[TxRedMan]

Here's the scenario;

I'm out with a group of friends and the subject of race/prejudice comes up. Someone begins by talking about how bad the racism is that still exists in this country.

I make a point about racism being something that's existed from the dawn of time, and that it will likely never go away, because it's human nature for a lot of people to have prejudices against a certain race or ethnicity, but race is often just the common denominator in their diatribes against a certain group of people, and that racism is making a predetermined judgement (prejudice) based on previous experiences with people of the same ethnicity- which, is also human nature, and not doing so is counter-intuitive, i.e., if I see a white man in a mercedes who's wearing a suit and tie, I can make some fairly accurate assesments about him, same goes for if I see a white guy with a shaved head and tattoo sleeves up and down his arms. It doesn't mean I'm racist, it just means I have a selective memory of common characteristics among a group of people.

i.e.,

In the South, and in my experience, black people speak much differently than say, (x) person from (x). And it differs with age, e.g., I've met a lot of elderly black people who speak with a southern drawl, but also use poor grammar, as opposed to young black people who talk more along the lines of ebonics/ghetto.

Stay with me here, and please understand that these are just observations, and I hold no prejudice against a person because of race or background.

Let's assume the above to be true about language. Suppose one of my pet peeves (which isn't really) is when people dont use the english language correctly, and in my time and experience in the South I've noticed that a large portion of Black people don't speak English the way I like it to be spoken. Now, here's the point- It's nearly impossible for me to vocalize that point of view without someone throwing the scarlet letter of racism upon me. Granted, there are some people who would disagree with that, but for the most part that opinion will make others assume I've some racial prejudices, etc.

I don't like poor customer service representatives who work for big corporations. I dont care if they're white, black, whatever, I get really peeved at people who likely hate their job and don't give a [censored], etc.

Enter Microsoft, and many other big corporations (US Airways) who have outsourced their customer service to India, or the Phillipines, etc. There have been several times when I've had someone who spoke very poor English attempt to fix my problem, and it was very frustrating.

Keep the above in mind for one second, then consider this; when someone is disgusted, annoyed, or upset with another person, dating all the way back to sibling rivalries, one or both people often mock the dialogue of the other by exaggerating their own voice to imitate that of the other person. You weren't being racist when your sister made fun of you and you made fun of the way she made fun of you, but suppose I put my tongue on the roof of my mouth and immitated the way the Customer Service rep handled my situation in broken English- again, someone will inevitably think that I'm being racist, derogatory to a class of people, when in reality I'm expressing my frustrations in the same manner I would (actually I wouldn't, but you get the point) in any other situation with any other person.

I could elaborate on this further, but I can sum it up by saying:

Sometimes when you make an observation or complaint about a habit or tendency that is often specific to a race or group of people, you are automatically labeled prejudice or racist by a large part of society.

I could give some better examples where making an observation about a persons character is considered racist, when, in fact, you're making your judgement based on the only thing all people have in common despite race, ethnicity, or origin- the quality of their character.

Thoughts?

My general idea regarding these types of reactions (knee jerk type reactions to comments about a group of people) is that the person giving the reaction is over compensating because of definite racism and abuse that has, at one point, been directed to a group of people- which is sort of narrow minded, because throughout the course of history nearly every race and group of people has experienced tremendous predjudice and racism i.e., Christian, Jews, Blacks, Asians, etc.


-Tex

edited to add; I dont think I did a great job explaining this situation, but it's closely related to our society becoming so [censored] pc-sensitive.