Cynique

I am not preaching a gospel or insisting that others agree with me. I just theorized based on what i have read which is why i think that xenophobia, the natural fear of strangers, is tied to "racism", so it doesn't have to exclusively deal with white skin but has more to do with having a different general appearance. Asians and Hispanics can and do practice "racism". Nor does anybody have to teach children to perceive that certain other children look different from them. Just like they know a Beagle looks different from a Collie. It all begins with what the eye sees, and a reaction to seeing an unfamiliar "other" can affect the flow of adrenaline and put a creature in a self defense mode. So there is hostility right from the "get-go". There are too many intricate factors involved to simply dismiss "racism" as a superficial sentiment that has to be taught to children. This is the rationale of idealistic humans who think people are innately good and have deep love for their fellow man. They ignore the "man's inhumanity to man" truism that keeps the world in turmoil. @TroyThe "in most circumstances" you refer to when you say that being called a "nigger" doesn't faze you, means the cases where another black person is the offender. Would it still "mean nothing" to you if a sneering, unarmed, white female called you a "nigger"?

@TroyWell, you want to characterize racism as an aberration, or something that is voluntary. To me, it is a by-product of tribalism that is inherently entwined with xenophobia, and is a primitive reaction wired into the brain. Once this instinct is stimulated by an environment where the species are diversified, then "like" gravitates toward "like" and it become "us" against "them". The reason why racism is associated with white-skinned people is because they were powerful and cruel enough to be able to enforce their bias. This is also what spawned and maintains white supremacy. In today's climate, an accusation of racism is an effective tool - a card that is played to stifle or stigmatize one's white adversaries. Likewise, the word "nigger" is the most deadly weapon of racists, and i think even you, with all of your tolerance, wince and are injured by this simple 2-syllable utterance, no matter what the circumstances. I, myself, am prejudiced and suspicious of other ethnics. I wasn't taught this. It just came natural to me. In my mind, I discriminate against the "other" but i rarely act on this because I'm a coward, not looking for trouble unless it's "on line" where i don't have to worry about physical retaliation. 😏

Bill Cosby's downfall is a cautionary tale that provided a teachable moment. He lost points with black folks because he criticized their underclasses and, to white people, he was really just a negro who made them laugh. He was afflicted with blind power and the arrogance that is its side effect. Although his good deeds didn't neutralize his bad ones, I'd say black folks are better off because not only did they benefit from his philanthropy but, when faced with the choice of making a moral judgment about one of their own, they eventually went "high" instead of "low". Truth is as valuable as money and Cosby was instrumental in the results of both of them.

Racism isn't always acted upon and it isn't always violent or toxic. Well-meaning whites can inadvertently be racist because of simply being insensitive and ignorant of slights that can be deemed to be offensive by blacks. Today, Obama considers Joe Biden one of his best friends, but back in 2008 Biden torpedoed his own aspirations for president when he made the casual observation about Obama seeming to be a nice clean upstanding guy. Black people immediately pounced on this saying it was a racist remark, and that actually ended Biden's ambitions back then. Calling the police on a black person who is committing no offense is a malicious act of racism that is triggered by skin color. It is also an affront to the dignity of a black person. A meme exposing this dynamic is not an overreaction. To me, it is a confirmation of how insidious racism can be.

Cosby's wife, Camille, had a lot to do with his financial support for HBCUs. She was instrumental in his donating a million dollars to Fisk university, for instance. As soon as the scandals about him came out, these schools dropped their affiliation with him like a hot potato and it was rumored that this was because they had their own stories to tell about his indiscretions but kept quiet about it.

