Was I "Acting White" for caring about........ ? - Forum

Date: Dec 17, 2007

RE: Was I "Acting White" for caring about........ ?

Date: Dec 3, 2007

Wow, Ms. Shiver makes some interesting points. It does seem sane to give her the time and the space that she needs to grieve. I guess my only concern would be that she'd be willing to return the favor.

Date: Nov 27, 2007

November 26, 2007
Have You Bashed a White Male Today?By Kyle-Anne Shiver

While I was a teenager and still enthralled with my own generation, the Boomers, I truly believed that we were heralding a new and better human nature. We were going to stamp out prejudice, discrimination, and every other foul practice in the hemisphere. No more bashing folks of color. No more negative stereotyping for females. No more blonde jokes, fat jokes, handicap jokes, divorce jokes, gay jokes or Polish jokes. Human nature be damned. We could all be nice to each other if we tried hard enough, if we just had enough determination.

Here we are forty years later, and it seems to me that all we've really accomplished is an exchange of all of our old prejudices for a new one. The demographic group that now gets it full on the chin at every turn, in every public sphere, is the lone, white male. Christians, especially the Catholic Church, are also an approved target, but that topic is for another article.

So we haven't gotten any better as human beings. We simply changed targets. And almost the only ones among us left with bull's-eyes upon their heads are the white males.

I happen to have quite a fondness for these guys. My father and grandfathers were white males.   I have a white male twin brother. I've been married to a white male for 37 years. I count a number of these guys as friends and neighbors. So, it just doesn't sit right with me when, almost everywhere I turn, I see the guys I love most getting their stuffings beaten out in jokes, television commercials, movies, books - heck, all over the place. It's so PC, you know.

Nowadays white males are stereotyped in movies and ads as either beer-guzzling, practically illiterate rednecks or as overly sensitized, emasculated wimps. One would be hard put to find a good, old-fashioned, John-Wayne type male anywhere but on Spike TV. My husband claims he needs to watch Spike occasionally just to remind himself that it's still somewhat okay to be masculine in public.

But I had better fess up myself a bit here, or that husband of mine will call me a "lying hypocrite" behind closed doors. I have, on a scant few occasions, used my protected status as a female to either pick fights with men or win them, especially when in the company of other females. Okay, it's been more than a few times, but far less than a thousand. And I plan to give it up this year for Lent. Really.

Bashing white males with impunity is every bit as un-Christian as all the other generalized bashing. Racism. Sexism. Homophobia. Etcetera, etcetera.

When it comes to the white guys, the one thing that seems to have escaped our notice, though, is that if not for all of our white-male ancestors, there wouldn't be much of a civilization here for the rest of us to climb aboard. These men get bashed up and down, day in and day out, for shutting out people of color and women, for not allowing them to take any of the leadership roles. But that's only one way of looking at it.

The other way would be to pat these guys heartily on the back, and give kudos where kudos are due.

The fact is that the world was quite different 2 and 3 centuries ago. Slavery was an institution that stretched back to Biblical times, without skipping a beat, and was rampant around the world. The British and the United States led the abolition movement for the rest of the western world, and is still on the front lines in the battle to eradicate the last vestiges of the dastardly evil. The truth is that white males did not invent the institution of slavery, but they were the first to abolish it. That ought to count for something.

Many American white men were willing to fight and die in a bloody civil war, fought largely over slavery. And many more gave up segregation without resorting to another all out war. Those things wouldn't be anything to brag about in a perfect world, but perfect this world has never been. And I think we ought to take at least some pride in seeing black men and white men, and black women and white women standing shoulder-to-shoulder in every profession. That's not a shabby accomplishment within a single generation.

Our men marched this country in a steadily advancing civilization, from an agrarian society, to an industrial one, to a high-tech one, in which the jobs requiring rigorous physical labors, to which men were far better suited, have become outnumbered by positions requiring more brains than brawn. Because of that, more than the feminist movement, women are able to participate much more fully in the workplace than ever before in history. If our civilization had not made that leap, and provided so many ingenious inventions that cut so much time and labor from homemaking chores, women would probably still be largely left out, simply because of our natural physical limits. I say we ought to celebrate our men for such a huge accomplishment. Certainly no other poeple in history have done as much.

Now before I get an inbox avalanche of complaints, let me state for the record that I understand as well as anyone that the white guys didn't just roll over and throw down the red carpet for all the people of color and us women to join in holding the reins of power in this country. There was quite a bit of nudging, some of it pretty forceful.

