i think whats so challenging to understand about racism and is how it doesn't cleanly follow lines of logic. for people who are inclined to follow logic to solve issues (me included), it can make no sense how there's such a prominent emotional undercurrent.
it sounds lovely to have white and black people chitchat about helping black oppression...but hows that possible when most politicians are white? why don't more black people simply just become politicians? even if they can...why don't they want to? the answer to the last question relates to it in general, one's perception of the society influences what they feel comfortable doing. its within everyone's right to step into politics, but what's the point to represent a system which you feel hasn't supported/represented you? this isn't statistical fact, but kind of an example as to why logical reasoning can't encompass the human feelings and reactions that come from racism. this is a stretch for canadian me to say as well, but i imagine thats why peeps like cat5 and zeus don't entirely want to hear the reactions of "outsiders". people tend to oversimplify everything and try to reason out of a problem, however, having witnessed an issue firsthand--they realize its far more complicated than one thinks. there's a lot of levels to this, and i think acknowledging that and listening (as zeus said) is more relevant than challenging the problem with logic and rhetoric. this isn't a stab at anyone, just a summary of how i feel about whats being said so far. sorry if its vague ;___;
also, just try to think of it from a human perspective instead of numbers. it's really challenging to keep an individual perspective in such a political debate, but i think thats the best way to understand why people do what they do.
