• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Institutional Racism [W:344]

Does institutional racism currently exist in America?


  • Total voters
    56
Stop advantaging pupils of parents with an elevated social background? Since the majority of our schools are public, there's no such thing. Pupils are "advantaged," mostly, because their parents actually give a damn.

In Germany, almost *all* schools are public. So this alone is not the problem.

The debate here goes even further. A common argument is that many teachers, usually stemming from a upper-middle class native background, involuntarily prefer pupils with a similar attitude, such as eloquent manner of speaking, good habits and so on -- and just punish those students with troubled homes or certain deficits with bad grades, instead of doing their job by giving them special care and support.

And then, our school system is under heavy criticism. It's way too easy for teachers to just ignore and "punish" problem students. And there is a certain social selection early on, too early as many say, as after 4 or 6 years of common elementary school respectively (depending on the state), the pupils are selected to three different levels of high school: Either the highest "gymnasium" (which ends with university qualification exams), or two years fewer on "Realschule" or "Hauptschule" (lowest level). It's relatively hard to climb from a lower school form to the next higher school form. So basically, the carreer fate of many pupils is determined after the 4th grade already.

In my experience, while the "Gymnasium" is not a bad kind of high school, I see the way they're teaching disadvantages both students with below average and above average performance, or students with certain problems or troubles ... compare that to the extensive care they're giving each individual case in countries like Finland or Sweden, and I have the impression we're wasting a lot of potential here.
 
First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will be able see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s,
-- mathew, something or other.

Sorry if I hurt your nationalistic feelings, by implying that even non-Americans might be able to comment on American topics.

Just tought it might be beneficial for all of us if we exchanged experiences. My bad.
 
For that specific example, how much of it is racism and how much of it is the rap/hip-hop culture that shuns learning and real work and berates blacks who are trying as being "too white" for trying to succeed?
1. That's a very (pervasive) surface analysis of hip-hop and rap. Rap, like every other form of art, tells stories. It is a reflection of the environment it is coming from. Therefore, to hold art responsible for inequality is wrongheaded. Such art may perpetuate problems that are already there, but it does not cause them. Therefore, the more important question to ask is why are the problems that rap and hip-hop describe there in the first place.

2. You are correct that some factions within hip-hop culture berate successful blacks as "too white." It is, however, inaccurate to generalize the culture as doing that as a whole. More than that, some people in White culture berate people who try to succeed as well. For examples, look at how many so-called "nerds" are treated in predominantly white environments. You can also look at how much of the right denigrates higher education. In other words, anti-success sentiments are pervasive in America, period. Because it isn't a uniquely Black American problem, it isn't a valid explanation for why black Americans, in particular, are unequal in society.
 
Sorry if I hurt your nationalistic feelings, by implying that even non-Americans might be able to comment on American topics.

Just tought it might be beneficial for all of us if we exchanged experiences. My bad.

I can assure you, it's pretty much impossible to hurt my feelings. I never implied you shouldn't comment on american topics. i hoped to show you how you, quite unfiarly, jumped to the conclusion that racism exists in the USa, but you freely equivocate when it comes to turks, citing cultural issues/ hence the comment WELCOME TO AMERICA. As in, you are in the same place we are.
 
Last edited:
I can assure you, it's pretty much impossible to hurt my feelings. I never implied you shouldn't comment on american topics. i hoped to show you how you, quite unfiarly, jumped to the conclusion that racism exists in the USa, but you freely equivocate when it comes to turks, siting cultural issues/ hence the comment WELCOME TO AMERICA. As in, you are in the same place we are.
It's not unfair to say that racism exists in the USA. Anybody with an IQ above 10 can see that.
 
In some parts yes, in other parts no.

DP is mainly an American focused site. When you visit sites that talk about international politics, race does not come up as much.

America is hooked on talking about race.

Race issues are becoming more and more the topic of discussion in Europe as its way of life is being threatened by rampant immigration resulting from open borders in the EU.
 
I can assure you, it's pretty much impossible to hurt my feelings. I never implied you shouldn't comment on american topics. i hoped to show you how you, quite unfiarly, jumped to the conclusion that racism exists in the USa, but you freely equivocate when it comes to turks, siting cultural issues/ hence the comment WELCOME TO AMERICA. As in, you are in the same place we are.

Because, as we all know that there is no such thing as racism in the USA anymore, all the old racists have simply been abducted by aliens after 1968, and there are no polls showing that 40%+ of Mississippi inhabitants, i.e., say interracial marriage should be illegal -- no, racism is exclusively a problem in countries like Germany, which, as well all know have a bad track record in these regards and have not changed one tiny bit in the last 68 years. So who's starting a nationalistic pissing contest now?

