The Confederate Flag and NASCAR

[Winston]

A handful of the whites approached one of our waitresses, and asked "We would much prefer it if you could seat us apart, by color".

Maybe I'm stupid, but what is the significance of the part I've bolded here? Wouldn't it suffice to say that some of them wished to be seated by color?

Is it racist for whites to ask this, or is it racist for anyone to do so, regardless of their race?

[chequita guevara]

What we think of as the traditional Confederate flag was actually a modification of the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, which was basically the red and blue cross with stars you see in the 2nd and 3rd Confederate national flags. The 1st national flag was too hard to distinguish from the Union flag. In the latter part of the 19th Century, Confederate veterans began organizing erunions and flew the what is today called the Confederate flag. When the Klan was reborn in1915, they adopted this flag. In the 1950s, states began flying these flags to symbolize their opposition to Federal attempts at desegragation. In the 1970s, it became associated with Southern outlaw culture, and then white outlaw culture in general. It is not, and has never been, a symbol of Southern culture generally.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Winston

A handful of the whites approached one of our waitresses, and asked "We would much prefer it if you could seat us apart, by color".

Maybe I'm stupid, but what is the significance of the part I've bolded here? Wouldn't it suffice to say that some of them wished to be seated by color?

Is it racist for whites to ask this, or is it racist for anyone to do so, regardless of their race?

It's a sore point in our history. It used to be illegal for people of different colors to be seated together in the South in public establishments. For whites to ask to be segregated brings up bitter memories of the days of Jim Crow, which both the Nazis and South Africans used as the models for their racial laws.

[Winston]

Really? They should put some of this stuff in history books, for foreigners to study at the high school level.

My point was that if a handful of the black guests had inquired the same of the waitress, would there have been the same reaction?

[Kuciwalker]

You take US history in high school?

[chequita guevara]

Most people would be offended by it, yes, but it wouldn't generate the same visceral reaction due to the fact that Blacks have never oppressed whites in the United States, whereas antiBlack oppression is still, unfortunately, all too common.

[Winston]

So, acts of latent racism is actually worse when practiced by specific races than when it's done by others.

Sounds like baloney to me.

[Nubclear]

Perhaps a scenario a European might recognise more:

Would it be more offensive if a Jew asked to sit away from Germans, or if a German asked to sit away from Jews?

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Winston
So, acts of latent racism is actually worse when practiced by specific races than when it's done by others.

Sounds like baloney to me.

Eh. Che's pretty much correct.

edit: CT's example is perfect

[Winston]

Again, this is about the U.S., not Europe, so let's stick to the subject at hand.

I take it then that you think that blacks out of Georgia should have the right to ask to be seated apart from whites, without anyone raising an eyebrow? Whereas when whites do it, they should be branded racist?

[Nubclear]

I'm sorry Winston, I didn't say anything of the sort. I find racism, in either direction, to be deplorable. We should attempt to get to a point where the colour of a persons skin doesn't matter at all.
However, I can understand why blacks might be somewhat irate that they were subjugated and exploited in the manner that they were at the hands of, again, state-sponsored white supremacy. Thus, my emotional reaction to blacks asking to be sat apart is perhaps somewhat less negative than that of whites, because whites had and continue to have a history of racism when it comes to groups they don't consider "white" enough.

My example was an attempt to illustrate the situation for you in terms you may relate to more.

[Winston]

I think there's an undercurrent of bigotry in assuming that whites asking to be seated separtely must be viewed with more suspicion than blacks doing the same thing.

[Nubclear]

The poor whites So oppressed. Just like teh Christians

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Winston
So, acts of latent racism is actually worse when practiced by specific races than when it's done by others.

Sounds like baloney to me.

Yes, well, that's because some people like to pretend that individual acts of prejudice occur in a vaccuum, unconnected to history or environment. The point being that racism impacts some people much more than it does others. Also, decent people of any race are offended and embarressed when others of our kind make us look like asses.

[Winston]

Originally posted by Comrade Tassadar
The poor whites So oppressed. Just like teh Christians

You lose.