Sam
Hey guys, you get discounts on groceries? My tattoo only works at restaurants. Damn the system! I’m not getting as many privileges as you! Do you see the logical fallacy? I’ll point it out: If you’re one race, then you have no idea what it’s like to be another race. If you’re white, then you have it easier. My question is this: have you ever been a white person looking for a job? How would you know if it’s any easier at all? I’m a white kid in a suburban area and I got paid less than my fellow employees at Blockbuster. It just so happened that the person who hired me was Hispanic. Did I get all up in arms about racism? No. In fact, I didn’t hear about it until much later. I was upset, yes, but I hardly blamed my problem on me being white. Why? I’m not so fucking touchy.
Kat
There are several reasons why: less experience equals less money, you suck at your job, or you could just be getting shafted.
Sam
We’re all socialized by the media these days. The media is pointing out how people are racist towards people who aren’t white. Essentially, you’re brainwashed to have this idea that you’re not as privileged as everyone else. Granted, there is some racism left. You know what? It affects whites just as much as it affects others. You have trouble getting jobs, we have trouble getting home safely.
Kat
Trouble getting home safely?? What the fuck do you mean by that?
STUPOR
Well, sure, everyone is affected by this. It’s everyone’s issue. Everyone contributes to it one way or the other.
Dan
Hell yeah. As soon as I paint that swastika on my BMW, I’ll be able to park right next to my boss, who coincidentally is white and looks just like Hitler. Did you know that running around pointing your fingers screaming about a racist conspiracy is participating in a racist activity?
STUPOR
Running around, pointing fingers is what you’ve been doing all along. I don’t think I’ve made an accusation on you yet.
Dan
I’d say in 9 cases out of 10, yes, you are creating your own problems. Just as you say I am jumping out to “defend my dominant status,” you too are jumping out to claim that I am racist based purely on the fact that I am white. You’re straying from the point when you bring up women, but I’ll address that. There are many reasons why a woman may make less for the same position that a man is employed. They may be employed at different places. Some companies can afford to pay people higher salaries. The male worker may have been there longer. You can’t expect a woman to just get there and have the same pay handed to her. The male worker may have put a lot more time and effort into his work than the woman.
STUPOR
“Some racism left” is an understatement. Your paranoia, more than anything makes me think you’re a racist. I’ve attempted to reinforce a few facts and that’s it. Also, I’m not straying when I bring up women; all these issues work together. To ignore one is to forget about the big picture. Most men are at a higher position than women simply because they are men. Have you thought of that? Therefore, women are thwarted from competing with men even before they are allowed to reach their position. We’re all entangled in this system. It’s not just based on individuals because the way this society works is like a pyramid, where the one that’s highest in the pyramid is there due to the fact that someone is below him. Therefore, all these problems are related. Your wealth depends on other people’s loss and other people’s services. It’s not just on an individual basis.
Dan
Most men are at a higher position because they’re men. Well, alright. There goes your homophobia issue if the boss is a man, ’cause that sounds a little gay to me.
STUPOR
You must be kidding me. You need to look at the bigger picture. Most of the times, it’s easy to dismiss these issues because you’re looking at them one at a time, when in fact, it’s not just a single entity, but the entire system. It’s almost like a cage..
Dan
I break it down, and focus on one issue at a time. You’re taking everything at once, so you’re missing details. It’s like this: say we both work at the post office. We both have been there since the sane day, we both make the sane pay, our boss likes us both the sane. There, so that’s not an “issue” now. I sort the letters one at a time, taking a little more consideration into which letters go where. You, on the other hand, are just throwing handfuls of letters into the sorter, not caring to put them right side up. All you care about is finishing first so you can go on your break before me.
STUPOR
Of course there are exceptions, but these are exceptions. You need to see the bigger picture.
Dan
Like I’ve said at least 5 times to you: we are not equal. I’m sorry if you have an inferiority complex, and you base the fact of such on not being white. White people have gone through the same hardships that black people have.
Kat
Please tell me you are fucking kidding.
Sam
Okay, Kat, why don’t you start naming off the trials a tribulations that black people have to go through and we’ll tell you whether or not we’ve dealt with that or it’s equivalent.
Kat
You are ridiculous. What the hell is this, an eye for an eye? Well, this black guy won’t ever stop getting harassed by white cops in that white neighborhood, but its okay, because I didn’t get to go to college that I wanted because some black kid with suckier grades got in cause he was black?
John
You’re funny.
Dan
Oh, that’s right… white people have never had to deal with a racist person, ever, except for with their drinking buddies… and that’s just not the same.
STUPOR
Remember that it’s also not just a black/white issue.
Dan
If it is not a black/white issue, what is it?
STUPOR
I said it’s not just a black/white issue.
John
In ancient Egypt, which is, if my geographical skills serve me right, in Africa, white people were enslaved.
STUPOR
There was no proof of that. And by the way, they said they were Jewish. Historically speaking, white people enslaved white people, but they were never enslaved by another race.
John
Uhm, there’s assloads of proof of that.
