The Cantina and Diversity

Prejudge, dehumanize, and hate.

When I was a child I was perplexed by the Holocaust. There seemed very little difference between the 'Germans' and the 'German Jews' to my young eyes. What was the fuss about? Why were the Germans so mad at these 'Jews'? I wondered. What was a Jew?

Sometimes the slightest difference becomes the opening for the most intense hatred.


munk
 
Re - Diversity,prejudice and bigotry.

I'm starving. Can not do justice to a succulent piece of smoked salmon with these thoughts in my head. So here goes.

It's about walls,the way I see it.

Prejudice and bigotry are born of insecurity. At some point in our lives most of us learn to "get over it".

We wall off our fears and move on. As we move through life with our walls, we gain confidence in our ability to handle those situations we once feared. Insecurity disappears, over time.

We are now able to view life without fear and even understand others perspectives. Our mind progressivly opens as we gain confidence, with our ability to cope with "diversity"

But!! There are some who build their wall in front of themselves. They cannot move on. They are afraid of the diverse bogy men on the other side. They do not believe they can cope!

Sometimes if we gain their trust, we may be able to break down the wall. Show them they can cope.Show them self belief.

Sometimes...

Now I think I can demolish that salmon.:o
 
Hmm... I guess we're speaking pretty bluntly. Yvsa might be the only other non-white guy here. I'm in a strange place myself. There's a stigma about certain things and places. For a lot of other young minorities, there's places you don't think you're likely to be welcome. Or at the very least, you know that if you go there, people will look at you funny, like a circus attraction, and act awkward around you. I don't really blame them. If you never seen something before, or seen it only rarely, you're not really going to know what to make of it. Big cities are fine. Places where there's a lot of others like you. The white people there are used to it, and they know there's nothing to make of it. There, I'm just AN asian guy. Not THE asian guy. You don't want to go off into some small town in rural America. Because it's not really a melting pot, it's more of a mixing bowl. Everybody keeps to certain places, and you know where they are. The attitudes are different depending on where you go. I go and party out here, put my hands on girls' butts and they turn around smiling and flirting. I do the same thing at the restaurant down the street and I'm getting slapped or arrested.

I'm weird, because I want to shoot, and maybe learn how to hunt. But I just don't feel comfortable walking into a gun shop, or even the hunting section at walmart. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that nobody's gonna shout racial slurs when I walk in. But I can't be just one of the guys either. I think it's the same way the white guys would feel if they wanted to rap in compton, or learn kung fu at a chinese temple. It's a foreigners syndrome.
 
I'd count as not white (I'm about 1/4 Filipino) and I've got two Native American tribes in me,never know just looking at me (though some folk have difficulty say just what I am)

Not liking another race isn't odd to me...it's known amongst those of Chinese blood that black folk don't go deep into China;in Cebu we don't like the Moors or the Illiconos..we keep to ourselves.

Reminds me of the fuss about slavery...I've Celtic and Viking blood and they both took WHITE Europiens as slaves,and sold them to Arabic traders to boot!

All that matters is you don't make the same mistakes your kin did,as I said I just don't care what color or creed you be as long as you behave :D
 
My family is german/blackfoot/austro-hungarian/english/polish/jewish/catholic/lutheran/baptist. don't think we have any asian or african ancestors, but it wouldn't surprise me. makes for interesting family get-togethers
 
Kronc, in the antipodes,yer a Pom. Ancestry notwithstanding.
However, in the interests of historical efficaciousness (:rolleyes: )
This is a scan, cut&paste of an historical document, bequeathed to me as a Hazledine. This is why I am here and you are there.

1e "j.4


Miss Helen Taylor of Shawbury holds contemporary notebooks and
papers of John's (d.lS03) brother William concerning day to day
matters (accounts, rents etc.) and which include a horrifying
apprenticeship agreement 'with William's son ~John (b,1759). As
she has not included this . in the manuscript of the speech she gave
to the Shawbury Historical Society, which is included in the
appendix, I quote here:

'John Hazledine to be.an apprentis
to his father William. John Hazledine. begun to werk
May the 29th=1774. To Continue on till May 29th=1781
With Gods' help. But if he Loses any Time or does
Disobe His Father or his mother he shall upon such
offence have his Arce rubbed with a brick quiteraw.
This indenture to remain in full force till the
time set as above.
John Hazledine his mark. '


John appears to have survived his apprenticeship without any disabiliy or injury and styled himself

Millwright and Engineer,in which field he was talented.

EXCERPT CONCERNING ,JOHN HAZLEDINE. 1759-1810.

