NPR Ibram X. Kendi's Latest Book: 'How To Be An Antiracist'
I listened to this on the way to work. It deserves more study.
Atlantic Am I American?
Wiki Ibram X Kendi
I listened to this on the way to work. It deserves more study.
Atlantic Am I American?
Wiki Ibram X Kendi
37 comments:
One of the concepts that grabbed my attention was his disagreeing with this definition.
"Racist: a person who shows or feels discrimination or prejudice against people of other races, or who believes that a particular race is superior to another."
Unless I misunderstood, he makes an excellent point that people are not "racist". It is not baked into their bones.
The same person can say or do racist things, and the next day do anti-racist things. So it is incorrect to label a person as racist or anti-racist.
Here is where we have been discussing this topic in great detail
OK, I was pretty much fed up with the topic, but you raise an interesting point. There is an inherent difference between racism and discrimination. It used to be that discrimination was a POSITIVE character trait, as in "he has discriminating taste" or "he is very discriminate about whom he chooses for friends." So, if your only experiences with black men in broad-brimmed hats were a drug dealer in court, for one, and an attempted rapist who shot at you on the other, would it be prejudice for you to avoid the next such person you met? No, that would be a survival skill. The more such people you meet that belie your memory, the weaker it becomes.
AND, if you believed the arresting officer in the first instance and called the police in the second, were you being racist, or simply judging individuals on THEIR behavior? That is the critical difference that these ridiculous charges of racism being tossed around these days simply overlook, even deny. Call it what it is, it's dirty, filthy politics with no basis in reality or no real benefit to anybody except those trying to tarnish a political opponent.
Sorry. But unfortunately Trump says and does a lot of things that are racist in nature. And he started on Day 1. :-(
"Most of his wrath was directed at Mexico, which he accused of “bringing their worst people” to America, including criminals and “rapists”.
“They’re sending us not the right people,” he said, adding: “The US has become a dumping ground for everyone else’s problems.
“They’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing their problems,” he said. “They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists, and some I assume are good people but I speak to border guards and they tell us what we are getting.”
Old history and new proof
So, he may have put the stress on the wrong fraction of the population, but we identify drug dealers and rapists and other miscreants all the time, and our experience with their observable characteristics like race or ethnicity or even gender does not make us prejudiced or racist or anything else. It makes us observant and concerned that "bad people" are mixed in with that particular classification of folks, and those are the ones we should worry about.
What would you have him do? Should he be completely oblivious and unconcerned about rapists, gangs, drug dealers, killers, sex and human traffickers that come across our border? And is this vicious lie about him being somehow racist or somesuch helping or hindering the necessary border security improvements?
I would have him do what most normal non-racist people would do, acknowledge:
- that these are humans who are fleeing very dangerous and impoverished lives.
- they want better jobs, safer communities and a better life for them, their children and their families back in their home country.
- there are some criminals who try to blend in with them, so all of them must be captured, processed and screened carefully.
- as humans we must treat them with respect and care, as the reviews take place and if we return them to their home country.
I often think of my great Grand Parents coming here uninvited on a ship. How would Trump have treated them?
Would he have called them:
- rapists
- criminals
- invaders
- etc?
Was his Grand Father one of the above?
I guess I am hoping that something good comes from all the back lash Trump is receiving.
I pray that he learns to:
- and honors the humanity of all people
- not use people as pawns for his own agenda
- truly feel empathy for people who are less fortunate for himself
- treat all people with respect
It probably will not happen, but God can work miracles.
Here is a funny within one of Trump's lies.
"In 1885, Friedrich Trump — the father of the late Fred Trump and the grandfather of President Donald Trump — immigrated from Germany to New York. Then 16, Friedrich left before he could legally have been conscripted into the German military service,
Like Grand father, like Grand son... :-)
Well, I am appreciating the backlash against the race hustlers and character assassins. Do we really expect somebody making a valid point to clutter it up (especially in 140 characters) with all of the qualifying statements? Nobody else does, they just say Trump is a racist, so why should he bother being absolutely statistically correct? It makes no sense.
And you cannot treat ALL people with respect. You don't treat a mother who has lost a child to an illegal immigrant murderer the same way you treat the murderer. Let's be clear about /that/.
I see "what you would have him do." Now, why and how would he do it, without losing the push towards doing what is right? You don't move the basketball by standing mid-court and faking to both ends.
In regards to Trumps statements from day 1, I had the same thoughts as Jerry. A variety of people have come across the border. It includes good people, criminals, drug dealers etc. I don’t see the comment as racist. Sex trafficking and drug dealers are concerning. I agree we have to help people being persecuted too. I just don’t think open borders is the answer.
Language is often used to criticize. They talk of children in cages. It’s unfortunate that they have to be held this way but Obama held them this way as well. Now we can’t use the word invasion or invaders because Trump used it. I’ve seen clips of other politicians in the past using the term and nobody had a problem with it then.
I wish people could just be civil and honest for a change.
Molly
You want people to be civil while children are kept in cages, immigrants are dying in detention, people are being deported to countries in which they've never lived (and dying there from lack of medicine), and white supremacists are gunning down immigrants and bystanders alike because they've been told we're being 'invaded'?
Pardon me, but 1930s Germany called. They want their complacent citizens back.
NEVER AGAIN! ¡Ya basta!
Moose
I want people to be civil, period. No hurling around charges with no basis in fact, just to score political points, and if there ARE things wrong we should be looking, in a CIVIL way, to get them corrected. If MLK Jr. can defeat blantant government discrimination with non-violence and great speeches, surely we can correct any small "badness" government may be doing with ILLEGAL immigrants. We don't object, do we, when criminals go to jail, leaving their children behind?
1939 Germany called, and Hitler needs a job as speechwriter for the Democrats.
Unfortunately Trump is the number one violator of your wish.
