Racism
By wergild
@wergild (189)
Philippines
June 22, 2009 10:29pm CST
I was watching Gangland on TV one night and I saw this feature about gangs being organized along racial lines. It got me thinking that how man, despite his advancement has gone so low. Why do racism exist? and why do narrow-minded racist are even born? It sucks to know that we have gone a long way from primitive species to modern man yet our thinking about race and ethnicity is still primitive. Animals don't kill and hate each other because of color or creed but us humans do. Its disgusting.
1 response
@khayshenz (1384)
• United States
23 Jun 09
Gangland is interesting ain't it?
It's also interesting to note that while there are those gangs that are being organized along racial lines - there are also those who are more than happy to cross racial lines, as long as they get what they want in a very forceful manner (i.e. murder, robbers/robbing, etc).
And honestly - I can't answer any of your questions. And this obvious gang-related racism is better than the subtle kind, to be honest with you. The subtle kind hurts our society more than the gang-related ones. Think about this - Black Americans ( I don't call them African American since most of them can barely trace back their heritage to Africa) have been in this country longer than ANY Asian American (as immigrants - and yes, MOST Asian Americans can trace their heritage to Asia). YET - there are less Black Americans than Asian Americans in our universities. Why is that? IS that NOT racism?
And you're right - we've gone a long way in order to become civilized.
But dang we still got a long way to go!
1 person likes this
@phyrre (2317)
• United States
23 Jun 09
I applaud you for using the term 'black' instead of African. I myself am black and I HATE being called African American. Heck, I don't even know when my father's family first came to the US and I don't even know if it was Africa...and my mother's side came from Scotland three generations before me. xD So I don't know where people get Africa out of that equation, but they always manage.
As for the universities question, I don't think that has anything to do with racism. In fact, the idea of affirmative action is supposed to be directed towards lessening racism (but that's a different argument altogether). From my experiences, many black citizens either can't afford college, drop out of high school, are forced to get a job to pay bills, or don't have the grades to get into college. There are plenty that do, but there seems to be a large portion that take other avenues as well.
That and I don't know about you, but I was on campus with a ton of Asian Americans (they came to America mostly to go to college, some had lived here for a while) and they were extremely smart. In a class of 25 American children, the one or two Asian Americans in the classes were always in the top 5, at the very least, and they knew things that the rest of us had no clue about. Asian countries usually have a very rigorous schooling system and they very much value their education, which is why so many of them excel in the classroom and are present in colleges, I believe. :)
@khayshenz (1384)
• United States
23 Jun 09
you've highlighted some great points - however, ask yourself why that is? Why are BLACK AMERICANS continue to struggle in this society?
It's what I call subtle racism!
Sure there's affirmative action - and obviously, other people of color benefit from it. But not Black Americans!
I'm Filipino (filipino american, I guess). I have a minor in Asian American Studies, even though most of the classes that I've taken are about race and the continued struggle of minorities in the American culture.
