Prejudice?

[giftedmadness@hotmail.com]

There was an ad in a magazine of mine that stated, "That white guy has a good jump shot", but the word "white" was crossed out. It was an ad promoting the removal of prejudice from our society. I sat there, on the toliet mind you, wondering how they thought that this was an offensive remark. I'm sure the tone in which it's uttered and the context of the remark would say more about whether it's a prejudice comment, but just reading it like that didn't offend me in the least. Are we not allowed to describe people by their physical characteristics? If I say, "That green eyed girl is cute", is that discriminatory against green eyed girls because most people don't think green eyed girls are cute? I can see where it might be prejudice if someone implied this: "Well, that white guy has a good shot, because usually white guys can't play basketball that well." (Which ironically, usually the best shooters are white guys, the most athletic ones on the court are usually black.) But I don't think that saying white guys aren't as good as black guys at basketball is prejudice at all. I mean, they make up around 15% of the poplulation but look at all the NBA players who are black. I have rambled here and must stop typing so I can allow others to comment on this issue. Thanks.

(Oh, please state whether you play bball competitively or not. I do.)

[Johnny]

I don't think that saying white guys aren't as good as black guys at basketball is prejudice at all.
Yeah, I'm game.

I've got the same beef with quarterbacks in football. Why should white guys who are clearly better than black guys at throwing a pass give them a chance when they are just going to ruin it anyway? O.K., so maybe there is the odd black quarterback out there who knows where the runners are and can remember what's going on long enough to get rid of the ball, but let's get real here. People don't pay players to screw around with political correctness, race relations, and affirmative action. They want game.

Speaking of, why is the quarterback always behind the line? :unsure:

:rofl:

[paladinoflunaria]

Self-fulfilling prophecy seems to cut deep into modern humanity.

[giftedmadness@hotmail.com]

Self-fulfilling prophecy seems to cut deep into modern humanity.

Could you elaborate and fill us with your wisdom?

[paladinoflunaria]

But I don't think that saying white guys aren't as good as black guys at basketball is prejudice at all. I mean, they make up around 15% of the poplulation but look at all the NBA players who are black.

It seems that facts such as these are more dependent upon the culture rather than the biology. As far as I know, melanin content is the only significant difference between the "subraces" of humans. All tribal cultures in the paleolithic era depended upon the same skills: running, jumping, aiming and throwing (don't have too many spears to waste),and hunting; and abilities such as strength and endurance. Even after the paleolithic era the rules were still the same- kill things and eat them, and if you're too weak, better build a better spear. Those rules applied to everyone, despite their skin color, sexuality, sex, personality, etc.. Not until specialized jobs came around did intelligence, etc., even matter.

I've read statistics about intelligence, for example, that detail that Asians tend to be slightly more intelligent on average than Europeans, who tend to be slightly more intelligent on average than Africans. Note that I'm being politically correct, and that when I say Africans I mean African-Americans, etc.. I don't think that melanin, etc. affects aptitude. I would say that many simply choose to take what the culture prescribes, and so the culture ultimately reaps what it sews.

I'm not saying that people should be overly-politically-correct- that's annoying- but people should break down barriers and such that prevent unification. While this can cause problems on a world-wide level, it is definitely better for the individual to "tear down the walls and let it be." Words are barriers- a culture with a language which does not have words such as "hate," "loathe," "murder," or "slaughter" has different attitudes toward similar subjects. Likewise, a narrow-minded taxonomy can cultivate narrow-minded people, and that is bad farming.

Use inductive logic. We are all human (we all suffer, die, etc.), and that's what's important. A generalized taxonomy is superior because it helps to keep us from travelling down wrong paths.

Which do you hear more about, farming advancements toward growing particular crops, or farming advancements such as irrigation. I bet you understand the concept behind crop cycles, but can you tell me how big the average rutabaga is (or did you know that they belong to the mustard family and are also called Swedish or Russian turnips)?

[giftedmadness@hotmail.com]

Paladin,

You're going off on tangents.

[MasterMerk]

I don't really see a problem with these kinds of statements. On top of it all, we have to be able to identify people through appearance, political correctness shouldn't be higher priority. IT isn't going to stop law enforcement agencies, why should it stop everyone ese?

[Vagabond]

OK. Next time someone refers to me as "greek", I'll have their ass. You racists. :P :D

Being overly politically correct is spotting the tree and missing the forest. Ah, freaking SJ society...

[Johnny]

If only the great Greek athletic potential could be harnessed for bball...then we'd have some real game!:D

Man, I hope these emoticons are working to show my meanings correctly...

[paladinoflunaria]

You're right, GM, I did get somewhat sidetracked. I did pass through my point, even if I only scraped the surface.

The culture says that blacks like to rap, play basketball, that they live in "ghettos," and we even have words such as "ebonics" (spelling?) to describe "their dialect". This is bullshit, obviously. Many of us can point out a black person who doesn't play basketball, who does live in a ghetto, who doesn't rap, and/or who doesn't speak "ebonics." Still, however, many young African-Americans choose to do some of these things, and usually because that's what's expected of them. The cultural identity therefor undergoes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Though it might take many years, America could choose to have two cultures switch places. It is also possible that an individual could bring about some sort of change, but this is fairly rare.

America makes a few molds for people, almost all of the people are produced successfully, and as part of their molds, those people see the molds of others (and not their own), and use the prescribed J to act on their perception of those molds. The people are made to do that, and they do. And they will. Self-fulfilling prophecy.

I don't see what the problem is- this is a denotative system- an assembly line if you will.

[giftedmadness@hotmail.com]

I think you are living in a fantasy/tv/media world, Paladin.

[Johnny]

America makes a few molds for people, almost all of the people are produced successfully, and as part of their molds, those people see the molds of others (and not their own), and use the prescribed J to act on their perception of those molds. The people are made to do that, and they do. And they will. Self-fulfilling prophecy.

I don't see what the problem is- this is a denotative system- an assembly line if you will.

The only problem I see is the inflexibility of such a system. Prejudice at its roots, to me, is categorization gone astray - it's lost its foundation in reality. I recall my days in little league baseball one year, where instead of assuming that everyone take the same positions we held the previous year, we spent time rotating our positions out. Our team won 2nd place that year.

Of course, I was a little kid and didn't think anything about it. But now, I see the wisdom - we got the chance to "walk in the other person's shoes", gained insight on how the positions could interact to get things done, and allowed the coach the opportunity to feel out our personal talents on the field to slot us better and improve our competition level.

That's what I call game.

[paladinoflunaria]

I think you are living in a fantasy/tv/media world, Paladin.

Could be. Explain your logic behind this so as to help me out of it, please.

[paladinoflunaria]

Before you do, please read this page.

http://www.maddox.xmission.com/c.cgi?u=lovin_it

Because of your avatar, Division56, you should read as well.


Do you disbelieve in propaganda, GM?

[int]

lol. That site is awesome. :)

Anyways, the more I learn the less "robotness" I've been seeing in people (especially Americans). Of course, this was only after I got over myself. But I still have much to learn about humbleness.

[Salad]

maddox is funny. i like how he rants about stuff he doesn't care about.




arrrrgh *in a rough, bad-ass pirate voice*