"Come meet a black person"

rubberduck · 23 Nov 2017 at 23:08

Didn't Lewis Hamilton famously say 'maybe its because I am black' after being hauled in front of the stewards for driving in to people?

Vonhelmet · 23 Nov 2017 at 23:32

rubberduck said:
It seems like an appropriate place to ask this. Why are half-caste people, specifically those of mixed race from black and white parents always referred to as 'black'? Lewis Hamilton, Obama, Lenny Henry etc?

Lenny Henry is mixed race? U wot m8?

Anyway. There’s a culture of regarding anyone with any “black blood” at all as being non-white. Racists have their one drop argument.

rubberduck · 24 Nov 2017 at 01:43

Has this picture been doctored to make him look 'less black'? I read the bibliography and then thought... Well how does that chap fit in to his storty? Or was that that the whole joke like Ali G being black or Borat hating Jews etc?

Mr Blonde · 24 Nov 2017 at 02:28

rubberduck said:
Has this picture been doctored to make him look 'less black'? I read the bibliography and then thought... Well how does that chap fit in to his storty? Or was that that the whole joke like Ali G being black or Borat hating Jews etc?

Have you been on the sauce - that's Charlie Williams!? As he's been dead more than ten years I'll concede he's likely lightened a little by now though...

Participant · 24 Nov 2017 at 05:04

Charlie Williams definitely doesn't look black in that photo.

As for half caste, I never say it but I'm not entirely sure why.

Vonhelmet · 24 Nov 2017 at 09:39

The really important thing is that we attempt to rigorously police who is and isn’t black.

Mason- · 24 Nov 2017 at 10:07

explicit4u said:
I appreciate and agree with a lot of what you're saying, but it's very much a case of easier said than done.

It's hard for someone who's been discouraged from a young age to suddenly flick a switch and decide that STEM is the path for them. It's even harder when they look at industries they want to go in and see barely anyone that looks like them.

A good example is Investment Banks running insight days specifically for women or BAME students. Walking into one of those events and having a woman talk to you and show you that it can be done is what gets those young girls believing in themselves. Heck even something like the male/female split for the Wonder Woman movie shows how badly people want to see themselves represented. I'd put money on Black Panther attracting a higher proportion of Black movie goers than any other Marvel movie too.

Morgan Freeman's views are almost utopian. If we lived in a world where people weren't reduced to their race or sex so often it'd be easier to get rid of things like Pride or Black History Month. Until minority groups are well represented and not discriminated against, these labels and events need to exist to address the systemic problems they face.

There's a minority who are pushing this always a victim because i'm a woman/poc/LGBT+ narrative, but you need to separate them from the people who are just trying to point out that they face different obstacles because they are one of the above.

Yes but the moment you say we need to help a 'group' whether that's a group of a race or a gender or any other diagnostic, you are implying that they are in need of help which in itself implies they're weaker, that is a dangerous precedent and one I would not stand behind. If you keep making special exception for a certain group people begin to expect it. If you keep a jailed for life prisoner in his cell for 10 years and then after 10 years don't lock the door at night, he probably won't open the door and walk away because he's resigned to the fact he'll be there forever. We've unlocked the doors on discrimination via race/gender/whatever and we're even opening the door for them and people still sit in their cell. You can take this analogy further too, you're not the only one in your cell, your family and friends are, everyone of a group of people that you 'identify' with are in their too. And every time you go for the door, they tell you "it's no use it's locked, we've tried for years", but have they tried lately? So you all plot and scheme with ideas on how to get out of the cell, and when the doors unlock you're so caught up with how to get out that you don't realise that you can just get up and walk out.

If people are gonna resign them self to being a victim then they will forever remain a victim. It's as simple as that. Only way people have ever made change in their life is by changing it themselves. And I completely agree with you that it is not easy, and that you will have the people you care about and love telling you from a young age that you are the way you are and things won't change. Again, fine you won't change. Maybe think for yourself, maybe do what you want to do.

Nitefly · 24 Nov 2017 at 10:21

I think people have legitimate frustrations with race issues and some ‘pandering’ that has gone, but I had no issue with the story in the OP - seemed fine? Don’t get the outrage tbh.

DAIR · 24 Nov 2017 at 10:23

What a load of nonsense. This suggests we're a rare breed of people lol. We're black.... Not albino.

I'd kind of understand if this were an opportunity to meet an albino person.... Or better yet a native American. What is this world coming to?!