Get some new material. That response from you is played out. You might want to try shaking your noggin and maybe things will fall back in the right place. 😴

@Pioneer1 Why do you ask? Do you want me to supply some more responses to what you've been rambling about so, as usual, you can claim they're what you've been saying all along? If not, you have my permission to get off my post and move on. BUH-BYE 😀

@Pioneer1OOOH. Puleeze. You really think my life revolves around this site and that i look upon it as some kind of chess board where I'm trying to move people around and gain advantages. For what? It ain't that serious. You flatter yourself if you think you rate that much effort. Half of your posts i just skim over, if i read them at all. Especially since there is no sense of accomplishment in getting over on you. Everybody on this board does it. It's no big thing because it's so easy. You're a cipher, reeking with self-importance, interesting only because it's fun to stick a pin in your inflated ego. sssssssssssss 😄

Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz both mention how Oprah gave them their start all the time. Barak Obama would've been president whether Oprah had ever opened her mouth. Black folks didn't need her to tell them to vote for him. SMH.

No, you don't. If i had a consistent MO and you knew it, you wouldn't always leave yourself so wide open. And speaking of MO's, your obvious one is when you get trapped in a corner, you try and reverse things and claim the other person's argument as your own, insisting that they are actually agreeing with you. Then there's your old standby, of starting a sentence with " I may not be the smartest person in the world" which is invariably followed by a declaration that amounts to a pile of BS. You really do think you've got everybody's number here. You make up scenarios in your head about what I am attempting to accomplish in the way of alliances. You just can't accept that i like ChevDove and Mel because they are smart, funny and interesting. And you've also got all kinds of theories about why i don't fuss with Kalexander. In your mind, I am cultivating them so they will be on "my side". You really have a "playground mentality".

Fake news? or is the whistle blower to be believed? Troy should certainly feel vindicated, when it comes to the question of the media enabling mischief. I've never cared for Dr. Phil and his phony "down home folksy persona". https://www.essence.com/news/nina-richards-sister-of-dr-phil-guest-who-hates-being-black-shes-fake-just-a-disgusting-attempt-to-become-a-meme?fbclid=IwAR07FiX1L8IGJne65tc8rFHQUyE_lyCmxpD0k_p4s_BmfCdfuoP12e3xI9g

@Pioneer1 According to entymologists "Cockroaches have been around a long time, at least 300 million years which means they were thriving when the dinosaurs roamed the earth...cockroaches may very well outlive humans because of their heartiness." Eat your heart out, you slimey parasite

@Pioneer1As if you know what you're talking about. I'm rejecting the silly point you are trying to make about poor white people; not misunderstanding it. You actually think you are an authority on their mind-set when you can't even figure black people out.

What more do you need to illustrate that poor whites are ignorant and stupid and incapable of doing any better in life? Your brain is addled.

There's nothing more stupid than that statement above. Get real, you deluded dummy. None one of that drivel you drooled on your soap box about underclass blacks is relevant to the girl in question whose attractive intelligent mother gave every indication of being a good role model. This disturbed girl and you are both too stupid to put things in perspective, almost as if thinking you are something special when there are millions of blacks out there who are much better examples of being exceptional than you 2 obnoxious misfits. Not to mention that all other ethnics also have their segment of low-lifes.

I'm not doubting that Tyra had a show on this subject. What i was disagreeing with were Pioneer's snide homophobia and questionable conclusions. And I specifically reported that her mother said the girl had NO friends.

i just disagreed with that! I repeat: Poor white people are NOT deliberately responsible for being poor! They have no control over their being too intellectually incapacitated to do any better. They are simply dumb.

@Pioneer1I didn't agree with anything you said about Tyra Banks' show and that was what i was referring to when it came to psycho babbo. As for there being black folks who criticize other black folks, that's not an idea that originated with you and my example of this was different from yours. You can always be depended on to distort and reverse things in an effort to extricate yourself from sounding stupid.

The mother of this friendless, 16-year-old girl wrote to Dr Phil for help, as do all of the people who appear on his show. Why should a case like this be swept under the rug? it needs to be exposed to the light of day and examined. A lot of black people feel the way she does, but they become conservative Republicans. They are not deluded to the point of thinking they themselves are white. This girl denied she was black and said she was white. She was apparently afflicted with Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). And, of course, there are those black folks, like Pioneer, who want to dictate to other black folks the way they think all other blacks should present themselves, citing a lot of psycho-babbo to support his opinion.

