white or black

Hi Megaplaza,I have a little bit different take on your post. I can not speak to the past since I was not responsible for it. I can not speak of the present since it is built on the past. But let's talk about the future since that is what we all have control over. I believe that true equality will be achieved when we do not see color at all, we see people. The context of your question alone is full of racist comments. You make clear distinctions between black and white. When we can ALL stop doing that, equality will be achieved. Please don't misunderstand me, I am not calling you a racist. I simply point that out to make the point that we ALL have so far yet to go. There are things that I refuse to expose myself to. For example, Mel Gibson had a movie several years ago called Payback. Mid way through the movie we left. We left because that movie had us emotionally siding with a vicious criminal, Mel Gibson's character. I did not like the emotional place it brought us to where the 'hero' was a violent criminal. If watching movies with black skinned criminals offends you, don't watch them. Get your friends not to watch them. Raise the awareness of our society that we are stereotyping black skinned people as criminals. Refuse to stand for it! Make it known to the black skinned actors that take those roles that it offends us. You make some valid points, but I have never been one to complain about a situation. Change it!

Megaplaza not only does your post show you to be far more racist than the majority of whites, it shows you to have a fairly juvenile conception of the world as well. You seem to think blacks are the only ones with problems (which of course whites are responsible for). Newsflash, everybody has problems. My white skin is no more a protection for me from the problems of the world than is your black skin. You also have a rather lopsided view of history as well. You talk about black slaves sold to America; question; Who sold the black slaves to America? Answer: Blacks and arabs. Whites couldn't survive the interior of Africa in that time because of malaria and enviromental conditions they weren't suited for. And the power of America based upon those black slaves? No. When you look at the wealth created by slavery, and the amount of wealth destroyed in the Civil War, it's virtually equal.

Well, the truth of the matter is that black people are more likely to end up in prison. The reason is not as much racial as economic. Poor black people are trapped in urban areas, while poor white people are thrown out in the rural areas. I believe that if the positions were reversed the majority of people in prison would be white. However, it seems that when a black man makes something of himself, many other black people seek to condemn hiim for not being black enough. Is this not black people holding themselves down? Furthermore, Denzel Washington most often plays a cop; Samuel L Jackson has played a scientist on a few occasions, Morgan Freeman is a fantastic actor and race does not define him, nor does it hold him down. Dr. Ben Carson operated on my daughter when she had craniosynistosis as a child. I didn't take a second to think about his race. I only saw his reputation. He was never a slave because He wouldn't have allowed such a thing. He is a self made man and smarter than most neurologists. And as nice as can be. I could feel sorry for myself because I am a woman and I have to work twice as hard for what I get as my male counterparts. I choose not to. I am in charge of my own destiny. You can choose to be a statistic or you can choose to rise above. You can choose to play the victim and blame your life on things that happened 100's of years ago, or you can choose to emulate Dr Carson and make a name for yourself. The bottom line is that white people are not holding black people down. That went out in the 60's. Black people who don't have the drive, or those who are listening to the wrong "leaders" are holding themselves down and looking for someone to blame. Good luck to you. Stand up and be what you want to be. If you can see it you can be it. If you can percieve it, you can achieve it.

Reads you discussion and senses some racism in it, or indications of such. All I can say, is I am glad to be Native American, so I am not viewed as the "white" person. However, I feel it is unkind to link all of one race into a category.

Look, I not prejudice and I was not raise to be. My husband's aunt is black and so are his cousins and I like them a lot and consider them my family as well. I have had numerous friends growing up who were black, that I sometimes had more fun with than I did with my white friends and I still do. In fact, I think black people are so much more funny than white people. I always have a blast around them. So, I definitely have an open mind... However, I am so tired of the black man bringing up the past. We can't help or change what our forefathers did hundreds of years ago. White men have been treated badly by black men as well. And white men have been slaves as well. Just read your bible and you will see that. White men were enslaved by the Eygptians. I wouldn't say that Eygptians are completely white, just as some don't consider me completely white because I'm an Italian American. And you say that you will never see a black scientist. There was black scientist in Terminator 2 and he was made the hero in the end. There have been plenty of amazing roles that I have seen black actors play, which have made them some of my favorites actors. Will Smith is a prime example of this, along with Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman, just to name a few...So, that's a copout if you ask me... One thing I have to agree with you on, is the fact that white cops tend to pick on black men. My husband Richard was very close to his black cousins growing up and he still is. He would lay down his life for them if he had to. However, he has told me stories of accounts where he was riding in the car with his cousins and they were pulled over for no apparent reason other than the fact that his black cousin was driving the car. This made my husband furious....However, although the cops do tend to lean more toward picking on black men, I have seen plenty of white men being abused by them as well. I don't trust cops, period. I just feel that black men a lot of times use this as an excuse to get extra privledges. Why do black men get special privledges in regards to colleges and so on. I know a lot of white people who need help with college as well. Black men cry and cry that they want to be equal, yet they continue to bring up issues and thus seperate themselves from the white men. I'm sorry but it's time to get over it and move on. Everyone in this world has been treated badly at times, whether white or black. It's not just you all!

