Will things ever change?
Monday, January 20, 2003 by Keila | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk
I just saw a segment on Good Morning America where they spoke to two groups of very young children White/Black "terms they used". They were asked mostly about their feelings about the other group and the answers were sad enough. The reason I am writing this is because of one question given and the answers received.
Question... " Wouldn't it be nice if you could not see the color of people and everyone was just all mixed up."
Answer... " That would be really, really bad."
Question..." Why?"
Answer... " Because then you would not know who your friends were."
This is not a thread to be answered in any way, I think one emoticon sums it all up.
!
Question... " Wouldn't it be nice if you could not see the color of people and everyone was just all mixed up."
Answer... " That would be really, really bad."
Question..." Why?"
Answer... " Because then you would not know who your friends were."
This is not a thread to be answered in any way, I think one emoticon sums it all up.
!
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paxx
Reply #2 Monday, January 20, 2003 9:52 AM
Reply #2 Monday, January 20, 2003 9:52 AM
Interesting anecdote:
Last night, we were watching a movie and there were two persons on the screen, a white man and a black man. Note that the black guy was wearing a blue shirt.
My son, at some point when the black guy was running, asked me:
- Why is the man running?
- Which man? (I was curious to hear how he would describe him)
- The man with the blue shirt.
Now, any "grown up", racist or not, would have described him as "the black man" or "the man with the dark skin". But it is interesting that children don't see this as a distinguishing trait any more than the hair color. In the case of my son, it was much more obvious to describe the shirt color.
Why do we grow up to learn that there are skin differences?
Last night, we were watching a movie and there were two persons on the screen, a white man and a black man. Note that the black guy was wearing a blue shirt.
My son, at some point when the black guy was running, asked me:
- Why is the man running?
- Which man? (I was curious to hear how he would describe him)
- The man with the blue shirt.
Now, any "grown up", racist or not, would have described him as "the black man" or "the man with the dark skin". But it is interesting that children don't see this as a distinguishing trait any more than the hair color. In the case of my son, it was much more obvious to describe the shirt color.
Why do we grow up to learn that there are skin differences?
kthxbye
Reply #3 Monday, January 20, 2003 11:58 AM
Reply #3 Monday, January 20, 2003 11:58 AM
Actually Paxx, while I'm not trying to sound like I'm tooting my own horn - but chances are I would have mentioned the shirt colour before even thinking of the colour of his skin. Why? Despite decades of society and my peers trying to force upon me the differences in peoples' skin colours - my father (from a very early age,) made a very active effort to make sure that I never saw skin colour as just that - the colour of a persons' skin, and as people go, ultimately inconsequential.
I guess I'm lucky - both for him, and for the fact that with essentially the rest of the world working against that 'view' - it still stuck with me all these years.
I guess I'm lucky - both for him, and for the fact that with essentially the rest of the world working against that 'view' - it still stuck with me all these years.
Styl-X Design
Reply #6 Monday, January 20, 2003 12:22 PM
Reply #6 Monday, January 20, 2003 12:22 PM
Think it has to matter in witch 'enviroment' you grow up, dasn't matter here in holland, the population is about 70% blanc, and 30% other (hehe, don't let me catch on that one) but isn't it easyer when you name the skin color to recognise?
SoundGuyDon
Reply #7 Monday, January 20, 2003 12:38 PM
Reply #7 Monday, January 20, 2003 12:38 PM
Not to start a war, because I certainly don't want to start one, but I personally don't think it's inherently bad to notice the differences between people, no matter their skin-color or whatever else... It's what you teach your children to do with that information that makes it good or bad.
As long as you teach your children that the differences between people is what makes the human race so beautiful, and that a difference doesn't mean less or more, then everything is okay.
I believe people should embrace their differences, not try to hide them under a cover of 'blindness' to avoid politics.
Just my 2 cents
As long as you teach your children that the differences between people is what makes the human race so beautiful, and that a difference doesn't mean less or more, then everything is okay.
I believe people should embrace their differences, not try to hide them under a cover of 'blindness' to avoid politics.
Just my 2 cents
paxx
Reply #8 Monday, January 20, 2003 12:53 PM
Reply #8 Monday, January 20, 2003 12:53 PM
SoundGuyDon: it depends. If the difference is relevent or not.
One might ask if the hair colour would be notice as much as the skin colour.
To come back to my case, if both men would have been white, but one would have been blonde (with a blue shirt) and the other brown haired. Would one have answered "The blond guy" or "the man with the blue shirt"?
Same kind of story:
When I was a kid (about grade 3), I had a birthday party and invited al my best friends from school. My best friend was named Michael, and I often talked about him at home. When Michael showed up at my party, my mother said to me:
- You never told me that Michael was black.
- But he's not black! He's my friend!
For a reason that I can't understand now but that made perfect sense then, I could not see the difference between Michael's skin color from another guy's. He was just my friend, that's all I could see.
One might ask if the hair colour would be notice as much as the skin colour.
To come back to my case, if both men would have been white, but one would have been blonde (with a blue shirt) and the other brown haired. Would one have answered "The blond guy" or "the man with the blue shirt"?
Same kind of story:
When I was a kid (about grade 3), I had a birthday party and invited al my best friends from school. My best friend was named Michael, and I often talked about him at home. When Michael showed up at my party, my mother said to me:
- You never told me that Michael was black.
- But he's not black! He's my friend!
