Quote:
Originally Posted by JoeRedskin
Statements about one person's inability to understand another person's pain are both ignorant and offensive. The mere fact that someone has not experienced something firsthand does not mean they are incapable of understanding it. In fact, if this were so, than education would be meaningless because the point of education is to help us understand those things we have not experiened (Have you been to Antarctica? Know anyone that has? Yet, I bet you understand that it exists).
Much of white america has not experienced racism. That does not mean that the majority of white america cannot understand it. Rather, it is the very attempt to understand it that has created the enviroment neccessary to end the permisiveness of overt racism. For blacks to discredit whites understanding of racism b/c they have not "experienced it" is to end all hope of reconciliation and improvement of race relations.
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Well said.
As for people who suggest that the Rutgers team should not be so sensitive, I say this:
Racial comments are not the same as other insults. If somebody calls me a jackass, or a douche bag, it does not imply that I am sub-human. However, in my opinion, racial slurs are meant to degrade a person to the point of being sub-human.