Quote:
Originally Posted by Barone1551
OK first off, I'm not sure where in this thread personally attacked people another race for being an inadequate partner. And I will answer for myself when I say that no your skin tone does not make you any less of a human or mother. And to me personally it does not matter what skin tone you have to be my partner. But i still stand other statements made here, that just because you are not physically attracted to someone, this does not make you racist. And I fear that you are playing the victim here and in this world. Many people suffer racism, however you make it seem that you are the only one to have ever experienced racism, like its you against the world. And I know many people like that, from multiple races who will analyze everything to the death in order to pull out something "racist" and throw it back into the other persons face. And this to me is a problem, yes racism exists today. But it is not as one sided as it used to be. Like you said it is 2009, racism I feel, is felt by many people and many races. And I do not feel like it is as prevalent as it used to be. I have felt racism, and I have seen racism. Do I like it? no, not at all. But I do not feel the need to go looking around for it and calling out every hint of it I see. I thought the idea was to create unity by forgetting skin tone, race, culture. Or at least this is what I would prefer. But the thing I always notice with people in your mindset, that instead of blurring the line, you make it more noticeable and in your face. And in my opinion making it worse, because in the end you seem more racist (whether you are or not). By always calling out differences between you and the person you are conversing with. And to some of your other stuff. Like TV portraying white as the only good thing. Are you insane. It actually took me a second to think about this because I never really thought about it as a white or black competition, but I have to say that its ridiculous. There are just as many (in my opinion) wealthy successful African American actors and stars as there are white stars. And to think that there are not is to be ignorant.
And I'm not sure what your getting at about the fair skin being a sign of good and tan or darker skin a sign of bad. I'm pretty sure st. Thomas is the same as here, most people I know want to get tan. I don't know many people who want to stay pale ( I am one who wishes to get little sun). Why are tanning salons so popular if everyone is trying so hard to stay pale? I don't know how you can use this as an argument here in the US at least. I have never once heard someone compare tanning to becoming more African American or vice versa for people wanting to stay pale.
Sorry for this rant, I jumped around a lot mostly because I kept thinking of different things to say. And I do not intend to offend anyone, sorry if I did.
And lastly St. Thomas is an awesome place.
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Sorry, that came from the last page where a comment was made:
"Our perception of beauty did not evolve from the idea of "hey, lets exclude those black people from our society"
It eveolved from the idea of finding the partner that could best carry our child.Status (from here the pale idea came from) and body shape (which has been and indicator of health, example: a curved body has a greater chance of a successful carriage. Fact by the way, and so on)"
It's fine to rant. Those are your opinions. I've been saying my opinions all along, it would be dumb of me to say "You're not allowed to rant!" However, I think you're crossing the line juuuuust a little bit when you say, "Are you insane? I think you're ignorant." I don't think you're ignorant because your opinions differ from mine. I just want to suggest that you figure out where my opinions come from before saying I'm ignorant, because you don't really know where I'm coming from, you know?
A lot of people think that racism is only signs saying "NO COLOREDS ALLOWED." It's also internalized racism. To think that a race, any race, isn't attractive is racism. Let me for a second talk about my friend, who is a person of color. She isn't attracted to white men at all. She thinks white men are ugly. When I asked her why, she said that white men are rude and don't know how to have sex. She assumed negative qualities about another race. That's racism - internalized racism, because it's an internal factor that's been shaped by the way she was raised. It's a subconscious thing. She's not going around to white men calling them crackers, but the way she thinks shows she suffers from internalized racism. I also suffer from internalized racism - everyone does. I'm challenging myself and others to think about these things.
And that's why I asked all of those questions. I wanted to know if there are any assumed negative qualities that go along with brown skin for anyone who thinks brown skin is unattractive. I think it's a little interesting that no one has really answered those questions.
I'm sorry if you think that I'm trying to play the victim. I am a victim of racism, I've experienced it many times. But on this thread, I'm not trying to say, "O WOE IS ME, ME AGAINST THE EVIL WORLD!"
I agree with you when it comes to making race noticeable by arguing about racism. It's a catch 22. I don't want to bring up race because I want to think of everyone as a human being first. However, when racism comes up, I don't let it go. I will say something. I just want to challenge people and challenge racism. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Believe me, outside of racism, I don't go running around to people and scream in their faces, "I'M BLACK!"
The fact is that there aren't nearly as many black actors/actresses in Hollywood movies. The media is a huge factor in the way people think. If you're constantly told that this woman is glamorous and beautiful, then you will most likely subconsciously look at her, pick her factors apart, and decide that there are different things that make her beautiful: she has blonde hair, she has blue eyes, she is rich, she is white. A sidenote: on the People's Magazine top 25 hottest celebrities, only three people with dark skin are on that list. That's not very equal, is it?
As for white and black, I was talking about the use of vocabulary. When you look at a white person's skin, they're not actually white. White is a sheet of paper. Most white people have darker skin tones. Black people aren't actually black. Most black people have lighter skin tones.
Yet society has chosen those words - words that already have associations. Black is usually associated with evil. "Black magic," for example. White is associated with purity and innocence. Wedding dresses are usually white for that reason. The vocabulary alone implies racism. That's all I'm saying.
I'm not insane. A lot of people are learning about the same things, writing essays and books on the same thing. It's not mainstream because it makes people feel uncomfortable.