Why is it...

[wooderson]

Though as the trainer in The Great White Hype says, the Irish are OK - they're almost white.

[doczinn]

It helps you track and identify areas of concern.

For example, if you have a region where 100 percent of convictions are of blacks, or 100 percent of blacks are convicts, there's probably something going on that's worth looking into...if you're interested in civil rights, anyway.

If you'd like to use a feasible example, I'll address that point.

[De Selby]

It helps you track and identify areas of concern.

For example, if you have a region where 100 percent of convictions are of blacks, or 100 percent of blacks are convicts, there's probably something going on that's worth looking into...if you're interested in civil rights, anyway.

If you'd like to use a feasible example, I'll address that point.

Sure.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/06/17/news/opinion/courtwatch/main559138.shtml

Instead, as the Washington Post reported, in eight lightning-quick trials, juries with virtually no black members handed down blisteringly tough sentences -- even though the sweeps turned up no drugs, weapons, paraphernalia or other signs of drug dealing. When the rest of the defendants saw that -- Jim Crow justice 50 years after it was supposed to have been outlawed -- they quickly pleaded guilty themselves in order to give themselves at least a shot at a lighter sentence. And then they languished in jail, knowing they were innocent of those charges, until sufficient legal momentum and good old-fashioned outrage did something about it.

Racism still happens in America.  There needs to be a good way for the rest of us to know about it, so we can respond accordingly.  Statistics don't prove that racism is the cause of nearly every black person in a small town being jailed, but they certainly are good enough to tell us where further attention might be directed.

[LadySmith]

...that a person with a black parent and a white parent is considered black?

Is it just the legacy of a culture of racism.

Is it racist to say that a child of a white and black parent is black? Aren't they just as white? Why aren't they considered to be white?

It was a legacy of a culture of racism. By law and cultural acceptance, if you were mixed, you were Black. Look up U.S. miscegenation laws that continued to be enforced into the mid-1900s. If you had a Black ancestor going back three generations, you were Black. If you had 1/64th Black blood in your veins, you were Black.
I guess you have to know exactly which box to check on those 4473s.

[doczinn]

Racism still happens in America.

Hmmm... That's not the message I get from the actual article. The cop perjured himself, and the jury believed him. And where do you get "nearly every" out of that article?

I eagerly await a real example in which a legal definition of ethnicity or race has helped anything.

[De Selby]

Racism still happens in America.

Hmmm... That's not the message I get from the actual article. The cop perjured himself, and the jury believed him. And where do you get "nearly every" out of that article?

I eagerly await a real example in which a legal definition of ethnicity or race has helped anything.

Wait, so you think it was just coincidence that all white juries convicted an all black cadre of suspects, or what?

Sometimes the urge to deny racism in the name of "ignoring pc" makes the denial as ridiculous as anything "PC"

[Perd Hapley]

RE:  Japanese attitudes on race

From my meager knowledge of Japanese culture, it seems to me they have traditionally viewed themselves as a cut above all other groups.  I wonder if this is why terms like "Jap" and "Nip" have come to be regarded as racial slurs.  So far as I can see, they are merely shortenings of "Japanese" or "Niponese."  I never understood why anyone took offense at these words.  Then I began to wonder if it was not merely that the Japanese felt their race was not to be referred to so informally, their being such superior people and everything. 

Or am I being more clueless than usual? 

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

i think its less the words than manner of delivery. though you are right about the japanese self image thing

[K Frame]

I LOVE racism.

NASCAR, midgets, Indy, even the ponies...

[Gewehr98]

I saw a lot of "No Gaijin" signs myself in Tokyo.  They make American racists look pale in comparison.

[K Frame]

The Japanese are probably the most racist people on the face of the earth. The Koreans aren't much better.

The biggest problem with the Japanese, in my estimation, is their outright refusal to come to terms, or even admit, to the atrocities that they perpetrated against native people in Asia during their colonial/empire building period from the late 1800s through 1945.

Nanking? The Chinese did that to themselves!

Unit 731? They were trying to CURE an outbreak of plague, typhoid, etc.!

Most Japanese don't even know about the issues surrounding 731 or Nanking, or any of the other well documented atrocities committed in the name of the Emperor.

Ask them about the atomic bomb, though...

[BlueStarLizzard]

the japanese is the one group my uber libreal boss is somewhat racist aganst.

then again thats what happens when you were an army brat growing up in american occupied japan. the japanese have a very interesting culture, and a very long culture. i have often considered it to be in the same genre as our own. they are the complete evolution of eastern thought, just as america is the complete evolution of western thought. its no wonder then when heads butted, it got nasty.

as for race. one must remember that skin color is a very small part of it. in regards to race, i am of swedish and english decent (mostly) and i look like it. its not just that my skin is pale, it also has to do with my high cheekbones, my hair and my eye color.

BTW, (well i was going to direct this to the actual poster, but i think he may still be in time out)
race is a biological definition.
ethnicity is a cultural/sociological defintion.

[grampster]

Teddy lecturing on ethnicity is... cute. Not a paragon of virtue when it came to equality and freedom, that one.

I see woody's vision of revisionist history continues unabated. 

[LAK]

I have never understood why any brown-skinned person wants to be called "black". I have seen very few people of african descent in this country who are anywhere near black. For that matter, the only white people I have seen were wearing some kind of paint on their faces.

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[Perd Hapley]

Who cares, LAK?  White don't bother me.  Why should Black bother them? 

I do object to "Caucasian."  I'm not from the Caucasus.  That usage is derived from obsolete and disgusting racist theorizing, anyway. 

[wooderson]

I wonder if this is why terms like "Jap" and "Nip" have come to be regarded as racial slurs.  So far as I can see, they are merely shortenings of "Japanese" or "Niponese."  I never understood why anyone took offense at these words.

'Nip' and 'Jap' are clearly tied to a history of hostility (and racism, but moreso simply the hostility of conflict), shortened as a sign of disrespect. At this time (and barring a change in Japanese or American attitudes toward the words) are basically inseparable from that derogatory context.

There's also an issue revolving around the way we contract words into a harsh, monosyllabic sound (Nip, Jap, Jew, etc.), turning simple words from adjective to invective.

There's an example I bring up in similar discussions - is there a difference in "colored person" (or "colored") and "person of color"?

[LadySmith]

I have never understood why any brown-skinned person wants to be called "black". I have seen very few people of african descent in this country who are anywhere near black. For that matter, the only white people I have seen were wearing some kind of paint on their faces.

"Black" is just one of the many terms other people have applied. It's lazy, like most generalizations are, but has become acceptable. It's a better label than most and not met with the derision "African-American" generates.
Why do Pink people want to be called "white"? 

[Perd Hapley]

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/jonah081500.asp