Question for my fellow minority posters?

R

Ramathorn

1,000+ Posts
Did your parents ever tell you "the fact that you're not white, you have to behave even better because like it or not, your actions will influence the opinions of others about our race.''

Maybe they're right? It is usually the first thing you notice,and I don't think it's an awful thing. But it's probably one of the first things that flies out when you describe someone.
 
I'm white. My parents never said a word about race. They also didn't spell out any specifics when it came to behavior -- there was just the expectation you knew right from wrong. I probably would have benefited from them cracking down more, particularly when it came to academics.
 
whenever i got out of line, my mom would always say, "for gods sake, would you act like a white person"

then again, she was/is rascist.
 
as a member of the human race can I take a moment to say how angry it makes me that people even try to say there are different races?

There are different ethnicities (of which my wife is one [my daughter too I guess]) but there is NO SUCH THING as different races.

We are all human and the sooner we start acting like it the better. When having to put race/ethnicity on stuff I put OTHER. I had one fill in the blank one that literally said 'race/ethnicity' so I put 'HUMAN/Texican-American'
 
Ramathorn, everything you need to know about cultural baggage vis-a-vis race is that you put a question to minorities and you had 10/14 responses come from whites, along the lines of being able to, like, relate to the question
 
Stat,
I agree with you up to a point. I don't know if you know the history of the word 'race', but here is part of it.

Back in the early 1900's when Darwinism was first gaining strength in the scientific community, it got applied to humans. Humans looked very different. Short Japanese women look vastly different from a 7 food African males from some tribes. Scientists looked at humans and said there were 7 'races' and that these were fundamentally different types of humans. Mongaloid, Negroid, Semetic, Arian those are the four I can usually remember of the 7. It was this BAD science that Hitler used to say that some races, or one, the Arian, was superior to all the other races. So when people use the term race, even today, there is the implication that you are making a comment about the fundamental makeup of a human.

Ethnicity on the other hand, as I understand it anyway, is just a descriptor of localised populations who end up with similar features. That is how I understand those two terms though, and why I try not to use the term race at all, because there is only ONE race. Genetically there is no fundamental difference. Ethnicity, at least as I use it is just a descriptor.

That being said, I am proud that my daughter is a "Tex-Arab"
 
Even though I'm hispanic the emphasis was on behaving better because I was a female and my mother was a single mother.My mother's father/brothers were not happy when my mother divorced my father. They thought she/we should put up with his alcoholism and womanizing. Thankfully my mother knew better but there was always pressure that if I were to mess up it would be because I was a girl without her father around.
 
An assumption is made that you will act a certain way based on ethnic stereotypes. Your parents properly taught you that you must combat the negative stereotype by producing yourself as the exact opposite.

This is similar to white people who are taught to never say anything remotely offensive about race – or to degrade their own race to make themselves appear unbigoted/humble – or refer to speculation about race as barbaric and wrong.

Since most people on this board are white, we can see the white equivalent in full force.
 
Also, there's a certain bluntness to the Asianculture. Everytime I see a distant aunt or cousin it's "man, you've put on 3.7 pounds. You need to exercise."



For the record, I am not fat.
 
Tell them you're trying to get a spare tire in order to appear more like the average white man.
 
Absolutely heard it growing up..I know they meant good, but sometimes, it got to be a real pain in the ***..Also, my friends used to kid about me being 'white'
 
Jive,
I know that the government uses the term 'race.' I would ask them what races exist, how many are there, and could they name them for me. I doubt they could/would.
 
Dad black, mom white. I was told that, because I have color, some people might have negative feelings toward me, etc. The parents never suggested I needed to take that seriously and surrounded me with people who did not really think or behave in terms of race. I feel no responsibility to represent for the race, though the issues and dynamics of race interest me alot.

I learned at a very young age that having color was sometimes a lightning rod for negative interactions, and it was not long thereafter that I learned that such protocols, if you will, were connected with the idea that I was lumped in with everyone else of my color, that color was a supposed marker or indicator of various traits. It seemed demonstrably wrong to me, so I largely ignored that kind of thing. I have never really thought in terms of race or ethnicity. For instance, I did not know you could make fun of a person for being Jewish until I was 12. I had no prior knowledge of words like 'kike' or 'heeb.' I was on the bus and a friend, along with a new kid with whom my friend had prior dealings, sang the 'elevator operator' song from Hair to me. Filled with every imaginable epithet for black people. My friend then told me to respond by singing 'Let's go fry a kike' ala Mary Poppins. I just did not get it.

My kids will be told all of this. But they will never be told to feel they are part of any particular race or that they are responsible for playing to the idiot perceptions of others. They will be told that they can do what they please so long as it includes hard work, basic honesty, and respect for others. I have nothing else of value to offer them, the little monsters.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Weekly Prediction Contest

* Predict HORNS-AGGIES *
Sat, Nov 30 • 6:30 PM on ABC

Recent Threads

Prediction Results Threads

2024 Schedules

Back
Top