However, there was no outright war. And put into a historical perspective, American white guys stand heads and shoulders above their foreign counterparts and predecessors.

So, from now on, before you bash a white male, stop to think about the other side of the coin, and ask yourself this:

If not for all those white guys who conceived of this Nation, who built it, fought for it, protected it, developed all of those inventions that brought progress and a greater standard of living to more people than any civilization in history, where would the rest of us be? Perhaps not all that well off.

Instead of bashing the white guys, we all ought to be thanking them, and get on with making an even better America. So, I say, don't bash a white guy today. Buy that man a beer!

Kyle-Anne Shiver is a frequent contributor to American Thinker. She welcomes your comments at kyleanneshiver@yahoo.com.
Page Printed from: http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/11/have_you_bashed_a_white_male_t.html at November 26, 2007 - 11:21:35 PM EST

Date: Nov 4, 2007

Look, I don't have a problem in giving young people a chance. But when all the man has is one truck; The person driving the truck needs to have as much at stake as the owner of the truck in this situation. The goal should be to build the business to a certain level of strength first. Afterwards, each driver should be made to understand that they directly have an impact on the small business that they are working for. If they don't take this job seriously, they could have a negative impact on the possibility of this small blackowned business's ability for it to hire more of it's own people. Poor or bad drivers could destoy this business. Acting on emotions alone, could prove to be very dangerous to the future life of the business. Mr. Madison wanted to make the point to me that his engineer handled equipment that was far more expensive than a truck. Fine, but what Mr. Madison didn't take into account was the fact that he's right there with the guy as the young man handles the equipment. What if the young man was alone and moved the equipment thousands of miles away from the location of the broadcast ? Cathy Hughes & Mr. Madison would find it reasonable that the young man have something at stake, something of value; and you know I'm telling the truth. It's all not just a question of the young man's expertise. He could be the best expert in the world, but if he has poor work habits; He could still destroy the business. Being rational, not emotional is what will save black business today.

Date: Oct 29, 2007

JAY,

I KNOW THAT YOU WERE ONLY INTERESTED IN HELPING A BROTHER OUT BY GIVING YOUR OPINION, BUT YOU DID'NT THINK THE SITUATION OUT CLEARLY BEFORE OFFERING YOUR OPINION.

OTHER RACES PROVIDE THEIR YOUNGER MEMBERS BY PROVIDING THEM WITH MONEY TO BUY A HOME , OR A NEW BUSINESS WITH THE PROVISION THAT WHEN THAT YOUNG PERSON BECOMES SUCCESSFUL, THEY TURN AROUND AND HELP SOMEONE LIKE THEY HAVE BEEN HELPED. GETTING A HOME AND HAVING A MORTGAGE IS NOT A SUPERHUMAN FEAT AND ALTHOUGH I UNDERSTAND YOUR INTENT, IT WAS MISSPLACED.

EACH PERSON HAS HIS/HER OWN PERSONAL BAGGAGE THAT EFFECTS THEIR ABILITY TO FUNCTION IN THE WORKPLACE. WHAT IF FOR EXAMPLE, THIS MORTGAGE OWNER HAD A DRUG/GAMBLING/ALCOHOL PROBLEM WHILE THE ONE THAT DID NOT HAVE A MORTGAGE DID NOT HAVE ONE. WHICH ONE WOULD YOU HAVE DRIVING YOUR FRIEND'S TRUCK THEN? tHERE'S TRUTH IN THE SAYING THAT, "AGE AIN'T NOTHIN' BUT A NUMBER". MY POINT IS THAT YOU NEED TO LOOK AT A SITUATION ON A CASE BY CASE BASIS BEFORE DEVELOPING A OPINION. YOUR HEART IS IN THE RIGHT PLACE, YOUR LOGIC IS JUST FLAWED BY YOU RELYING SOLEY ON WHAT YOU HEARD WHAT HAPPENED TO SOMEONE ELSE.

IT'S NOT THAT YOU ARE 'ACTING WHITE', BUT WHO DO YOU EXPECT TO HELP A YOUNG BROTHER TO COME UP....SOMEONE FROM ANOTHER RACE?

WWW.STEALTHBROADCASTINGNETWORKS.COM

Date: Oct 22, 2007

Was I "Acting White" for caring about........ ?