(12-09-2015, 09:11 PM)kandrathe Wrote: I had an interesting conversation with my son about the San Bernadino terrorist massacre. He began by questioning why we allow these people into the US, which seems to be the current popular general "ignorant" knee-jerk reaction.
I explained that radical extremist groups, like ISIL, seek to create schisms across all groups, but especially within the Muslim community. Every knee jerk, bigoted, reaction against nationalities, or Islam, validates the ISIL(crusades) narrative.
The way to effectively fight them is to disprove their violent philosophy, remain fearless, stand united, and be the melting pot of community and culture we've aspired to for the past few centuries. We should not repeat our totalitarian repressive mistakes by discriminating against whole groups of people as we have done in the past war eras.
The Restriction of Civil Liberties During Times of Crisis by Matthew David Fairman, Conneticutt College.
What exactly is racism? I went to several different dictionaries and got several different definitions:
From Four Separate Dictionaries Wrote:1. The prejudice that members of one race are intrinsically superior to members of other races
2. Discriminatory or abusive behavior towards members of another race
3. The belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.
4. Racism is the belief that a particular race is superior or inferior to another, that a person’s social and moral traits are predetermined by his or her inborn biological characteristics.
The first implying racism requires the viewer to feel one race is superior to another, the second is pretty straightforward in its wording but implies abusive behavior, the third is clearly more broad pointing out that poking fun of a racial characteristic or ability specific to that race is racist but again infers that it must be used to show superiority, and the fourth more or less confers with the third.
I've been accused of making racist comments on these forums, even though in my statement I never stated nor inferred superiority of any race. At my local high-school, there were some native Americans that decided they disagreed with the statue coming into the school because it was clearly an American Indian and had the football team name, "Warriors", written beneath it. Due to claims of racism, the statue was taken down. I once had a negro customer when I was a waiter and when talking to another employee about his drink order said, "the African American wants a Coke and..." but before I could finish, he leapt out of his chair, pointed his finger into my chest and proclaimed, "Sir, I am neither African nor American!" That moment forward got me thinking about political correctness and the sensitivity of others... say "black" in the wrong room and you're a sinner, say "African American" in another and you're a monster, but go into opposite rooms and nothing is wrong. I don't like how in this day and age someone of Chinese descent can go to a cultural event and say, "that traditional Chinese dance is racist because I'm Chinese and I don't do that dance and neither does my family or friends," and have that dance removed for racial undertows...
When you take statistical facts about a cultures and draw analogies from them, so long as you don't proclaim one race is superior to another, then I'm sorry, but that does not constitute racism folks! Stating that black people have a greater than average chance of developing sickle cell anemia is a fact, not a racist remark, but when Trump states more Caucasian people have been killed my police than black people, and that more black people have murdered black people and he's called a racist, it boggles my mind?!? I saw his quotes, and his percentages were not correct, but I saw fact-checking websites and his percentages were pretty damn close! Seriously, what in the fuck is wrong with this country where you can't state a fact without being called a racist? More on the topic of Muslims, take this example here.... I'm sorry, but that thing looked like a goddamn bomb plain and simple, and was not an act of racism to be wary of it, yet the school gets sued for millions!
This country has gotten so politically correct, it's borders on obsessive to the point of being dangerous by not diagnosing actual threats to our nation anymore. People need to wake up to what actual racism is and pull their heads out of their political correct asses before we have a real tragedy. Do we really need another 9-11 for us to realize that we can make judgmental decisions about people without being racist by simply observing a persons (not skin color or national origin) behaviors and tendencies? Does being Islam in this country raise a flag? Yeah, of course it does due to the nature of it's offshoots leading to extremism over any other known religion. There is nothing wrong with a good healthy dose of cynicism, and observing someone based on their appearance is not only natural, but expected and if they behaviorally act normal, then there shouldn't be an issue. Observing someone doesn't cross the racial border until you as an observer decide that their culture or way of life is wrong because yours is the right way, not theirs. But for whatever fucked up reason in this country, correlating any observable distinction with a culture or race is considered racist. I just don't get it.
"The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self." -Albert Einsetin