For a reason that I can't understand now but that made perfect sense then, I could not see the difference between Michael's skin color from another guy's. He was just my friend, that's all I could see.
werewolf
Reply #9 Monday, January 20, 2003 12:58 PM
Reply #9 Monday, January 20, 2003 12:58 PM
It's when the differences are used in a negative connotation ("You never told me that Michael was black") that is the problem. If a person is identified as "that black guy over there in the corner", or "that oriental guy..." or whatever... that is not, inherently, a bad thing. It is when a prejudice is brought along with it that it becomes a bad thing.
paxx
Reply #10 Monday, January 20, 2003 1:07 PM
Reply #10 Monday, January 20, 2003 1:07 PM
I dunno.
I think the best is still not to see the difference.
Kids teach us something. Why is it that they don't see the difference? Why is it that we learn to see it? Is the difference so important that we have to LEARN to see it?
I think the best is still not to see the difference.
Kids teach us something. Why is it that they don't see the difference? Why is it that we learn to see it? Is the difference so important that we have to LEARN to see it?
werewolf
Reply #11 Monday, January 20, 2003 1:07 PM
Reply #11 Monday, January 20, 2003 1:07 PM
but that's my point, kinda.... There is a difference between a red shirt and a blue shirt and dark skin and light skin... It's the *meaning*, the *implication*, of the difference that has always been the problem. There is nothing wrong with difference, it should be celebrated. Just without all the racial crap that goes along with it.
werewolf
Reply #12 Monday, January 20, 2003 1:08 PM
Reply #12 Monday, January 20, 2003 1:08 PM
Kids see the difference...they don't see the other stuff.
kthxbye
Reply #13 Monday, January 20, 2003 1:09 PM
Reply #13 Monday, January 20, 2003 1:09 PM
*blinks*
Type in a long, rambling sort of post - and then reread it and realize it makes utterly no sense whatsoever. *sighs* I need coffee.
In the end - skin colour, to me, is no different from the colour of a persons' eyes, or hair, or even their handedness anyway. We're all humans above all else, after all. ^.^
Type in a long, rambling sort of post - and then reread it and realize it makes utterly no sense whatsoever. *sighs* I need coffee.
In the end - skin colour, to me, is no different from the colour of a persons' eyes, or hair, or even their handedness anyway. We're all humans above all else, after all. ^.^
craeonics
Reply #15 Monday, January 20, 2003 1:49 PM
Reply #15 Monday, January 20, 2003 1:49 PM
Yeah well, what's there to say? Kids learn from what the people around them tell them.
snarph
Reply #16 Monday, January 20, 2003 3:18 PM
Reply #16 Monday, January 20, 2003 3:18 PM
yea its not like your saying the guy with the green teeth 
Weaksid
Reply #17 Monday, January 20, 2003 3:34 PM
Reply #17 Monday, January 20, 2003 3:34 PM
I have Blond Hair and Blue eyes.. Remember the history on that?
Same with your religion
Basically it comes down to, if they aren't like you in any way then f^@* them. But it only deals with certain issues. They don't see the one thing that is common within all of us. We are all human. Made of flesh and bone. We also bleed the same.
A good song for this is ( DC Talk - "Colored People" ) It's Christian music.
Same with your religion
Basically it comes down to, if they aren't like you in any way then f^@* them. But it only deals with certain issues. They don't see the one thing that is common within all of us. We are all human. Made of flesh and bone. We also bleed the same.
A good song for this is ( DC Talk - "Colored People" ) It's Christian music.
snarph
Reply #18 Monday, January 20, 2003 3:39 PM
Reply #18 Monday, January 20, 2003 3:39 PM
Pardon me, your epidermis is showing, mister
I couldn't help but note your shade of melanin
I tip my hat to the colourful arrangement
Cause I see the beauty in the tones of our skin
We've gotta come together and thank the maker of us all
We're colored people, and we live in a tainted place
We're colored people, and they call us the human race
We've got a history so full of mistakes
And we are colored people who depend on a Holy Grace
A piece of canvas is only the beginning
It takes on character with every loving stroke
This thing of beauty is the passion of an artist's heart
By God's design, we are a skin kaleidoscope
We gotta come together, aren't we all human after all?
Ignorance has wronged some races
And vengeance is the Lord's
If we aspire to share this space
Repentance is the cure
Well, just a day in the shoes of a color blind man
Should make it easy for you to see
That these diverse tones do more than cover our bones
As a part of our anatomy
I couldn't help but note your shade of melanin
I tip my hat to the colourful arrangement
Cause I see the beauty in the tones of our skin
We've gotta come together and thank the maker of us all
We're colored people, and we live in a tainted place
We're colored people, and they call us the human race
We've got a history so full of mistakes
And we are colored people who depend on a Holy Grace
A piece of canvas is only the beginning
It takes on character with every loving stroke
This thing of beauty is the passion of an artist's heart
By God's design, we are a skin kaleidoscope
We gotta come together, aren't we all human after all?
Ignorance has wronged some races
And vengeance is the Lord's
If we aspire to share this space
Repentance is the cure
Well, just a day in the shoes of a color blind man
Should make it easy for you to see
That these diverse tones do more than cover our bones
As a part of our anatomy
WOM
Reply #20 Monday, January 20, 2003 3:45 PM
Reply #20 Monday, January 20, 2003 3:45 PM
I hope this doesn't sound rasist but I think society fosters separatism. All this quota stuff, Black History month, Latino entertainment awards. Black entertainment awards etc. etc. I'am a mexican american, afro american so on and so on. Why can't we just be americans, humans, brothers and sisters. To me this isn't healthy. We should all start getting along before we start killing each other.
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Reply #1 Monday, January 20, 2003 9:42 AM