User blog:ForsakenPear/Ramble - Racism

Hi there. My name is FP. Or "why can't this guy stick to a blog schedule dammit". Well you know what guys? I try. I have an imaginary wife nd kids to feed, yet I still try. Please give me a break JEEZ.

Anyway, it's been a while. How ya feelin? Craving a big dollop of pointless conversation? Wahay! Your prayers have been answered. And today, I discuss my most controversial topic yet. Racism. As a precurser to this, I'd like to say from the outset - I am not a racist. I like equality, it's a nice thing. Just so you know. Here I am arguing for equality. This is all my opinion.

Racism comes in many shapes and forms, and, if it is in a serious, discriminative sense, it is wrong. No-one should be treated differently than others based on the colour of their skin. And there is currently a serious social stigma against it, a universal attempt to cut it out of our lives. But herein lies my first problem - society tends to pick and choose when racism is bad, or when racism is racism. What I'm talking about is that, in general, racism against minority cultures is considered wrong (which is correct), yet racism against majority cultures is socially accepted (which is incorrect).

Lemme illustrate this for you.

Situation 1: You are sitting on a bus/train. A white guy is standing by the door as it opens, and people start to walk in. A black guy bumps into him and knocks his phone to the floor, and continues to the back of the bus/train. You hear the white guy mutter under his breath, "dirty black twat".

General Reaction: Holy crap! What a racist dick!

Situation 2:  You are sitting on a bus/train. A black guy is standing by the door as it opens, and people start to walk in. A white guy bumps into him and knocks his phone to the floor, and continues to the back of the bus/train. You hear the balck guy mutter under his breath, "stupid white boy".

General Reaction: Holy crap! What a dick!

You see the problem? And I'm sure you'd agree that's the general reaction of people. If you're going to condemn racism to make life equal for everyone, at least make racism equal for everyone. Now some people would take the argument of "white people have had it all their way in the past, when black have been oppressed and enslaved". Yes that is true, but actions of ancestors should not affect your treatment today. In that case we should all be dicks to German people, because of Hitler. Or all be dicks to Japanese people, because of the atrocities in WWII China. It's horribly flawed logic. It's not how the world works. Minority =/= priority. Everyone is equal. We are not trying to atone for the past, we are trying to avoid the mistakes of the past. Those are two different things. Consistency please.

Now my next point is a bit more brief, and is just complaining about something stupid, '#oscarssowhite', or as it was titled in some countries, 'Shut the fuck up Jada Pinkett-Smith'. For those who don't know, a bunch of black rights people got pissed off that none of the nominations for the acting Oscars were black, for the second year running, saying that the Oscars are blatantly racist, and more black actors should be nominated. I have three arguments to show how stupid this is. I digress. The #oscarssowhite debacle is bull. Black people have their own awards anyway, the BET awards. If there was a white-only awards show people would lose it. Again. Consistency please.
 * 1) The Oscars are awards based on quality of performance, an award of great merit. Even a nomination is considered a great achievement, something to be proud of. If you start to try an diversify the nominations by throwing in the odd token black guy, you remove some of the prestige of the affair. Especially for black people. If you were black and got nominated, you would think "oh I'm just the guy they stuck in for diversity", rather than "I got nominated for an Oscar yusssss", as is the standard Oscar nomination reaction. It is an award nominated on the quality of your acting, not the colour of your skin. Besides, I can't think of any black actors that deserved a nomination this year. Will Smith was okay, but not great. Leo deserved it.
 * 2) Some basic number crunching shows the claim is flawed. Roughly 12.5% of the Hollywood acting community is black. For the 4 acting awards, there are on average 4 nominations each. That makes 16 in total. For the odds of all 16 nominations not being black, you simply do 0.875^16. Which amounts to roughly 0.12, or 12% chance of that happening. This would happen in roughly 1 in 8 or 9 ceremonies, which checks out fine. So it's pretty likely now and again you wouldn't get a black nominee.
 * 3) As I said previously, around 12.5% of the acting community is black. Yet 15% of Oscar acting winners are black. Racist you say?

But yeah. That's all I've got for today. Take from it what you will. Again, I'm not racist, I just think the modern definition of equality is twisted. Please disagree with me, or agree with me, or voice your own opinions, I'd be happy to hear you out.

This has been a straight white middle-class cis-male ranting about racism.

I remain,

 FP ( Now 10% edgier!!! )