"Black & White: Its All Attitude"
If a person is loud and obnoxious most times that person can automatically be labeled as acting "Black" or having black tendencies. If a person is respectful and sucessful then in some instances that person can be labeled as "White" or to have white tendencies. This is assumption that the world has made quite familiar in their minds.
Because racism is still a big issue these days, when reffering to the race of a person it is important to be politically correct. In being politically incorrect it is quite easy to offend someone. About fifty or sixty years ago people threw the terms "Black" and "White" around as freely as they chose. Nowadays when refferring to someone's race we say these words with hesitation in our voices. But in contrast, when reffering to the attitude of an individual the terms "Black" and "White" are used as loosley as the words "homey" and "dude".
In a world made up of a multitude of colors, the colors black and white are more prevelant and noticeable. Because of this, social perception is a big issue adding to the turmiol that makes our world so confused. It has come to be that if one acts in a certain manner then a color, not a characteristic, labels that person.
Now, the problem with that is the way in which people are percieved. It is the shame of stereotypes that gets the best of us in that situation. Thanks in large part to the media stereotypes have become sometimes extremely inaccurate nameplates that cause people to pass judgement solely on appearances and actions.
In the world of stereotypes African Americans or blacks are known for being lazy, violent and having improper English. To sum it up in one word: "ghetto". For causcasians or whites they are known for extensive intellectual, thriving sucesses and high class living. Because of these stereotypes it is abnormal for either a black or white person to do other than what is stereotypically expected of them.
As hard as it is to admit, it is a fact that the words "black" and "white have changed thier parts of speech from nouns to adjectives in that they are no longer colors but attitudes that describe people. The reality of this whole situation is that sucess, poverty and actions for that matter should not have color barriers. People should learn not to judge and assume because in doing so one could automatically become a stereotypical racial classifier instead of a person taking a closer look.
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Thanks, Dave... now the main problem is that nobody can seem to log in. Rest assured -- everyone who lost a few days of entries, I backed them all up early this morning and we should be able to restore them. Dave has made us a brand-new, fresh installation of Moveable Type, and pointed blogs.setonhill.edu towards it. The old installation is now at
http://www.plover.net/~shblogold/
You can check to see that your recent entreis are still in fact online if you go to http://www.plover.net/~shblogold/YourBlogName
(it's not useable there, but I'm sending this out just to prove the info is still there)
Bear with me, everybody! This isn't exactly how I wanted to spend my break, so believe me! I understand your frustration.
I believe we are fixed although I can't help that we've lost the last 5 days of entries....those can be copied from old database...see Prof Jerz for details.
I believe we are fixed although I can't help that we've lost the last 5 days of entries....those can be copied from old database...see Prof Jerz for details.
Very true, a person cannot be made to fit in a social box and labeled. Stereotypes are too confining and they give people an excuse to judge others and this is not fair.
A very thought-provoking post. A technical note -- if you put a blank line between paragraphs, the whole thing would be more legible. What do you feel about alternatives such as "African American" or "person of color"? Earlier this week there were some visitors from Ireland, and one of them used the word "Negro". There was a time when that word was preferred (for instance, it's still in "The United Negro College Fund"), but I told her that word has been out of fashion for several decades now.