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Shaun King responds to race questioning

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collige

Banned
What the hell are you talking about? He's grown up all his life as one thing, and not changing it the moment ONE PERSON misidentifies him as white means he definitely chose his racial identity? This is terrible reasoning.

Disrespectful of your ancestry!? Lol. This is hilariously dumb.

The interesting thing is, whether he's been misidentified or not actually does depend on how he self-identified. He could quite easily choose to identify as white and no one of would really be able to say shit about it without reinforcing the one drop rule.
 
Because it was a naked attempt by teapers to try and somehow discredit Black Lives Matter by trying to find a Rachel Dolezal on "the other side".

Some white people feeling uncomfy as fuck and trying (and failing) to bury the actual issue BLM is attempting to get addressed by attempting to paint BLM activists as liars.

Sadly it worked for them with ACORN so they keep trying to do it.

Yes but my point is, nobody should even CARE what their color is, even if it's in the name of a color they may or may not be. In fact if he did actually turn out to be white, I would've applauded even more because at least he's out there doing something that he believes will help.
 

atr0cious

Member
Well, there is no one advocating or even noticing "my shit". It's not even a thing. So I know I am projecting but unfortunately I look to the sort of person who should be able to have a voice for people like me that don't have pride in being mixed. Because you can be mixed with something that suddenly makes your appearance too something or too something else.

Take pride in your heritage, as King is. Why would he try to embrace some ambiguous label as "mixed"? Something that in itself is used as a pejorative in places. I'm black/cajun/creole, and constantly get asked which of my parents are white. But at the same time, I'm still an outsider to whites, especially with my first name being an old family name from slavery days. I celebrate what my life has been, the black experience. If you can "pass" for whatever you're mixed with, why not?

And take heart that King is not tossing off the mantle of being mixed. He recognizes that, but as you can see in what he wrote about this, and what others from his past have said, carrying that mantle was dangerous for more than just him.

I'm well aware of the one-drop rule. However, the year is 2015 (come and join the rest of us in it)

Please tell this to society, which doesn't allow this to happen. Or are you not paying attention to race relations at the moment?
 

FyreWulff

Member
I'm well aware of the one-drop rule. However, the year is 2015 (come and join the rest of us in it) and people can and do identify with multiple ancestries. Also if you didn't notice but census forms allow people to check off multiple boxes and they can even have a section for "other".

you heard it from this poster folks

racism is over

ignore the last 300 years, that's now Legends Canon.
 

KHarvey16

Member
The interesting thing is, whether he's been misidentified or not actually does depend on how he self-identified. He could quite easily choose to identify as white and no one of would really be able to say shit about it without reinforcing the one drop rule.

He makes it clear in his letter that he didn't really have the opportunity to think he was white.
 

JDSN

Banned
Congrats on the media that forced a dude to talk about something very personal with their "listening to both sides" shit. In the last 24 hours I have come to understand that the enemies of equality are not only cartoonish white old dudes, nope, we got conservatives, libertarians, neo nazis and progressives, joining like brothers to punish this movement for being too loud.
 
Now ridicule and complain about the authors responsible for this shit.

Milo and Glenn Beck are the worst people and have been ridiculed by everyone for years. They've done things as bad as this before.

We should be ridiculing the "legit" media outlets that bothered to pick up on this. The man that pushed GamerGate's lies and the man that compared 70 slaughtered children to the Hitler Youth are not people you should ever listen to about literally anything.
 

dbztrk

Member
Latinos aren't see as white. They're viewed on the same levels as blacks...which is fucking why they too were stopped and frisked.

Stop talking, it's embarrassing.

It's not about them being viewed on the same level as blacks. It's about how they identify themselves which is Latino and not black.
 

LionPride

Banned
I'm well aware of the one-drop rule. However, the year is 2015 (come and join the rest of us in it) and people can and do identify with multiple ancestries. Also if you didn't notice but census forms allow people to check off multiple boxes and they can even have a section for "other".

Can I live in your world? This world sounds like a nice place. I wouldn't be sterotyped because a distant relative of mine is Irish and I marked that box...
 

collige

Banned
He makes it clear in his letter that he didn't really have the opportunity to think he was white.

I'm not talking about his childhood, I'm talking about now. Saying something along the lines of "my dad may or may not have been black and the only parent I know is white, so that's what I consider myself no matter how people treat me" would be an equally valid way of expressing himself, no?
 

Mr. X

Member
I'm well aware of the one-drop rule. However, the year is 2015 (come and join the rest of us in it) and people can and do identify with multiple ancestries. Also if you didn't notice but census forms allow people to check off multiple boxes and they can even have a section for "other".

That census form has the power to stop other people from treating you as they see you?
 

