Summations Only

Yes. Reaching back to my linguistic studies, research has shown that African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and General American English (GAE) have been growing more and more dissimilar, suggesting that our country is becoming increasingly divided on racial grounds.Whatever's being done is clearly not working. It doesn't even serve the interests of the majority of the black community, but rather a few of its most vocal members who benefit from their time in the spotlight inciting rage and hatred between people of different races.Everyone else just suffers from the increasing tension, fear, misinformation, and division.

And part of an honest discussion involves asking how much of this is related to racism, how much is related to general economic inequality (poverty increases crime) and what role race plays in this, and how much is related to laws criminalizing ridiculous things.It is important that we correctly identify underlying causes or the problems will never find themselves fixed.Edited by Jon, : No reason given.

That's the SAE fraternity that the woman in your video is the House Mother of.If you're the house mom of a frat that has songs dedicated to them not allowing black people, then its not a stretch to think that you laughing and singing a rap song's lyrics stems from racism rather than your love of the genre.

His argument would be that all those things are interelated and most have race at the bottom of them. No problem with that as an ideal, but it's hard to avoid a preliminary conclusion that race is a prime indicator.

Nonsense.First, there were never songs dedicated to the fraternity; it was something made up by the kids in that chapter. Their actions were inexcusable but that has little to do with the old woman singing rap songs.She might be racist, but her singalong video doesn't demonstrate that she is.And even if she is racist, what of it? People are free to be racists.If she loses her position as the house mom it should be as much because she let the kids she was supposed to supervise ban black people from their chapter as because she herself might be racist.Edited by Jon, : No reason given.

Perhaps. But I believe statistics that adjust for poverty and similar factors show considerably less racial prejudice regarding arrests and imprisonments. I might be wrong...These things cannot be ignored.

Isn't she the house mom for that chapter?They're singing nigger, she's singing nigger... Yeah, totally unrelated Not conclusively. And you have to look at it in isolation to keep yourself from seeing the racism. And people are free to be outraged by racism.In Message 476 you asked what the cause of the outrage was.She's laughing and singing nigger and she's the house mom of a frat (the chapter) that has songs about not letting niggers in.Is it starting to make sense?

But if a majority of them are, does it matter that a few are not?And can you even imagine the number of instances of covert racism that are not called out?Most of us honkies never have, or never want, to take the time to learn, to sit down with your friends and ask the questions, to hear the stories. What surprised me most was, after a number of such talks, I began to notice the instances, some subtle some not, that I would never have noticed before. And when I moved to Arizona I recognized the same instances by whites toward Hispanics and Natives.Big problem on the white side is that most of the time we don't even realize we are discriminating. Big problem on the non-white side is that having to live with this every day can make one very sensitive to inadvertent slights.If you have never sat down with some friends, acquaintances, co-workers, neighbors (one of the best discussions I ever had was with a stranger as we were passing through an airport) and asked the gut wrenching, embarrassing questions, and then just listened, then you have no concept of what a life of constant racism is like.You haven't the experience, you cannot know. You haven't taken the time to learn, you cannot judge. Before you can discuss you have to learn. You can only learn by asking and listening.Edited by AZPaul3, : add

Of course! What the hell kind of nonsense is this? Luckily I don't have to. Even in the Coffee House forum, evidence reigns supreme. I'm sure we'd all appreciate you sharing some specifics on this. If that's true, then all is hopeless. I'm not judging.Edited by Jon, : No reason given.

I'd be happy to hear whatever stories you want to tell.

