Best of the Week
of April 8, 2001
Best of Week
Archives
Here are the most intriguing cross-cultural exchanges
either begun or advanced during the week of April 8, 2001, as
selected by Y? These postings, as well as "Best of the
Week" entries from previous weeks, also can be found by accessing
Y?'s new database using the search form,
or, in the case of answers posted before April 24, 1999, in
the Original Archives (all
questions from the Original Archives have been entered into
the new database as well). In the Original Archives and the new
database, you will find questions that have received answers, as well
as questions still awaiting responses. You are encouraged to answer
any questions relevant to your demographic background, as well as to
ask any provocative question you desire. Answers posted are not
necessarily meant to represent the views of an entire demographic
group, but can provide a window into the insights of an individual
from that group.
First-time users should first make a quick stop at Y?'s
guidelines pages for asking and
answering questions.
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Question:
I have noticed that African Americans in general are much
noisier than whites, for example in libraries or cafes, and when
whites ask them to make less noise because they cant work or talk
themselves, the African Americans often react very negatively.
Why?
POSTED 4/10/2001
Tony L., New York, NY, United States, Mesg ID 410200120420
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Question:
When I was in high school in the '70s, many girls had
beautiful, hairy arms, and no one thought anything of it. Now hair of
any kind on a woman is the enemy. Damn. Body hair on a woman is
sensual and sexy, especially on the arms and lower back, like the
patterns on lots of wonderful Latina girls. I will never understand
how hair got to be such a horrible attribute. How did this
happen?
POSTED 4/10/2001
Larry, Fort Worth, TX, United States, 48, Male, Christian,
White/Caucasian, Straight, professional, Over 4 Years of College,
Middle class, Mesg ID 45200192330
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Question:
Why do men have an innate compulsion to put women down?
POSTED 4/10/2001
Paula J., Wichita Falls, TX, United States, 76, Female,
Methodist, White/Caucasian, Straight, Retired, 2 Years of College,
Middle class, Mesg ID 49200114329
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Question:
Where were the national media in December 2000 when two black
brothers from Dodge City, Kan., committed a quadruple murder against
whites in Wichita? Or only a year earlier when three white Michigan
teens were brutally assaulted by a gang of blacks after the former
had hopped a train and landed in a black neighborhood? Or when in
1998 three black teens in Burlington, N.C., kidnapped, raped and
murdered a 10-year-old white girl? Or when a white man was nearly
beaten and stomped to death upon leaving a restaurant near Ft. Bragg,
N.C., by a gang of blacks? Or when a white woman of Streator, Ill.,
died in August 1998 after being dragged for three miles behind a
black driver�s automobile? Why haven't we heard more from the black
community in the United States about this type of behavior? When
whites commit idiotic crimes, other whites are quick to call the
perpetrators the evil bastards that they are ... but in situations
like these, the black community is silent. Is it perhaps because they
secretly endorse this kind of behavior?
POSTED 4/3/2001
ArzaThoth, Central, NJ, United States, 27, Male, Methodist,
White/Caucasian, Straight, Programmer, 4 Years of College, Middle
class, Mesg ID 42200174731
Responses:
First, you yourself identified the white-run media as the reason
these crimes received little or no national recognition. I had only
heard about one of the crimes you mentioned (the train incident). How
is the black community to respond when they haven't heard about
something? Second, a racial motivation is not clear in all of the
crimes you mentioned, although I would agree that it seems apparent
in some of them.
POSTED 4/5/2001
Gregory H., New York, NY, United States, 23, Male, Christian,
Black/African American, Straight, law student, Over 4 Years of
College, Mesg ID 43200120114
Just because YOU haven't heard anything doesn't mean black people
are silently cheering for such evil acts. An injustice will always be
bad. It does not matter who commits it. A wrong act is still wrong,
whether it is by a black or a white person. The reason you probabply
haven't heard anything is that the media chooses what it wants
everyone to know. The black community could shout at the top of its
lungs how horrible these injustices are, yet that doesn't mean that
it will be heard. And it seems you are saying the media is there when
hate crimes are committed on black people but not when they are
committed on white people. I could pick instances in which the media
shows a majority of black people committing crimes and never
depicting white people committing crimes. Or, I could talk about
other instances in which black people were the only ones depicted as
thugs, hoodlems and thieves. But what would be the point? What gets
me here is that you would actually think that the 'black community'
would 'secretly endorse' such atrocities. The people who commit them
will pay, come judgment day. These incidents that occurred are wrong
and hateful and happen both ways, but instead of screaming about how
wrong they are, we need to concentrate on changing people's
perceptions and viewpoints about one another, because only then will
these disgusting hate crimes come to an end.