FROM A MONTHLY MAGAZINE PUBLISHED IN SHROPSHIRE;


In 1796 John Thompson of Oldswinford and 1ater of
Lye Hall, built the first Forge and workman's
cottage on the Paper Mill Brook just below the
existing paper mill and dam. He leased the site
from William Whitmore of Dunmaston and Edward
Oakely of Alveley and used the forge to make bar
iron until 1806.

Then the works were taken over by the Hempton 's
Load Company, which numbered among its members,
the Bridgnorth Bankers, William Jones and William
Bates, Robert Thompson, tanner of Bridgnorth,
and the iron founder, John Hazledine. This company
continued, with the substitution of one of the
members, until 1819 and handed over a small but
well organised works for what was to be nearly
fifty years of activity under the same family,
the Fosters.

I am following the same trade. Have cousins working as engineers
for Shell oil & local companys.
The genes are strong!
No bricks in sight:D



Oh yeah, Password = bent knife. Come in for a drink!
 
This fear of (or at least feeling of superiority towards) the Different (AKA "them") is so universal that it seems hard-wired into homo sap.

Perhaps "civilized" acceptance of the Different is just a thin layer over the hunter-gatherer to whom the Different is perhaps a deadly threat.

History knows that acting out of hatred of the Different appears in every continent. If the ethnic Han warlords who were attempting to exterminate the aboriginals they found in what we call "Japan" heard Sherman's famous comment about Indians, they would have nodded in agreement with the sentiment. They were of a one with the guy throwing the match after the gasoline into the church/mosque basement full of Christians/Muslims in "the former Yugoslavia."

What constitutes Different may vary ("Kill them. Kill them all." Robert "Stonewall" Jackson).
 
Eric,

There's a lot of non whites here, especially if you count all the curs. And some of them can be quite nasty.

I'm white and I'm not entirely comfortable approaching the Walmart gun counter or any gun counter, and I used to manage a gun store! Does the Clerk know what I'm talking about? Do I have to educate him, or he me? And whose bubble am I stepping on?


munk
 
But if he Loses any Time or does
Disobe His Father or his mother he shall upon such
offence have his Arce rubbed with a brick quiteraw." Brent


Quite raw. How do you define this? They didn't have the legal system we have today.
I'd never heard of this punishment. Must be related to the trade.


munk
 
Pre judge right?
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It's funny, I knew that's what the word meant, but when I saw you write it out like that it makes alot more sense. Strips the word of it's social baggage--back to bare bones.

Judging before you know anything about someone.

Some would say Judging at all should not be done, even after you know someone....
 
There, I'm just AN asian guy. Not THE asian guy
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I know what you mean. I've seen this happen--hell I've probably helped it happen. The minority (whether racial or social/religious/policital) in the group somehow becomes a spokesperson for their entire group.
 
Morgane said:
sometimes my utterances get me in trouble with my urban queer pals. Thinking exessive gun control is a bad joke has gotten me disinvited to some nice cocktail parties, and I've lost a few more friends and lovers when they found out I want to go hunting again too.
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Guess what? They never really were your friends. If they were, they would still be.

I always find it comical and not a little ironic that the ones who are always screaming for "tolerance" are in fact among the most intolerant.
 
I don't know about that. I've lost a passel of friends over politics. Once when I got sober, and again when I become 'conservative' (libertarian).

IN fact, guns were a major turning point in my life. I researched the subject and found most of my operating understanding of the tool and the situation were flawed. From this one thing- taking responsibility for your own safety and those around you, came every other brick into what I would now call the social contract.

My old hippy friends aren't in touch any more.


munk
 
I guess I'm your average beer-swilling, hard-headed, knife & gun-loving urban asian geek girl. I find that I don't really feel out of place anywhere, possibly due to a certain amount of willful obtuseness...

Peoples is peoples. ;)
 
buyer beware, you get what you pay for, you pay's youse money and youse takes your chances.



munk
 
Novadak said:
I guess I'm your average beer-swilling, hard-headed, knife & gun-loving urban asian geek girl.
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I've never known one before.:) That's what I love about this place. You meet the most interesting people.:thumbup:

Steve
 
Yeah. I checked out her public profile and looked at some of her past posts. Be careful Steve, she's smart. Her short term and long term memory is intact. She knows things.

""I find that I don't really feel out of place anywhere, possibly due to a certain amount of willful obtuseness..."" Novadak


I liked that. There's a lot of times I stubbornly refuse to be unhappy, to let someone assign their strangeness, their unhappiness to me.

munk
 
God wasn't stingy when He handed out talent, was He?

Surrounded by brilliance, and we have umpteem trillion Big Macs sold.



munk
 
I like people that are smarter than me.

Hmmmmm


That's a bunch of folks!
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:thumbup: :) I should clarify--I am agreeing with the sentiment of this post--I'm not saying that I agree by any means that a lot of folks are smarter than Steve;)
 
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