It was a stupid and hateful thing to say, but I wouldn't deem it racist. It just reinforces my joy in seeing that Kentucky team lose. And yes, if a white person uttered those same words, there would be hell to pay.
I rarely see any productivity regarding discussions and dialogue about race on an internet message board because there are so many different worldviews and experiences. You're rarely, if ever, going to change peoples minds when it comes to this topic.
Having said that, I think we all want equality, yet when we don't hold all groups of people to the same standard and continually excuse certain behavior for particular "groups" then we are never truly going to achieve equality. There is a term for this mindset called the "soft bigotry of low expectations". It simply means that certain groups of people get a pass when it comes to substandard behavior because those groups are deemed to have suffered historical injustices or have been discriminated against at some point in time. I look forward to the day that society judges each man (or woman) on their own merits/behavior free of excuses or perceived justifications.
As a Jewish-born American (Israeli descent), I tend to tune out much of the faux outrage and grandstanding that accompanies polarizing issues of American society. My ancestors have been persecuted for thousands of years in a region where people want them exterminated. So forgive me if I'm not too sympathetic/shed a tear to someone who finds a term/word offensive or not. When your life is at stake, it changes your perspective and you realize that a derogatory term pales in comparison to what might happen to your family/legacy. As far as I'm concerned, this thread about what constitutes "racism" or insensitivity is bullsh!t hyperbole for people who want to feel better about themselves.
Stepping off soapbox now......
What happened to the jews was atrocious, and the racism towards modern Jews is still atrocious. What happened to the Native Americans was atrocious, and the fact it still affects their race is still sad. What happened to African Americans and the fact statistics still show they suffer severe racism in American is very sad.
They don't have to be measured against each other. What you did in your post was pretty much say blacks need to stop crying because they didn't suffer what your Jewish ancestors suffered, or still suffer. Injustice is injustice. It doesn't matter who perpetrates the injustice and who the victims are.
I'm so glad racial relations have progressed as far as they have in our country, but I also recognize the continued lack of balance in poverty, legal injustices, hiring practices, educational biases, etc. Racial profiling still continues to be an issue as well. No one person has ever been harder on their own.
While most are here debating racial issues, I choose to spend my days and nights trying to change the mindset of young black men & women in my city. Teach them education, community accountability, respect for self and others, the value of hard work, and most of all how much faith can impact their lives.
While doing so, I would never elevate or lower the level of impact atrocities have had on your culture, or any other other culture.
The term you referred to will always be offensive to educated black people who know it's connected to hangings, public auctions for black lives, rapes of black women and girls, etc. The word needs to go away on all fronts!! It will always be a negative word and used in racial context, it still generates negative passion on both sides. I remember as a small kid being made fun of as the 1st black child to attend an all white school in Ponca City, OK.
I remember sitting in the front of the classroom as my old music teacher pointed at my hair and lips, while explaining to the rest of the class that I was different, more ape like, and of course with a smaller brain. I was in the 4th grade and that is where I learned the N word. I had never heard it in my home or family because my father and all of his siblings were educated men/women, and we just didn't hear that language. The shame I suffered that day, and the giggles afterwards, mixed with the few who were regularly calling me the N word will always make the word have a different meaning to me.
Ignorant young blacks and whites can use it all they want, but to say the word shouldn't generate outrage to someone who has been attacked with the word is just insensitive, IMO.....
