Am I a "typical white person?"

[ruggerson]

The first guy I lived with, during and after college, was half black/half french. He was (and is) an extremely talented graphic designer, soccer player, really bad guitarist and awesome cook.

We were together for about five years. It was the first serious relationship for both of us, and, like many youthful bondings, ours didn't survive our mid to late twenties.

My point being, white people, black people, brown people all come in different socioeconomic packages, differing genders and sexual orientations, different life experiences, all have differing, very personalized views on race, and each group should not be marginalized by gross over-generalizations.

I'm a gay white guy from New England. I've had at least one more very intimate relationship with a black man than Barack Obama has ever had (presumably).

Does that make me a "typical white" guy?" I fell in love with a bad musician, not a "typical black" man.

Why does Senator Obama generalize about this? I understand very well the point he is making in his speech, and I understand that everyone (black and white) harbors some racial feelings that are part of our culture.

But there is no "typical white person" anymore than there is a "typical black person."

It's a simplistic and destructive paradigm.

If I'm not understanding his point, please enlighten me.

[Blue_State_Elitist]

1. Typical white person here!

I live with two African Americans and fear them every single time I am in the room.

:sarcasm:

[Iris]

3. oh, my! You must have had to have your purse surgically attached to your side and hip!

oh, the horror!

[Blue_State_Elitist]

5. Well I'm a man

but I did have to pull out my wallet chain from the 90's.

[Iris]

6. omg,

you are a brave man, indeed!

[Texas Hill Country]

7. ROFL

[ChicagoRonin]

2. Yes . . . but . . .

Watching and reading the reaction to Obama's speech, it seems that there's a lot of white folks going around saying, "Yeah, I understand that there are some white people who harbor racist attitudes towards black people, but I'm not one of them."

Thing is, I don't at all think he was pointing fingers, laying blame or making accusations. In simple terms, I saw his speech as saying that there are two sides to the issue of race (perhaps more than two, perhaps infinite) and that what we need to do is have honest dialogue.

It actually frightens me that a lot of people have immediately read into his words some kind of threats, warnings or equivocations, and then react with, "Well, Senator Obama is just WRONG because that ain't me he's talking about."

My apologies, the above thoughts are not as coherent or well-written as well as I would have liked as I'm trying to hammer out thoughts at the end of the work day.

I'm a straight Asian American male born in this country, for what it's worth.

[scheming daemons]

4. Obama *IS* a white person too.....

[ruggerson]

8. I'm aware of that - so why is he overgeneralizing about this?

I don't understand his point.

[Cronus Protagonist]

31. Can't he make up his mind?

Just how black IS Obama? Sorry, that's so last week... it's hard keeping up with all the color changes recently. I mean to say, how white IS Obama now?

:P

[Nia Zuri]

9. You probalby are...

Just cuz you've had sex or even a loving relationship with someon black mean you're free of prejudice. That's just silly!

[Divernan]

12. Too right! All those slaveowners in the south had sexual relations w/slaves

and regarded them as chattel to be torn apart from their families and sold off. Christ, they even sold off their own children!

[DemBones DemBones]

50. ALL? Every single one? Bit of hyperbole. nt

[ruggerson]

37. My point is

that we all have differing views on race and different feelings. Some are very racist, some are far less so. Both black and white. There is no "typical white person." It was a dumb remark.

[Nia Zuri]

10. You probalby are...

Just cuz you've had sex or even a loving relationship with someon black mean you're free of prejudice. That's just silly!

[Divernan]

11. Go watch some Mr. Rodgers reruns: Everybody's fancy, everybody's fine, etc.

Yes we are all individuals - obviously. There are legitimate generalizations to be made about what we experience growing up and living in the US: male v. female, gay v. straight, white v. black, rural v. urban. and so on. There have even been socio/psychological studies proving that tall men are more successful in business than short men.

Obama was talking about the white experience in this country versus the non-white experience. You may have encountered biases and mistreatment and misunderstandings or worse because of your sexual orientation. Straight people who've never encountered bias because of their sexual orientation cannot understand what it's been like to be gay in the US. Similarly I doubt white people, no matter how much they read about or observe racism, can truly understand the depth of feelings which black people have. I have observed the cruel and thoughtless racism my adopted black niece has had to endure her whole life and it sickens me. I don't know where she gets the strength to bear it.

Obama's paradigm is simple - it's about the racial divide in this country.
(Paradigm: Intellectual perception or view, accepted by an individual or a society as a clear example, model, or pattern of how things work in the world. This term was used first by the US science fiction historian Thomas Kuhn (1922-96) in his 1962 book 'The Structure Of Scientific Revolution' to refer to theoretical frameworks within which all scientific thinking and practices operate.)