I saw clips from this show. The general conclusion about this 16-year-old was that she was afflicted with a disorder akin to an anorexic girl looking in the mirror and seeing a fat person. This did seem like a logical explanation because the very facial features she expressed hate for: thick lips, flat nose, gapped teeth, brown skin, were the ones she had, and her hair would've been "nappy" had it not been permed. The back story to this was that she had been raised to think she was bi-racial and that her white stepfather was her birth father. When he died and her black mother told her the truth, that her biological father was black, she went into a state of total denial exacerbated by post traumatic stress. After her white stepfather's death, she and her mother had to re-locate and are now living in a mostly-black neighborhood, and she completely rejects her black peers and has no friends. I didn't see what Dr. Phil recommended for her. She told him he didn't know what he was talking about, that she was white, and that black people were all ignorant and ugly and thuggish. 😲

I guess Farrakhan's white daughter-in-law, prevented herself from being poor by marrying a nigga from a well-off family headed by a a purveyor of BS.. Anybody who doesn't think poor whites are poor because they are too intellectually challenged to capitalize off of the "leg-up" white skin provides them, also believes what Kanye says about slavery being a choice. Puleeze.

@TroyWe need an outside arbitrator because i think you are guilty of the same things you accuse us of. Objectivity is in short supply here. Also, people don't realize how they come across when expressing themselves in writing. Maybe this communication problem has something to do with attitude which transcends words and settles itself in the spaces between them. i felt like you were talking down to us, "mansplaining" and seeming to shake your head at how silly you found our arguments to be. I also felt that your beef had more to do with your detesting the media than whether or not the condo guy's response was justified. You imply that labeling your position as an "opinion" absolves you from thinking it was "absolutely right". Tell me, who posts an opinion they don't think is absolutely right? When i twice suggested that we agree to disagree, you never went along with this, giving me the impression that you were reluctant to legitimize my argument by calling the debate a "draw". And, of course, this is a subjective conclusion on my part.

This is legitimate news. 10 prominent Democrats and 2 Trump critics have been sent bombs and the sender is engaging in terrorist activity. The Feds have just arrested a person of interest, a convicted felon who appears to be a Trump supporter. His lies are challenged, thanks to the media giving the Democrats a platform.

With Democrats like the Clintons, the Obamas, Joe Biden, Robert DeNiro, Eric Holder, Maxine Waters, the ex-CIA Director along with CNN all being recipients of mailed bombs, Trump has mounted his soap box and blamed the media for these threats to his enemies. He has totally absolved himself from any responsibility for the example he sets with the incendiary comments he posts on Twitter, - with whom he has a symbiotic relationship. All the Liberal pundits are warning that attacking The Press is a classic tactic of fascist dictators but 45 continues to scapegoat the media, all the while using Fox News to spread his unsubstantiated "facts". So, who is to blame for this Catch-22 situation that has polarized the nation? If 45 did not have an outlet for his bigotry, would the country be better off? If Trump supporters didn't have him as their cheer leader, would this make them less hate-filled? Should his vitriolic pep rallies not be aired on TV news programs? Are the masses entitled to see their despicable President in action? America is faced with a dilemma. The latest brouhaha has flared up with a stand taken by white Megan Kelly, 47, who hosts a morning talk show on NBC. She insisted that wearing black face is OK during Halloween because it's part of a costume, and she made matters worse by saying, there was nothing wrong with this when she was growing up. When employed at Fox News, she also stirred controversy by saying that Santa Claus and Jesus were white and should not be represented as anything else. She claims to dislike political correctness, a noteworthy statement in view of how 45's ratings are steadily rising. Now word has just been received that the future of her show is in jeopardy. So here we go again... Everybody is urging people to get out and vote. To me, there's no guarantee this will make things better for the Democrats. Thanks to the game Trump is refereeing, too many eligible voters are growing impatient with the race card always being played, I have said that, little-by-little, Trump will start to touch on issues that his detractors are in agreement with. One morning they're all going to wake up and regret not being careful about what they wished for.