TorontoArgos
Guru
This is a funny story about my personal attempts to expose the double standard that exists.
For French class we had to do presentations on French-speaking people who have made a cultural or societal contribution to the world. What we had to do was present this person, and ask philosophical questions to the class which are meant to elicit a good class discussion. I knew exactly how to do that.
I chose to do mine on a black man, former president of Senegal Leopold Senghor.
His major cultural contribution to the world was creating the concept of "Negritude", the celebration of black culture and history, as well as the celebration of black people in general.
A little bit of background info. My French class is 75% girls, all of whom are extremely LIBERAL and consider themselves to be tolerant to all races and cultures. They also think they are a lot smarter than they are, as with most women.
And so I presented Leopold Senghor's life story, and presented Negritude in a neutral light, with a liberal swing that is expected of a teenager growing up in Canada. For instance I mentioned how it "celebrates" black culture, not how it can "divide" races. At the end of my presentation, I asked the class what they thought of "Negritude" and if it is good to recognize one's blackness, or if it encourages racial division.
The response was overwhelmingly "It is great to celebrate one's own identity and culture." The girls all nodded in unison, agreeing almost word for word. I also nodded in agreement.
My next question was "What would you think if other races created similar 'pride' organizations?"The response was the same. "All races should celebrate their culture."
I then asked, "So if tomorrow there were organizations that started appearing that advocated 'Aryan Pride' or 'White Power', what would you think?" The response was quite different.
Jaws dropped all around the class. People looked at each other with shocked facial expressions. Nobody knew what to say.
The girl who was sitting in the front row directly in front of me had her jaw visibly drop. I asked her what she thought and she answered "I would be absolutely shocked!" A few of the class agreed with her, but about half remained silent this time.
My next question was "Why are you advocating Black Pride but many of you are so outraged about White Pride?" This time, about 1/3 of the class agreed with me. They said "Yeah I know what you mean" either orally or with their body language. The next 1/3 remained silent, and there was another 1/3 who tried to defend their prejudiced views.
One girl said "White people are so racist and they have done so much harm to black people for so long, so its not really politically acceptable for them to show pride. Black people haven't really done anything like that." Much of the class said "yeah" or nodded.
I did not have to respond this time. My French teacher stepped in and added his two cents to the conversation. My French teacher is an ethnic white French who was born and raised in Algeria when it was a French province. He moved to France as a teenager, and then moved to Canada because he did not like the lack of racial tolerance in France towards minorities. In other words, he himself is also EXTREMELY liberal and it shows in many of the views he expresses.
His response surprised me."To say that black people haven't committed racial crime is 100% false. If you look at Africa, there continue to be constant ethnic wars among different Black ethnicities, like Rwanda and Darfur. They are also racist against whites, as is shown by Robert Mugabe seizing control of all white property in Zimbabwe and killing those who stood in his way. White people aren't the only racists, black people are equally guilty."
The class was surprised, but respected his opinion. I asked "So then why is it ok for black people to show pride but not white people?" Empty stares everywhere. All the girls looked at each other with confused expressions, none of them spoke.
True Story. I'm just doing my part.
Props to my French teacher for not being ignorant.
EDIT: I should also mention that at the end, many of my classmates congratulated me on a great presentation. This includes one or two people who were against white pride.
There seemed to be a consensus in the class that I raised an issue that none of them had ever thought of before, and that my point was valid, albeit surprising.Edited by: TorontoArgos
For French class we had to do presentations on French-speaking people who have made a cultural or societal contribution to the world. What we had to do was present this person, and ask philosophical questions to the class which are meant to elicit a good class discussion. I knew exactly how to do that.
I chose to do mine on a black man, former president of Senegal Leopold Senghor.
His major cultural contribution to the world was creating the concept of "Negritude", the celebration of black culture and history, as well as the celebration of black people in general.
A little bit of background info. My French class is 75% girls, all of whom are extremely LIBERAL and consider themselves to be tolerant to all races and cultures. They also think they are a lot smarter than they are, as with most women.
And so I presented Leopold Senghor's life story, and presented Negritude in a neutral light, with a liberal swing that is expected of a teenager growing up in Canada. For instance I mentioned how it "celebrates" black culture, not how it can "divide" races. At the end of my presentation, I asked the class what they thought of "Negritude" and if it is good to recognize one's blackness, or if it encourages racial division.
The response was overwhelmingly "It is great to celebrate one's own identity and culture." The girls all nodded in unison, agreeing almost word for word. I also nodded in agreement.
My next question was "What would you think if other races created similar 'pride' organizations?"The response was the same. "All races should celebrate their culture."
I then asked, "So if tomorrow there were organizations that started appearing that advocated 'Aryan Pride' or 'White Power', what would you think?" The response was quite different.
Jaws dropped all around the class. People looked at each other with shocked facial expressions. Nobody knew what to say.
The girl who was sitting in the front row directly in front of me had her jaw visibly drop. I asked her what she thought and she answered "I would be absolutely shocked!" A few of the class agreed with her, but about half remained silent this time.
My next question was "Why are you advocating Black Pride but many of you are so outraged about White Pride?" This time, about 1/3 of the class agreed with me. They said "Yeah I know what you mean" either orally or with their body language. The next 1/3 remained silent, and there was another 1/3 who tried to defend their prejudiced views.
One girl said "White people are so racist and they have done so much harm to black people for so long, so its not really politically acceptable for them to show pride. Black people haven't really done anything like that." Much of the class said "yeah" or nodded.
I did not have to respond this time. My French teacher stepped in and added his two cents to the conversation. My French teacher is an ethnic white French who was born and raised in Algeria when it was a French province. He moved to France as a teenager, and then moved to Canada because he did not like the lack of racial tolerance in France towards minorities. In other words, he himself is also EXTREMELY liberal and it shows in many of the views he expresses.
His response surprised me."To say that black people haven't committed racial crime is 100% false. If you look at Africa, there continue to be constant ethnic wars among different Black ethnicities, like Rwanda and Darfur. They are also racist against whites, as is shown by Robert Mugabe seizing control of all white property in Zimbabwe and killing those who stood in his way. White people aren't the only racists, black people are equally guilty."
The class was surprised, but respected his opinion. I asked "So then why is it ok for black people to show pride but not white people?" Empty stares everywhere. All the girls looked at each other with confused expressions, none of them spoke.
True Story. I'm just doing my part.
EDIT: I should also mention that at the end, many of my classmates congratulated me on a great presentation. This includes one or two people who were against white pride.
There seemed to be a consensus in the class that I raised an issue that none of them had ever thought of before, and that my point was valid, albeit surprising.Edited by: TorontoArgos