The problem of White Supremacy - Spinoff from Buffalo Shooting thread (1 Viewer)

The one thing that stands out for me as an outsider is the fact that "race" is even registered on every person. I live in one of the most registered countries in the world - a lot of scientist use our demografic data since everything we do and are, are registered from when we are born until we die.

The one thing that is NOT registered is race!

There are legitimate, non-racist reasons to do it. For instance, there are medical baselines for what is "normal" that differ based on race and diseases that are a higher risk for some races than others. So, epidemiologists need that information. In fact, it's one of the reasons that black people in U.S. seemed to be more careful and concerned about COVID than white people. The statistics showed a much higher death rate in the black community at lest in New Orleans. The reasons for that are likely tied to higher rates of high blood pressure and diabetes in the black community, as well as black people generally getting much worse health care but I think it's valuable to know those things in order to fix the issues and make the effected population more cautious of the dangers.

The origin of registering that information on birth certificates probably had more to do with segregation and slavery than anything else. But, there are legitimate reasons to keep that information in the U.S. today.
 
There are legitimate, non-racist reasons to do it. For instance, there are medical baselines for what is "normal" that differ based on race and diseases that are a higher risk for some races than others. So, epidemiologists need that information. In fact, it's one of the reasons that black people in U.S. seemed to be more careful and concerned about COVID than white people. The statistics showed a much higher death rate in the black community at lest in New Orleans. The reasons for that are likely tied to higher rates of high blood pressure and diabetes in the black community, as well as black people generally getting much worse health care but I think it's valuable to know those things in order to fix the issues and make the effected population more cautious of the dangers.

The origin of registering that information on birth certificates probably had more to do with segregation and slavery than anything else. But, there are legitimate reasons to keep that information in the U.S. today.
There are some medical conditions that do affect some ethnicities at a far higher rate than others, so indeed, it does matter in some circumstances. I think motives for making the distinction between groups of people do matter. So it's important we ask ourselves why we're doing it and whether it's needed. Good points.
 
We're as mixed as everyone else and thanks to the diligent record keepers (mostly priests) we have the record to prove it :)

I know my great grandmother was Romani and that the dark hair on my fathers side comes from her. On my mothers side we have hungarian imigrants. My husband has spanish roots. His great, great grandfather was a spanish soldier stationed here during the napoleonic wars.

Out of curiosity, what is the percentage of "black" people living in Denmark or can that information even be found since no records of race are kept? And, what percentage of Danes are of mostly Scandinavian descent?
 
I've spent years on SR.com being unaware that certain members are black, white, men, women, gay--whatever, but then no one is conducting studies on us as a community--that I'm aware of :hihi:

I also try not to say "I didn't know you were..." The objectivity that this anonymity can bring is a positive, IMHO.

St. PJ, may he rest in peace, once sent me a PM saying he was shocked to find out that I was a man and an atheist. He somehow got the impression that a was a devout Catholic woman.
 
There are some medical conditions that do affect some ethnicities at a far higher rate than others, so indeed, it does matter in some circumstances. I think motives for making the distinction between groups of people do matter. So it's important we ask ourselves why we're doing it and whether it's needed. Good points.

I know that when doctors test lung capacity using spirometry, the baseline normal for caucasians is different than the baseline normal for black people. I was really surprised when I found that out.
 
St. PJ, may he rest in peace, once sent me a PM saying he was shocked to find out that I was a man and an atheist. He somehow got the impression that a was a devout Catholic woman.
I get the woman part but the devout Catholic is hilarious.
 
Out of curiosity, what is the percentage of "black" people living in Denmark or can that information even be found since no records of race are kept? And, what percentage of Danes are of mostly Scandinavian descent?


As I said we are one of the most registered contries in the world

"On 1 January 2022, there are a total of 847,041 immigrants and descendants in Denmark, which corresponds to 14.4 per cent. of the total population. 534,731 people originate in non-western countries, of which 288,406 people originate in the Middle eastern countries and Turkey."
 
My Mother's Paternal Grandfather was Romani. You can't get much more mixed than that.
I would say that most of the replies to this post have been productive. I am a white male who grew up in several different areas of the country but spent my high school years in a small town in Arkansas. We had one black student in our high school. With that I have a question.

What percentage of the American population do you believe is racist?

The reason that I ask is, during the discussion on this post I have seen all white people lumped together, all republicans lumped together, all males lumped together, and so on. I think we can all agree that you can be a white male republican and not be racist (or maybe we can't). There is out there at least one of them?

If we are to truly get to the root cause and come up with solutions for our society, we have to stop grouping people together and assuming if one person does something then all people who fall into that category are the same.

