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African American Racism More

African American Racism

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  • As long as there is money to be made by defending it, they will never deal with it.

    It would take a person of rare character indeed to get past the money factor, and they must also have extraordinary charisma to get others to follow them instead of the race-baiters who call themselves the leaders of that community. Following some who offers only idealism where others offer money... yep, truly an extraordinary person is required. People like that rarely come along more than once in a hundred years. We've g
  • By definition, African-Americans cannot be racist, because they lack the control structure to enforce their will upon other social groups.
      • I think you need to either read cyrano's post again, or check your links or something.
      • Do I have to spell out the difference between Common Bigotry and Racism?
        • Racism to us IS common bigotry, dressed up in a white sheet.....I see no difference between those youths and the NOI claiming that Yakob the Scientist created the Evil White Race to oppress everybody. In fact, if you dig into it, the two are probably closely linked.
          • Control is a lot more than intent; control is a matter of the physical world, and not merely of a few, statistically insignificant hoodlums. Looking at differences of intent is looking in the wrong place.

            By analogy, a near-monopoly plotting against its competition is a very different matter than a smaller firm attempting to compete doing so.

            • If you don't want to be oppressed, stop oppressing others. The only person you really have any control over is yourself.

              Control is a lot more than intent; control is a matter of the physical world, and not merely of a few, statistically insignificant hoodlums. Looking at differences of intent is looking in the wrong place.

              Incorrect. NOBODY has control over you at all, your choices are your own. Even under the most oppressive "system", the first challenge is to not rise to the bait.

              By analogy, a nea

              • Claiming that racism isn't racism merely because it's coming from a group that seems disadvantaged and powerless is where the wrong idea comes in- it's acceptance and collusion with evil just because this particular evil is harmless.

                If an evil is harmless, it's not very important. I agree that prejudice and bigotry are wrong, but to give zero weight to utility is simple extremism. We call potent bigotry "racism", and impotent bigotry "bigotry" in order to help us to focus our efforts upon actions that do real harm to whole classes of people. This is a worthwhile distiction, and it is reflected in our language.

                To ignore potency is to cause us to waste our energies upon phantoms. Language is part of how we classify things so as to

                • If an evil is harmless, it's not very important. I agree that prejudice and bigotry are wrong, but to give zero weight to utility is simple extremism. We call potent bigotry "racism", and impotent bigotry "bigotry" in order to help us to focus our efforts upon actions that do real harm to whole classes of people. This is a worthwhile distiction, and it is reflected in our language.

                  Well, then it should be more recognized that the step from bigotry to racism can happen overnight- and without *ANY* work from

                  • But that's the real problem isn't it: ignored phantoms will become real, it's only a matter of time.

                    Ignored phantoms may become real. We life in a world of probabilities. Conversely, a "tolerance slope" [slashdot.org], where we are progressively intolerant of (potentially) harmful behaviour means that we allocate resources rationally, and indeed encourage decent behaviour. To use distinct terms isn't to fail to condemn such behaviour; it is rather to be more alert to real and immediate risk. It makes no sense to have the same degree of vigilance against all potential sources of harm; we need to prioritise.

                    It is

                    • Ignored phantoms may become real. We life in a world of probabilities. Conversely, a "tolerance slope", where we are progressively intolerant of (potentially) harmful behaviour means that we allocate resources rationally, and indeed encourage decent behaviour. To use distinct terms isn't to fail to condemn such behaviour; it is rather to be more alert to real and immediate risk. It makes no sense to have the same degree of vigilance against all potential sources of harm; we need to prioritise.

                      It isn't on
  • That the Nation of Islam is little more than a recruiting office for Al Qaida.

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