POSTED 4/5/2001
Jummy, Jamaica, NY, United States,
<caramel_sunday@yahoo.com>, 21, Female, Lutheran, Black/African
American, Straight, Student, 4 Years of College, Mesg ID
44200194147
It sounds like you've answered your own question. I listen to the
national news and read the newspaper and have never heard any of
those crimes you've mentioned. Are you having flashbacks from crimes
you read about against blacks? I guess your point is that blacks are
committing racial crimes against whites and no one is saying anything
about it, as opposed to whites committing crimes against minorities
and everyone gets up in arms about it. To me, any crime is atrocious,
regardless of who commits it.
POSTED 4/5/2001
Gloria W., Atlanta, GA, United States, Female, Christian,
Black/African American, Straight, 2 Years of College, Mesg ID
44200153627
"Is it perhaps because they secretly endorse this kind of
behavior?" That's outrageous. I'm sure that's not the case. You can't
put all black people in the one category.
POSTED 4/5/2001
Sarah-Jayne, Melbourne, NA, Australia, Female, White/Caucasian,
Mesg ID 45200134827
ArzaThoth's argument is troubling, not just because it is such an
insult to good judgment and common sense, but because it reminds us
all of the thriving obsession among many in this country with
inflaming and reinforcing prejudices. Blacks, who have been the
victims of so much crime and suffering in this country, are probably
more empathetic than most Americans to the suffering of others. After
all, any man anywhere in the world who has ever been hit or kicked in
the groin (and that includes most men) will instinctively groan when
he sees it happen to another man. Those who have known suffering
cannot help but empathize with another fellow sufferer, regardless of
race, color or creed. So the notion that blacks would somehow endorse
these crimes is ludicrous. It is the classic psychological projection
defense, in which whites go out of their way to find reasons for
accusing blacks of having the very same unhealthy attitudes and
motives held by so many whites. The overwhelming majority of the
nearly 500 hate groups in this country are white, and 75 percent of
them target their hate against blacks. There is little indication
that white Americans are as outraged with the behavior of these
groups as ArzaThoth would have us believe. Blacks rely on the
national media no less than whites, and if that media ignored those
crimes, there is no reasonable basis for blaming blacks for not
knowing about them, especially because the nearly 37 million blacks
in this country do not all live next door to where those crimes
occurred. Plus, black expressions of alarm and outrage have never
garnered much attention in this country. That is why so many of our
problems just fester and get worse. That a white commits a crime
against a black or a black against a white does not in and of itself
make that crime 'racially motivated.' A crime becomes racially
motivated if the principal reason for the crime is racial. If the
principal reason is anything else, e.g. sex, money, drugs, etc., then
the crime cannot be adjudged to be racially motivated. And any media,
be it local or national, would be irresponsible in labeling it so.
POSTED 4/9/2001
I. Moses, Columbia, MO, United States, Male, Black/African
American, Over 4 Years of College, Mesg ID 49200160601
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Question:
Why are whites so scared of blacks?
POSTED 4/3/2001
Jasmine, Las Vegas, NV, United States, 17, Female, Christian,
Black/African American, Straight, student, Less than High School
Diploma, Middle class, Mesg ID 3282001111546
Responses:
A difficult question. Some whites are actually and honestly
scared, and show it all the time. Some pretend to themselves that
they aren't scared, but they'll still cross the street to avoid a
group of black people. And there are some whites who judge people as
people, independent of skin color. But whites (and there are other
races, too, not only white people) who are scared of blacks are
scared because they tend to group people according to skin color, and
I guess for them they associate black skin color with crime, i.e. "If
you're black, you might be a criminal or harbor violent tendencies
toward me, so I'll try to stay away from you if I am a white person
who is scared of black people." The association of black people with
criminality basically began with an onslaught of media images in the
1920s when blacks and Hispanics were shown as either house servants
or razor-wielding maniacs. The debate continues about the portrayal
of black people in the media. In addition, because poverty tends to
breed crime, and because crime among blacks in poverty-stricken urban
centers is highly visible in the local news, many white people see
this on TV and say to themselves: 'You see! I was right all along.'
