The View

[alphanguy74]

This is brilliant. And a perfect example of How O"Donnell doesn't make good arguments. She's raising a black child in one of the most affluent homes in the country, in one of the most affluent neighborhoods in the country. And yes, being gay is different, we can butch it up and blend in if we have to. Black people can't do that. The whole argument they had was basically about terminology, and Whoopi trying to tell them they are trivializing the term "racist" by using it to describe profiling and stereotyping.

Edited December 18, 2014 by alphanguy74

[John]

IMHO profiling & stereotyping is Racist & bigoted. Whoppi was in the wrong here about that you must be black to experience and know what racism is.

Edited December 18, 2014 by John

[DeeeDee]

That's offensive.

[Wales2004]

I didn't see the show but I just viewed an edited clip and I do agree with her on how racism is diluted when just about everything is labeled as racism. I believe she's right in that it probably leads to "racism fatigue" and causes some people to be less likely to care about more serious cases of it.

Idisagree that a person has to be black to experience and know what racism is. I think she may have been channeling some experience that she knows Rosie O'Donnell wouldn't have. I think Rosie bringing up raising a black child may have come across as having a black friend being the reason one is not racist.

Along with some other aspects of America's race discussions that I find off is the belief that only black people in America can ever experience racism or know what it's like.

Race is some sort of socio-political construct, imo, devised to subordinate people. Everyone at a certain point just fell in line and made out as if it's something wholly natural and not created by society and that everyone is somehow helplessly and hopelessly bound to follow and enforce.

[John]

How is saying using the word Tranny to describe transgenders is just as offensive as using The N & F words an offensive statement?

[alphanguy74]

Ok... the words below. Do they all have the exact same meaning? And if not, what are the differences?

Racism

Prejudice

Profiling

Bigotry

Stereotyping

[John]

. If you dont agree with me cool We can agree to disagree then . However I didnt come here for a Grammar lesson.

[alphanguy74]

And there you have it. When you discuss serious issues, you might want to attempt in the future to not base your opinions on incorrect definitions of the terms you use.

[John]

just gonna leave it at Agree to disagree and move on

Edited December 19, 2014 by John

[Wales2004]

I totally missed this but I do want to respond.

I was trying to make the point that being black isn't mutually exclusive of everything else and there are black people who are also gay. I wasn't suggesting that you meant that black people don't exist.

This is neither here nor there because if Joe is beaten up because he is a boy and Jane is beaten up because she's a girl and they both end up with cracked ribs then the reason for the beating doesn't override the result of the beating. I do make a distinction between residual racism and racism because one happens by association and the other is direct. It's not a question of which is worse but the victim of residual racism has the option of not associating with the target of the racism while the target does not have that option. I am stating that more as a point of fact and not to in any way slight any victim of residual racism.

Gay people may be discriminated against as have others but my initial point was that a gay black guy can be beaten, dragged, hung, et al. so I can't get with the whole this happened to gay people like it happened to black people when I know that this also happened to black gay people.

If a news report states that a black lesbian was murdered, is she a woman, black, or a lesbian? She's all of the above but being black in America seems to me that you cannot be seen as anything else by some people. That should be thrown in that great big discussion of race in America. Then again everyone who is not black or white isn't even invited to talk.

[quartermainefan]

I don't have a huge issue with profiling. If 100% of all terrorists who blew up planes were middle eastern men, then yes, airport security should be paying attention to middle eastern men. But in an effort to be fair, they pulled me and my old jewish mother aside for almost a strip search. Considering that as yet there have been no terrorist attacks by old jewish ladies, either before my search or after, I can safely say the attempt at profile blindness was ridiculous on airport security's part. They wasted their time, my time and their money searching someone that had a 0% chance of being a terrorist based on literally every terrorist attack on record.

[alphanguy74]

I agree, profiling is there for a reason.

[DeeeDee]

Because the term is offensive on its own merits.

There is no reason to compare it to anything else.

[John]

Well I get that but was just pointing out to someone else that it is an offensive term no matter who says it

[Wales2004]

Profiling is just a form of sanctioned harassment. It's easy for people to pretend it's necessary to harass "the few" in order to "keep the masses safe." I'm sure the people who are its biggest supporters are those who are quite certain that they will never be profiled/harassed.

Nobody knows with one hundred percent certain which "muslim looking" person might be a terrorist or whether the "muslim looking" person is even a muslim. And I'm going to guess that the "security" people are not properly trained and generally just bring their biases to work with them when deciding who looks "suspicious."

Unless they are looking for a specific individual or someone sets off a detector or the like then either everyone is under suspicion or no one at all. The person most likely to do something devastating is probably very rarely the person people suspect and that's how they get away because everyone is busy profiling the innocent person.

As for general police profiling, they should include as part of their public outreach the need for people to be more descriptive regarding suspects. Saying someone is black male, a male hispanic, et al, is not enough of a description and gives them license to harass based on something vague enough to allow them to get away with doing it.