this s**t, their just pushing us into this "New World Order". Their plan is for the working class to be enslaved. They want a one world government now.

That's the first step Tex.

The more race is a subject of discussion, the more racism will never go away.

But if that topic is American history, that topic incorporates all events in the known history of the country and if it doesn't surely it should?

My understanding is that black people were part of 2 major wars over there - the revolution and the civil war and through campaigning for equality have history in the politcal arena (as well as recent figures in high political positions). If other historical periods were looked at as a whole I'm sure it'd be easy to fit all ethnicities in.

That's how it works over here, we learn the history of Britain as a whole, along with bits from the rest of the world (not just Europe ).

Major events in history are not about to be forgotten, people are trying to gain more knowledge about the past, not less. You are on the right lines though, think about the attrocities in Germany & Europe during WWII towards the Jewish. These events haven't been forgotten yet it hasn't stopped Jews settling there since has it? I'd guess Germany probably has 1 of the top 10 Jewish populations outside of Israel because recent generations of Jews haven't held recent generations of Germans responsible. Although they're both amongst the worst things possable, I'd say genocide is worse than slavery (and was more recent too) so surely both should be seen from a similar perspective.

I think there needs to be a lot less emphasis on segregation (well none, actually), things like BET & black history month are basically saying 'these people are different' and also, maybe to a lesser extent 'they must be treated differently'. Until people see themselves as equal they will never really be so. Over here I think the majority of black people who are 2nd or more generation to be born here would perceive themselves as British (many I know do, as well as people of other ethnic origins) whereas over there the term African-American seems to be prefered, which is an un-necessary label to cause more segregation.



Britain is made up of England, Scotland & Wales, so that'd be 100% British

Well, I'm one of those who feels always caught in the middle...I am from Puerto Rico, but everyone that sees me assumes I am of Norwegian decent or something else...blond hair, very light skin, blue eyes...blah, blah...However, I love many things about my culture. When I lived in the US I hung out with many people that also listened to the same music as I did, we did parties at hotels together, etc...but I also have american friends and had no problems going to their clubs, listening to their music, etc...

It seems that some white/americans are offended when people of other cultures celebrate their culture...I see it no different than when people in Texas all get together and sing/dance country and western. They really wouldn't like some chineese song playing in between their country/western music...right? However, I think there is a HUGE difference between having a place to go listen to/dance Salsa music, a place to go listen to/dance Country/Western music...and having a pageant where you can ONLY compete if you are of a specific race and/or heritage.

I think that diversity is a wonderful thing and each culture has something to offer...each culture should be allowed to have clubs/restaurants/festivals, etc...celebrating their heritage/culture where everyone can attend regardless of their race/culture...but NO RACE or ethnicity should be allowed to have any contests, whether scholarships, pageants, free government money, where one can only qualify and/or apply if one is of a specific race/culture. If so, then I definitely believe that whites in the US should be allowed to have WHITE ONLY pageants, WHITE ONLY scholarships, WHITE only history...

With the history bit, I think part of the problem is that the US has historically been mostly concerned with teaching the pilgrims/the indians and the rest of the whites as history...whereas I think there should not have to be a black history month or a latino history month or a chineese history month if instead history classes in the US were balanced by teaching of ALL cultures/Countries...

Again, my son is of puertorican parents and I hope that someday he gets a scholarship to a university, just like my sister did...but I want him to get it based on his achievements and not the color of his skin or is heritage.

By the way, living in Puerto Rico, I also feel like an outcast...although many people talk about the racism in the US, there is extreme racism here as well...and amazingly enough, I am constantly made to feel bad because of the color of MY skin...When I was little I was hardly ever allowed to be in any school plays which showed our heritage, because I wasn't dark enough...So, at least here, it truly does go both ways.