[MASSIVE RANT WARNING.... PLEASE IGNORE IF YOU HAVE ENOUGH OF THIS SHIT 
]
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
quote:
Originally posted by Discrate
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1084394769627714346&hl=en#
I'm not realy
about that video. More like
, because that video in itself is very biased and conveniently only shows certain aspects and is edited in such a way that they portray the people and the racism subject in the way you see it.
I mean, if that somewhat portrays your definition, experience, beliefs, etc about the term and word 'racism' then yes, I can understand where you got your arguments from and stuff.
"What is racism?"
"Eh... Eh... Eh..."
"Can you give an example?"
"No, but it is everywhere."
"Like if he is a gay and I'm strait, that can be racism"
"...."
I mean, wtf?
Then the video goes further and shows that it can be a very biased thing. However, you can 'proof' anything with such a documentary, especially one where they ask the questions in a certain way, but leave out other equaly important questions.
In the second half of the documantery they start out with the assumption that racism means the believe that one race is superior than the other. And that is correct. But then they conveniently forget to make a very important distinction: One ethnic group can indeed be better than the other in certain areas (they take the basketball example*), but that is not racism in itself at all. Racism is the believe that one race is superior in _everything_ (and thus you hate the 'other' inferiour one and/or ridicule them). And there is the big difference, "in everything", and the big (and convenient) mistake they make in that documentary.
And since they (conveniently) leave that important difference out, they can (conveniently) proof that racism is very biased, has double standards, etc.
* they go on about basketball for like a minute. But then they go on for like 10 mionutes about why white people would be better at tests. Well, the reason why most people agree that black people would be better in basketball is because they see it with their own eyes, they know it for a fact.
Of course, if you ask them why white people would be better at tests, than most people wouldn't know what to answer. Because is it actually true? How would those interviewed people know? They don't, and thus can not answer that question strait away. They didn't knew it and thus they can't answer that question. But that is all there is to it. That's logic, not a "double standard".
And this goes on and on. Very easy to make your point in that way I'd say. However, you could simply do the opposite too: showing 1 minute of video about how people don't know why white people do better tests, then quickly foget about it and burry it under 10 minutes about people struggling to come up with an answer about why black people are better at basketball... Then what would that 'proof'?
After all that they say: "see how biased and double standard racism is"... But they never asked the question "why is it then that black people are better in basketball". Why didn't they ask it? Because those same interviewed people probably wouldn't know what to say either. It is just the same, but it is conveniently left out of this documentary just to proof that it seem to be ok to call black people better in basketball, but it is not ok to say that white people are good at something else, hence the so called double standard.
Belief me that those interviewed people and the way that documentary has been made is far from how other people see or understand what racism is, at least from my small experience here in Western Europe. But as I said in the beginning, if that is indeed the thing you belief and understand of how most people think about racism, using it lightly (and often for no reason at all) and act upon it, then yes, I can perfectly understand you and I would even agree with you on some points if I would follow that same train of thoughts.
But for me, here, racism is something far more concrete and it does mean something and isn't something vague or undefinable. And in 99% of cases I've seen the usage of the word is genuine and real racism is going on when it is 'shouted'. (However there are of course always people here who act in just the same manner as shown in that video though and/or shouting "racism" to everything and everybody, but those are a very small minority).
So, if that video is an attempt to show how America realy thinks about it and how they use the word 'racism', double standards, etc, than I agree with most stuff you said. But I also like to believe (and hope) that is not how the majority of 'America' actually thinks. And I like to believe that most people have at least some more concrete knowledge of what racism is and can actually identify it when it happens, than the ones in that documentary, and as a result do not use the word lightly or shout 'racism' every 5 minutes for no or the wrong reasons. But maybe I'm too naïve also (and maybe I have seen too many times how small 'innocent' jokes and things can grow over the years to something far worse. It always starts with 'taking a good hearted joke' and before you know it you live in a place where it is normal to piss on people and where it wouldn't even be noticed because everybody does it so it is 'normal')...
/ 
