Is it racist to say that blacks can't swim? (split-off)

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March 16th, 2015 at 7:32:57 PM permalink
Evenbob
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 146
Posts: 25010
People who can swim or think they can
swim are the ones who generally drown.
Those who can't generally stay away
from water. How many stories do we
see of people trying rescue people
from a disaster and dying themselves
instead. It happens all the time. Makes
you wonder if it's not that wise a move.
If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you will always lose.
March 16th, 2015 at 7:33:35 PM permalink
terapined
Member since: Aug 6, 2014
Threads: 73
Posts: 11786
Quote: rxwine
Stereotypes can steer people away from something they are actually good at, and even influence them to perform badly. (eye stereotypes racial discrimination)


Absolutely,
Women's long distance swimming 1980's was dominated by huge East German Women juiced on steroids.
Along comes tiny Janet Evans and her unorthodox windmill stroke smashing the record books.
Before she was known, other swimmers would laugh at her before a race because she was so small.
Sometimes we live no particular way but our own - Grateful Dead "Eyes of the World"
March 17th, 2015 at 7:31:16 AM permalink
Nareed
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 346
Posts: 12545
Quote: rxwine
Stereotypes can steer people away from something they are actually good at, and even influence them to perform badly. (eye stereotypes racial discrimination)


Absolutely.

The word "prejudice" means "to judge beforehand." These days it means more like "to have a bad opinion or feeling beforehand and without knowledge." Either way, it applies perfectly to judging individuals based on stereotypes or even on statistics. See what I said about math and women.

The key factor is to remember that people, all people, are individuals first and part of a group only afterwards. So that even a "true" stereotype or a valid statistic are meaningless when confronted with one person.
Donald Trump is a one-term LOSER
March 17th, 2015 at 7:56:59 AM permalink
buzzardknot
Member since: Mar 16, 2015
Threads: 7
Posts: 497
Before Arab was a bad word I used to be an Araab. That's what it was called in the 50's, going door to door selling produce. Usually a dink with 6 tomatoes in it for $1. Worked Park Heights Avenue in Baltimore. Row houses, predominately Jewish. Some blocks were exclusively Jewish.
You could climb over railing from porch to porch. One house the owner would threaten to call the police on you. Next door neighbor would buy, insist you come in house to take the dink back with you. And hard to get out of that house without a sandwich, soda pop, or on one occasion sitting down to a bowl of oatmeal.

Went into USAF in 1962. Came back in 1966. Blockbusting all along Park Heights Avenue. Black families everywhere. Today a white man is insane to walk those same blocks after dark. Statement on poverty, not racism.
March 17th, 2015 at 5:02:03 PM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
Quote: buzzardknot
Before Arab was a bad word I used to be an Araab.


My relatives are from Syria just north of the Lebanese border. My great grandmother was born about 10 miles from this crusader fort (about 20 miles from Homs). Homs is being torn up by the war today.


She used to say if something is wrong it is Syrian. If it is right it is Lebanese. As far as she was concerned they were the same culture.
March 18th, 2015 at 9:19:54 AM permalink
buzzardknot
Member since: Mar 16, 2015
Threads: 7
Posts: 497
2014 was an absolute terrible year for me. And yet I am luckier than 99% of the people in this world. Sometimes I have to remind myself of that fact.
November 29th, 2016 at 11:48:57 AM permalink
Evenbob
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 146
Posts: 25010
I was watching Anthony Bourdain in Chicago.
He was asking about all the violence and
when it started. A lady who had lived
there since the 40's said in the late 70's
it began and escalated in the 80's. Before
that, the neighborhoods that are bad
now were great places to live.

What happened. In 1964 welfare kicked in
and we started paying women for having
babies. Kids were raised in one parent
families in record numbers. When these
kids tuned into teens in the late 70's and
into the 80's all hell broke loose with gang
violence.

I remember in the early 70's seeing a black
woman in her 40's on a daytime talk show.
She had 12 kids with 8 different fathers.
They were all there with her on the show.
This was new stuff, it was shocking. Now
70 people were killed in Chicago over
the holiday weekend and nobody bats an
eye.
If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you will always lose.
November 29th, 2016 at 3:35:56 PM permalink
buzzardknot
Member since: Mar 16, 2015
Threads: 7
Posts: 497
I have often wondered what a foreigner who's only interaction with blacks was watching American TV shows ala Jerry Springer, Steve Bilko, etc would think of black Americans? Contrast black men in Africa with black men in America, especially with fatherhood ? What a difference. I can't explain it. Anyone care to try ?
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