Posted: 6/10/15 at 2:54am
"You have no idea where I come from, which is the furthest place from a white town. Please explain to me how I am full of bigotry and hate?"
I love that the message board now puts numbers on our comments! This is useful. It will help me refer to certain posts above, all by a poster who goes by "Phillypinto".
In post #9, Pinto writes "How do they (producers) expect blacks and hispanics to see the show at these prices?"
In post #16: "It's a fact that blacks and hispanics don't have as much money as white people do in this world"
#20: "I'm definitely not racist"
#20: "I am for blacks and hispanics"
#24: "When I said I was 'for them' I meant I am not racist"
#24: "I don't think they can afford (theatre) as much as white people can"
#31: "Please explain to me how I am full of bigotry and hate."
Dear Pinto - regarding #31: thanks for asking! I'm happy to help. And I mean that. Honestly. Okay, I guess, more honestly, I'm happy to TRY to help. Would you like to be helped? That part is up to you. When you use the phrase "Please explain to me," are you actually asking that someone explain something to you? Quite possibly not. But... here goes.
Again - honestly - I am writing this in an effort to help. Might not help you, but it could help someone else who innocently got on this thread to read about the ticket prices at "Hamilton", and instead ended up confused as to what racism is.
First helpful fact: racism is really easy to explain, and really easy to identify. It's easy to identify when others make racist statements, and it's easy to identify when you yourself type racist statements on a comment thread, and - once you learn to identify racist statements - it's easy to go "oops! I just typed something racist!" and then delete it.
Second helpful fact: to make a racist statement is not necessarily to be bigoted or hateful. It isn't! Racism sometimes isn't even hurtful! Sometimes it's just... racist!
So, to be fair, you've asked me (well, you've asked someone) to explain to you how you're full of bigotry and hate, and I'm going to let you down there, because I don't know for certain that you're either a bigot, or hateful. And I GUESS, technically, I can't even claim to know you're a racist. But I do know that you make racist statements. You write things that are racist. You use racist language.
"I'm definitely not racist" you write in post #20. Okay. But you did WRITE something racist in post #9. And in post #16. And post #24. AND in post #20, right after you wrote "I'm definitely not racist".
So - what is racism?
Let's start with generalizations.
I go to a salad place for dinner quite often. Sometimes, there's a guy behind the counter named Ken. Ken is extremely friendly to me, he always greets me by name, and seems quite genuinely happy to see me.
True statement: Ken is very friendly.
True statement: Ken works at a salad place.
Generalization: Guys named Ken are very friendly.
Generalization: Guys who work at salad places are friendly.
Generalization: Guys who work at salad places are named Ken.
When you take a characteristic about one person, and then assign that characteristic to a whole group of people - that's a generalization.
Note that generalizations aren't necessarily offensive. They CAN be. "People who live in New Jersey are racist." See - that's offensive. Also a generalization.
But when they're not being offensive, generalizations are almost always ridiculous. "Guys who work at salad places are named Ken." Who would make such a silly, ridiculous generalization?
So... racism is a generalization (assigning the characteristic of one person to a whole group of people) when the GROUP is... a whole race of people.
Fact: Ken, the friendly salad guy, is black.
Generalization: Guys named Ken are very friendly.
Racism: Black people are very friendly.
Yup. It's as simple as that. That's a racist statement. You notice that it's not at all offensive. But it is ridiculous. It's ridiculous to assign a characteristic to a whole race of people, even if it's a positive characteristic. There ARE friendly black people. And unfriendly black people. But the entire race is neither all-friendly, or all-unfriendly. Of course it isn't. IT'S AN ENTIRE RACE OF PEOPLE. And, just as importantly, the fact that Ken is friendly has nothing to do with him being black.
Every statement of yours I quoted above is racist. And ridiculous.
"It's a fact that blacks and hispanics don't have as much money as white people do" is a racist statement. And a ridiculous, ludicrous, silly statement. You're assigning one income bracket (low) to the entire race of black people, and the entire race of hispanics, and another income bracket (higher than low) to another entire race of people.
"I am for blacks and hispanics" is a racist statement. You are "for" (or "in favor of", or "on the side of") every person in both those races? Of course you're not.
"When I said I was 'for them', I meant I am not racist." Okay, perhaps that's what you meant, but, sadly, you proved yourself racist by saying it, and then double proved it by saying it again.
And, I'm sad to tell you (but happy to educate you) that not only are the above two statements racist, they are both really, really, really offensive. To say you are 'for blacks' is offensive? Yes, yes it is. To tell any person who is black that you - in some part of your brain - lump him in with every other person who is black, just by nature of them all having the same (or similar) skin color... this is racist and offensive. To think of ALL people of any one race as a "them" - to actually USE the word "them" - is to reduce each and every one of those individuals to ONE aspect of their humanness: their race, or skin color.
#24: "I don't think they can afford theatre as much as white people can." Can you see, now, how absolutely ridiculous this statement is? (I really hope - I really, really, really hope you can.) Who is the "THEY" in this statement? Who are the white people in this statement? Are there blacks and hispanics who CAN'T afford theatre? Yup. Are there white people who can? Yup. Are there white people who can't afford theatre? Uh-oh. Yes, there are. Are there black and hispanic people who could BUY a Broadway theatre? Of course there are! Because being of one certain race does not equal being of one certain income bracket. And making a statement in which every member of a race ("white people") shares a single, personal characteristic ("can afford $400 theatre seats")... that's racism. It's also ridiculous. Right?
(By the way - a side note. The definition of "ridiculous" is "deserving of ridicule". You get so MAD when people on these boards ridicule you - when you post some statement, and suddenly 6 people are ridiculing you. Next time this happens, word to the wise: it's probably because you said something ridiculous.)
So now that you know (I really, really hope that you know) what racism is, you should be able to identify, just after you type something like #24, that you're about to post something racist. And ridiculous. And then, you can ask yourself: what if I DIDN'T make this a racist statement - what if I didn't assign a personal characteristic (low income) to a whole race of people, or two whole races of people - and another single characteristic (wealth) to another whole race of people? What if I - acknowledging that people's personal characteristics cannot be boiled down to what RACE they are - decided to remove race from my post altogether? What would my post look like then? Perhaps: "I don't think poor people can afford theatre as much as rich people can."
And there it is! An entirely racist free post! Racist free, and also true, and not at all ridiculous.
Next week: sexism ("men are bad drivers") and ageism ("old people hate tacos").
Updated On: 6/10/15 at 02:54 AM
