The Not Mostly "African American" Card

[deleted15807]

I sure hope that as a white middle class guy CG isn't going to become the poster child for "hidden racism" in this thread. Perhaps you should be asking the OP the to take that test.

I sure hope you you should read what the test is meant to illuminate.

 

[helgaleena]

People have always been unnerved by me even though I am not technically a minority because I am so much whiter than most so-called white people in the USA. When I fell asleep in a couch once in my college dorm a stranger shook me awake because I looked dead, I was so white. And children in my family tend to have snow-white hair until their teens, then in adulthood our hair has some color, and in old age we are again blond. I don't tan either. They don't make a shade of makeup white enough to match us.

That doesn't mean we fit in with 'normal', any more than the kids who get a better tan than the rest or whose hair is frizzier. The great cartoonist of Ernie Pook's Comeek, Lynda Barry, is an ethnic Filipina who felt like a freak because she had red hair and freckles. It's always something. (as Emily Litella said on SNL)

 

[nudeyorker]

Really? Take the test..Race IAT or Asian IAT.........

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/selectatest.html

I'll take it tomorrow it said you should be relaxed and clear headed; I am neither at the moment. The other tests look interesting also; I'll look at those as well. A friend of my wrote his dissertation about perceived positive and negative physical attributes and perceived intelligence. I am very interested in looking at this because I think that many of these issues are related but the data is not inclusive to the others; but I'll take a look at it. Thank you for posting the link.

 

[D_Plenty OToole]

The reason people use their "African-American" heritage to "get ahead" isn't necessarily a racial issue, although it can boil down to one. It's a socio-economical issue. And because of prejudice and the past, African-Americans are more likely to be in the poverty levels of income rather than middle or upper class. Now I am not saying that all African-Americans are trapped there, because many are moving up, which is a beautiful thing. But it's like affirmative action. Trying to correct the past. Giving underpriveleged people the chance to compete with everyone else. Again it's not necessarily the fact that you're black, it's the fact that you don't have as many opportunities as everyone else.

On one level, you'd think "wow they should do away with this it's basically racism" but if you honestly think that, then you are lucky to have the privelege to not have to have lived through what the hardships are that these people and their parents had to go through solely based on their heritage.

Although in progressive communities like cities, there is more acceptance of minorities, sometimes I do think that it shouldn't necessarily be actions to help certain ethnicities, but instead be programs to help out low-income people in general. Which there are plenty of. I'm probably rambling and repeating myself now, but really if you think that the historic and current lives of most African-Americans are on par with yours and that they don't deserve any aid in being able to have similar opportunities with you, then I don't know, I might have to throw out the word ignorance.

And with Barack Obama, I guess it is going by the old standards of our country. "If you're not all white then you ain't white." Also, physical characteristics have to do with the way others perceive you. His skin colour is enough for most people to warrant him as black.

I think that covers the gist of what the original poster was asking.

And then throughout this thread, I saw that people should not be using the term African-American and just use the term American. I don't know, I think it is all right for somebody to use that as their "proper" label. I have no problem saying I am "Asian-American" even though I typically go by "Asian" even though I live in the United States. Also, I saw someone saying that African-American is stupid because it should be Kenyan-American or Nigerian-American. Yeah, that'd be fine and dandy if these African-Americans could actually trace back their cultures, but they can't because of that whole slavery incident. So African-American works well.

But then again, why do we even place so much emphasis on race? For statistics, the census, and to know the genuine make up of our country? Oh well.

You should actually go back and read my post.

 

[borntobeking]

From the movie CB4. This pretty much describes me :biggrin1:

YouTube - Im black yall CB4

This has been an interesting thread. I'm not into all of the fancy titles. Simply put, I'm a Black man. Plain and simple.

-Peace

 

[Bbucko]

I moved to Maine for a year. 98% white. I would get followed around department stores by security. And I actually had a store owner in a rural town show me his gun and tell me his store was "closed."

Please note that I'm not making excuses (because I'm not, not at all) for the appalling treatment you suffered in that store, but Maine is a really peculiar place. My mom's from Maine, and I spent months at a time of my childhood at my grandparents' home in mid-central (Old Town) Maine.

Their xenophobia is legendary; if you are not born in Maine, you'll always be an outsider...always. You could spend 98% of your adult life in some spots (aside from Portland, which is quite cosmopolitan) and yet the locals will always consider you an "outsider", as this humorous skit shows. I can relate because my grandmother felt precisely the same way. It was one of very least endearing qualities.

As an aside (but not really), I should say that no one in the universe considers the use of the term "French Canadian" to be a PC affectation, nor (despite secessionist attempts in the past) are they considered less-than Canadian. This aside brings up two points: first that hyphenated cultural self-identification is not inevitably a bad, evil thing, and second because, aside from my French Canadian grandfather (who was actually born in a FC enclave in Brewer, Maine), I self-identify as 75% Old Yankee New England WASP, and having that portion of FC in my family only reinforces its northern New England identification.

When I was growing up, my heritage seemed as exotic as mayonnaise, though as an adult have come to recognize it as something to be proud of: not superior in any way to other heritages, but distinct and increasingly rare. Though we didn't meet face-to-face until last year, Nick8 and I are so similar in outlook and upbringing that he and I have more in common than many of my cousins, who actually share the same genetics; in fact I think of him as a long-lost cousin. The culture we shared growing up is an indelible part of who we are.

 

[deleted15807]

The other tests look interesting also; I'll look at those as well. A friend of my wrote his dissertation about perceived positive and negative physical attributes and perceived intelligence. I am very interested in looking at this because I think that many of these issues are related but the data is not inclusive to the others; but I'll take a look at it. Thank you for posting the link.

You're welcome. The entire battery of tests are very enlightening.