Moving with Sonic Speed
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This is going to sound weird, and interpret as you will, but I've always felt it is fine for an individual to classify a culture, just not a person. You can make certain assumptions based on statistical data on various cultures, how they respond to certain things, what they like to do, what they like to eat, and you can be correct in all of those. You are also free to dislike various aspects of those cultures because they don't mesh with your system of beliefs. What you cannot do without an in-depth analysis is assess an individual's tastes, predispositions, and opinions. The problem people run into is once they have a bad taste in their mouth for a certain culture they want to apply that culture to every individual who looks like he is from that culture. That's "prejudice" in that you are "pre-judging" an individual. I have issues with various cultures which could be referred to as racist predispositions, and cultures will always clash with one another, but I don't immediately apply everything I believe to be true about German culture to a German guy I've never met before, because I don't know if he falls into all of those generalizations.
I don't know if that adds anything but there you go.
And on the topic of language, making a conscious choice to use a word that is widely understood to be racist is identifying yourself to everyone in earshot as a racist, and giving them an excuse to believe it. The pendulum swings both ways, and a lot of white folks tend to get upset at the fact that it's off limits for them to say anything about other races, while other races can seemingly say whatever they want to about the white folks. It isn't fair, but life isn't always fair, and it's no reason to lash out at people who may not partake in those kinds of below the belt blows.
I don't know if that adds anything but there you go.
And on the topic of language, making a conscious choice to use a word that is widely understood to be racist is identifying yourself to everyone in earshot as a racist, and giving them an excuse to believe it. The pendulum swings both ways, and a lot of white folks tend to get upset at the fact that it's off limits for them to say anything about other races, while other races can seemingly say whatever they want to about the white folks. It isn't fair, but life isn't always fair, and it's no reason to lash out at people who may not partake in those kinds of below the belt blows.
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