Do we perpetuate inequalities by drawing attention to sexual/racial “firsts” ...?

Question

..like the super bowl coaches, Speaker of the House, and various awards at ceremonies for “specific” groups?

First, I’m in no way a biased person. I have open relationships with all manors of people and often do not even notice the ethnic background of people until it is highlighted by someone else. This is simply an opinion and is open for debate. Take it or leave it, I believe it to be true and hope that it will stimulate discussion on the topic. I welcome discussion and hope that you do to.

I am so fed up with people who just love re-hashing, re-invigorating, and re-living (vicariously?) the past injustices experienced by others many, many years ago. Do we really need to continuously be reminded of these things? Do we really gain more than we lose by doing so? I say an emphatic No, and here are a few of my thoughts on the subject:

I’m fed up with those who would have us believe that having the first African American coach win the super bowl is something to be celebrated. Who cares? Seriously, are we to be expected to have the same “glorious joy” when the first Chinese American coach wins? How about the first Latino American coach? What if it was a women (holy crap did he just say that? Yes I did)? How about just not giving a crap about what race the coach of a team is? Does it somehow become more of a landmark event or elevate the status of what is, in reality, just a game anyway? Along the same lines, drawing attention to the first female Speaker of the House is just as ridiculous. I couldn’t care less. Does it somehow add something to the event? I say No, No, and No again. Before certain people decided to start making a big deal of it I was completely unaware that it was “the first” African American coach to win the Super Bowl but, of course, it had to be “highlighted”. If it could have just gone “Unsaid” it would have actually meant “MORE” as far as overcoming past discrimination than it did by being brought up “”AGAIN””. How about just having “The Achievement Awards” to recognize all people? Highlighting individual (race/Sex/whatever) awards only perpetuates segregationist views.

If you think it’s necessary to highlight the achievements of “a people” who were somehow wronged in the past then I say you are just part of “the problem” (yes, the problem). It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about African Americans, American Indians, Japanese Americans, Irish Americans, Women, etc., etc. The more often we bring it up the less likely it is that we will ever be able to co-exist in a completely unbiased state of harmony. By the way, just when was the last time you saw an Irish American being highlighted for being the first of their kind to do (insert anything here)? No, I don’t actually think the Irish were “wronged” as much as the Africans who were brought here as slaves but they were “wronged” none the less during their first years in America. I’m also pretty sure the Japanese who were put in camps during the war feel “wronged” as well but I sure don’t see a big deal being made about each new accomplishment a Japanese American has. Why don’t African, Japanese or Irish Americans have special Casinos or fishing rights like Native Americans? Why don’t Native Americans, Japanese or the Irish, have their own versions of the NAACP, or “a mind is a terrible thing to waste” commercials? The answer is that you can’t please all of the people all of the time and “some” people will never feel “compensated” (no matter what is offered) for wrongs that were, for the most part, committed against someone other than themselves many generations ago.

In a way it’s like blackmail, consider the following: Person A has something (a picture, for example) against person B and, at some point, decides to play his/her “card” and demand a “payment” ($50K, for example), for it. Three months later person A demands another “payment”, then another, and yet another, seemingly never being satisfied that the payment was “enough”. Similarly, the Native American, Female, Black, etc. “card” seems to get pulled at various times when members of those groups think it can be used to their own benefit to get “payment” from someone (typically the Government). These groups perpetually ask for under the premise that their groups have not been given “enough”. This begs the question; when is it “enough”?

For example, just the other day I saw the “inequality card” being played for a topic I’ve seen repeatedly. The argument is that “there just aren’t enough Black CEO’s in fortune 500 companies to show diversification”. Incidentally, I’ve heard the exact same quote with reference to Women and more recently, with regard to Latinos as well. Oddly enough, I haven’t heard it used in regard to the Irish or Japanese though, how strange. It would be very interesting to follow these groups into the future and see if they would raise the same arguments “in reverse”. Specifically, if and when their “group of people” (Black, Women, Latino, etc.) became the majority of all CEO’s, would they argue that for “diversification purposes” there needs to be less of “their own group” and more of the “other groups” as CEO’s? I doubt it.

In my opinion, the best way to get past the racial, gender, and (insert any other topic you can come up with) discrimination is to just stop bringing it up so much. While we’re at we should get rid of separate associations, foundations, etc. as well as those special rules for some businesses (casinos for example) based solely on Race. These types of “Segregated associations and Special Rules” only serve to perpetuate the very things they are intended to overcome.

I agree with, and understand, the point that we have to remember the past in order to learn from our mistakes as it pertains to everything from human injustice to war miscalculation but, in my opinion, until we get to the point where we don’t make a special effort to highlighting the first “(insert group of people here) to do “whatever”, we will never be an unbiased society and never “get past” “our past”. Let’s get over it.

Answer 1

I agree 100%. Living in the past does nothing to improve the future. Let's all get over it. Agree w/the notion that we are all (in the U.S.) AMERICANS, forget any lead-in word. Stop trying to drawing attention to individual races/sexes and just draw attention to the HUMAN RACE.

Answer 2

I believe that there is more of a "self segregation" that occurs, but do not believe that inequalities are a result of things like the NAACP awards show or the media coverage of a women becoming speaker of the house.

I talked to an old man and he told me that back in the 50s and 60s he did not know that there was segregation because everyone just seemed to "fall in place" before Rosa Parks he had just assumed that black people sat in the back because they felt like it. He was totally ignorant and oblivious to segregation.

