Can I please say something here.
This is a public forum, it is nice of you to ask for permission, but there's no need.
Chipolata and Jose and all the rest. Noen of you know for sure if anyone here is actually black, none of you here know if anyone is actually white or even the ones who say they are in brasil or are brasilian.
That’s true, but we are discussing ideas here. If someone gets his kicks by pretending to be what he is not, more power to him. I don’t give a rat’s ass. Anyway, if he is a phony, I will find out sooner or later.
Now what I mean is when you look to one person as a representative of entire group of people you are in essence falling into the trap of stereotyping and holding prejudice
That’s true again. Individuals have their own quirks and idiosyncrasies, but when most of the elements of a group have characteristics in common, a stereotype develops. So the stereotype didn’t come from nothing, there's always an element of truth in them, but what one can't do is assume that a person he just met has all the characteristics of the stereotype of his race or nationality. That is irrational behavior since individuals are unpredictable no matter where they come from or what they look like.
To say that "african americans" as a whole do something is a wrong statement.
That’s obvious to me, even though I believe some stupid people don’t think so.
You see if Afro Man and all the rest you assume are black because they say so really aren't then they've in fact done just what some racist americans regardless of race do to help promote propaganda about different ethnic groups. I think it is very sad to see some of the most intelligent people come on here and turn into the very thing they claim someone else is.
It doesn’t matter to me if Afro Man is black or not because, no matter what his race is, he is an individual first. I'm going to find out what I like and dislike about him soon enough.
I doubt very much that Afro Man represents everything there's to know about the American Black Community, he's just one among many. Even if his thought represents the majority, it doesn’t represent all because there's no unanimity in any school of thought. So his ideas have to be heard and I’ll decide whether I will fall in line with them or not, after all, I do have a brain.
What should I do? Shut him up because he may be doing harm to his community by expressing his ideas? No way, I am a firm believer in freedom of expression.
I really have seen all of you display a prejudice and guise it up as a truth because you say it is.
I don’t deal with generalizations. That’s exactly what you are doing here. If I have displayed prejudice and guised it up as a truth, show me so I can tell you exactly what I mean. It is too easy to make a generalization and then run away.
I've seen everyone on this board except for Macunaima display racist remarks at least he's bias everyone is trying to be better than the next.
People believe in what they are saying and they want to bring others to their point of view, that’s only human nature. People express themselves to find their friends and their foes, the ones who agree and the ones who don’t and they feel a warm feeling and closeness towards those who are more connected to their way of thinking and being. What's wrong with that?
And as for being better, that’s animal and human nature. Nature determines the ones who should survive by generating competitions so only the fittest can survive and spread their genes. Humans are not so beyond nature that they are above those feelings, at least not yet.
You increase your racial group to decrease anothers.
What do you mean by that?
I don't know what that says about human relationships if you take race out. If you don't want to become race crazy like you say americans are then why display the very thing you hate?
How can anyone take race out when people ARE different? Humans have grouped themselves into races according to certain characteristics so they identify more with one group than another. I have never identified racially, I identify myself nationally, as an ethnic group and not a racial one, but others, because of different realities, have identified racially. So what as long as people get along?
Identifying differences between ethnic and racial groups does not make anyone a racist, what makes one a racist is treating people harmfully because they belong to a different group. People can never accuse me of doing that.
I will criticize any group I want to by using stereotypes, even though I will not criticize an INDIVIDUAL for things his race or ethnic group did?
Well, what are Blacks trying to do? They are trying to make White people pay for what their ancestors did. It would be like me being sentenced to death because my great-great-grandfather killed someone.
Or my son being arrested because I committed a crime, do you see how stupid this line of thought is?
I am totally against discrimination. People should have the same rights regardless of race, religion or ethnic group. All this talk started because I am against quotas. Quotas are turning Brazilians into racists, and the blacks have only themselves to blame for it.
As I am a Pardo, I can take advantage of the quota system, but I am telling my White family members to sue if they are rejected because of the quota law since it is unconstitutional. The Constitution says EVERYONE has to be treated equally, REVERSE discrimination is discrimination anyway.
I have yet to see one person display a non bias attitude it's all this well I heard or I read and this proves my point
Well, everybody has a bias. Just by being black or Pardo or White or Native you have a tendency to defend the group you belong to since this kind of attitude is in our genes. Animals have to survive and so they will first defend their lives and then the lives of the ones in the group they identify with. It is just survival of the fittest.
I really thought this board at one point was the place for healthy debate and healthy talks but it's become nothing but a board for bashing.
If you are too sensitive, you have a sensitivity issue to deal with, pal. What do you call healthy debate? One where everybody agrees totally with each other? That’s not a debate, my friend. Humans are diverse individuals and so they will agree with the same individual on one issue and disagree totally on another. Should I exclude a person from my life because he disagrees with me on a religious, racial, political, or ethnic issue? No way, because we can work together on things we agree with. Many times we have to agree to disagree and just go on with our lives. I have never met a person that’s a mirror image of me on every aspect imaginable and I doubt very much anyone has been able to find his counterpart as well. The problem is not disagreeing, the problem is HOW you disagree, in a society like ours violence should be used to solve disputes only in extreme circumstances, debate is the best way, and a debate where one doesn’t have the guts to really say what one thinks is not a real debate at all. If you don’t have the guts to take on criticism, do not participate.