"I want people to be civil, period. No hurling around charges with no basis in fact, just to score political points, and if there ARE things wrong we should be looking, in a CIVIL way, to get them corrected."
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Comparing the border situation to Nazi Germany is dishonest. Nobody is being gassed. The border agents are doing the best that the can.
Molly
Molly,
I think you should read it more closely.
“They’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing their problems,” he said. “They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists, and some I assume are good people but I speak to border guards and they tell us what we are getting.”
Do you really think the Mexican government is sending them?
From the photos you have seen of the asylum seekers, do they match Trump's description in anyway? Mostly violent criminals and a some good people?
Do you think had talked to any border guards in 2015?
Unfortunately he knew / knows how to use your fears to his benefit. :-(
John,
No, I do not think the Mexican government is sending them. I have seen some videos that show mostly young men coming and people throwing rocks and families coming too. I doubt that he talked to border agents in 2015.
Molly
As John's views and Jerry's are too predictable and boring I am more interested in Molly's views, which seem to be nearly opposite of my own. I think the main reason is that we likely rely on completely different news sources.
about "I just don’t think open borders is the answer." No dem candidate favors open borders, though I do think they could do a better job making this more clear.
about "children in cages. It’s unfortunate that they have to be held this way but Obama held them this way as well." I think a very small number of children were detained separately from their parents under Obama.
about "use the word invasion or invaders" That sound s very racist to me.
Gassing people wasn’t on the Nazi agenda at the beginning.
Moose
Molly,
Facts and Data are better than trusting your eyes in this case.
Please remember that Trump and the news sources you follow want you to see them as invaders, rapists, killers, drug carriers, etc. Therefore the pictures you will see are of men.
"In the first four months of FY 2019, by comparison, just less than 60 percent of all the aliens apprehended along the Southwest border were unaccompanied alien children (UACs) and aliens traveling in family units (that is, parents or legal guardians traveling with children), as were just less than 48 percent of all aliens deemed inadmissible at the ports of entry along that border.2
Further, the vast majority of those UACs and family units who are now being apprehended are from the Northern Triangle of Central America (NTCA) countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Specifically, of the 26,937 UACs who were apprehended along the Southwest border in the first five months of FY 2019, 12,576 (almost 47 percent) were from Guatemala, 6,696 (almost 25 percent) were from Honduras, and 3,115 (11.5 percent) were from El Salvador.3 Of the 136,150 family-unit apprehensions along the Southwest border in that time frame, 66,470 (almost 49 percent) were from Guatemala, 51,669 (almost 38 percent) were from Honduras, and 11,957 (almost 9 percent) were from El Salvador."
CBS Family Arrests at all time high
FS Fact Check 1
FS Fact Check 2
Moose,
Deporting people who enter our country illegally, do not have an adequate asylum case or over stay their visas is very different.
Or can you truly not understand that?
OK, Mexico is not "sending them." But they /were/ freely allowing these Central Americans to pass unhindered through their territory, until Trump struck a deal with Mexico to follow international law and curtail it. It seems to be working.
And a lot of those "families" consist of abducted children used over and over again by human traffickers, because that is the ticket to asylum in this country thanks to our perverse immigration laws which Democrats in Congress steadfastly refuse to fix. And we still have the problem that amidst that massively-exploited human tragedy of people being told they can come here, there is massive sex and human trafficking, drugs and gangs and criminals of all sorts. I am sorry, but there is absolutely no moral case to be made that these people should NOT be greatly discouraged from, and stopped from, illegal entry. If they want to gain entry legally, according to the rules, they should do it through a legal port of entry.
Do you have any reliable source to back up all those opinions?
"a lot of those "families" consist of abducted children used over and over again by human traffickers"
"there is massive sex and human trafficking, drugs and gangs and criminals of all sorts"
"Deporting people who enter our country illegally, do not have an adequate asylum case or over stay their visas is very different."
Different from what?
Joel
"Gassing people"
I will add one more aspect...
Preventing people from entering our country without proper authorization, and
Deporting people who enter our country illegally, do not have an adequate asylum case or over stay their visas is very different from gassing people...
Or can you truly not understand that?
Despite the efforts of a Trumper in El Paso, wholesale slaughter hasn't happened yet, but we are putting people in concentration camps, and some are dying because of it.
The Christian Right's lack of concern is notable.
Moose
I think you are doing a great disservice to the Jews who actually spent time in, slaved and died in concentration camps.
There was over crowding because so many illegal border crossings occurred.
And apparently changes were made when the additional funding was approved.
Unfortunately people are dying in Central America, on the perilous trek North, waiting in Mexico and in Detention. The reality is that these kids are worn down and at risk. Some may dies unfortunately, hopefully far fewer than if they were still in Central America
Moose,
What do you think they should have done with the hundreds of thousands of people who showed up at our border uninvited?
Nearly a million year to date...
That was one heck of a surge...
And they did not approve extra funding until the end of June.
Instead of caring what John thinks...
What does a Holocaust survivor think?
Your concerns are irrelevant. These people should be treated humanely. That is not happening. We've turned people away in the past, even Jews who ended up dying in the Holocaust. My conscience says that's an evil thing to do. YMMV.
Moose
Did you read her quote?
“I feel because I have been in a concentration camp, I do understand that this is beyond human behavior. It’s because I know from my own experience what it means,” she said. “It means you are not allowed to think, and you’re always under the thumb of the authorities, the ones in power.”
Apparently she has an issue with arresting and processing border violators / asylum seeks.
By the way, you have not said what you would do different?
Different Survivors with Very Different Feelings and Thoughts
"By the way, you have not said what you would do different(ly)?"
I'll refer you to my previous comment:
"These people should be treated humanely."
Moose
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