"Are whites racially oppressed?" - CNN asks the tough questions

[Paradoxical]

Any respect I had left for CNNs journalistic integrity just flew out the fucking window. I mean, really. What the fuck.


http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/12/21/white.persecution/index.html?hpt=C2

<sic>
(CNN) -- They marched on Washington to reclaim civil rights.
They complained of voter intimidation at the polls.
They called for ethnic studies programs to promote racial pride.
They are, some say, the new face of racial oppression in this nation -- and their faces are white."
<sic>

[gateley]

1. This smacks of propaganda, IMO. nt

[Jamastiene]

2. OMFG

I have heard it all now.

[spanone]

3. our media may be broken beyond repair

[RKP5637]

4. CNN = Current Nutty News n/t

[Modern_Matthew]

5. Stories like this only increase racial divisiveness, no matter the subject. nt

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[FLAprogressive]

6. victims in their own minds.....

[ProgressiveProfessor]

7. Bias and prejudice is not limited to a specific race, gender, or ethnic group

so I am willing to stipulate that it does happen. However they are going to have to prove the particulars in every case they claim...just like every other claim made by other groups.

Like most geeks I am strongly for merit as the best metric. So was Martin Luther King Jr and others civil rights leaders. It is as elusive now as it was then, though I hope in some regards we are making progress.

[Igel]

15. Sure it does.

My boss once told me he had really been hoping to find another Chinese for the job because they make better workers than whites. Apparently he kept the application "window" open for a few more weeks, his preferred candidate lacked the qualifications I had and so he finally lost his struggle for racial purity. He said that even though I'm not Chinese I was at least okay. (Gee, what a morale boost!)

Then there was the company I put in an application with. The workforce was pretty much 100% black, the owner was black, in an area that was 70% white, 20% Latino, and 10% black. The woman who took my application and resume seemed amused that I bothered to actually submit them.

The problem is that you *don't* have to prove the particulars in every case claimed. If there's a disproportionate impact, if the numbers are off, there's the presumption of racial discrimination and the employer then has to show that the process that leads to a racially skewed workforce or set of promotions is acceptable. That either the job requirements are such that the candidate pool isn't restricted by race but by some skill, for example. Then there are usually outreach requirements. It was deemed too difficult to prove cases of racial discrimination because it was too often entirely covert, the result of mental processes.

We'll leave aside social situations and times when it's simply been assumed I'm acting in a racist manner because I'm white and the person I'm asking to abide by some rule is white or Latino. In some cases the kid was just yanking my chain and hoping by calling me racist I'd back off in some sort of misbegotten cross-racial sympathy or fear. ("OMG, I might be suspected of being a racist!" or "Ah, the poor guy, he's right--he shouldn't have to abide by white rules." Ha.) In others he was both dead serious and completely ridiculous at the same time.

[Patron]

8. Whites being racially oppressed

It's a matter of time when they will be the minority in America.

[bigwillq]

9. Hello.

Welcome to DU! :hi:

[Patron]

11. Hello Everybody

Hello! :toast: TGIF!

[TheDebbieDee]

13. And whites are afraid they will be treated with as much respect

as they treated other minorities in this country!

Welcome to DU.............

[marmar]

12. I think there could have been a good story about some of the underlying insecurities ......

..... associated with non-Hispanic whites losing majority status. Hell, let's be honest - that's the fuel for the Tea Party movement. But CNN blew it with a shoddy, shallow, poorly executed story (typical of broadcast news) and an absolutely atrocious headline.

[jp11]

14. Still chasing the Tea Bag Audience I see.

[pink-o]

16. Oh, yeah, cuz whites don't hold all the power, and we're the victims now!

Oh, Puleeeeze! As Michael Moore said in "Stupid White Men": "I've never been attacked by a black person, never been evicted by a black person, never had my security deposit ripped off by a black landlord, never had a black person deny my child the college of her choice, never been sold a lemon by a black car salesman, never even HEARD a black person say 'We're gonna eliminate 10,000 jobs here--have a nice day!'"

It's like these idiot Fundies wringing their hands and saying Christianity is under attack here in America. What a crock! Old, white Xian men still hold all the power cards here, they do NOT get to pretend they're being persecuted!!!!

(Full disclosure, I am a white chick, ethically Jewish, and raised secular middle-class so I know this demographic very well. They have nothing to complain about.)

[southernyankeebelle]

17. Boy I bet many minorities wish they were that abused. OMG you should be

ashamed to ask such a question and I am white. CNN has gone to the dark side with the teabaggers. Bring back Turner.

[CLANG]

18. That's just sick!

:mad: :grr: :banghead:

[MrScorpio]

19. I figure that the subtext indicates that white people are supposed to be in charge no matter what...

And anything other than the preceding order stipulates some degree of discrimination against white people.

Pretty much something one would expect from people who are used to being part of a privileged class.

I've said it before, so here it is again; White privilege means never having to say that you're sorry.

As long as we see crap like this we'll always know that America still has a long way to go.

[leftstreet]

20. LET MY PEOPLE GO !

:eyes:

[david13]

21. Well, I have had lower back pain all week, so maybe it's really

all this oppression causing the pain.
Do I need a doctor, or a civil rights lawyer?
dc

[DonCoquixote]

22. OK, my two cents

I will not deny that there are many European-Americans that are repressed by this system. Even those that tend to vote GOP, like the folks in Red States, tend to have the short end of things, as Joe Bagaent and Michael Moore show. However, I do indeed get VERY tired of certain people who are of European descent claiming that they are oppressed because they are White, or that just because affirmative action was used to open up the field, that any minority is inferior. We would not have needed affirmative action if businesses did not go out of their way to avoid hiring minorities. For CNN to even feed this idea shows that it is trying to pander, and frankly deserves to be crushed.

Ted turner, we miss ye.