Comments on: Racism

By: the Mayor

the Mayor — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 03:58:14 +0000

Jane, sorry you got such flack for mincing your words in a way that were not understood by some. When you are our age and you arrive at a bustling airport to find things have changed…it’s confusing and we are all so caught up in all the hoopla of anxiety about getting where we need to be, getting through security without losing our expensive moisturizer. I understood your train of thought completely.

I wouldn’t expect that to offend.

By: Rowe

Rowe — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 04:20:34 +0000

It’s interesting Jane, I live in Australia so have little idea about the Skycaps and non-white people/racist issue surrounding what your tweet was supposed to have meant. I do not use Twitter, and this probably highlights the potential for huge misunderstandings when people are summarising thoughts that perhaps need fuller explanation, in other words when 140 characters is not enough to say what you are really thinking or wanting to convey to others.

By: byjane

byjane — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 23:44:07 +0000

Florencia: don’t know if you’ll get it, but I answered your comment offline. I’m closing down comments on this post. I think we’ve all had our say…

By: Florencia

Florencia — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 23:00:51 +0000

Jane, I see this conversation is taking us nowhere, and that makes me sad. I 100% agree with Liz’s analysis and her words are the perfect response from me to you: “My guess is that it was not the fact that you used Black vs. African American that rubbed people the wrong way, it’s that the way you constructed your tweet put Black and College Kids into two different categories – two categories that seem to be mutually exclusive, though it seems from what you wrote in the comments that that is not what you meant. But if it’s not what you meant, why didn’t you say middle-aged and college kids instead of Black and college kids? It looks like you are saying someone who is black isn’t likely to be in college, and that a college kid can’t be black.” Yes, yes, and yes.

I think it is very difficult to accept that we may not be as open-minded or progressive as we would like, but it is a part of growing up and gives us the opportunity to change for the better.

By: Liz@Inventing My Life

Liz@Inventing My Life — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 01:04:47 +0000

Hi Jane – I didn’t see any of this on Twitter, but now I understand your “who can I offend now” status on FB the other day!

I don’t think I would have understood what you meant by that tweet if I had seen it, and I’m still not sure I understand it after reading your explanation. My guess is that it was not the fact that you used Black vs. African American that rubbed people the wrong way, it’s that the way you constructed your tweet put Black and College Kids into two different categories – two categories that seem to be mutually exclusive, though it seems from what you wrote in the comments that that is not what you meant. But if it’s not what you meant, why didn’t you say middle-aged and college kids instead of Black and college kids? It looks like you are saying someone who is black isn’t likely to be in college, and that a college kid can’t be black.

I used to think that I was pretty open-minded and not at all prejudiced, but the more I learn about race and racism to prepare for raising a black child, the more I realize that I really had no clue. I can recommend some really good blogs for further reading if you’re interested!

By: byjane

byjane — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 23:33:38 +0000

Florencia: Which words were a poor choice? Black? Would you have been less offended if I had said African-American? I’m very clear on what I meant, and here’s what I said to another commenter that puts it in a nutshell: I just looked up racism on our favorite source, Wikipedia, and here’s what they say: “Racism is the belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.” Given that as a working definition, I still don’t get how was my comment was racist? I wasn’t saying that the ability to be a SkyCap is a function of race. In fact, I wasn’t saying anything at all about the race of the “college” boys. They could all have been Black for as much as I noticed. What I was noting was that an entire genre of workers seemed to have been replaced by another genre. Perhaps your definition of racist is more broad: a noticing of the races, rather than a value judgment about them. That’s the only case in which I can see how people could interpret my comment as racist.

By: byjane

byjane — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 23:27:03 +0000

Motherssuperior Well said. Not to mention true.

By: byjane

byjane — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 23:26:22 +0000

Denise: It has been a year since I took a plane from Sacramento Airport, so you may be correct that that is the issue. I appreciate your concern for me, but even if you had been able to get that Erase It message to me, I wouldn’t have done it. I think that people’s responses to my comment are like a Rorschach of where they are on the issue of race.