Shane
Jewish people were not white and Egyptians were pseudo black. It was a pseudo black race enslaving white/Arabian people. Why are all other races white when compared to black people. There was something on the news about racism, a white cop shot a black cop by accident. One problem: this evil white man was Spanish.
Sam
What do you call six bruthas riding in a benz? Grand Theft Auto! I’m actually agreeing with Shane more than I am with you, STUPOR. Trust me, that’s a very very bad thing. People here are saying black because it’s easy. Not to perpetuate some “invisible system” that limits black people in any way. If anything, saying “black” rather than “African-American” helps us break down this invisible system. These terms “African-American” and such are probably not made up by black people, but the people who are white and racist. They throw these out as tokens and keep the black people occupied. As long as they stay pissed about people not calling them “African-Americans” instead of “black,” they won’t focus their anger on something that matters.
STUPOR
Once again, I never said anything about being PC. I could care less about that. You totally lost me.
Sam
It’s like Spike Lee: That guy is not talented. He’s a token, for Hollywood to say “Look, we have a successful black director! We’re not racist!” But let’s face it: His movies are shit. In fact, the only people that go to see his movies are generally black people. That’s fine with Hollywood, because they don’t want him getting any more support other than those that share his ethnicity. If they got someone with talent, they’d probably be in trouble once people started saying he’s better than Joel Schumacher or some other very white and contrived director. It’d upset the natural order, after all. Hell, Hollywood might even come to not only respect, but rely on a black person. And that would be terrible, because we all know how unreliable black people are. Before you start bitching about racism here, that was sarcasm. Shows like “Living Single,” “Jaime Foxx,” or movies like “He Got Game,” or “Big Mamma’s House” succeed only because they’re black.
STUPOR
They also failed because they were black. What makes you think a sitcom like “Friends” is any better?
Sam
They’re aimed at an audience, and as long as that audience keeps buying into it, the audience will remain complacent. The goddamned point: If anything, the encouragement of people to acknowledge the difference between races by use of “African-American,” Black History Month, Affirmative Action, and numerous other sources does not help to extinguish racism, but perpetuate it. As long as the system throws out unimportant tokens like these, black people will be distracted enough to never claim true equality. When I’m talking about equality, I mean that we are not necessarily more or less qualified for things because of our race. Our height, weight, intelligence, and numerous other factors are not what I’m referring to. I’m aware that many many many people are not “equal.” I just wanted to say that before someone says “but we’re not equal!”
STUPOR
I agree with you about the token thing, but that is totally different from Black History Month and Affirmative Action. We’re not at the stage where minorities can all of a sudden dissolve into the mainstream culture. Thus, you need extra forces. And you wouldn’t have bitched about affirmative action if you knew that white women are the highest beneficiaries of it more than anyone else.
Shane
My white skin never helped me. I went to public school once in 12 years before college and I had a black kid beat me up, because I was white. It depends on where you are. There is a thing called racism towards white people, people just don’t understand it and deny that.
Sam
Very true: there are places where it is very Dangerous to be if you’re white. If you’re not white, you’re fine.Yes, there are those places for black people too, but they are few and far between.
STUPOR
I don’t know why I even tried. You deliberately refuse to see it through a different perspective.
Shane
I will be back in a second STUPOR. I need to go see if my hood and cloak are done yet, I’ve got a big KKK meeting to get too. It’s so hard to get stains out of white, we should change the colours of the outfit.
STUPOR
Very funny, but you guys still cease to adhere to the fact that as white men you are more privileged than others. I don’t know why you can’t admit that and try to see it from a different perspective. Also, your attempt to shed some humor into me is ridiculous because what you consider to be humorous is a one-sided, narrow-minded way of trying to get me to side with your views. Whenever you’re stuck, you do the KKK thing on me. I don’t think the issues we’ve talked about are something to laugh off and forget about; not in the context in which we are discoursing at the moment.
Shane
I’m so sorry, but my family has never been well off, and my grandfather remembers being Irish in the early 1900’s. I don’t see any signs that read no blacks need apply today, but there were signs that said Irish need not apply back then. Also the KKK hate Catholic and Irish people anyway. Middle America hates Catholics and Irish people too. How many Catholic presidents have there been? Not too many I know. JFK was one. There might be one more. I don’t see this white thing helping me too much, I also have a friend going to a 30,000 dollar school for free because he was black. I had better grades and a better SAT then he did. He does know he got it because he was black. If you can get it, go for it, but I go to a 5000 a year school and pay for a lot of it myself. Who’s better off?
Kat
Are you for real? I’m sure he’s getting 30,000 for school for more reasons than just being black… I don’t agree with affirmative action, but I know it’s not that unfair.
STUPOR
There’s nothing unfair about it. If you didn’t know, whites females benefit more from it. Minorities need that push from affirmative action because they are oppressed. Are you saying that what has rightfully and historically been yours has been stolen from you? Oppression is not a dirty word. I just want you to accept that it’s here all around us. And how many times have we had a female president or a non-white president?