Poor Kobe. "somewhat confused about culture" is a polite way of saying Uncle Tom.

Also, interesting he brought up "inferior shade". You're just not black enough to understand, Kobe.

Well if you think about it the Martin/Zimmerman case was really that reaction.

Martin was black so obviously he couldn't be guilty of pounding Zimmerman's head into the pavement as the reason he was shot. Martin was just a totally innocent target of a vigilante. Yeah, right.

It reminds me of women against pornography who say I must be against it too by virtue of being a woman.

A "woman's point of view"?

I remember the line from the movie, "As Good As It Gets", when Jack Nicholson's character is asked by a delirious fan how he writes his female characters so well.

He says he writes the character as a man, then removes all reason and accountability.

Ouch.

Memo to the universe: I don't write the advice with my vagina.

Now I cant help wonder what it would be like to be with a woman with that much dexterity down there

Let me ask a question of the non-white, non-male present here. And I'm not asking to be sarcastic. I'm asking because I genuinely don't know.

Is it a thing to go around with your race/ethnic/gender identity at the forefront of your mind? Do you ever judge your actions or thoughts based on what you think someone of your identity group is supposed to think/feel/do? See, the reason I ask is because for most white guys, that is just not a thing. We never, ever think about our identity-group membership unless someone brings it up or we read something that talks about it. When we look in the mirror, we don't see "white guy", we see "damn, I need a new razor" or whatever.

Is it a thing to go around with your race/ethnic/gender identity at the forefront of your mind?
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It's been said quite often that, in the U.S., being white means not thinking about it, and that being black means thinking about it all the time. It's not as if white people have stopped their general non-verbal habits of REMINDING black people of their color, after all.

Example, by the Pulitzer-winning lawyer/historian/journalist Roger Wilkins:

"(Whites) think of it as a land of opportunity - a good place with a lot of good people in it. Some suspect (others know) that the presence of blacks messes everything up.

"To blacks there's nothing very easy about life in America, and any sense of ownership comes hard because we encounter so much resistance in making our way through the ordinary occurrences of life. And I'm not even talking here about overt acts of discrimination but simply about the way whites intrude on and disturb our psychic space without even thinking about it.

"A telling example of this was given to me by a black college student in Oklahoma. He said whites give him looks that say: 'What are you doing here?'

"When do they give you that look?' I asked.

'Every time I walk in a door,' he replied.

"When he said that, every black person in the room nodded and smiled in a way that indicated recognition based on thousands of such moments in their own lives."

"When do they give you that look?' I asked.
'Every time I walk in a door,' he replied.

Reminds me of a blind guy I used to know, who got accused/attacked by a lot by women for ogling them.
He eventually turned it around and used it to pick up women.

lenona quoting Roger Wilkins: "A telling example of this was given to me by a black college student in Oklahoma. He said whites give him looks that say: 'What are you doing here?... Every time I walk in a door.'"

No shit? You know, I experience something very similar to that on the infrequent occasions when I enter a room or area predominantly populated by black people. Only the look isn't, "What are you doing here?"; it's more like, "What the fuck you doin' here!"

More Wilkins: "...whites intrude on and disturb our psychic space without even thinking about it."

WTF? What's psychic space? Am I supposed to read their minds? How does one know when one has intruded on and disturbed the psychic space of another? I refuse to be held accountable for this!

It seems like the more you strive to accommodate a self-perceived victim group, the more they strive to imagine new offenses to make it impossible to accommodate them.

One thing that's seriously lacking in politically correct Western society is any kind formal cultural sensitivity training, like that which almost all whites have been subjected to, directed at minorities to help them understand a little about the diversity of cultures represented by the white majority they live and work around.

WTF? What's psychic space? Am I supposed to read their minds? How does one know when one has intruded on and disturbed the psychic space of another? I refuse to be held accountable for this!

It seems like the more you strive to accommodate a self-perceived victim group, the more they strive to imagine new offenses to make it impossible to accommodate them.
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Just because it might be very difficult at first to treat all adults the same way doesn't change the fact that everyone is entitled to that common courtesy. (Yes, it's rude to give polite people angry looks just for being in a certain place, as you described.)

Here's another example. I found it in a short juvenile nonfiction book on racism that I've been trying to track down since I saw it briefly in 2006. In all likelihood, when you think about it, it was written after 1985 or so - I can't imagine this sort of not-so-common sense being portrayed by a white person in ANY book on racism written earlier than that.

A white Southern woman, probably born in the 1950s, told how her mother was an impeccable lady and also “quite a racist.” However, the mother never said an unkind word about any person based on that person’s skin color, because “she was too much of a lady for that.” Even so, every time the mother and her daughter went shopping and had to talk to a black cashier or black sales employee, the mother used a tone of voice as if she were talking to a silly preschooler. So, wrote the daughter, (not verbatim) “she passed on her racist views to me without a single word being exchanged between us on the subject!”

(Note that the mother was an "impeccable lady," but she still didn't have the sense or discipline to restrain herself completely. Again, it may be hard to do, but it has to be done.)
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One thing that's seriously lacking in politically correct Western society is any kind formal cultural sensitivity training, like that which almost all whites have been subjected to, directed at minorities to help them understand a little about the diversity of cultures represented by the white majority they live and work around.

Posted by: Ken R at March 30, 2014 2:02 AM
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Maybe we DO already have that sort of thing? Aside from what gets taught in most American schools, such as American history, there are quite a few things that just plain shout at society in general - such as the St. Patrick's Day Parade. Hard to avoid hearing about that.

Not to mention that plenty of young people of all colors have given up cultural traditions in general because they take too much time away from consumerism. :)

""When he said that, every black person in the room nodded and smiled in a way that indicated recognition based on thousands of such moments in their own lives."

Complete, total, utter bullshit. Special pleading and moral gainsaying. Not to mention that it's highly racist in itself. You really think white people think about you all the damn time? That they spend their every waking moment obsessing about you? Delusions of grandeur much?

Er, explain?

I don't see anything by former Assistant Attorney General Wilkins that suggests that white people think about black people at all when they aren't forced to. What he and the student were commenting on was the inability of so many whites to behave politely in their non-verbal habits toward all adults. It's sort of like remembering the rule not to point - even at inanimate objects, unless absolutely necessary - but only when you WANT to bother remembering. Not polite.