• Philosophy and Spirituality
    Welcome Guest
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
    Threads of Note Socialize
  • P&S Moderators: JackARoe | Cheshire_Kat

N.B. diatribe free zone: white superiority bred into western society

Bucklecroft Rudy

Bucklecroft Rudy

Bluelighter
Joined
Aug 6, 2011
Messages
466
Location
spaced mountain
Im not trying to dredge up racial tension or to rally a lynch mob/call the panthers to arms. Now thats out the way i'll begin. Ive searched around for honest opinions on the matter but most of these discussions attract the extremists while the moderates stand around looking bemused.

Looking at the media and society in general it is apparent that many many white people have a sense of superiority whether it be through aesthetic or intellectual ideals. This isnt overt or even conciously expressed but it emerges in a million different forms.

One woman I know for instance (average vanilla white lady) seemed vaguely distressed that her son was dating a black woman and was concerned that the family would be "difficult to get on with". Again ive known many many white people who are visibly surprised when confronted with black (black in this case refers to native indigents and africans) achievement.

Ive come across many white wo/men who have made a point of not dating blacks. Now its possible to not be attracted to a black/brown/green person on the basis that you dont like their skin colour or due to familial/status concerns (i.e. your concerned about what people will think) but to say you wont date blacks because of cultural differences, nose width etc is ignorant in the extreme due to the immense cultural and phenotypal diversity within the black or any other race.

Irespect people who are honest about their predisposition towards non whites. I dont blame people for what is essentially a psychological reflex. There was a study conducted which found that whites in general beleive blacks are "dirty"! (this was in a british broadsheet cba to dig it out) Shifing away from them in bus stops - not to mention the women who clutch their handbags breasts and children when a bbc swings into view (tbh if I was confronted by a bbc swinging in my general direction i'd be clutching more than my handbag)

Western society is built on the assumption that it has the right to govern the world and this attitude permeates western conciousness. Whites raised on this presumption develop a natural dominance that is either supressed or expressed depending on nurture.

Anyways enough "controversy" just want to get some opinions - honestly now. Do you really believe its possible for a white person to genuinely look at blacks and whites with complete racial indifference or will there always be a bias inherent.
 
I think you're lumping every "vanilla" person into one neat group, while complaining that "vanilla" people stereotype black people.

Cool.
 
I can see why you'd come to that conclusion actually. I phrased that VERY poorly. This is the problem with these threads - people have their hackles up and tend to interpret negatively. The woman who made the comment was an average white woman (She isnt representative of all white women) - not to say that all white women have these attitudes
The point of this thread was to ask whether the attitudes i've discussed are indeed prevalent. It was and never will be a j'accuse thread

Im not trying to dredge up racial tension or to rally a lynch mob/call the panthers to arms.
Click to expand...

I suppose the point of this thread is not to set a hooded mob onto the white man but to redefine what racism means today. Although racism is no longer "hot button" its been driven into the collective subconscious. I want to try and figure out exactly how some white people see black people. Obviously asking face to face yields few results but here not only are people generally a little more self-analytical/critical so im more likely to get honest insightful answers.
 
Last edited:
i wouldn't use dating preference as an example of racism. there are many culturally convenient reasons for marrying someone similar to oneself, and from my own experience i can confirm, there are many difficulties with dating and marrying other cultures which has nothing at all to do with race.

however there has been a great deal of racism displayed by "white people" in various and unrelated parts on the planet. recently the stuff around the neo nazi movement in europe and the european cup football comp really brought it to the media's attention. also recent shows on australian tv, such as "go back to where you came from" and "loud, drunk and racist" emphasised the phenomenon over here.

personally, i only know one person i would definitely classify as racist, so i don't know whether it's actually increasing in size or just volume. btw: that racist person i know and i are friends. despite fundamental attitude differences, and clear disagreements, it doesn't really get in the way of friendship.
 
Changed said:
Cool.
Click to expand...

I've found that self-professed anti-racists almost always skirt a socially dangerous territory with their commentary. Similarly to the way antitheist humanists are frequently pegged as being paradoxically 'religious' themselves (usually owing more to the sheer frankness/harshness of their critique rather than the actual substance, I'd argue), people who talk about racism in a detached-but-casual manner often come across as glib, self-serving, and, wouldn't you know it, racist. However, much like the whole 'antitheism/humanism=a religion too' thing, this sentiment is probably just a specious, knee-jerk way to filter incoming messages that may convincingly threaten a particular worldview.