Seriously, though:

If you read again what I wrote, you'll see that I did not jump to conclusions. I worded that posting carefully. I used the word "contribute", explicitly said that's one explanation among others that's worth exploring. How you could read that as an attack on America is beyond me.

Especially because I, maybe naively, assumed that Americans are not all holy saints and totally immune against the social problems that affect any modern, open, constitutional society such as mine, and we might benefit by sharing thoughts on problems in different countries that -- just *maybe* -- are comparable to some extent.
 
Just for the record: I don't think America is a particularly racist country. On the contrary, I think we can learn a lot from America when it comes to immigration ... you guys have certainly a much longer and more fundamental experience with this phenomenon compared to us, for whom it's a relatively recent thing.

I just think it might be useful to compare situations and approaches in different countries, even when they're not totally identical... could still bring us to interesting ideas.
 
2. You are correct that some factions within hip-hop culture berate successful blacks as "too white." It is, however, inaccurate to generalize the culture as doing that as a whole.

While I agree with this, and the point about it being a symptom and not a cause, I would say commercial rap is pretty comfortable in the anti-intellectual bandwagon, and usually is just mired in various forms of ignorance. And as a long time fan of hi hop and rap, the quality is just ****.

Honestly, much of it has no redeeming value

PS on a side not, Obama was heavily criticized on his manner and background by a number of prominent black leaders. Let's face it, there is lots of justifiable animosity there which tends to help prop up the poverty cycle
 
While I agree with this, and the point about it being a symptom and not a cause, I would say commercial rap is pretty comfortable in the anti-intellectual bandwagon, and usually is just mired in various forms of ignorance. And as a long time fan of hi hop and rap, the quality is just ****.

Honestly, much of it has no redeeming value
Commercial anything is meant to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Hardly any of it - whether pop, country, alternative, et al. - is intellectual. Thus, singling commercial rap out as an anti-intellectual doesn't make any sense.
 
Does institutional racism currently exist in America?

If it affects you or people you know and care about, you'd likely consider it rampant. If if doesn't affect you or people you know and care about, you'd likely think its rare.

-I have a friend who worked in the funeral industry. I know, heebee jeebees. Anyway, he said its pretty much a given that funeral services are race driven at the consumer level. Whites only contract with white owned and run funeral homes and blacks only use black owned and run funeral services.

-Sunday morning at 10am is often described as the most segregated hour in America. White churches are filled with just whites. Black churches have practically only black membership. What does that mean in terms of discrimination? Suppose you are a vocational minister, family/marriage counselor, music minister, etc. If you're black, you are very likely limited in terms of employment opportunities to just black churches that just so happen to also have a smaller revenue base. Interestingly, there have been noble efforts to make church more like heaven in terms of racial diversity. The outcome has been many churches, especially larger "mags-churches" have seen a significant increase in black families joining. However, the other side of that same coin, despite the best efforts of many black churches, most white families refuse to join mostly black churches. A black minister privately shared with me he resents much of the outreach efforts of white churches into the black community because black families leave his church to join the white church but his churches outreach into the white community are predictably fruitless leaving black churches with diminished resources to impact their community. I'm personally aware of a case where a popular nationally known speaker was invited to spend a week in my city speaking at 2 churches; one black church and one white church. They advertised it in the media and everything. People came from all over town, including blacks to hear the first part of his series at the white church. Toward the end of the week it moved to the black church and only blacks came out for the most part.

-Racial diversity has been very evident in television. On just about any TV station or network in America the news reporters and anchors are of all ethnic backgrounds. Not so of radio however. In America, if you're a white radio personality there are no limits on where you're allowed to work. If you're black however, with rare exceptions you only get hired at R&B stations that, by the way, usually happen to pay less than the rock, pop and country stations. I think there are only 2 NFL radio play by play announcers in the country. NBA and MLB, I'm not sure except I'm sure its are. In my city, there is a grand total of one black radio personality who works as a radio personality on a radio station that does not specifically cater to a black audience. Several times the owner has suggested laying him off for unspecified reasons but those in management with more up close knowledge of his contributions have persuaded him that they would be at a serious disadvantage if he ever left. The apparent message: if you're black you often have to work twice as hard, do twice as much, maintain a twice as positive attitude and be twice as talented to be considered as valuable as a white employee in the same position.

