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Re: Andre Carson: Tea party wants blacks 'hanging on a tree' Read more: http://www.p
If the comparison was equal, it would have been a valid comparison. If he said a woman who always gets all nervous when a man approaches from the other direction (because my grandmother always gets a bit nervous when she sees a black man), it would have been an accurate analogy and in that case, the woman would be sexist.
But he described a very specific scenario where the woman was nervous when she encountered the man and compared it to the general nervousness that my grandmother gets in any situation. That's an inaccurate comparison because the situation is what creates the nervousness in his hypothetical. The situation he described is one where women are often raped by men. It is the situation that is being judged by the woman in his hypothetical, not the men. My grandmother, however, is judging the person because the situation has no bearing on her becoming nervous.
Actually, strangely enough I thought his statement was a good question...
If clutching ones purse when a black man walks by but not when white men walk by is racist becuase its "racial prejudice or discrimination".
Would not clutching ones purse when a man walks by but not when women walk by be a sexist act because its "gender prejudice or discrimination".
I actually thought it was a rather good question comparing two different situations where someone is performing an action based on the assumption that a person is more dangerous based singularly on a facet of their genetic code (be it skin color or gender).
If the comparison was equal, it would have been a valid comparison. If he said a woman who always gets all nervous when a man approaches from the other direction (because my grandmother always gets a bit nervous when she sees a black man), it would have been an accurate analogy and in that case, the woman would be sexist.
But he described a very specific scenario where the woman was nervous when she encountered the man and compared it to the general nervousness that my grandmother gets in any situation. That's an inaccurate comparison because the situation is what creates the nervousness in his hypothetical. The situation he described is one where women are often raped by men. It is the situation that is being judged by the woman in his hypothetical, not the men. My grandmother, however, is judging the person because the situation has no bearing on her becoming nervous.