[Zawadi]

Steve: Unfortunately, ‘Wet Dogs’ is not only an appropriate title, but it is safe. It’s safe because in society it is acceptable for the little guy to finally stand up to the big guy. We applaud it, actually. Minorities have been demeaned, abused and disrespected for as long as we all can remember. Why then would whites, the majority, believe they would be exempted from criticism and stereotyping? Granted, every white person isn’t guilty of some social injustice or living some grand life simply because he/she is white. However, remember you’re not immune to unwarranted generalizations, either. The title of the book illustrates that you’re fair game for some of the same prejudice that minorities experience. While prejudicial thoughts and comments are undesirable, we all are guilty of such feelings and have made some unsavory racial comments in our lifetimes. We’re lying if we say otherwise. What’s more important is that we fess up to our prejudices. Can you say that you have never made a comment about minorities that you might be less than proud to publicly admit?

While the title is unflattering, it speaks true of a feeling that many minorities believe about whites. Given the nature of text, the title boldly addresses such prejudices. If you feel personally offended, try to understand this perspective. We’re talking about collective consciousness here. The title doesn’t say ‘Steve smells.’

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Name : Zawadi, Gender : F, Race : Black/African American, Age : 34, City : Detroit, State : MI, Country : United States, 

[Zawadi]

Floyd: Thanks for understanding the focus of my qestion. I got the impression from the white respondents that they were missing my point. I was not making a simplistic, immature comment, ‘See, white boys are bad, too.’ Perhaps I was not articulate or eloquent enough in my posting. However, your response to Steve’s post including:’You must rigorously scrutinize the aberrant behavior of our most advantaged members to understand how profound is our society’s sickness’ and ‘When we match our enthusiasm for quoting old black crime statistics with an equal enthusiasm for understanding the sickness underlying those horrific examples of white mayhem, including whites males dragging blacks to death, bands of white cops shooting up black males like targets on a firing range and white cops sodomizing black males in their custody, we’ll be much better equipped to ward off future Columbines, Conyers, etc’ adeptly describes my own sentiments. Why isn’t society at large alarmed by the behavior of those individuals for whom we’ve all been taught is the most privileged member in this society? Instead, of explaining to me why these horrific incidents occurred, I perceived the responses to be unnecessarily defensive. I didn’t say all white men were evil and violent. I asked a honest question that challenged a belief that has been shoved down all of our throats all our lives. Anyone who says that they were not, at the very least subjected to on an subconcios level, the messages that white males are the most privileged, that they must succeed and excell above all others is either lying or in denial. While theses beliefs might not be truth, they have been perpetuated throughout this country’s entire history. I believe these acts are profoundly rooted in the frustration experienced by those males who believed in these messages and were angry when they perceived that privilege did not benefit them directly. They felt betrayed and cheated. It appears that when blacks or women exercise their rage it is turned inward. White males on the other hand, have repeatedly directed their rage outward and en mass.

User Detail :  

Name : Zawadi, Gender : F, Race : Black/African American, Age : 34, City : Detroit, State : MI, Country : United States, 

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