I dont know if I should be happy or sad that some Americans are finally having a discussion about race. Race is a socially constructed concept, developed so people with similar physical features can be easily identifiable and grouped together. I believe that race is constructed in purely a racist manner and is usually a tool to marginalize and oppress people who are not apart of the dominent or elite groups.

While I do not believe Ferraro's remarks to to be as racist as some of ones I have heard growing up half white and half black in the South, I still understand where the article is coming from. It is hard for a person of color to not hear racism in remarks a white person makes when they speak about the color of a persons skin and their social/political/economic status.I think having experienced life from both a black and white perspective I can see both sides of the arguement.

The main problem with a lot of statements made by white people regarding black people is that they do not understand the history of overt and covert racism that black people have experienced in America. For the most part different racial groups have very little contact with each other so they rely on stereotypical and racist images that have been created when they do have to interact. From my personal experience, black people are always on guard when it comes to racism because we are usually judged with a preconceived notion about how we are based solely on race.

Since I have moved to Los Angeles I have noticed that people have a hard time dealing with racism because it is so covert here. At least in the South a person would call me a nigger or a mongrel to my face and I would know where they stand (not to say that it makes it any easier to deal with). In LA a person will make a comment that I have to dissect for a few hours before I can identify its racist/non racist meaning.

Racism unlike sexism and classism has become such a dirty subject that it has been driven underground and covered up, no one wants to speak about it or understand it. It is like a pulsating infection that is ready to burst. What this country (and eventually world) needs is a frank and open discussion about race and racism and its effects on all people. Of course it is going to be emotional and painful but most things in life are (I was scared to even post my feelings because of the sensitive nature of this discussion). Until a discussion of this type happens most remarks made about race will be considered racist.

I totally agree with what you have said but I am deeply disturbed with the fact that Rev. Wright is so anti-white and Obama has supported him for 20 years and he was on Obama's campaign team as late as December.

The main problem with a lot of statements made by white people regarding black people is that they do not understand the history of overt and covert racism that black people have experienced in America.

There's where you lost me. Slavery is ancient history. Many racial groups have experienced racism, Chinese, Irish, etc, and are long past it. Whites are discriminated against today. Blacks are the most racist people and feel that it's their privelege to be so. Sorry, but I'm not going to grant you the racial double-standard you're asking for, nor does my race owe your race anything. Forget it.

In LA a person will make a comment that I have to dissect for a few hours before I can identify its racist/non racist meaning.

Seek and ye shall find. Torture the data and it will confess.

What this country (and eventually world) needs is a frank and open discussion about race and racism and its effects on all people.

Be advised, unlike the one-sided media-driven anti-white racism discussions currently in vogue, a truly "open" discussion will be a two-edged sword and blacks will also have to account for their actions at that time, and it's not going to be pretty.

TheRaven:

Whites are discriminated against today. Blacks are the most racist people and feel that it's their privelege to be so.

It's true, there is nothing harder in our society than being white...poor poor white people.

TheRaven, I was going to reply intelligently to your post, but then I realized it would be a useless exercise. . .pearls before swine and all that, you know. . .Anyway, I've distilled my comments to your posting to a single question: Were you born an asshole, or did you work at it your whole life?

I agree that slavery is history (not ancient because nothing in American history can be considered ancient) but the racist institutions and ideologies that it created are alive and well in today's society.