Africanus

Member
Which means fuck all when vast majority of society STILL adhere to the ideologies.

Look at how the right wing media treats Obama as a prime example.

Kick rocks with your utopia bullshit.

Not even right-wing. Nearly every media source in the United States ignores Obama's mother's genetic side of himself. Despite being an "even" mix.

I'm not sure why arguments are now coming out in the U.S. that mixed people have to identify as both or they are being disingenuous especially considering the typical experience.
 

Kusagari

Member
I'm not talking about his childhood, I'm talking about now. Saying something along the lines of "my dad may or may not have been black and the only parent I know is white, so that's what I consider myself no matter how people treat me" would be an equally valid way of expressing himself, no?

That's an easy thing for you to say.

I doubt it's as easy for a guy who experienced so much racism growing up because he was part black.
 

KHarvey16

Member
I'm not talking about his childhood, I'm talking about now. Saying something along the lines of "my dad may or may not have been black and the only parent I know is white, so that's what I consider myself no matter how people treat me" would be an equally valid way of expressing himself, no?

I guess he could say that, but clearly it would be at odds with his upbringing. He very obviously embraced the identity for all of his life.
 

BitStyle

Unconfirmed Member
So sad that he even had to address this shit. The most infuriating part is that the people who this is directed towards will still shut their ears and follow their own warped realities.
 

Slayven

Member
Not him, but all those people who berated him for the lies spread by Breitbart and co.

Nah that is like feeding a mogwah after midnight giving them more attention only makes them worse and gives them their version of legitimization.
 
However, the year is 2015 (come and join the rest of us in it) and people can and do identify with multiple ancestries

Yeah, but it wasn't 2015 when Shaun King had his crash course on racial identity in 20th Century America laid on his head. It was decades ago. Are you suggesting that if Shaun King wants to really step up and be a leader for marginalized people, he should mark "white" on his census form? Especially since even you seem to recognize that if he selects "other", people are going to think of him and refer to him as Black.

Plus the assertion that nobody in New York would consider him black is kinda weird.
 

dbztrk

Member
Which means fuck all when vast majority of society STILL adhere to the ideologies.

Look at how the right wing media treats Obama as a prime example.

Kick rocks with your utopia bullshit.

Stop playing the victim! Others don't get to define you. Pay attention to the changing census of people identifying as they choose and not because some ignorant fools are some how magically making them identify as black.

I think the real issue is that some black people are afraid of loosing the identify that has been crafted for them for the past 400 years and that is the crux of the issue for some of you.
 
Stop playing the victim! Others don't get to define you. Pay attention to the changing census of people identifying as they choose and not because some ignorant fools are some how magically making them identify as black.

I think the real issue is that some black people are afraid of loosing the identify that has been crafted for them for the past 400 years and that is the crux of the issue for some of you.
Oh brother.
 
I think the real issue is that some black people are afraid of loosing the identify that has been crafted for them for the past 400 years and that is the crux of the issue for some of you.

This is a hell of a reach. Even more than the "New York wouldn't call him black" thing.
 

Tripon

Member
As a Brazilan this is really foreign to me. Half of the country is mixed, so they say "brown" or "pardo" because they clearly don't fit as white or black. But in America one has to be Black or White it seems, and for racial reasons, only the "pure" whites can be called whites, so the mixed is automatically black, even if he is literally half-white. People should embrace the "mixed" imo.
A lot of it has to do with the one drop rule many states in the U.S. had when slavery and segregation was legal.

People in power wanted a way to only provide benefits and privilege to Whites only, and their main way to so it was to determine it on familiar lineage.

I remember there was a case where a woman claimed she was 1/8th black and wanted to identity legally as a white person and the court denined it.
 

Mimosa97

Member
Race everywhere in the Western World = if you're not 100% white, you're non-white

The one drop rule is alive and well, not only in America but in every westeern country. You can be 7/8th white and 1/8th black, you won't be considered white.

As a white european dude, this shit has never made any sense to me. It's infuriating actually. The worst thing is when I hear people say that mixed people CHOOSE to define themselves as black, asian etc... When in reality they don't have a choice. They'll never be seen as white. On the opposite they'll always be welcomed by their non-white parent's community.
 

D i Z

Member
Stop playing the victim! Others don't get to define you. Pay attention to the changing census of people identifying as they choose and not because some ignorant fools are some how magically making them identify as black.

I think the real issue is that some black people are afraid of loosing the identify that has been crafted for them for the past 400 years and that is the crux of the issue for some of you.

Ahhhhh, shit.
 

collige

Banned
I guess he could say that, but clearly it would be at odds with his upbringing. He very obviously embraced the identity for all of his life.

