"Anyone who gets more upset about an accusation of racism than they seem capable of getting about racism itself needs to have their ethics adjusted."

Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Please explain your reasoning.

I think i can understand this one It can take a variety of forms on why someone could get more upset being called one then racism itself. For one, it can ruin your reputation if not a career, even if its not true or you are cleared, it has an ugly amount of thought attached to it for some people. You can get angry because your thoughts may be being misused or taken the wrong way, even if you did manage to word rather horribly your position, it can be very offensive to a person to be called a racist overall if you are very much against it, but still are inclined to tackle issues related very much so. For some people, being part of a culture may require one to accept things others may find racist, but to you are important positions to hold, or you may have experience that leads you to racist thought, like profiling, but you dont hold it as being racist, and then are offended by the accusation. Then you also need to account for what the person, or persons on the other end hold as being racist, but that would be off topic i guess, being its not as clear cut as it should be to me sometimes, and even that statement could be called racist, simply because i dont understand all of what racism covers of what is deemed racist by a giving individual or group of.

Overall to me you just have to take into the account of the individual and the simple concept of relativity that may exist in that persons perception, thought whatever word you may like to use there. So i doubt my opinion to fully cover it, or even hit the head of something that may sound like it makes sense to everything about it, though really does not answer the question fully or at all.

For instance, a collage football game commentator, cant remember details clearly, was canned when a remark he stated became more well known. He made a comment when a running back was making a big run, "look at that monkey go" or something along those lines. Now if a community wants to make something like that into a racist statement, or such a term has a racial history to a community, i feel such needs to be made known, so understanding and peace may occur. At the time though, or even if it applies, biology had not yet come to the idea that humans in general came to be in africa, and more to the point, it would then be a racist term to me for people in general, regardless of ethnicity, if you do not like to be called a monkey. THis person, was also very well liked by the local minority community, and had much involvement with it also, and more to the point, i have looked at people, that regardless of race kind of looked like a monkey actually, white, black, hispanic, asian, etc... so the boundaries of what is racist is not always known and it grows, and consusion may exist within the demand for a better tommrow. The desire to build a better america in terms of race is also hampered by those that would use such for means of power gain, either politically or at work, etc, which could create more distain for those that would call someone racist, or racism in general being negative, which is something i agree with, it being a bad and or evil thing(racism), just to clear that up. Racism is also not something that is of heavy education really, in collage you might be required to take humanities courses, that may in detail actually allow a person to understand a great amount of it, or what all may or is racist, or might even be borderline, or how many people may even know whats racist against them, so education of the people is something to take into account too. I could go on, but i fear the post may be a bit long in the tooth by now.

I disagree. In America, the claim of "racist" is similar to sexual harassment, in that often times you have to prove yourself "not guilty" as opposed to the reverse, and the stigma hangs over your head indefinitely.

The problem for young white men in America is that we generally have little contact with true racism, are probably less racist than our preceeding generation, and see this as a non-issue in our society. Being from the south, and understanding that racism is a real issue, the question is how daunting it really still is? How many people are still being denied jobs? How does this compare to the barriers constructed by affirmative action for non-minorities (umm... specifically white men)? How much of the idea of racism is a stigma as opposed to objective thoughts/experiences? How many people actually are discriminated against? How does racism differ from prejudice? How many people really never prejudge someone based upon their hair style, clothing choices, or accent?

I personally believe that racism is still a problem, but at this point in American culture racism, is not only "white people degrading people of color". The issue goes in every direction possible. I believe that it's become socially acceptable to poke fun at white Americans (especially from the rural south), at Asians, and at Hispanics... yet never in public can a white man make comments about black people?

It's fine to make comments like "white men can't jump" or "can't dance", but what if a comic made comments about african-american illiteracy?

In summation, in today's society , if a white man is accused of racism, the stigma is tough to shake... whether deserved or not. It also seems as if the word in itself is predominantly directed towards white men while african-americans are immuned to the same political correctness.... with that in mind, many white men are more concerned with being branded a racist than the actuality of racism in our society.

With that in mind, what objective information can we drudge up about the true impact of racism? What impact does it really have on our society and who really suffers?

"Anyone who gets more upset about an accusation of racism than they seem capable of getting about racism itself needs to have their ethics adjusted."

I'm interested in knowing who said this.

I worked with a white woman who was raped by a black man when she was single and much younger. She gave birth and raised her daughter, who grew up and was working in the same department store as her mom. It was clear that they had a normal mother-daughter relationship.

One day a black customer wasn't getting what she wanted from my co-worker (she wanted a refund without a receipt or something similar), so she called this white woman a racist. My co-worker got very upset, but she was not able to adequately answer this accusation at the workplace. However, she was in tears later on when she talked about it to the rest of us. I had never heard this woman use racial epithets or otherwise cast slurs on African-Americans.

I think a key portion of this quotation is the phrase "seem capable" of getting about racism. This speaks to the perception of the person who said it in the first place. This person does not know what another person is thinking. Is it possible to be upset about racism when the speaker is not around? Of course it is. Is it possible to make an effort to be kind to all and to take measures (if appropriate and the person is in a position to) to prevent or address instances of racism? Is it possible as well to work quietly and individually to make this a better world and not call attention to one's work? Yes!

Not everyone who reacts negatively to being accused of racism is a person who is exclusively concerned about how others perceive him/her. Most of us like to be thought of as nice people, and we don't want our reputations sullied; some (many) of us think racism is wrong as well, and we don't like being accused of being wrongdoers if we in fact are not.

Who is being accused of racism and who is getting upset? When someone plays the "race card" it is harmful in a lot of ways. Often it is an unfair accusation to begin with that then harms someone's reputation. The expression itself: "playing the race card" shows how frivolous accusations can make us all skeptical of any assertion of racism at all.

So I guess I would say that there can be equal outrage at both the accusation as well as at the act itself.