Need DU Help Regarding Racism

[BeHereNow]

Hi Guys,
I need your help in defining what I term
reverse- racism.
Brief background:
I run a parent message board at my school.
One of our parents referred to an administrator
by his last name only.
Another parent jumped on the board and insinuated
that by referring to the person by their last name only,
they were repeating history of people calling
people of color "boy."
I find this assertion ridiculous.
This parent is continually scanning the messages
for anything she can make into a racial issue.
What is that called?
Is that not a form of racism too?
Your thoughts please...
BHN

[oscar111]

1. Eric Hoffer? wasnt he RW? Was he anti-union?

my memory of his fame is fuzzy, but i have the general impression he was RW.

didnt he label all LW leaders as true-believing fanatics, and go on to say we should be rid of them?

Anyone?

[BeHereNow]

5. Gee, thanks for answering my question.

I do believe I PM'd you some time ago
regarding Eric Hoffer.
Your motive in jumping on this thread
ignoring the original content of my post and
insinuating that my Hoffer sig line means what, is?
BHN

[gollygee]

13. He seems pretty popular here

http://www.conservativeforum.org/authquot.asp?ID=94

and here too
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/933783/posts

:shrug:

[gollygee]

17. In fairness

he's also popular here apparently
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=209x1400

[Dave Reynolds]

2. I would call it hypersensitivity,

or something along those lines.

[Bluebear]

3. Hmmmm

I don't know that I would call it racism, this parent might just be a tourblemaker plain and simple. People refer to people by their last name all the time. I would have to see some more context but if they said "I think Thornhill better get his priorities in order".... it would be grasping at straws to see anything racist in that.

[BeHereNow]

8. Trouble maker is putting it mildly...

She is the most contentious voice among our
members and can turn ANY topic into a racial
issue, allthe while NEVER addressing the actual topic
of our threads.
DU vote:
Should I throw her ass off my message board?
BHN

[Bluebear]

14. I would ask your other members

If she can't keep her big fresh mouth shut it must be disruptive to the other moard members!

[BeHereNow]

18. TOTALLY disruptive!

We can't stay on topic because she always
turns the topic into race!
BHN

[AlCzervik]

4. our friends call my husband by our last name all the time

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. Absolutely ridiculous

Black women call each other by their last name all the time. A Black man is more likely to say Mrs. Smith when addressing her, but a Black woman will call her Smith.

[BeHereNow]

12. Interestingly enough...

One of the teachers we have been discussing
because we are in fear that we will lose her
due to bureaucratic decisions is a woman if color.
She also has a doctorate and is one of our best teachers.
We refer her by her last name all the time.
Not a peep from the trouble maker about that.
Just about the administrator who is a man and has
NEVER acted in the best interest of our students.
He is in fact one of the bureaucRATS involved in
replacing this teacher with a far less competent one
to save money.
BHN

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. Do you know who the trouble maker is?

If he is posting anonymously, could it be this administrator?

[BeHereNow]

23. No, she is not anonymous

I insist on verifying everyone because it is a school
community.
I have met the woman- she is a sanctimonious,
holier-that-thou, "x-tian" who is married to a local
news caster.
She sits on her holy mountain and preaches
proper behavior to the rest of us who are
down in the trenches trying to save the school
from the money changers and pharisees of education.
BHN

[candle_bright]

7. It's called "troublemaker"

and "stupid" and "fishing for a lawsuit to make some cash."

Or this parent could be a racist him/herself.

BTW, reverse racism means treating someone of a different race BETTER than you would others, so as not to be perceived as racist yourself.

[BeHereNow]

9. Thanks for clarifying that term.

"reverse racism" that is.
I don't know what to make of this woman.
She is a nut case at best.
I think I should throw her ass off the board.
Tombstone her, as the DUers say...
BHN

[kliljedahl]

10. An old boss of mine used to answer the phone

with his last name. He was Polish with lots of consonants, rather disconcerting the first few times. Nothing to add to the original question, but you made me think of it.


http://www.kliljedahl.net

[mcscajun]

11. I don't believe that calling someone by their last name is racist.

On the flip side, I don't believe in using the term, "reverse racism"

Racism is racism, no matter who practices it or who the target is. Same horrible thing, same name.

[BeHereNow]

16. I concur...

Which is why I am so disturbed by this woman.
In my book, SHE is the racist.
She is racist against anyone who is not of color.
BHN

[whistle]

15. What is reverse racism.....

<snip>
Realities Of Reverse Racism
Sept. 2, 2002

(CBS) Ali Bahmanyar, a contractor, left Iran to build roads, and a new life, in Charlotte, North Carolina. But, as he told CBS News Correspondent Mark Strassmann, he hit a roadblock at this intersection -- which the city wanted widened.

When a competititor won the job, Bahmanyar lost his cool and sued the city.

His construction company had submitted the lowest bid.

<more>
<link> http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/02/eveningnews/main520514.shtml

Avoid using the term "reverse racism" because the "reverse" doesn't add anything. Racism is racism; there's nothing "reverse" about it regardless of who is practicing racism. Prove racism and you have a case. If it's just some dumb parent making a lot of noise to be noticed, that's been going on long enough for the school to have procedures in place to address that, correct?

[BeHereNow]

20. The school governance is a JOKE!

There is no functioning parent group or site council.
A few hand picked parents occupy all the leadership
positions by design of the administration to keep
all parent involvement, discussion and debate
under control.
If it were not for my parent message board,
the parents would never have known that we were
losing two of our best teachers. That discussion is
where this woman jumped in and accused everyone
of being racist for referring to an administrator by his
last name only.
I can't fail to notice that she made no complaint
about us referring to one of our teachers in question,
herself a black woman with a doctorate, by her
last name only.
What a hypocrite this woman is.
BHN

[candle_bright]

22. Reverse racism

is what I stated in a post above. It's treating someone of a different race in a preferential manner to avoid appearing to be a racist yourself. It is a form of racism in itself, but the term is so often misused and misunderstood.

It's kind of like people using "schizophrenia" when talking about people with Multiple Personality Disorder.

[Lexingtonian]

21. obsessive passive aggression

It's a wierd form of vanity, oppressive but about putting people on the defensive and making them feel inferior.

The missing words here are "obsessive" and "hankering". You probably can't actually do much about this person's behavior. If you're desperate and nasty enough, look out for some antigroup remarks that are are strong enough to form into an -ism or -phobia to throw back. Or you could take a parental tack, saying unwarranted and aggressive insinuations of racism are nearly as bad as racism to civil conversation, and the motive for seeking a confrontation is usually internalized racism or racist hatred.

That's the easiest but blunt and not very sophisticated approach. And it might go very wrong, there's a risk of that.

[BeHereNow]

25. I think the solution is to put her on notice

that she either sticks to the topic of discussion
or be removed from the list.

BHN

[aaronnyc]

24. Doesn't sound like racism

There are two possibilites:

1. She's overly sensitive about this issue, and therefore tends to honestly see racism where none really exists.

2. She is using race for her own personal advantage ("playing the race card").

IMO the second option is more likely. For a lot of white people (like myself) the greatest insult is to be called is "racist" by a black person. Unfortunately, some people use this to their advantage, by accusing or threatening to accuse people of being "racist", unless they don't get their way.

This has nothing to do with reverse-racism, it is just an example of people taking advantage of a long history of actual racism, and using it for their own personal benefit.

[BeHereNow]

26. Yup and Yup...

I think in her case it is both.
She appears to have an overly sensitive perspective
on the issue and sees it where it does not exist as well
as uses it when convenient to get her way.
Bullshit, says I.
Not on my message board.
BHN