Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Racism amongst the brown folk

One of the common delusions amongst privileged white liberals is that racism is exclusively the domain of inbred redneck white trash cretins. Nevermind that most of the sundown towns were in the North (not to mention the entire state of Indiana, where it was actually illegal to enter the state if you were black and the KKK actually ran the state for a while), that inconvenient history of the fact that racism is not restricted to inbred rednecks but afflicts a wide variety of people, including, yes, privileged white liberals gets utterly ignored by today's privileged white liberals.

Meantime, many of the blacks I've known view Hispanics in much the same way that inbred white trash views blacks -- as marauding interlopers snatching up their jobs, little better than cockroaches. I've not been close enough to Hispanics to know whether they view blacks negatively in return, I suspect they're too busy working to bother with racism, I do know that they're scared of blacks though.

What prompts this observation on my part is recent headlines from the local area where gangs of black teens have been assaulting and in some cases killing Asian-Americans. The most racist people I've ever known have actually been Asian. They typically rate people of their particular Asian ethnicity as "real people", other Asians as "not as good as us", whites as "disreputable barbarians but they're so good at organized violence that racism against them is not recommended," and blacks as "little better than monkeys." The late Sheriff Harry Lee of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, who had his deputies fire on blacks as they tried to flee New Orleans across the downtown bridge in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, was Chinese-American and his attitude towards blacks is typical of many of the Chinese-Americans.

In short, racism inevitably leads to violence of this sort, regardless of the race of the racist. It does not surprise me to find black youth attacking Asians. Asians detest them as no better than monkeys -- and the favor is returned. With that kind of toxic attitude on the part of two communities, for there to not be violence would be the miracle...

-- Badtux the "Racism sucks, period" Penguin

6 comments:

  1. Racism is a human characteristic. No ethnic group, political party, or any other kind of human grouping you can imagine is immune.

    It's all about hating the other, whether gay, Latino, Muslim, Librull or whatever matters not at all.

    That's why its so easy for masters of division like Limbo, Hanjobbity, et. al to ply their rancid trade.

    WASF,
    JzB

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  2. I read/watch a lot of science fiction. One recurrent theme that always bugs the hell out of me is the notion that the human race is so inherently 'special' that aliens will come to study us so they can be more like us: or that this specialness of humanity will allow us to conquer the greatest alien foe. While I allow that some individual humans are indeed wonderful and special, taken as a group I think it's a wonder we've managed to survive thus far. We seem much more intent most times on putting down someone else, or stepping on some other person/group/tribe to achieve our goals. I mean, really, what kind of advanced human really believes that torture achieves anything other than some warped pleasure on the part of the one doing the torture?

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  3. "I've not been close enough to Hispanics to know whether they view blacks negatively in return, "

    I have. It's there.

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  4. Color me unsurprised, Nunya. Racism seems to be a common part of humanity regardless of the race of the hater :(.

    - Badtux the Cynical Penguin

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  5. Wow. Asian Americans are all racists who view African Americans as "little better than monkeys"? And hence violence against Asians by blacks is justified--it's "returning the favor"? I'm sorry, but what bull. I notice that you qualify your equally questionable statements about African Americans ("many of the blacks I've known..."), but you don't bother to do so with your statements about Asians. I'm Chinese American, and the idea that Harry Lee is a "typical" Chinese American disgusts me.

    Racism sucks, period? I would say that you are engaging of some racism of your own, making indefensible generalizations about an entire racial group and then suggesting that they are getting what's coming to them. Whatever you intended with your post, it just perpetuates stereotypes of interracial hatred. It's irresponsible and just plain wrong.

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  6. Tim, the first step to solving a problem is admitting there is a problem. We have a racial environment here in the Bay Area that is uneasy and that could erupt into violence at any moment. I described an attitude that I saw on the part of Asians that I personally know, or that has been publicly stated (e.g. Sheriff Harry Lee's well-known attitudes towards blacks, or Yasuhiro Nakasone, the conservative prime minister of Japan in the 1980s, who said that the "intellectual level" of Americans was below that of Japanese because of "people like blacks, Mexicans and Puerto Ricans"). And I certainly did not in any way intend to imply that I condone or endorse the racism of the black community either, the black community has a long history of racism against Jews and other minorities. I do not want to imply that all Asians or all blacks are racists, but there are significant numbers who are, and that is a problem.

    I am sorry that you are offended by the reality that I see, but reality simply *is*, and becoming offended by it is not a solution. Racism is *real*, and pretending it doesn't exist because Chinese can't be racists, or blacks can't be racists, or etc., is just plain ridiculous.

    - Badtux the Reality-based Penguin

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