Prometheus 6 mentioned in one of his comments to my review of his posting on the The New Weblog Showcase Review III that in my commentary about what he has posted about, it might be important to point out that people of one race do not know much about people of another race. Instead of responding to such in the comments on that post, I thought I would do so more publicly by posting about such. I do agree that I know less about how it feels to be Black, Hispanic, Indigenous American, Asian, female, disabled, homosexual, Jewish, Catholic, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, or anything else, than I know how it is to be a 48-year-old Caucasian widowed, orphaned, childless male. What I do know is that each of those mentioned above are all humans, and I do know how it feels to be a human. I also have no idea how my neighbor, who is also a Caucasian male about my age feels either. What I do believe is that we should have tolerance for almost every other human on the Earth, though I believe there are exceptions for people who are selfish, take advantage of others, have no compassion for anyone, commit crimes and such. I try not to categorize anyone other than being human. Those who put themselves into categories are as big of a problem as those who categorize people.
Racism and intolerance of others seem to be an adult problem. When I was a kid, I played with Tommy, Billy and Hector and they were my friends. I never thought of Tommy and Billy as my Black friends or Hector as my Spanish friend. They were just my friends as much as Joe and Sam, who had skin more like mine. I actually became more attuned to racial conflicts when I went into the Army and was put into a large barracks with a lot of other young men, of all races and religions, and sexual orientations. My first indication of strife was when some of the Blacks became very intolerant toward me because they did not like the type of music I played on my stereo. I was not really all that crazy about listening to Al Green either or to some of what the other White guys played on their radios and stereos, but I figured anyone was free to listen to whatever they wanted. It really surprised me that the only ones who showed any intolerance for my tastes were Black. Luckily, I found that intolerance for Whites by Blacks was limited to a very small percentage of the Blacks with whom I became acquainted. In my profession, I have had as many dealings with Blacks as I have with Whites, being I was a criminal defense attorney in Dallas, Texas. I have applauded the proliferation of non-comic relief Black characters on sitcoms and dramatic television shows and in the movies. No, I do not know how it feels to be Black, but I never will know that, just as I will never know how it feels to be female. But I do know how to treat my fellow humans with respect, and I treat all of them with respect until they prove to me that they deserve none.
My Rules of Life can be found here.
Posted by Tiger at June 22, 2003 12:50 AMSkin color is just an attribute, like height or weight. It is also the victim of inaccuracy in that white, black, yellow, red, etc (the colors most commonly used to describe the different races) are glaringly inaccurate. If we are going to use color as a distinction, we need some kind of mathmatical scale of pigmentation. Until then, I prefer to be called Occidental.
Posted by: Susie at June 22, 2003 10:14 AM