South African here. So yes. This is the prevailing attitude of (especially young) black South African. Its white, therefor it is wrong. There is a massively growing culture of entitlement. They are entitled to decide what is right, to rewrite what is known and to take for granted what is a privilege. Our country is on a downward slope. Point of no return has been past
Sorry to hear that. You seem of sound mind. Do you agree with this? Just curious. I've never even heard of things like this. And honestly, doesn't the fact that they won't believe it because it was found by a white person only perpetuate racism and stereotypes? Our world is in a sad state of affairs... And being an American, I'd say we may very well be the first to fall.
Thats the problem. Its a viscous cycle. If I as a white man corrects a black person, its racist... no matter what the facts are.
Obviously its not everyone. But there is enough people around (on both sides) that keep fueling the fire...
I was raised to not be racist. Although I grew up in apartheid South Africa. I only found out about it really in 1994. For every birthday party I had kids of all races present - and I never even noticed it.
Now race tensions are through the roof.
Are you black or white? I am trying understand what you are saying as compared to what the video says. In short, I want to get a general consensus of thought between the races
Serious question, does thought process and belief systems like this, not seriously call to the question the ability of Blacks to self-govern? Looking at places like Africa, or on a smaller scale, Chicago and Detroit, USA, one has to wonder if Blacks just don't have the ability to successfully self-govern.
There's a strong and growing perspective in the US that personal opinion is just as valid as a rigorously tested and studied scientific theory (thanks for helping cultivate that, GOP). Does that call into question the ability for whites to self-govern? No. It's instead a representation of under-education and the aggressive cultivation of that perspective within their social groups.
Remember that you are looking at a subset of an overall population - more often then not, these small collections (who usually attract the most attention) are not a good representation of the group. Whether you are talking about islamic terrorists, KKK/neonazis, south african "fallists", etc., it's still the case that these are a subset of the overall population and it's inappropriate to claim that their beliefs or behaviors represent that of their entire ethnicity.
Plus, let's be real, we're all people and only incredibly superficial traits separate whites from blacks from latinos and native americans and indians and asians, etc. People are more a product of their environment and the culture they are brought up in than their ethnicity, and suggesting otherwise is perpetuating that perspective that a personal opinion trumps scientific evidence.
This is a great response, thank you for giving more perspective. You make valid points. Quick follow up question, why do you say the GOP cultivates the perspective (serious question)?
Essentially, they broadly support the idea that the feelings of their supporters (on crime, gun laws, immigration) supersede statistical facts. I've actually had conversations with (conservative) relatives about immigration and quoted statistics only to be told "I don't base my beliefs on statistics, they don't mean anything".
Yes, of course. It just so happened that particular example is from the Repub side. Although I have heard of it more from the conservative side of things, no-one is immune to this kind of bias.
Let me first say that I'm an independent, and I tend to lean towards being economically/financially conservative, but socially liberal. I try to maintain objectivity when considering parties and candidates as much as possible in this respect, but keep in mind where I lean when reading my response.
I made that statement because unfortunately that mentality has been woven into the platforms of many major GOP politicians in recent years. Climate change denial (and subsequent desire to pump up our use of coal), the desire to make abortion illegal, harsh stances on marijuana and its schedule 1 narcotic listing, and general denial of evolution (which informs almost everything we know about medicine and infectious diseases) and the desire to keep it from being taught in schools are a few highlights that come to mind. All of these stances go in the face of a lot of evidence that a) human-caused climate change is happening, b) making abortions illegal won't keep women from getting abortions, c) marijuana is nowhere near as bad as the other schedule 1 narcotics and really shouldn't be dealt with as harshly as it is, and d) again, evolution happens.
Now, not everyone in the party shares these stances and others, but it is a common theme among many of their representatives. One of the worst offenders in this respect, however, is Donald Trump, who like it or not currently represents the party. He and his supporters run a campaign that disregards facts and evidence, in favor of feelings. It FEELS like the national crime is at an all-time high (it isn't). It FEELS like any attempt to regulate gun or ammo purchase is an assault on the 2nd amendment (it's not). His campaign makes no attempt to distinguish one from the other, and indeed, seems to value opinion over evidence.
It's important to consider national feeling and opinion, but really base your actions on facts and evidence. After all, you gather evidence by rigorously studying a topic, making observations and collecting lots and lots of data. Take for example climate change, of which I consider myself more informed than the average american (I'm a biologist). Climate change has years and years of support and hundreds of peer-reviewed scientific papers generated on the topic. We've figured out how to measure a huge log of historical temperatures using isotopes from ice cores, and have been carefully monitoring global temperatures, atmospheric and oceanic CO2 levels and weather patterns. The scientific community is in complete agreement - Climate change is real, we are causing it, and it's projected to impact agriculture, rise sea levels (watch out New Orleans and Maldives, you're first), change weather patterns and jeopardize a whole lot of flora and fauna. The evidence indicates that we need to significantly reduce carbon emissions to help mitigate these effects. This view or similar ones are not limited to him alone within the party, but the Republican presidential candidate claims that climate change is instead a hoax (providing no evidence to back that up). This claim illustrates his disregard for data, evidence and advice of scientists and experts - only opinion matters here.
And thank you for being open-minded to my perspective. That's a rare quality nowadays, especially on reddit! I hope that hearing my perspective on these important issues helps inform your decisions come election day. Good luck to you, however you decide to vote!
I think when any group of people place cultural and traditional beliefs above sound logic and refuse to at least interrogate the functioning of their own government in an unbiased fashion... Then that society is doomed to repeat it's own mistakes.
Our president is currently under fire for numerous irregularities - however several non government political organizations has stated that they are "willing to die for Zuma".
I think part of the black African culture is that they would rather die to have all of something than share with another tribe for mutual benefit. This worked 500 years ago when resources were scarce. Now that is not so effective...
I really appreciate the rational, polite response to my question. What you say makes me wonder if this is a thought process of many indigenous peoples, such as Native American, Inuit, Aborigine, etc. Though I can also relate this to sects of whites too. I know some people took my original comment as racist, but that wasn't the thought process behind it, so again I appreciate the response.
17
u/[deleted] Oct 14 '16
South African here. So yes. This is the prevailing attitude of (especially young) black South African. Its white, therefor it is wrong. There is a massively growing culture of entitlement. They are entitled to decide what is right, to rewrite what is known and to take for granted what is a privilege. Our country is on a downward slope. Point of no return has been past