How can you possibly say that it's destructive? It is in fact CONstructive, in providing a theoretical framework and provoking a long overdue national dialogue about rooting out the destructive racist worldview that infects our society.

[ruggerson]

24. I understand what he's trying to talk about

and I liked much of what he had to say in his speech.

What I didn't like was the phrase he used today, as I think it moves us away from the intent of and the point of his speech.

The term he used today was not a constructive one, in that it serves to reinforce stereotypes instead of deconstructing them. Maybe it was just a clumsy use of language. But it will do nothing to move the conversation along.

[Bonobo]

30. As another poster point out, white people are not used to being labelled as "white people"

and that, in and of itself, has such a nasty ring that it sets us on edge.

It is uncomfortable to be lumped together, yes.

Welcome to black people's everyday life.

[Hoof Hearted]

46. Nothing about anything you said makes it OK or excusable, he should have apologized.

If Hillary had said anything remotely resembling "typical black person" you know damn good and well how that would have been received.

[TK421]

47. I'm not used to being referred to as a Caucasian male....

most people refer to me as "Hey, man! Whatcha drinking tonight"? while at the local bar...other than that, I take absolutely no offense to being called a white person ( since that is what I am )

[BeyondGeography]

13. You can scour the record for the rest of your life and never find Obama use the phrase

"typical white person."

Here's the passage from his speech that is apparently causing you some confusion:

In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience – as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time...

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0319/p25s01-uspo.html

[Blue_State_Elitist]

14. He said it on the radio.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/taylor-marsh/obama-grandmother-typic_b_92601.html

[kiva]

15. Wrong.

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/phillygossip/1685190...

[ruggerson]

16. So this report is untrue?

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/03/obama-talks-mor.html

with audio link here: http://www.redlasso.com/ClipPlayer.aspx?id=8a521134-e10b-4bfb-8aec-690d61794d50


"In an interview with sports radio 610 WIP in Philly early this morning, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, said "the point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn't. But she is a typical white person, who, if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know, well there's a reaction that's in our experiences that won't go away and can sometimes come out in the wrong way. And that's just the nature of race in our society. We have to break through it."

[BeyondGeography]

25. Just heard it for the first time...apologies

Bad Barack, bad.

Wish he hadn't said that, even if the typical white lady who sees a black man approach them in the street does not tend to extend the benefit of the doubt.

Then again, having listened to the whole interview, the radio host and his guests spent the next two hours gushing about Obama, with the host vowing to do anything they could to get him elected. They just did a segment on it on CNN which is where I heard it for the first time.

[ruggerson]

26. no problem

I'm sure it was a slip up. But not a phrase he should be using.

[BeyondGeography]

27. I don't like it either

and I hope we'll never hear it again.

[Toasterlad]

18. In Point of Fact, Obama Said the Words "Typical White Person" This Morning on WIP in Philly

I logged on tonight specifically hoping to find some context for those words, which are being hotly debated as we speak on Philadelphia radio. WIP is the sports station, and Obama called in this morning for an interview with Angelo Cataldi, the morning jock.

I didn't hear the interview (in fact, as I was driving to work, I heard them say that Obama was coming up, and I thought they were setting up a bit), but I did hear the replay of a small snippet as I was driving home...as well as many callers denouncing Obama as, if not racist, then clueless.

I'm on record as not liking Obama even a little bit, and that hasn't changed. However, from what I understand about what he said on the radio this morning (I never did hear this famous speech that's gotten everyone so worked up), he didn't say anything that wasn't true. People seem to be less angry at what he said, rather than the fact that he said anything at all. Frankly, after 42 years of empty political rhetoric, candor from a candidate is like water in the desert. There are many, MANY good reasons to dislike Obama. This is not one of them.

[2rth2pwr]

19. Hey, anybody there?

never is a pretty strong word. And you said it like you felt that it would be inappropriate.

is it?

[IndianaJones]

20. typical Obamaton. nt.

[Iceburg]

39. When in doubt go back to the source ...The audio clip. Refute the proof.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=r8gnmUyminI

[Straight Shooter]

17. There is no "typical white person." But there is such a thing as a "stereotypical white person."

There's the rub.

[noiretextatique]

21. segregation was the law of the land until fairly recently in america

clearly racial attitudes have changed significantly since then, however, the fact remains: many generations, white, black, brown, and yellow, grew up in segregated america.
i doubt, for example, that most white people would have supported affirmative action, let alone integration in 1950. and i know some black people who still won't see black doctors or dentists.
obama should have made his point more clearly.