We do this in our society (media) on a lot of issues
Abortion
Guns
Same Sex Relationships
Gender
Violence
Who you voted for

I believe if we can make this adjustment we can start to truly find the solutions to a lot of problems.
Before addressing I would ask what you definition of racist is

I’d also like to ‘yes and (yes but)’ your thing about grouping
I think ideally what we should do is celebrate difference/diversity
I know that’s not what you meant by not grouping, but the focus on commonality tends to result in differences being subsumed into the dominant group
Something we definitely should not strive for
 
There are some medical conditions that do affect some ethnicities at a far higher rate than others, so indeed, it does matter in some circumstances. I think motives for making the distinction between groups of people do matter. So it's important we ask ourselves why we're doing it and whether it's needed. Good points.

And if relevant it will probably be in the medical history of the patient. But when it comes to statistics all medical information including race if that is medically relevant, is annonymized and not available except for the treating physician and the patient. We have extremely tough privacy laws
 
St. PJ, may he rest in peace, once sent me a PM saying he was shocked to find out that I was a man and an atheist. He somehow got the impression that a was a devout Catholic woman.


Lol - my original Internet Handle was DragonLady. Well since football fans historically in Denmark is mostly young men in their 20-30s something then this little almost 60 year old grandmother did not fit the mold :) and I got tired of "you dont know football" comments so I dropped "Lady" from my internet handle
;)
 
I think part of the problem we currently face is that many of us (especially Gen X and older) subscribe to the belief that racism (or any other form of predjudice) can be found within any individual but is not necessarily an immutable trait that comes with being white or male or whatever.

On the other hand a lot of the current discussion focuses on words like "whiteness" and removing any reference to individual behaviors or traits in favor of much broader groupings based on race or other immutable traits.

At best it leads to folks talking past each other and at worst we have the current Tower of Babel problem where nobody can even agree on the most basic vocabulary anymore.

(I think it also makes the problem worse when you encourage white people to think of themselves as a bloc that operates in opposition to other race groups, but that's maybe for another discussion)
Race is indeed not immutable. It is a learned behavior. Many rise above this environment while others do not. My father hated gays and Hispanics, and made this abundantly clear. When I would confront him about it he refused to talk. Dad never taught hatred, he never said that we shouldn’t dislike the folks he disliked. It was one of his struggles, and like his other struggles he just didn’t talk about it.

Probably as a result of this I’ve always been accepting of diversity, and believe it to be one of the strengths of the US.
 
This whole topic is a great big onion. It has many, many layers and you could peel away one layer to find another. It is one reason I don't ever think we will reach the point where we strive to be. Its super complex and there's a very large number that desire the status quo. These roadblocks will be hard to completely overcome.

First, there should be a new word developed. No one wants to be labeled racist. Racist should be left for the shooter in Buffalo or the skin heads or black panthers of the world. A truly derogatory word saved for those with real hate in their hearts. Then there should be another word for those that have bias baked into the fabric of their lives (most white folks). It is less powerful of a word and does not truly condemn the individual. This would help the overall conversation as the vast majority of white folks (or anyone really) do not want the racist label.

As you grow older, you grow wiser. My 18 year old self would not think the way I do today. He would've been squarely behind the previous President and taken all of the bait. But life experiences and new friends emerge to give you a different perspective of the world. It took a long time for me to see "the other side".....and clearly, I don't really see the other side. It's way worse than I can imagine. But talking with friends, some of them, now older and wiser still have narrow viewpoints. When discussing race matters and such, they do not see what I see. Is it the ostrich head in the sand? Is it not wanting to lose ground? For the most part, it's not ignorance.....some of my friends are very well educated. These are the conversations most of us need to have more of to make an impact. But there's also this angle to consider...... How far can you comfortably push? If you're the lone wolf with a certain viewpoint, will you risk friendships to defend another group of people that does not directly impact you? It's a really tough spot for folks. Imagine it happening inside of a marriage. It's easy to say "find new friends", but let's be real.......most people will not throw away lifelong friendships over race or politics. You end up talking Saints instead.

This is a fascinating topic that would be great to learn more about in a classroom or group setting.
 
If only half of your stories from college are true - and your having no stories about doing serious prison time
The context cues were all there
My roommate at Maryland was black and he always said if he’d done that **** he’d be in jail. Sadly, it’s probably true.

It never hurt to have a fast car
 
Last edited:

Create an account or login to comment

You must be a member in order to leave a comment

Create account

Create an account on our community. It's easy!

Log in

Already have an account? Log in here.

Users who are viewing this thread

    Back
    Top Bottom