Leaderboard

There wasn't any race discrimination. People need to stop looking for something if they weren't a part of it simply to create a book or expose something that wasn't there; in my opinion. I experienced zero race issues while in the Navy from 90-98 Active, Reserve and Inactive. The military for me was the one place where your race didn't really matter. You could either fix the jet or you couldn't. You either passed the test, or you didn't. You either did your job or you didn't. When I was snatched away from in front of a propeller while on the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln CVN-72 when I was in VF-114, it was by a white boy. When I prevented a huffer from rolling down the flight deck and hitting someone, it was to help a white boy. We all worked 12 hour shifts, 7 days a week. We all went to the Philippines before heading to the Gulf to rescue and move people from Manilla to Cebu after Mt. Pinatubo. When we were finally able to get off the ship, my crew that I ran with, my boys, had a Vanilla Ice, a Puerto Rican, Blacks and Zu, Yu and Edu. It was the fucking UN. During my second cruise I was one of the only sailors to make 3rd class in one of the toughest rates in the Navy. AE (Aviation Electrician's Mate). Our PO in charge was Black. We all had shitty chiefs who we knew were probably bigots, but we held our own issues with each other and it didn't affect the way the squadron was run. If you did your job and everyone made it in safe it was good. if we lost someone, which we did in a plane crash while doing sorties in the Gulf, we all shed tears together. The only issue with race was more white guys went to OCS so we had more White officers than Blacks and the Black officers we had tended to be more standoffish than the White ones. If you want to ask me a question, then fire away right here on this forum and maybe someone else will jump in and offer their POV, but before I went in the Navy, I should have been killed or in jail. The Navy saved my life. This is only my version as an Enlisted Sailor. Now, I think maybe if you want a different perspective you should focus your search on guys who were probably E-5 and above with more than 8 years in. Those guys will probably have a completely different view than me.

Done and tweeted it too!

Semantics do figure into this debate. A word is just a word; an uttered sound and an arrangement of letters. To put things in perspective, this is a question that should be asked. Which came first? The definition of race or the external physical variations that exist among human tribes? Human diversity came first and the word "race" was used to verify this. In time it was decided that the term "race" should be discarded. But this didn't change the reality that groups could be distinguished from each by the way their members look. Saying that race doesn't exist proves nothing except that this word has lost its meaning. Scientists can't erase reality, they can just speak or write words, and who is to say that what they express, carries more weight than what the eyes see? There are extreme obvious differences in appearance among homo sapiens but, when applying their standards, scientists arbitrarily dismiss such differences as superficial. Other people "think outside the box". Laymen look at a diminutive, slant-eyed Japanese man, a husky, blond, blue-eyed Swede, and a tall, slender, dark-skinned, Afro-wearing NBA hoopster and the words that come to their mind are: fuck science. Seeing is believing. It is what it is.

Troy The fact that race is an artificial construct does not mean there are no differences between humans. Lol..... And I may also add that the fact that something is an ARTIFICIAL CONSTRUCT doesn't necessarily mean that it doesn't exist. Right now I'm sitting infront of a bowl of ARTIFICIAL fruit on my coffee table. And it's just as "real" as the real thing.....if you know what I mean. 　 Pioneer would you provide a definition of the word "race." I ask because you are using it as if it you are quite clear what it means. If would help if I knew what definition you are working from and were you pulled it from--Thanks I'm using the Oxford on-line dictionary's definition of the word: RACE http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/race#nav2 There are several definitions available, but I'm using the word in reference to THIS definition: "Each of the major divisions of humankind, having distinct physical characteristics" It is difficult to judge what Beyonce looks like, given the makeup and fake hair. But now that you juxtapose the two images. It seems like they were shooting for the "Shakira look" for Bey. It's for this reason why I didn't feel too much "spirit" in her Super Bowl performance in recognition of the Black Panthers. I mean...it's good and brave to make a political statement. But when you KEEP your hair dyed blonde (it's not just an occassional thing, she stays blonde) you're sending an even deeper message to young Black girls that is stronger than any choreographed leather and lace show you may have performed for a ball game. To see a some blonde woman dancing and slinging her hair around in the middle of a crowd of leathered up Black Panther-ettes (notice no men were in the group) is just the type of cream in the coffee that weakens it's effect and makes it almost a mockery of the real movement.

