Mods, I think that this is a personal attack.

Otherwise, I would like to answer. I am not closed-minded at all. I am highly opinionated on the issues of culture and race. I have written here before that I don't see whites terribly. I have also written on the board that I would like people to relate to one another by recognizing their differences and learning to inter-connect with one another. I would also like for people to have empathy for one another. That is what I would like to see in society.

Race is not used as a tactic to divide us as a people. Instead, it is a factor of life that affects access and treatment for some of us. Until we begin to discuss the reasons why it is so, the same old system will be in tact.

That means investigating the reasons behind why there is a semantic disconnect between whites and non-whites.

Talking about race is not pretty. It involves a lot of close, pointed discussions which are sometimes based on personal feelings. As much as I would wish that race and culture could be discussed analytically, it probably won't because there are too many people from the dominant culture who get rather defensive when it comes to conversing with non-white people on this matter.

I'm sorry you're upset and will turn away from race-related discussion. But it isn't because of me that you won't try. It's your own free will. You have no one to blame but yourself.

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Ceci's News and Views Forum

That is a fair answer, imho. But even you have to admit that when it comes to race discussions, people from the dominant culture always say the oft line, "I see people as individuals. I don't see them as groups." With statements like that, it might point to the reasoning of "individualism" instead of "collectivism". And because there are some of us that will not deviate from seeing people as "individuals", that paves the way for the line of thinking that the self-oriented do not see how systems nor societies interconnect in terms of empathy or identification.





I can't speak for NM, but I think that the Covenant books are not the only solution afforded to the Black community. It is one type of solution. But, I used it as an example of Blacks proactively working to outline some of the problems within their community and finding ways to solve them academically.

The book has to show that Blacks do not sit around and wait for pronouncements from Revs. Sharpton and Jackson. And it is kind of insulting for people to say that because when they do, it gives off the perception that we cannot think for ourselves and rely on other people for answers.

I just wonder if that is the perception of other races. Do whites lay around and listen to Reverend Billy Graham for the answer to all the ills in their community? If white people are offended by the remark about Billy Graham, perhaps they can understand why a Black person might be put off by someone saying that the "Black community has to stop listening to Rev. Sharpton and Rev. Jackson all the time."

You're very welcome, EP.

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Ceci's News and Views Forum

Well, I can't say that for sure. I've never lived among another culture before, so I don't know what the dominant cultures say elsewhere.

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"The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom."
Isaac Asimov

We are all the same race.