-In politics if you're black you are far more likely to get elected if you join the democrat party. I know of several black politicians in my city. One has worked tirelessly to improve the quality of life for people in the inner-city and is pretty much a very respected household name. He happens to be a black republican . He ran for city council at least twice and lost every time. The third time he dropped the GOP party affiliation and ran as an independent; still lost. Two others are very conservative and I personally believe they'd be republicans if it we not a liability. They're democrats and not only hold elected office but are highly respected and likely to be re-elected by landslide. I doubt they would have ever been elected in the first place as black republicans. I know, there are some black elected republicans but in every case I've seen they got elected by carrying the white vote. Blacks do not support black republicans and very often the GOP tries to win the black vote by running a black candidate in a mostly black district thinking as long as black voters see a black face, they'll vote for them. If the GOP wants more black republican elected officials, they need to run them in mostly white districts because whites are the only ones who'll vote for them. Then after a while if they get used to seeing black republicans hold office, it might start getting more normal and accepted. And as a FYI: in order to be fully accepted into the fold, black republicans usually have to be more conservative and more qualified on every level than their white republican counterparts.

-Its rare to see upper management/board room positions filled by blacks unless its a black owned business. I'm personally aware of 2 black college presidents where its not a mostly black college. As of last year there were only 6 black Fortune 500 CEOs in America. I'm not saying a quota system should be used but its difficult for me to accept that there are only 6 black people in the county qualified to run a fortune 500 company.

I am hopeful however. I do think black acceptance has made tremendous progress since the Civil Rights era and I guess taking a minute to be a fully colorblind society is to be accepted. There's a black POTUS, television, film, sports are all represented well by blacks and in some cases at greater levels. The image announcer at NBC Television (the guy who says "Tonight at 8, 7 central on NBC") is black and is probably making 6 or 7 figures doing it. The AG is black.
 
Last edited:
Commercial anything is meant to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Hardly any of it - whether pop, country, alternative, et al. - is intellectual. Thus, singling commercial rap out as an anti-intellectual doesn't make any sense.

Sure it does. Being pop country isn't producing stuff like this:


Lil Boosie - We Out Chea (Official Video) - YouTube

or shooting each other and glorifying gangculture
 
Sounds like: "If we don't talk about race, racism will go away." Is that an accurate interpretation of your comment?

Close. But I don't think we should just turn a blind eye to race, I think we need to actively stop treating people as if they are different based on where they are from or how much melatonin is in their skin. Its completely double speak to cry about racism and then turn around and advocate for things such as affirmative action. If we believe in equality, then people should be judged as equal and race shouldn't play a factor into getting a job or into a school. Saying one thing and doing another isn't helping anything as far as racism goes.
 
And it doesn't stop Barry and company from exploiting race whenever it suits their purpose.


From a black man such as yourself, that is pathetic.
 
Sure it does. Being pop country isn't producing stuff like this:

Lil Boosie - We Out Chea (Official Video) - YouTube

or shooting each other and glorifying gangculture
Doesn't matter in terms of what we were talking about. You said commercial rap was anti-intellectual. I said most genres of commercial music are anti-intellectual. This is true and the fact that some rap music is violent doesn't change that. You're original point about commercial rap being anti-intellectual is still meaningless since the label can be applied to every commercial genre of music.
 
From a non-American perspective:

As far as I know, the African American average regarding education and income is still significantly lower than that of white Americans. Since I don't buy the racist "genetically inferior" explanation, my best guess is that it does at least partly have to do with institutional racism (as defined in the link in the OP). Sounds like a reasonable explanation to me on first glance. But I'm open for better explanations.

They are not denied education or the same opportunity to get a higher income, they *CHOOSE* that path for themselves and then complain that they have less. That's not racism, that's personal irresponsibility.
 
Yes, there if affirmative action and many educational institutions that give priority/positively factor in minority races in regards to accepting applicants. It's not everywhere, but it does exist.
 
Doesn't matter in terms of what we were talking about. You said commercial rap was anti-intellectual. I said most genres of commercial music are anti-intellectual. This is true and the fact that some rap music is violent doesn't change that. You're original point about commercial rap being anti-intellectual is still meaningless since the label can be applied to every commercial genre of music.

No, there's a difference between music that is non-intellectual and music that is explicitly anti-intellectual. When you have a class of music which specifically says not to get an education, not to get a job, just go get a gun and pop a cap in someone's ass, that is absolutely anti-intellectual. It's not neutral on the subject at all.
 
Doesn't matter in terms of what we were talking about. You said commercial rap was anti-intellectual. I said most genres of commercial music are anti-intellectual. This is true and the fact that some rap music is violent doesn't change that. You're original point about commercial rap being anti-intellectual is still meaningless since the label can be applied to every commercial genre of music.

So do you find jazz and classical music "anti-intellectual"?
 
Back
Top Bottom