Vonhelmet · 24 Nov 2017 at 10:29

I like the part where people think that hundreds of years of oppression gets undone in a matter of decades without everyone even buying into it

Avenged7Fold · 24 Nov 2017 at 10:53

As silly as this 'meet a black person' thing is, i bet you if you did a 'meet a Muslim' where these people had a chat with just a normal American Muslim or British Muslim, it would create quite an interesting situation. I saw Jamali Maddix extremism documentary series where he just go meets different extremist groups and shows them in a different light while also trying to get a rise out of some others, what is crazy is how many people assumed him to be Muslim and therefore an extremist in one episode, simply because he had a beard - Their face was priceless when he replied in a British accent with a lisp saying that he isn't one but knows quite a few top blokes who are.

Want to target discrimination effectively? Start with news programs, articles and such. We have seen how easily hate has been whipped up by a few dodgy articles with no facts and foundation.

rubberduck said:
It seems like an appropriate place to ask this. Why are half-caste people, specifically those of mixed race from black and white parents always referred to as 'black'? Lewis Hamilton, Obama, Lenny Henry etc?

I can't answer for other people but i am mixed race (not black-white). I would imagine it is because being black-white you are not really considered white by anyone, though by many peoples standards you are considered black. I am mixed race with one parent being white and though most of the time i consider myself as mixed race, depending on who i am talking to it is sometimes easier to just to say you are xxx or yyy

Vonhelmet said:
I like the part where people think that hundreds of years of oppression gets undone in a matter of decades without everyone even buying into it

I don't agree with this idea that hundreds of years of oppression of people that are no longer alive, by people that are no longer alive needs to be undone - like it is the duty of those who are alive today.

People alive today should be fighting modern discrimination but i don't think banging on about slavery and ancestors as if there is a debt to repay helps anyone.

rubberduck · 24 Nov 2017 at 10:54

Well there are loads of Russian people in the world but I haven't met one yet unless you count the time I dabbled in trying to find a mail order bride. Would I attend a 'meet a russian' event? Probably.

Vonhelmet · 24 Nov 2017 at 11:24

Avenged7Fold said:
I don't agree with this idea that hundreds of years of oppression of people that are no longer alive, by people that are no longer alive needs to be undone - like it is the duty of those who are alive today.

People alive today should be fighting modern discrimination but i don't think banging on about slavery and ancestors as if there is a debt to repay helps anyone.

It’s systemic in culture. Whites have been in power over blacks for so long that even when that is nominally abolished it echoes on. It’ll take a long time before we have anything approaching real equality.

And it is the duty of those alive today to deconstruct what lives on as a result of the actions of our ancestors. If it’s still going on, then it needs to be stopped. We can’t just say “We’ll I didn’t start it, so it’s not my job to help stop it.”

Avenged7Fold · 24 Nov 2017 at 11:34

I get that slavery was such a big part of life at one point that remnants of that culture can be seen today but the only thing to 'undo' as far as discrimination goes, is the discrimination of today. There is no individual to hold in debt or accountable. People from families that originally made their fortune from cane plantations do not need to give money to descendants of slaves.

What i am saying is that those events are in past and really should be forgotten as a barbaric trade in another time, not hung over the heads of white people as a story to remind them that they had a head start, nor black people as consolation for failures. Discrimination should be treated as a modern problem and not a remnant of a worse time.

HarryJ · 24 Nov 2017 at 11:37

I could never visit the US, a country where I would have so much privilege, opportunity and advantage based upon just being white.

Avenged7Fold · 24 Nov 2017 at 11:40

HarryJ said:
I could never visit the US, a country where I would have so much privilege, opportunity and advantage based upon just being white.

Exactly, it is such a ridiculous concept when applied to an individual.

Vonhelmet · 24 Nov 2017 at 12:05

Avenged7Fold said:
There is no individual to hold in debt or accountable. People from families that originally made their fortune from cane plantations do not need to give money to descendants of slaves.

I didn’t say there was, or that they did.

Avenged7Fold · 24 Nov 2017 at 12:14

I know, but the point made was that holding slavery and other things well in the past above the heads of people alive today is not constructive when targeting discrimination.

Chris Wilson · 24 Nov 2017 at 12:22

HarryJ said:
I could never visit the US, a country where I would have so much privilege, opportunity and advantage based upon just being white.

Zimbabwe sounds just the place for you my lad, the white farmers didn't get any privilege under Mugabe, if they aren't dead most have been ousted. pop over there and your criteria will probably be met. President Trump will miss the opportunity to welcome you though

DAIR · 24 Nov 2017 at 12:40

HarryJ said:
I could never visit the US, a country where I would have so much privilege, opportunity and advantage based upon just being white.

Is this a joke?