Racism and the true meaning of "Race"
by CmdrFenix on Aug.01, 2009, under Political Discussion
I am sitting here absolutely amazed at how the media is frenzied over the “beer summit” with President Obama, Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge, Mass., Police Department. They are making it sound like a middle east peace summit going on at the White House. I am absolutely tired of hearing about racial profiling being claimed in a crime, and the media immediately jumping on the bandwagon of “racism” in cases where that isn’t even a factor. I am tired of being told we have an epidemic of racial profiling cases in this country, when so many cases of it are thrown out in a grand jury or after investigation.
- In July 2006, a Rhode Island state trooper stopped a van carrying more than a dozen Guatemalan nationals on Interstate 95 and temporarily detained them.
- 320 complaints of racial profiling and not one had merit, LAPD says
- …Perry was an honor student and was enrolled to attend Stanford on scholarship; however, witnesses claimed that Perry and his brother had attempted to mug the officer, and the shooting was ruled justifiable.
- In declining to bring an indictment, the panel apparently concluded that the officer had mistaken the youth’s two-foot machete for a shotgun and thought the teen-ager was turning to fire.
- A week after a reported campus hate crime drew national attention, sparked protests and shut down the prestigious Claremont Colleges, police on Wednesday called the incident a hoax staged by a professor who slashed tires, shattered windows and spray-painted racist graffiti on her own car.
- Black student allegedly behind racist graffiti
- Azad Abdullah, claimed his family had been targetted by a hate crime because he was muslim. It turned out it was just a rumor he planted to cover up an arson he had set to kill his wife, who died in the fire, as well as to burn alive two of his own kids…
- Jealynn Sealey, a black woman, has been condemned to 6 month in jail for staging a racist hoax. In order to get insurance money, she had burnt her own car in her driveway and had painted racist slurs on her house.
The list goes on…
Well now our very own president has jumped on the bandwagon and claimed that racism is an epidemic in his country.
I don’t know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that [Gates case]. But I think it’s fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and, number three, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there’s a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That’s just a fact.
Being an avid Battlestar Gallactica fan, I have the sudden desire at the end of that statement to shout, “So say we all!” (raises his arms). OK, well a little Sci-Fi humor… *cough* Anyhow…
The only person, from what I can tell in this case, that turned a simple home invasion check it into a “racial profiling” incident is Henry Louis Gates Jr. because he instantly assumed the Irish white cop showing up at his door was racist, when in fact that doesn’t appear to be the case. Even the black officer present with the Sergeant sides with him in this particular case.
Sgt. Leon Lashley says Gates was probably tired and surprised when Sgt. James Crowley demanded identification from him as officers investigated a report of a burglary. Lashley says Gates’ reaction to Crowley was “a little bit stranger than it should have been.”
Asked if Gates should have been arrested, Lashley said supported Crowley “100 percent.”
I am not saying there isn’t a problem, in some cases, where race played a factor. Those cases need to be investigated and the officer needs to be terminated from his job if it is determined he did this, but every case is different. Most importantly, I am tired of people jumping on the band wagon before the case as been investigated, because from where I sit, there are plenty of other articles out there of people on both sides claiming racial discrimination where none exists.
I do not care if you are Black, White, Latino, or a fraking Martian, we are all part of the same self hating race, and it is those instincts and “bad apples” we need to fight.
I’ll leave you with Admiral Adama’s take on the word “race”.
August 3rd, 2009 on 8:26 am
I think that racism is more a problem in certain areas of the country then others, and that the problem is personal racism not “professional” racism… that is to say that the problem isnt a guy not getting a job for being hispanic, the problem is a guy getting called a racial slur by some rednecks at the mall.
I’m not sure there’s a solution though; as long as we have people, we’re going to have dumbass people, and as long as we have dumbass people some of them are going to hate anyone who looks different from them. Unfortunate, but that’s reality.
I agree with you that the whole “issue” with that professor has been blown out of the water.
August 3rd, 2009 on 7:40 pm
So Say We all!!!
August 4th, 2009 on 2:04 pm
BSG was such a great show…really miss it. I heard Caprica was pretty good so I will have to give that a shot.
I hope the country learned something from the whole Gates/Crowley experience, but I’m afraid we haven’t.
August 6th, 2009 on 7:32 am
Yeah me too. I have to say that I had very mixed feelings about how they ended the series, but in general I think this series rates up there with Babylon 5 in terms of well written and intricate plot.
My point for using Almos was I think he is such an excellent orator and he communicated what I wanted for a message. I am sick of hearing about “racism” and I am sick of hearing the media blow situations like this out of proportion JUST to make headlines. If after the incident, an investigation finds evidence of racism, then they should report it.
I mean, they dove right in on such a non-issue, why don’t they ever report on legitimate cases where handguns saved lives in the hands of private citizens? Anyhow that is a topic for my next few discussions. They are going to discuss hypocrisy in both congress and then dive into media bias.
August 6th, 2009 on 8:43 pm
As long as every mortgage, job, healthcare, insurance, college, grade school, military, welfare, and any other application contain a section asking about your race when it is not important to the application, we will have racism. As long as we have affirmative action and other policies involving racism, we will never get over the race problem. We spend all of our time dividing ourselves into catergories. It’s really sad.
August 7th, 2009 on 4:51 pm
I’m with Jeremy 100%, when I have to fill out -anything- that asks for race, I write “Human” if its a blank line, or leave it open if its a checkbox. Division FTL.
August 8th, 2009 on 11:42 am
I’ve been known to write “native american”.
Webster’s defines it as “belonging to a particular place by birth”. Seem’s to cover me!