The truth is that crime rates correspond to poverty more than race,
but we don't hear that message as often as we should. Man, I don't
know. It's crazy. But not all whites are scared of all blacks. I
guess that's my main point.
POSTED 4/4/2001
A White Guy, Chicago, IL, United States, Male, White/Caucasian, 4
Years of College, Mesg ID 44200114605
To this white person, some blacks appear unsophisticated,
uneducated and generally uncivilized by my standards. But please
realize, what I consider sophisticated, educated and civilized might
not be what you as a black person might. I live in New York and find
that some of the time, blacks want me to be afraid. They use loud,
aggressive speech with vulgarity to hold simple conversations. They
try to obscure their identity using clothing articles such as
bandanas and scarves. They show no courtesy when meeting face to face
on the street. And some of the time, I am confronted by hostile
blacks who I am sure are trying to intimidate me. I respond in a like
manner, but I am sure some white people would not. I think some
blacks like this relationship. I believe it makes them feel they have
power in a society in which they don�t.
POSTED 4/5/2001
Matthew, New York, NY, United States, 43, Male, White/Caucasian,
Gay, actor, Over 4 Years of College, Middle class, Mesg ID
45200155524
Please excuse the generalizations I'm about to make, and
understand that they are not 100 percent true. Blacks are angry from
the poor treatment they've received/are receiving. Blacks alive today
may have brothers, fathers or grandfathers who were lynched by white
mobs, besides countless other acts of racism. So, whites may tiptoe
when around blacks either because they are racist and don't want to
slip and let their racism show, or because they aren't racist and
don't want to further aggravate an already upset fellow human. If you
see a white woman or man look fearful when nearing blacks, it's
because they know the anger may be there. They might not be conscious
of knowing, but they know.
POSTED 4/6/2001
N.J. Smith, Akron, OH, United States, 46, Female, White/Caucasian,
Middle class, Mesg ID 46200193720
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Question:
Why is it that no one wants to acknowledge that the reason U.S.
society 'acts' like whites are in the majority is that they ARE in
the majority? According to statistics from July 1999, the percentage
of the U.S. population with regard to ethnicity is as follows: White
- 82.3%; Black - 12.8%; Hispanic - 11.5%; Asian/Pacific Islander -
4.0%; and American Indian, Eskimo, Aleut - 0.9%. Yet I keep reading
or hearing statements like 'Bush's Cabinet is racially diverse, but
not racially diverse enough,' or 'There aren't enough 'black' shows
on television,' or 'There aren't enough 'black' ______ in the
country,' or 'When I look at advertisements, I'm reminded that I live
in a 'white' country because I always see more white faces than black
faces on them,' or 'A good school should be no more than 50% white.'
POSTED 4/3/2001
Brian H., Brooklyn, NY, United States, 23, Male,
White/Caucasian, Straight, Network Admin/Student, 2 Years of College,
Lower middle class, Mesg ID 3282001100529
Responses:
I'm not sure what statistics you purport to quote, but your
figures add up to 111.5%, which seriously calls into question their
accuracy. That said, even if we acknowledge that white people
comprise the majority of U.S. society, that's no reason to
marginalize minorities. America is supposed to be a 'melting pot.'
What's your problem with that?
POSTED 4/4/2001
Alicia, Pensacola, FL, United States, Female, Mesg ID
442001122900
What we see in the media and elsewhere usually doesn't come close
to those numbers you mention. Take how often non-whites are on TV
shows. After decades of struggle, blacks are finally somewhere close
to being represented in as high a proportion on TV as they are in
real life, but no other ethnic groups are. Asians aren't, Latinos
aren't, and so on. For example, the only person close to being
American Indian on network TV is Chuck Norris (he claims a small
amount of Cherokee ancestry, I believe), and he's hardly typically
native in appearance. As for the news media, as recently as 1995,
journalists were more than 95% white males, nowhere near what it's
like in the general population. And Bush's Cabinet ... come on, just
about every one of the few nonwhites who voted for him wound up
there. In any case, they certainly are not typical of nonwhites in
the opinions they hold. So in answer to your question, the reasons
you still hear these complaints are 1) it's the only way change has
ever come about, and 2) the changes still have far to go.
POSTED 4/5/2001
A.C.C., W. Lafayette, IN, United States, Male, Mesg ID
442001110740
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