White Privilege

There are two kinds of points being discussed. Some of these points apply if you are a white living in a black neighborhood. Some of these points wouldn’t apply to a white living in a black neighborhood and would apply if you were a black* living in a black neighborhood in the US.

Those particular points address the issue of the culture of power, how the race and culture of those who are rich and powerful affects all beneath them to the benefit of some and the detriment of others. But most are simply a function of numbers.

There is a point to seeing things as though there is just one race. There is also good in recognizing differences and a different experience. Unfortunately, both sides often take one road a little bit too far. I think the questions are good for self-examination, but there are other questions that can be asked as well of the other side so that they can examine themselves, too.

Equally true of blacks in the US. Even if you are living in a Mid-Western state where there is a huge disproportion of whites/blacks, it is less disproportionate than here in Taiwan of all foreigners to Chinese. Blacks can choose to seek out those of their own race in the States more readily than we (foreigners) can here.

Namahottie does have a point, though, that blacks find themselves to be a minority within a minority in Taiwan. So they face an even greater affect here than at home.

I’d actually contest this point in modern TV. What you often see is token white people or token black people thrown into movies where one race or another is predominant, but there are now movies/shows featuring both races. There are now lots of predominantly black shows, black networks, etc. Industry has matched the economics, and political correctness has affected the balance of shows as well.

The same holds true for us here, as long as we have cable. All we have to do is look at the movies and we get both black and white stars on TV.

But if you are restricted to local fare in Taiwan, then we (foreigners) get less representation than minorities (non-whites) in the US. We see the exact same kind of patronizing and stereotypical roles that were the mainstay of television for minorities 15+ years ago, just applied to us.

Here again, blacks in Taiwan get even less representation, unless you can accept a white representing you as foreigner in Taiwan, in which case any skin color should work. (Obviously it doesn’t.)

[quote][quote][color=green]into a hairdresser

I have been looking at your pic (if that is your pic) and it never occured to me that you were black. I am not sure how that is relevant exactly but anyway…

I have been looking at your pic (if that is your pic) and it never occured to me that you were black. I am not sure how that is relevant exactly but anyway…[/quote]
I’m not. But I’ve lived in several areas of the States and I know about the racial population in different areas. I’m not quoting from personal experience of not being able to find people to talk to, but personal experience of seeing numbers of different races of people in different areas.

I suspect you aren’t saying that, just got surprised by the poor wording of the sentence. I’ll edit it to reflect what I meant. Every other place I put “we” afterwards I put a paranthetical “foreigners” to indicate my meaning. I was careless on that sentence.

Dogs are basically color blind.

I like dogs.

Private mode isn’t as much fun as it used to be, but browsers still have a stop button.

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good to see that people weren’t taking this crap back in 2005 either.

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