Troy Sure all three people pictured here have different phenotypes, but generically they are virtually identical. So much so that there may be more genetic similarities between two people of different "races" than there are of two people of the same race. The reason why people of seemingly "different races" may have more features in common than many of those of the same race is probably because they AREN'T of a different race. They are mostly likely of the SAME race....or almost. But because they come from different cultures they may have been CLASSIFIED as being of different races. The definitions of what constitutes a particular RACE or ethnicity is very fluid and tends to change from time to time and from region to region. Take these two world famous performers Beyonce and the singer Shakira: They not only look to be of the same race, they almost look the same...lol....to me. Yet they are said to be of two separate "races", Black and Caucasian respectively. However when we understand that Beyonce is not fully Black and like most AfroAmericans surely has a large if not dominant amount of Caucasian ancestry, she may technically be MORE CAUCASIAN than Black. Then it begins to makes sense. It's not the fact that races simply don't exist. It's that most people around the world are CONFUSED about the definition of race and what consitutes a person being of a particular race, and because of that confusion they simply abandon the entire idea. But scientist KNOW that racial differences do exist. They know some groups of people are more likely to be lactose intolerant, others are more likely to suffer from alcoholism, and yet others are more likely to get cystic fibrosis...all based on racial genetics. The key to harmony is not ignoring the differnences and pretending that they don't exist, the key is to not place value on one above the other....which is what White supremacy does.

Troy Funny Mel, your attitude about Men who can't make it in America, is the same one I held about White men who can't make it in America--I had no concern and little sympathy for their predicament. Then I traveled the country and saw whole swaths of the nation covered in white poverty. They are not covered in media, but they exist. Then I also realized when we pit men and against women, white against Black, we lose track of the cause of our problems, and we fail to work together to fix them. 　 No wonder folks are embracing Donald Trump for president. Folks are desperate. I used to feel sorry for poor Whites who were victims of the same system that oppressed Blacks, Latinos, women, and other oppressed groups. But the more interactions I began to have with them....even those who were homeless....the more that sympathy began to give way to confusion. If you go to the Midwest and South as you have....you'll see entire communities of White people living in trailer parks, living in tents out in the woods, on welfare, sick and comtemplating suicide, and suffering from other social ills. But the confusing part is like you said, they'll STILL VOTE FOR TRUMP.. Much like their daddies STILL VOTED FOR RONALD REAGAN. Despite the fact that both these men were clearly part of the same system that keeps f*cking them over. Remember the Reagan Democrats? Even when you point out to poor whites the condition they're in and why they should unite with others in the same predicament they STILL refuse to vote Democrat. Many people don't understand why poor Whites continue to vote against their own interests, but once you understand racism and how it operates...... Once you realize that the average White man would rather suffer the humiliation of POVERTY AND DESTITUTION than see his daughter go to school with and date little Black boys... You begin to understand why. It's not the ECONOMIC POLICY of Conservatives like Trump and Reagan that poor Whites find attractive, it's the SOCIAL POLICY. Mel Yes! We have to toss this caste system that is presently operating in the U.S. I recently read that money was set up as a means of exchange for goods and value - not something to accumulate and hoard.. Our current social & economic system, however, makes it easy for people to monopolize at the expense of ourselves. Well, I'll tell you something that you probably already know....sexism is rampant ALL OVER the world. It may be more overt in some areas than in others but atleast society is making an atempt to solve the problem of sexual inequality in the West...in many Eastern and Latin American nations the sexism is overt and relentless. I think people of African descent, especially us in the Americas must come up with our own unique systems to battle the inequalities that exist not only in our respective nations but also among us as a people.

I didn't say anything about obesity. White people got okra from us? I wouldn't know, since I hate it, which I guess tarnishes my African credentials. BTW there is a new field of medicine that is using ethnicity as a marker in determining whether to administer traditional or specialized treatment for diseases. And of course Sickle Cell Anemia discriminates by race. as well as Cystic Fibrosis and a fatal disease that only Eastern Jews are victims of. Xenophobia is fear of strangers. Your family members are not strangers. ergo, They didn't put you on alert(?) And have you informed the xenophobic followers of Cruz and Rubio andTrump that they are anachronisms? The reason humans look so different is um... why? I never got that straight. And does the answer carry over into the animal kingdom, making wildebeests and lions brothers, prone to fratricide? And does the information about Nigeria validate or void who the ancestors of America's slave descendants are? And what difference does it make? Jazz, our premiere form of music, also has European influences having to do with music theory. Sooooooo, what I can derive from your info is that humans are one big family, able to transcend xenophobia while simultaneously singing Kumbaya and rattling sabers. And how does the survival of the fittest phenomenon and blood types figure into all of this. I don't offer my comments as rebuttals to your explanations which I do wonder about because some don't make sense and science is always correcting itself, revising what was previously thought to be fact. That's why Pluto is no longer a planet and quantum physics have been redefined. Actually, none of this is a big deal to me because I faithfully watch the Science channel and I'm convinced we are all descended from Aliens.