I think it's worth repeating that broad ethnic brushstrokes really are necessary if one seeks to accurately capture a particular ethnic group's sensibilities in a singular time and place. The issue of whether such a lofty goal is possible within the limits of human reason, current social-scientific theory, etc., while certainly legitimate, is a meta-issue that's probably not suited to this thread.

Do you really believe its possible for a white person to genuinely look at blacks and whites with complete racial indifference or will there always be a bias inherent.
Click to expand...

So long as ethnic identity and cultural practices remain fundamentally intertwined in (post)modern societies, no.

But does this fact indicate a certain kind of moral deficiency on the part of the Caucasian race, as opposed to a quasi-reasonable (or at least morally and intellectually comprehensible) application of the representativeness heuristic? Probably not, at least insofar as we leave public policy and law enforcement out of the equation. If violent crime were to suddenly and sharply increase among members of the self-identifying Asian-American population of Baltimore County, it would certainly be 'racist' of me to assume that a masked man robbing my preferred liquor store was Asian, but would such a way of thinking (i.e. rudimentary applied probability theory) be rendered indefensible on those grounds alone? If so, why? Because connotatively loaded words like 'discrimination' and 'racism' currently pervade our socially (self-)conscious culture? That sounds pretty lame, to be honest.
 
In my honest humble opinion I prefer to mix with my own people (whites). I came to this conclusion because 98% of black people I have met and known have all been uncivilized and un-intelligent. Now I am NOT a racist but I simply do not get with black people, their thinking is different to mines. For example when am out in the local park and playing a game of soccer/football there are these African folks who jump on the pitch in their dozens and take over the game which is already being played, they do not even ask if they can play or tell anybody, yet the white and other non-black folks at least ask and are respectable, am not labeling all blacks in the same category but in my experience and in my opinion they tend to be more narrow minded then us Caucasians. I get on with Muslims then I do with blacks. Once when I did not want to join in their sports game I was called a sell-out lmao, I was thinking hey wait a minute am white, am not black and I never was with you so how can I be a sell out? its just this sort of thinking makes me not get on with them. Statistics in newsweek magazine said that there is a rearity of white men with black women and when they are together it does not last for more then 5 years, they tend to be together for the wrong reasons i.e not being able to attract a partner from their own race/ethnicity, desperate for somebody, only into 1 thing etc, this all comes back to them and clashes..

As for attraction again its preference, I am not attracted to black women psychically. I just find my own women more psychically attractive and mentally attractive, it has nothing to do with skin color infact, its just my preference, just as I like slim girls and cannot be int non-slim girls.
 
P A said:
I've found that self-professed anti-racists almost always skirt a socially dangerous territory with their commentary. Similarly to the way antitheist humanists are frequently pegged as being paradoxically 'religious' themselves (usually owing more to the sheer frankness/harshness of their critique rather than the actual substance, I'd argue), people who talk about racism in a detached-but-casual manner often come across as glib, self-serving, and, wouldn't you know it, racist. However, much like the whole 'antitheism/humanism=a religion too' thing, this sentiment is probably just a specious, knee-jerk way to filter incoming messages that may convincingly threaten a particular worldview.

I think it's worth repeating that broad ethnic brushstrokes really are necessary if one seeks to accurately capture a particular ethnic group's sensibilities in a singular time and place. The issue of whether such a lofty goal is possible within the limits of human reason, current social-scientific theory, etc., while certainly legitimate, is a meta-issue that's probably not suited to this thread.



So long as ethnic identity and cultural practices remain fundamentally intertwined in (post)modern societies, no.

But does this fact indicate a certain kind of moral deficiency on the part of the Caucasian race, as opposed to a quasi-reasonable (or at least morally and intellectually comprehensible) application of the representativeness heuristic? Probably not, at least insofar as we leave public policy and law enforcement out of the equation. If violent crime were to suddenly and sharply increase among members of the self-identifying Asian-American population of Baltimore County, it would certainly be 'racist' of me to assume that a masked man robbing my preferred liquor store was Asian, but would such a way of thinking (i.e. rudimentary applied probability theory) be rendered indefensible on those grounds alone? If so, why? Because connotatively loaded words like 'discrimination' and 'racism' currently pervade our socially (self-)conscious culture? That sounds pretty lame, to be honest.
Click to expand...

I have to say that this response was amazingly well-executed.

Furthermore, as a Baltimore-dweller of three years, I can say with certainty that I would laugh if I heard an Asian-American robbed a liquor store.

