“The words are so silly, so juvenile, so utterly pathetic that they hardly qualify as racial slurs at all, let alone slurs on a par with those that have been historically deployed against people of color.”
Once again, I disagree with Tim Wise. He continues to present his ideas from his own experiences and how he perceives things. Of course this may be all that he knows, but he fails to even see any other side of the issue like usual. What he does this time is downplay the use of a racial slur towards whites and make it seem like its something that’s ok to say. You cannot justify a racial slur just because you don’t believe that its as hurtful to a race than some other word. This just doesn’t seem right and I think he is very wrong about this issue. This essay does not persuade me that one racial slur is better than the other and that reverse racism is a myth.
Chapter three was about portraying difference and I usually agree with most of what Newman says because he does make some great points. In this chapter, I had to disagree when he talked about being hung up about the cashier assuming his kid celebrated Christmas. I don’t think its such a big deal for someone to make this generalization and to even dwell on something like that is pretty ridiculous. You cant go through life never being offended by anything, and this was the most minor of all things. I think that letting it go was the right thing to do because the issue really didn’t warrant that kind of attention.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I also intially disgareed with Mr. Wise and his "idea" that racial slurs towards whites are okay. After reading the article my point of view changed and I agreed with him. I agree with you that racist comments are horrible and shouldn't be used towards anyone and regardless of your race these words are still hurtful. But, I also feel that a word such as "honky" or "cracker" doesn't carry as much negative meaning and hurtful feelings as the word "nigger." The reason for this is because these words have not been used throughout history towards white people the way the word "nigger" has been used throughout history towards people of color.
I have to agree with Kevin, Wise makes it seem like its okay for black people to use slurs and derogatory remarks towards white people because it is less hurtful or distasteful. I also agree with Kevin's point that Wise seems to be very one sided, which makes him much harder to relate to and perhaps casts his ideas and opinions in a light that is hard to take seriously.
Post a Comment