Double Standards
What does it mean to be a “typical White person”? Is it the same as a “nappy headed ho”?
One comment from a black man, Barack Obama. The other comment from a white man, Don Imus. Both utterances are offensive to me in terms of stereotyping people and I am neither white nor black. One man is heralded for giving a speech that nearly equals that of the “I have a Dream” speech. The other man is fired from his job and criticized unendingly. Do we live in a world of double standards?
I wanted to believe that Don Imus was truly remorseful for the pain caused by his words just as I wanted to believe that Barack Obama’s speech was intended to unify us as a nation, not just an attempt to justify his friend’s beliefs. But why do we overlook a Black presidential candidate’s religious choices (he has, after all, chosen to attend these sermons for over 20 years) but we condemn a White presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, for being Mormon? As far as I recall, no Mormon leader has cried upon God to “damn” the United States of America.
We are flawed because we are human. I wish we could be more forgiving of our flaws. I wish there were no need for double standards in this world. I wish there were no intolerances, no injustices. I wish this for the sake of my own children, who are neither white nor black, but who are Americans, nonetheless.
What Mitt Romney did yesterday is right out of the Mormon playbook. They are taught to tap- dance around the truth with the ferocity of a Busby Berkley chorus line when asked about their actual beliefs. Of course, once you realize what those beliefs are, who could blame them? On some level, Mormons secretly know that some of the more ludicrous tenets of their pyramid scheme are hard to swallow. That is way, just like the sister faith (Amway), they try to wow you with how pretty everything is before they ask…
<p><p>Hmmm… W&G, it sounds like you’ve unfortunately met some not-so-great Mormons. I hope you have the opportunity to meet some great Mormons; I’ve been fortunate enough to know many. I’ve known great Christians, not-so-great Christians, great Atheists, not-so-great Atheists, great Buddhists, not-so-great ones…etc. What I’ve observed is that the “not-so-great” are not always representative of what they profess to believe. The point of my post is that in terms of race, we tend to hold double standards and sometimes condone reverse discriminations. And for those of you who have asked, in regards to the controversy of comparing Barack Obama’s statement with Don Imus’ statement, I think we need to look at context. They were both given in a live, unscripted environment (what they actually believe came out of their mouths in an unrehearsed moment) and whether intentionally meant as malicious or not, they were both delivered as derogatory, in terms of stereotyping people. But an additional point of my post is that we all come from different backgrounds, cultures, and have different life experiences, and instead of criticizing one another, we would progress further in life if we work on bettering ourselves, first.</p></p>
i just listened to the recent speech in its entirety. it was brilliant and unifying…i’m not sure when he made the comment “typical white person” but i think his speech transcends much of the complicated commentary taking place prior to the speech. or at least that is my opinion which i respectfully share.
http://cbs5.com/campaign08/barack.obama.race.2.679626.html
The “typical white person” comment came out while he was being interviewed on a live radio show in Philadelphia the day after his speech. The comment was in reference to the portion of his speech about his Grandmother and her fear of black people. I agree that he is charismatic and eloquent. However, the point of my post is that double standards do, in fact, exist in our society. A white person simply could not say “typical black person” and not be blasted by the Media and called racist. But, the other point I was trying to make was that prejudices exist in all cultures, among all races. Heaven forbid if you mistakenly call someone from Guatemala a Mexican, or erroneously think someone is Japanese instead of Chinese. (And we know how prejudiced Asian people are against all races from sheer experience, don’t we?) Unless we can forgive people for their flaws, and focus on overcoming our own flaws, we will forever be retarding our own social and moral growth and experiences in this life. (For those PC fanatics, the dictionary definition of the word “retard” is to make slow, to delay development or progress.)
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