Finally, if you live in Baltimore and haven't developed certain feelings about African-Americans, I have much respect for you.

this post only minimally contributes to the continuation of this thread...
 
I think its important to state that im black. One post in particular seems to intimate that im white. Last time I checked I was of a duskier persuasion. I think this thread is remarkable insofar as there are no affectations of liberal colourblindness - not that this is an impossibility just an improbability ime.

I am however more than a little dissapointed that noone has raised the issue of whether race is even a viable metod of carving up humanity. The genetic diversity between different african settlers is wider than that between say an oriental and a polynesian. Racial thinking is reductive in this sense and belies the dense complexity of the human species.

I can appreciate how a baltimore dweller could come to mistrust blacks. Ive seen the wire. The same thing applies unfortunately however to everyone with tv access since most whites in middle - upper class neighbourhoods will have limited ethnic exposure. The issue is that when you start to think in terms of 98% of blacks are x the proposed 2% of blacks who would try to blow bubbles out a crack pipe end up being judged with the same criteria. Theres almost a sense that were expected to exhibit x behaviour or characteristics and that failure to do so is seen as deception or playacting

Again im not innocent of these things myself. No accusations are being levelled. I cant afford to cast stones from this side of the glasshouse
 
OP is talking about this white superiority complex coming about as a result of narrow exposure to other races. Racism, in the modern context, means offensive disregard for the abilities of people with different coloured skin, but the OP is talking about this superiority complex manifesting in covert ways which isn't flagrant racism but rather just a paradigm created and reinforced by how little the average white person knows about the average black person.

This reminds me of a naive little white girl I knew who came to my workplace years ago and actually used the phrase "coloured people" when talking about anyone not white. Of course, everyone picked up on that. She explained that she really didn't have much exposure to blacks before coming to our workplace and eventually she became inseparable friends with a black Jamaican chick.
 
P A said:
I read it, and then I read it a second time.

Then I lold.
Click to expand...

Hahaha sometimes I read what ive written then I read it a second time. Then I cringe.

Seriously though its supposed to be ironic lol. Well thats bs haha. It may be ironic but that wasnt the intention.I guess I just proved my point that racism/ignorance/stupidity is universal.
 
Last edited:
thujone said:
[...] but rather just a paradigm created and reinforced by how little the average white person knows about the average black person.
Click to expand...

Is it okay if I dislike African Americans of Baltimore if I've lived in the city for three years and observed the way they live and act?
 
There is some interesting research that suggests that the majority of human beings from any race will never not behave prejudicedly based on race (though not really "race," read on). The research involves measuring the reaction time of "shooting" black assailants in a video game versus white assailants among those who identify as completely non-racist. Game players of all ethnic backgrounds fire on virtual black assailants holding hostages (suggesting they make quicker judgments about criminality using the property of "blackness") significantly faster than virtual white assailants.

There are people from all races who do not show any differences in their reaction times in shooting assailants of different races. These same people also show resistance to forming negative associations with totally value neutral symbols (such as symbols resembling Chinese ideograms) in other tests where attempts to condition negative associations with symbols are made. However, these "resistant" people are the minority. The findings suggest racism has partially to do with purely perceptual generalizations between salient visual properties of objects (where people also count as "objects") that are made independently of the perception of race. The findings suggest wherever there are salient generalizable differences within a group (of people or objects) humans will use these differences to make judgments. On one level it's just cognitive/perceptual laziness or practicality, that is, perceptual heuristics.

Your story about perceptions of dirtiness reminds me of a funny one I have. I did volunteer work in Nepal with a girl who told me about a white friend of hers who did volunteer work in Zambia. After a few days working outside the Zambian host mother she was staying with started scrubbing her with a sponge day after day because she thought her white skin was dirty. The white girl didn't know why the host mother thought she was so dirty all the time. Eventually she found out the host mother had never seen a tan before.
 
Last edited:
OP is talking about this white superiority complex coming about as a result of narrow exposure to other races.
Click to expand...

No he isn't. He's talking about reflexive racism and its relevance to social mores (e.g. dating preferences) among white folk.

superiority complex manifesting in covert ways which isn't flagrant racism but rather just a paradigm created and reinforced by how little the average white person knows about the average black person
Click to expand...

What part of the original post suggested this in particular? Why can't we just call it 'racism?' I mean, the word's dictionary definition and common usage correspond perfectly to the phenomenon you've just described...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top