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Apparently, We're Racists.

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Hi all,

I'm am about to finish my second year in college. Before today I had had no significant exposure to the left's insidious agenda. It puzzled me when I first entered college why I wasn't immediately assailed by such filth. I initially thought that my school in Europe was insulated from this sort of thinking for some reason or another.

However, today in Intro. to Sociology class we watched a film called "Blue Eyed." In this film, Jane Elliott, an educator, performs an experiment on her class by separating her students into two groups: brown-eyed and blue-eyed people. In effect, the brown-eyed students were instructed to isolate and ostracize the blue-eyed students so that member of the "power group" (whites) could come to experience racism.

My sociology professor (who I previously considered a rational man), put forth the argument that because a person belongs to the "power" demographic (white, male, straight, protestant) they are by default prejudiced in some way towards others. Essentially, either you're part of the problem, or you're part of the solution. :huh: It is this type of thinking that irks me the most.

Personally, I really haven't been exposed to discriminatory behavior. As an American, it has happened a few times here in Europe, but I would otherwise consider myself trapped in societal limbo. I haven't witnessed very much European racism, nor have I seen any of it in the military communities.

It just seems to me that the correct answer is to recognize the rights of every human being, not to "confront the racist within ourselves." I'm sorry if this is some content-less rant, but I feel the urge to discuss such a disillusionment. Who else on the forum has been subjected to such de-humanizing beliefs? How do/did you survive on campus?

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The left loves to try and pronounce the son guilty for the sins of the father. They equate it with atonement though it proves nothing and is just a sort of irrational self immolation.

I think your best response would have been to tell your prof that you are colour blind and refuse to participate.

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It just seems to me that the correct answer is to recognize the rights of every human being, not to "confront the racist within ourselves."
I on the other hand hold that you should start with a more fundamental right, the right to not be forced without a shred of evidence that there is a racist inside you. If there is one, then you should confront it, but you should not assume without evidence that you are a racist, anymore than you should assume that a randomly selected black man is a drug dealer. You should recognise that by rejecting his racism, you are part of the solution and he is the problem. Unless he's just teaching this crap because it's required and he doesn't believe it, in which case he's part of another problem.
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I was forced to "participate" in a similar exercise at *work* in the name of "team building".

How did the management let that fly? I don't know what it does for the supposed beneficiaries, but it would only seem to alienate the victimized demographic.

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I almost got fired because I refused to sign the "disciplinary action" due to the circumstance I describe below.

I was a security manager at a large retail store. A female employee complained that a "Young black male employee" was entering her department and telling people that she had "been with" him. This woman was an older (50-60--ish) Indian woman. She did not know which "young black male employee" that it was. We kept her under surveillance so that we could figure out who it was that was doing the harrassing. A week or so later, she again complained that the "young black male employee" had been in her department harrassing her. We reviewed the video tape and saw no "young black male" employees anywhere near her. Her son came into the store and was vocal about suing the store due to this harrassment.

Myself and the HR manager decided that we would take polaroids of "young black male employees" and do a photo array line up to see if she could identify the person harrasing her. We explained to the "young black male employees" what we were doing and stressed that they were under no obligation to participate. We did not tell the photo subjects who the complaining person was.

Why do you think the HR manager and I got in trouble? We were racist for only taking pictures of "young black male employees" for the investigation.

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Why do you think the HR manager and I got in trouble? We were racist for only taking pictures of "young black male employees" for the investigation.

This definitely takes the cake. I'm probably not the first person to ask how people get away with this kind of stuff.

I don't get why this happens. The word "race" comes up in a conversation and suddenly everyone starts walking on eggshells, ready to backpedal at the first sign of offense or disagreement.

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Why did you opt to take this class? 'Sociology' is a completely illegitimate area of study and doesn't belong in any university.

Could you elaborate on this? Based on the definition on Wiki:

Sociology (from Latin: socius, "companion"; and the suffix -ology, "the study of", from Greek λόγος, lógos, "knowledge" [1]) is the scientific or systematic study of society, including patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and culture[2]. Areas studied in sociology can range from the analysis of brief contacts between anonymous individuals on the street to the study of global social interaction. Numerous fields within the discipline concentrate on how and why people are organized in society, either as individuals or as members of associations, groups, and institutions. Sociology is considered a branch of social science.

It seems like sociology, at least in principle, would be worth study.

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Could you elaborate on this? Based on the definition on Wiki:

It seems like sociology, at least in principle, would be worth study.

I didn't take the course, but my wife did and we talked often about it. The essence of Sociology (and its implicit problem) is that, for sociologists, the basic unit of society is not the individual, but rather collective groups. This is from Page 1 of my wife's textbook, basically contextual information to show the student what Sociology is (Textbook: Sociology-The Essentials, 4th Ed., by Margaret Andersen & Howard Taylor):

Imagine that you had been switched with another infant at birth and raised in very different conditions. What if your accidental family was poor or very rich? How might this have affected the schools you attended, the health care you received, the possibilities for your future career? What if you had been raised in a different religion? What if you had been born another sex or race? What would you be like now?

We are talking about changing the basic facts of your life. Each has major consequences for who you are and how you will fare in life...Sociological research describes some consequences of particular social locations in society. Our social location has a profound effect on our chances in life. The power of Sociology is that it teaches us how society influence our lives and the lives of others...

Now, we can contrast this with what Rand said:

That something happened to you is of no importance to anyone, not even to you. The important thing about you is what you choose to make happen - your values and choices. That which happened by accident - what family you were born into, in what country, and where you went to school - is totally unimportant.
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I didn't take the course, but my wife did and we talked often about it. The essence of Sociology (and its implicit problem) is that, for sociologists, the basic unit of society is not the individual, but rather collective groups. This is from Page 1 of my wife's textbook, basically contextual information to show the student what Sociology is (Textbook: Sociology-The Essentials, 4th Ed., by Margaret Andersen & Howard Taylor):

Ahh. I don't think I ever took it. I was too busy studying real subjects. ;)

No, wait, I went to WVU - I was too busy partying. :D

Edited by Greebo
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Believe me, I would have rather taken something else, but I had to take another social science to get my A.A. I had already taken economics and the second class had to be from another discipline. ;)

I think there are valid uses for sociology. As a tool for studying societal patterns, relationships, communication, etc. However, I would assume that collectivists enjoy studying the collective, which explains all of the leftist crap in a "value-free" environment.

I'm still miffed, but I'm mostly over being told that the only reason I am where I am was because I'm a white male, rather than my drive, intelligence and ambition. I can't wait to be done in 2 weeks- no more sitting through rants about "social inequity" and "screwing workers."

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