I have a VERY open mind, and right now I think you're being extremely prejudicial in saying that whites think blacks are inferior. I certainly don't, and I take exception to you lumping me into a category that does.

I really love to travel and I respect all people white or black. I am white and I live in the UK. Black people have this color skin because they come from a country where the weather is hot. Like a man from Nigeria will be black and this helps him live in the sun. A lady from Norway lives in a cold country so here skin will be white. In Malaysia I met a mixed race couple and other travelers thought they were Malaysians but they were South Africans. I have have heard that a black man that one of my friends knows is always thought by the police that he is going to commit a crime! This is terrible. I hate racism. It was awful when South Africa had apartheid rules and I am so pleased that this is now over. Many pop artists are black and are wonderful at singing and dancing. Black children in the UK do well at primary school and I see how clever they are.

megaplaza, I respect your frustrations very much but I have to say that I completly disagree with them. Let me start by saying I am a 23 year old white and spanish guy from Baltimore City. The city of Baltimore is something like 75% black. And I do not feel that they are looked down upon by anyone else in the city. In fact our mayor Sheila Dixon is black as well. I respect your opinion, but when I meet someone its not their color that I see. It is who they are. And I truely feel that it is people who say, or write such racially motivated things as you have are the ones who still have a black/white issue. I think that it is import for we as a people to see eachother not as a color, but as an individual.

I assume that when slavery was abolish in the United States many whites want life to be harder for a blacks. They think they are better than blacks. They judge by the color of the skin. Using common sense being black is no different than being white and vice versa.

Most of the thinking you describe above has been proven to be ignorant and wrong. More awareness and education has gone far and more and more people realize that blacks and whites are equal. Of course, there are some people who are still racist which amazes me but it is getting rarer and rarer. Hollywood no longer portrays black people as just rappers and slaves or sportsmen. Maybe 30 years ago but not in todays world....and slavery has been gone for even longer than that. Why it ever was allowed to be the way it was is beyond my imagination but I'm glad to see we are moving forward to make the world more fair to all.

Is my mind giving inputs from a 20th century webserver ? It's amazing to see historical issues being posted again! Or you serious with this ?

From my point of view the problem starts with a distinction between blackness or whiteness.. We humans we have a deep tendency to go to opposites to define ourselves. culture,history and society have a big rule here, i have lots of friends from different countries , different cultural background and different origins and i think thats where i could find a clash..white italians from italy argue abou white italians from US,but as well from black italians.. Jamaican and Nigerian think different from each other..going further, living in London myself i could see how people like to distant themselves between each other for the money they earn or for the clothes they wear..so you have black poor people and white poor people, is all matter of how you or the society decided to place yourself in the hierarchy of the current world.. The neighbourgs are better or worst, base in nationality on colour in status or in all above. With your question i feel like you're mixing a lots on concepts, history, psichology, behaviour..they told you God is white cos the same reason they told you is a man and you didnt argue about why not a woman, cos thats religion for you, they believe (whoever could be) that a black man is only good to commit crimes, cos the bigger figures in crime rate in certain countries belong to black population, in the most part of this cases those are the poorest population too and a huge number of inmigrants in the country..i'm sure thats not the case in China where the black culture is not that big.in the same bag would be Mexicans or other Latin origins once more, minorities that are pilars for a country thanks to be that minorities, I always believe that the main problem in the world is not the racism, or homophia or bigotism alone but the people that allowed that to happen, and this is not a call for war, as Ghandi proved a while ago quite often the best way to fight back is to prove wrong..i guess thats why there's not slavery on the same level that it was years ago, but still, cos people there somehow are evolving. We should stop looking to the past and moan, we should look to the future and improve how far we're going and how far we can go, to the point we dont need to care of differences and we're able to love those differences for being like that, thanks that make us different so we can learn and grow.

I am a white woman but I do partially agree with you. See it is not just the africa americans that are suffering. Some of the greatest ppl in american who have accomplished so much are of african decent. However, I don't believe that the black man is only good for commiting crimes. There are many a white fold who commit crimes some worse than other african americans. As for telling you God is a white man?.... I really don't think he is. I think that he is mix of all races that way he can plan out our lives. All ethnicities have different values...

One's mood dicide to your fate,with the society 's progress,I believe evryone is equal,wheather you are a black or white.

Racism is a horrible truth happening all over the world. We've come a long way from where we were in this country, but we still have a long way to go. I hope that racism and prejudice will continue to decrease with time. Just the other day there was a special on 20/20 where they were doing social experiments. In one they had 3 white kids spray painting and vandalizing a car in a public park. Of the many people who passed by, only one person called the cops. However, at the same park at the same time one man made a call to 911 because he said he saw some suspicious looking young men in a car who looked like they were about to rob someone. What he saw were 3 young black men taking a nap inside their car! Later they replaced the 3 white kids vandalizing the car with 3 black kids, and of course a lot more passerbys called the cops this time. Of course this isn't a valid experiment and can't really prove anything, however it does give you an example of the different ways society views black people and white people.