[Beregond2]

22. Typical

Oh, for Pete's sake. Now everyone is trying to make something out of one word.

He meant that she was a typical person, and therefore her unconscious racism is typical too. Which it is. If you are the one person in America who has managed to grow up without a trace of racism in your make-up, hurrah for you. But that does not change the validity of his point.

[marmar]

23. Context. He was talking about a specific era...when there was legal segregation....

in a lot of places and racism was publicly accepted.

[GarbagemanLB]

28. I'm going to alert this and every other thread on that comment. YOU KNOW WHAT HE MEANT. You Hillary

supporters are now sounding like the race-baiting right-wing blow hards on the radio.

[ruggerson]

29. the more rational Obama supporters on this site

do not think it was a wise thing to say either.

But I enjoyed your tirade.

[rug]

33. Typical Obama supporter comment.

Please defend that statement.

Thank you.

[Cronus Protagonist]

34. Try it and report back before you get tombstoned

I'm curious as to how effective it is to harrass the moderators.

[Romulox]

40. Mentioning Obama's gaffes is COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY! LOL nt

[hulklogan]

32. I don't think this is a comment that should be attacked, to be honest

Somehow, I don't think Senator Obama is counting gay white people with histories of relationships with non-white people to be "typical white" people.

I'm no fan of Senator Obama but I'm willing to give him a pass on this one.

[ruggerson]

35. that's my point

there are no "typical white people." There are people, of all colors, with varying degrees of racist sentiment. But "typical white people" doesn't really move the conversation forward in my book.

[Romulox]

41. So wait--you're willing to sign on to "typical white people"

so long as it's clear that you aren't included in the category?

[Romulox]

42. Dupe. nt

[sudopod]

36. I climbed Mount Molehill

and all I got was this lousy tshirt.

[kid a]

38. Fox news BEAT THIS TO A PULP this morning and gut busted

[shayes51]

43. I wonder if Mr. One America thinks

there is a typical hispanic male, a typical Asia female, a typical Jewish person, ..., or is his racial profiling limited to typical white females?

[Vinca]

44. Obama has been taken out of context re this remark.

Even Chris Wallace on Faux is defending him on this one! Honest!

[Hoof Hearted]

45. Listen up Pilgrim! Stop making sense, immediately.

Tis not allowed in the GD of P.

[undeterred]

48. Let me tell you about Chicago.

My parents were born and raised there and married there. We lived there until I was 5. Then we moved to the Chicago suburbs, part of a great flight to suburbia called "white flight". The reason? There was a prediction that the black population was going to take over Chicago and ruin the schools and bring a rise in crime. White people kept their day jobs in the city and rode the train downtown for work and came back out before dark.

I remember wondering how black children could change the schools. And I remember my mother saying how cute black babies are except that the boys grow up into scary black men. I only heard her say that once, but I think its pretty common. I don't think my mother knows any black men personally because she still lives in white suburbia. And she's a Democrat who loves Obama.

I moved to an integrated neighborhood in Chicago as an adult and stayed there for 20 years. I consciously chose to reject living in a segregated area. Black men do not scare me, but white redneck men scare the hell out of me.

[XemaSab]

49. I think his point is that most white people have some discomfort with people of other races

I took it as an honest remark.

:shrug:

[Sparkly]

51. My high school sweetheart was black.

At the time, I thought racism was just some leftover hangup among certain older people. I basically thought we'd had a civil rights movement that took care of that, and it's over.

My boyfriend and I thought racism was funny. We did things like going into a bakery to ask if they could make one of those plastic cake toppers with a white bride and a black groom, just to see the reactions. Somebody stared at us in a grocery store once, so we started talking loudly about what kind of baby food to buy. We found things like that hilarious.

But then one Christmas when he gave me a "pre-engagement ring" (the equivalent of "going steady," really) my parents expressed some nervousness. I was shocked! And his relatives decided I was black, which I now think made them feel better about things. (I have dark hair but my skin is ghostly white. He said they insisted I looked "part spook, and if you're part spook you're all spook." Their words. I felt it was their way of accepting me.)

Anyway, I think Obama just misspoke with the phrase "typical white." Who knows what's typical and what isn't? I trust that if he had it to say over again, he'd say "like many white people" or something like that.

[formernaderite]

52. it was a dumb comment

cause I doubt his grandma would have felt that way if it was a few black men in suits for example. Did they look like what we used to call "hoodlums"? Maybe she would have felt the same way if it were white tattooed bikers walking close by. The mistake Obama made was to fall into the same category of stereotypes that is the norm. What does that prove? He's as human and prone to error like any one of us. I recall jackson or sharpton having made a similar comment that his grandma did.