BET, the NAACP awards and the like do not pose a threat to inequality, but they will if they if they ever acted as if superior or inferior to others. Instead these types of shows have held a standard of promoting equality.

What really is causing inequality is ignorance and broad generalizations about people. A small example is that people just assumed that I would be a good basket ball player in high school, because I was tall. Needless to say I sucked. That is the kind of garbage that gets fed into peoples minds, and when they realize that others do not approve of how they think they hide their biased using other facts about money, poverty, education, or prisons. here is an example of what I mean.

There is a culture war brewing and it is only a matter of time before it explodes again. You can hear it on the news, and see it on the streets. Have you ever heard this line "We need to stop illegal immigration before it's too late" They are not talking about illegal immigrants it is just a cover for Mexicans. If you google illegal immigration it the website that come up sound like the damn black death.
"Does illegal immigration steal my money?"
"YOU have to pay for THEM to have babies here!"
"Illegal immigrants keep coming over here and breeding!"

Let me ask you a question, do you think we would be as worried if all the illegal immigrants came from Canada? Do you know that there are people illegally immigrating from Canada? I know it is not as big of a problem as Mexico but it is still there so why isn't it being talked about? What is being talked about is illegal immigration INTO Canada not from. I am curious why we care about that more than we care about Canadians coming in

Lastly why can't we just drop the labels all together. Wouldn't that be a crazy notion? We are all Americans, huh how about that?

MORSE AD INIMCUS!

Answer 3

I agree, but keep in mind what would happen if we DIDN'T overdo it when someone achieved a "first". I think part of it is just semantics, true, but another part of it is so people who were always led to believe that they could never achieve something (ie women and blacks) see this person achieving and they are inspired.

I accept that you believe we should be getting over our past, but I laugh that you seem to think it is okay to treat everyone equally, when in not a single time period in history has there not been an oppressed group.

Keep in mind, women have only been able to vote for the last eighty years or so. Slavery only really ended in the last 140 years. To say that we should move on is to ignore the fact that both groups have overcome major hurdles to get where they are today.

P.S. I mainly dealt with women and blacks because you mentioned them the most.

Also P.P.S., I don't believe in the phrase "African-American" as no one I know uses it and I don't call myself "European-American".

Answer 4

Everything you stated can be classified under, damn I'm tired of all this that is real but I'm tired of listening to it.
The facts are that very few actually get any where with that trump card in reality. The real facts are that the races you talk of have for generations lived a living hell that has denied many peoples of their right to prosper with opportunity, liberity and justice, not only in America but world wide.
My only suggestion is for you to get over being spoiled and realize the fact that the death machine was pointed at many races that define hell on earth. Until you live it and see it first hand you know nothing.

Answer 5

Since you stated that you are up for an open discussion I would like to present my point of view. I hope you take it seriously even though it is in contrast to your point of view.

First it seemst that if you understood your own priveledge you would have a better grip on this topic. If you knew that you have certain rights in this country that are so basic and that are denied to others you may see why it is important to honor an African American coach. One right you have is to have several role models, to know your history. People of color don't have this right. Their history isn't taught in school. When it is taught it is taught from a Euro-centric point of view and the only people of color are usually ones that helped settlers (this is true for Native Americans especially). And when we do teach the history for people of color people like you say it's unnecessary. Well, maybe we should ban history all together? History is full of unjust acts and we must learn them so we don't repeat them. Also, history is full of firsts. We know the first american to do this, the first guy to invent electricity etc.. So why not know the first African American coach?

The past is important for another reason as well. I am not sure if you know about intergenerational trauma. This is similiar to PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) that war vets. experience. Intergenerational trauma is proven and it states that trauma is passed down through generations. So, for example, descendants of holocaust survivors will still feel pain about the holocaust. This is true for any people who have experienced atrocities AND are still experiencing oppression today (nearly all people of color fit this category). For people to heal from this trauma we MUST educate. With cultural education respect will come. We also have to acknowledge the past, we have to apologize for the past so that people have a foundation to heal from.

When it comes to the CEO argument. This is a very real phenomenon. It is called the glass ceiling. People of color and Women hit the glass ceiling way before White Men. This means they have less opportunity to advance in their careers. The Irish are White and are generally not discriminated against anymore. Therefore they will classify as the majority. The Japanese, and many Asian cultures have a different stereotype running against them than other people of color. It is of the model minority. They are expected to be good at business. This stereotype is still damaging. People of color aren't fighting to be the majority, they are fighting to have EQUAL statistics. For example, women still get paid 70 cents to the mans dollar. How do you justify this? If it was reverse then men could complain, yes. But that won't happen. Women just want to get paid a dollar for a dollar.

Reverse racism cannot exist. This is why. There is something called Hegemony. This means that to be racist one has to have power. Racism exists only with power. The person committing the racist act has to have power for that act to mean anything. People in the majority have power, they make up CEO's , they make up Congress, etc... Therefore when they are racist, their racism has drastic effects. If a person of color was racist, what does it mean? It just pisses people off. They don't have enough power in this country for their racism to make a difference.

WE ABSOLUTELY have to EDUCATE each other for racism to end. We need to understand each other and respect each other for our differences. We cannot do that without education. Education cannot occur without history. We cannot ignore what is going on to create social change. All social change has been caused with education. Name one aspect of social change that occured by ignorning the problem?