Most of the stories take the form of being waited on after the white customer when the black customer was there first. Restaurants, bars, stores. I've had this happen to me, maybe once a year if I notice it, but it happens, and as I have said I have watched it happen, much more often to others. The cab that rolls right past the black trying to wave it down just to stop a few yards away for the hailing white.These kinds of instances that happen to us all, infrequently, but take on the subtlety of covert discrimination with repetition.I used to travel quite a bit. This one threw me as it was so evident, almost brazen in a way. Someone had just finished checking in as I walked in. Another man arrived at the front desk just a few steps before I did and caught the attention of the clerk. The look on her face, while not quite a sneer, was not the bright happy smile one might expect. Without responding to him she left and disappeared to the back room. A few seconds later a gentleman appeared and proceeded to check in the other customer. A few seconds later the smiling lady reappeared and proceeded to check me in.Anyone can make excuses for any specific occurrence. The number of somewhat similar occurrences, the repetition of such occurrences, shows that this society still has a long way to go.Best thing to do is ask your friends.

The rather pointed kind. You can not live racism because you are not black in this society. You can not live misogyny because you are not a woman in this society. You can never know the experience. All one can do is try to understand. But with your attitude things do appear hopeless. Yes, you are. That was the entire point behind your Message 476.

I can believe all that. I thought you were going to have some stories you'd been told by black friends. That would be interesting too.I had a similar experience years ago but with my Jewish friend. We were fifteen, I was in a new town and had managed to get to age fifteen without ever meeting anyone Jewish. My aunt had asked me if my friend was Jewish and I'd said I didn't know. I asked my friend and she was uncomfortable but told me yes. I thought she was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen though she always seemed to be cringing as if she wanted to hide. We did become very good friends. One day we walked from her house to an ice cream parlor and ordered cones. The guy behind the counter completely ignored her and waited on me before finally waiting on her. It was very noticeable, he made a point of it. I would have expected a young guy to wait on the beautiful girl instead of me. I asked my friend about it as we left. She explained, looking very uncomfortable.ABE: My ex is Jewish, my half-Jewish daughter is even more beautiful than my friend. After moving to Nevada I encountered similar incidents of discrimination against me. It hasn't happened in years, maybe because I don't get out much any more, but it was very obvious at the time. Two main incidents in stores. Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

I thought I had, though not in any specifics since I don't remember the details. Just lots of what you experienced at the ice cream parlor spread over various places in town.I do remember one other set of incidences I neglected. I say "set" of incidences because coming from different folks at different times it stands out like the set of incidences about delayed and shoddy service.Have you ever been stopped by police for having a headlight out? I was, once. I've only been driving some 40+ years and this happened to me once. And I have had plenty of other lamps go out on me over that time. It's a bit embarrassing pulled over to the side of a busy road with the cops emergency lights flashing like you see for drunk drivers and escaped fugitives. But the officer walked up says I have a light out and need to get it fixed then gets back in his car and leaves.Some of the guys I've spoken with, much more so the men than the women, have had this happen pretty much on a yearly basis ongoing for several years. Once it's a taillight then a headlight then the registration sticker, broken side mirror, muddy "unreadable" license plate, even an underinflated tire for gawd sake. The major difference though is the officers don't check your license, inform you then leave. They question where you live, where you're going, where you've been, check the back seat, take your license back to the squad car and sit there for 5, 6, 10 minutes while all the lights are flashing and everyone who passes knows your a wanted ax murderer. Somewhat embellished by my remembrance of their emotions but you get the idea.Being informed of an sagging tire is a rather friendly safety gesture from an officer, if they even bother to stop you for such a thing, but the lengthy invasive questioning, the theater of checking over the car inside and out and the inordinate time for dispatch doing a license check is pure bullshit.Can you claim this is racism? WTF, are we all damn stupid and blind? Give the nigger a hard time and be sure to make a show of it. Yes, it is racism.Again, I am not a good source for these incidences. I can not give you the inflection, the body language, the facial expressions of personal pain and rage. Talk to the people directly. Hear their stories. Feel their emotion, their embarrassment, for yourself.Edited by AZPaul3, : No reason given.

Here is just a little for instance. PZ Myers blogUnfortunately, Ferguson is not any kind of exception. It just got caught in the national spotlight.