I agree, but the obvious conclusion of that would be that his "real" race isn't determined by his parents or his genetics at all.

That's an easy thing for you to say.

I doubt it's as easy for a guy who experienced so much racism growing up because he was part black.

It really isn't.
 
Stop playing the victim! Others don't get to define you. Pay attention to the changing census of people identifying as they choose and not because some ignorant fools are some how magically making them identify as black.

I think the real issue is that some black people are afraid of loosing the identify that has been crafted for them for the past 400 years and that is the crux of the issue for some of you.

Man what in all of the 9 circles of fucking hell is this stormfront bullshit? Blacks are scared of losing their identity?! You clearly have no fucking clue what the fuck you're talking about. We're not the group who's numbers are dwindling as minority groups increase in size. We're not the group that's seen as individuals, so why in the fuck would we be scared of losing identity when every fucking day this country reminds us that we are black? I straight up hope that bubble you're living in asphyxiates your ass.

Regardless of what utopia your ass is living in, back in the real world, society very much does have a part in defining you. I'm not even going to try to educate you, it's a waste of my time and bandwidth.
 
Stop playing the victim! Others don't get to define you. Pay attention to the changing census of people identifying as they choose and not because some ignorant fools are some how magically making them identify as black.

I think the real issue is that some black people are afraid of loosing the identify that has been crafted for them for the past 400 years and that is the crux of the issue for some of you.
Well damn, my #381504 ass is going to start claiming my great-great-great-great grandfather's English blood.
 

KHarvey16

Member
I agree, but the obvious conclusion of that would be that his "real" race isn't determined by his parents at all.

No it isn't. It's seemingly because of his real parents that he was identified as black. Like, the genes he was given by his father are precisely why he was identified as he was.
 

LionPride

Banned
Stop playing the victim! Others don't get to define you. Pay attention to the changing census of people identifying as they choose and not because some ignorant fools are some how magically making them identify as black.

I think the real issue is that some black people are afraid of loosing the identify that has been crafted for them for the past 400 years and that is the crux of the issue for some of you.

...what?
 

BitStyle

Unconfirmed Member
Stop playing the victim! Others don't get to define you. Pay attention to the changing census of people identifying as they choose and not because some ignorant fools are some how magically making them identify as black.

I think the real issue is that some black people are afraid of loosing the identify that has been crafted for them for the past 400 years and that is the crux of the issue for some of you.

Now this is some enlightenment. Who knew we were our own worst enemy all along?

But in all seriousness, how you can look at history and come to this conclusion astounds me.
 

Yrael

Member
After reading his response, I'd be surprised if they don't quietly drop it.

Pretty much the opposite:

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etc.
 

dbztrk

Member
That census form has the power to stop other people from treating you as they see you?

Not all people saw him as black. See the cop that did the police report. He made a choice based on his life circumstances. I'm pretty sure that had his mother been upfront about his background he probably would have had a different outlook on how he identified.
 

ISOM

Member
The one drop rule is alive and well, not only in America but in every westeern country. You can be 7/8th white and 1/8th black, you won't be considered white.

As a white european dude, this shit has never made any sense to me. It's infuriating actually. The worst thing is when I hear people say that mixed people CHOOSE to define themselves as black, asian etc... When in reality they don't have a choice. They'll never be seen as white. On the opposite they'll always be welcomed by their non-white parent's community.

I wouldn't say always because there are people in the minority communities(Asian, Black, etc) that try to pull the purity card too which annoys me to no end. But largely minorities are more accepting of mixed race people claiming that side's identity.
 
Not all people saw him as black. See the cop that did the police report. He made a choice based on his life circumstances. I'm pretty sure that had his mother been upfront about his background he probably would have had a different outlook on how he identified.

Well then I guess his ass should hop in a time machine and confront his mom.
 
2015 has been the banner year of the "Being black sucks" dynamic. Never have I felt more aware and on edge for living in this skin.
That is your own fault, mostly. You can't depend on mainstream American media to uplift you, you can't even count on sites like GAF to do that (I say that like it's actually a surprise, lol).

You only think you suck because you let people from one side of the two-side coin dominate the narrative for you. Explore the other side of the coin for once.

That goes for practically anything really, but particularly regarding minority issues in America, and more particularly if those involve black Americans.
 
I sometimes feel sorry for Milo because he's probably living a terrible life of self-hate, but yeah, I can't help but think he's a fucking horrible human being.
 

collige

Banned
No it isn't. It's seemingly because of his real parents that he was identified as black. Like, the genes he was given by his father are precisely why he was identified as he was.

Yes, but I think it's disingenuous to imply that he has no agency in how he chooses to represent himself outside of his upbringing. Him being identified as black does not automatically mean that he has to identify himself as such.
 
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