Black or African American designated groups, programs and events, are always targets. It happens all the time. What do you recommend for the handling of situations where people of majority-privilege are trying to set-up an issue of reverse-discrimination?
In this case, a Black web group formed, that has a bunch of Whites joining as members, knowing the administrator cannot screen members in that particular website.
That's the ultimate goal, for sure. There should be no need for Black organizations, programs, events, ideally. There was a time when we had to have a Miss Black America contest, and Black Student Unions in college, because we were excluded. I personally have great ability to smooth color barriers by opening dialog among Black people, who have low self-esteem, no hope, or have been victimized in some way. It starts by getting them us in situations where we are comfortable expressing our feelings, among those like ourselves.
Interesting. Last year eons decided to admit younger people to the site. The entire site went haywire. I was upset initially. Then it dawned on me that anyone online can be ANYONE on line. The spate of on-line child pornography incidents, if nothing else, proves this. It also occurred to me that the typical social networks don't exclude seniors but I am bored stiff on there-- I just have nothing in common with those kids and though not precluded, chose to absent myself from the site. This is probably true across the board-- a AA site is not going to interest non-AAs. And you can't prevent someone from logging in, even if you set the guidelines. In short, I think it's much ado about nothing.
I would never post anything online that I wouldn't want the world to see-- because, in essence, the world can see it. So, if you're worried about what you say being misinterpreted or published elsewhere, that is a chance you take whenever you post online.
look at it closely to see if there is any truth in it. There are always winners and losers. Nobody wants to be a loser. Nobody wants to be told that their race disqualifies them for opportunities. It works that way for all races. It burns me up to see candidates pandering to one race or another. Somebody always gets left out. How to level the playing field so that everyone benefits equally?
i don't see the problem of letting other races join this group. i think we get to dialogue and hear another side of the story. if you have an opinion air it, how else will we know how to deal with others. it may change your or their minds and they may see us differently other then the sterotypical view the media and others portray us. i feel we here are family and like in every family, especially mine there is a mixture of races and cultures. how are you going to know the people around you if you don't interact. the first way is verbally. i am always surprised a lot of different people think the same way i do, have the same problems i have and we may have a way to help each other. i asked this question when i joined,"do you have to be black/african american to belong. i can't remember the answer. but it never bothered me if the moderators and the managers are ok with it. if i did have an objection i could leave the group. i am still here.
There is no such thing as "reverse discrimination". Either you are or you are not discriminating against others for whatever reason. To discriminate against others one would have to exclude them or treat them differently. African-American/Black organizations do not generally exclude others even if they call themselves the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People or whatever name they possess. At least that has been my experience. If the accusation is made that so-called reverse discrimination has occurred they would need to show how they were excluded or treated differently. Set asides for minorities to insure an integrated workforce or an integrated institution does not qualify in my opinion. The institution or the workplace would have to show that they already have an integrated situation in order to say they were not excluding others or treating others differently. Mandated set asides are not required for institutions or workplaces where it is clear that minorities are not excluded. We have a local organization called the Black Citizens Arts Council. Although it sounds like the white citizens council (an extremely racist group in the south akin to the Klan) it in no way excludes anyone. Its primary focus, however, is to raise the level of awareness of the arts for local African American citizens, particularly children. Funds are raised to preserve historical properties of African Americans, take children and youth to cultural events, provide a vehicle for talented African Amreican artists to showcase their work, etc. Whenever we are approached by whites or others who are not African American we are willing to help them, our meetings are open and anyone can join us. We have whites who are very supporive because they recognize the need for our organization just as whites did so when organizing the NAACP. This group just as others was developed because our history was not being preserved and our Arican American artists were not recognized or supported, nor were our children included in some activities because they could not afford to do so. Our organization and similar ones in no way meet the criteria for discrimination.
I have always felt that they were words strung together to misdirect an argument...."reverse-discrimination"..is it even possible to ask.. What would we be rectifying here??? Affirmative action is action to affirm...acknowleding a time when your presence was less than affirmed (to say the least) so now action would be taken to affirm your presence, now mandated by the state just as your exclusion was then. Reverse discrimination is inappropriate word usage...... I am real glad to see the turn of events prompted by Sen. Obama...I think his status as mixed race makes his "Audacity of Hope" attractive placing light upon NOT the difference we share but the common dream and ideal that is this country or was this country...
Discrimination is discrimination no matter what form or color it comes in. As far as I am concern, the more mix of ideas the better.
I in College we had a group of white pledges to an all black sorority. We denied them the line. They went to the school, and we were ordered to except them, are loose our charter. Now, we knew that the white sororities would not except black pledges, they just didn’t do it out in the open as we had done. But for a lot of reason we allowed them to pledge, and took two over. This was very hard, very hard short term. But in the long term, it was one of the best moves we could have done. It give us a different voice, different power. It became a good thing for us and for them.
To me, Discrimination is discrimination no matter what form or color it comes in. For this group, on this one thing, I hope we all will agree!
Dude you can agree with me this time, It’s all right Jeresy said so. LOL
