Is White the new Black?

[lady123]

There has been a profound amount of news interest, worldly events and thoughts over the past centuries on the racial abuse Black people receive.  Dyer's aim, in my opinion, was to raise the same attention onto Whites.  Is it morally correct to subject Whites to the same slander? Have we all not grown up yet to recognize that despite our skin colour, we are all just human beings? 

[Millie]

Having read Dyers chapter I found it quite frustrating and in my opinion a little outdated.  At one point I felt as though I shoud be ashamed of being white. Then there seemed to be an about turn from dyer when he seems to say we should be celebrating being white.  I do understand what Dyer was trying to express and yes in certain circumstances things havn't moved on. I beleive that we should all be treated equal, although in reality we havn't reached this point yet.  Oxford is a cosmopolitan and multi-cultural town perhaps we are living in a bubble due to having very little racial tension in this area.  However I would like to beleive that we have moved on since the 80's when this was written. 

[Victoria]

 Have we all not grown up yet to recognize that despite our skin colour, we are all just human beings? is a good point I think but I don't think that we (white poeple) act as if we all are just humans. there is always a difference or a reson why an action is done in a way maybe because of gender colour etc... is what I have understood from the reading.
I don't think white is the new black in a way as from the reading it would then be reflected all back onto white man kind! and that would cuz self involvment and almost a rejection of other races as concentrating on our 'Whiteness'. if we were to do so though then yes white would be the new blackness I think.

[gerrberr]

dspite the fact the Dyer's idea seems to be quite controversial, I must agree that  we take whiteness as something normal. it seems like the world is overpowered by whiteness, if you look at comercials on TV in the magazines, you rearly find a black person in the adds on their own, however you will find white people in the adds on their own. That is quite shocking. Also there have been an experiment done on young children which doll would they choose black or white, and majoirity of black children answered white one. One girl even says that she thinks that the dolls is ugly because it is black - check out youtube and doll experiement. This is the reality that children are learnt by the media.

[Chesca]

No it is not because the whites have not been through anything and the blacks have had history of racial abuse from the whites, which causes a sense of guilt. Dyers aim is to make everything fair and recognise whites as a race by doing this and creating things such as white studies may prose a problem. The only reason why blacks are given such a month as black history month or African studies, I believe is down to guilt and what the blacks have been through. And yes we have grown up to realise we are all humans no matter the skin colour. I remember from a young age that colour was never a factor; you were either a boy or girl which equalled us to be human beings. As we grow we experience many things either racial abuse, prejudices e.t.c. so it opens our eyes to colour and to whom we are. So although we know we are all humans beings despite our skin colour, we also know that we are separated by our skin colour. Which poses the question, is it right for the colour of your skin to have an affect on the way you are treated even though we are all human beings.

[supernoodle275]

I feel that of course black people should not have to deal with the slander that they have had to in history, nor should they have had to then.
However I feel that Dyer is slightly unnecessarily pessimistic towards white people, in thinking that we would now all single out a black person just because they are black and yet not do it to a white person. If there was a photograph of a black man and a white man, I would label each as such, I would not simply refer to the white man as 'man'.

I feel his personal desire to have been accepted into such a culture shadowed his view rather negatively on his own, white race

[Tiffany]

Race is not a pretty issue to talk about these days. I often wonder if talking about race will really help people understand and accept a culture as oppose to divide races even further. Sometimes I wonder why there is this unspoken need, or rather convention, to hyphenate a person’s nationality—“Asian-American”, “Japanese-American”, etc. Why can’t we just refer to people as simply “Americans”? People living in France don’t refer to each other as “Polish-French” or “Italian-French”. Under the flag, they’re just French. Why keep saying whites?
it is people themselves make it complicate,some generations only pround of themselves and reject others which are wrong and very short sighted.
we should move on!

[Natty]

White people will always be made to feel guilty for something they as individuals are not guilty of. A lot of the world was colonised by a Empire that no longer exists, and is not trying to defend it's actions. I recognise the fact that there is still prejudice in the world, but collectively should we judged and punished for that? Surely it should be something that goes through the legal system, or through the institution in which it exists, and only individuals guilty of it should be held accountable.

I think the comedian Russell Peters aproaches the subject really well. He is a Canadian born Indian comedian that openly mocks every race in order to avoid being called a racist, because by laughing at everyone he effectively isn't targeting anyone. He says that white people are the least racist people in the world because they constantly feel they are the most racist. I am in no way saying I agree with this, but I feel that many of the things he comments on, are accurate. For example, he recalls an instance where he was meeting a friend after a show, and his assistant said there was someone at the stage door asking for him, Russell says, is he a black guy? And the assistant (who is white) says, I don't know, I didn't really notice. Which is ridiculous, if you speak to someone, you would notice if they were black or not. Russell Peters points out that people have become too scared to not just say "a black man", but even recognise someones heritage.

I do think PC has gone too far. We are an intelligent group of human beings, surely we can recognise what is and is not appropriate to say to someone else.

[ToYz]

Dyer is right that whites should be seen as a race just like asians and blacks have a specific race, but this is someting that should have been established many decades ago whilst other races were given a category. However, to make the 'white race' a subject now would only dig up the resentful pass that the whites put the blacks through. What does it really mean to have a race? what is the point? to distinguish ethnicity and cultural differences or to distinguish groups that have had a major oppressed history from those who haven't? how do we say whether one has suffered enough; earning them a racial category? If the definition is more to do with a suffered history then how do whites earn a category here? is the whole problem in the old term 'race' for early definitions drew upon major damage and not the minority? what if some whites own a suffered history, yet on a personal level? Once the true defintion of 'Race' is clarified (if possible), then one can decide whether the 'white race' deserves or needs to be made a subject to begin with. The problem lies within the term.

[Alexpecko]

dspite the fact the Dyer's idea seems to be quite controversial, I must agree that  we take whiteness as something normal. it seems like the world is overpowered by whiteness, if you look at comercials on TV in the magazines, you rearly find a black person in the adds on their own, however you will find white people in the adds on their own. That is quite shocking. Also there have been an experiment done on young children which doll would they choose black or white, and majoirity of black children answered white one. One girl even says that she thinks that the dolls is ugly because it is black - check out youtube and doll experiement. This is the reality that children are learnt by the media.

In response to Gerrberr's earlier post i must strongly disagree with some of the points you have made. the world is quite clearly not 'overpowered by whiteness'. The world that I live in is multicultural. In fact the issue of having a fair racial representation in advertising has reached a point where in fact 'Whites' are being unfairly represented in the cross section of society supposedly being demonstrated.

Im not sure what relevance the doll experiment holds, it appears that you suggest that children have a predilection to white people?!

I feel that the world and society Dyer lived in and is writing about, is very far removed and does not represent England today and therefore his writing must be contextualised prior to digestion.

[katievolone]

Having read the above posts, I am of the opinon that, yes our society today is multicultural but the problem of inequality is still prevelant. We only need to look at cases such as Damilola Taylor in 2000, a mere 10 years ago when he was violently attacked and killed by his peers for being a different ethnicity.
Despite this, racial crime is slowly becoming deminished and as a young white British woman, I, along with many of my era and peers hold no racial prejudice, whereas I am strongly aware that many of our parents era do hold such views, which just goes to show views change faster than time.

I am living in a multicultural world and will continue to for the rest of my life, however unfortunaltely I am unable to speak for the rest of society, but I know I can for some.

[jessbeat]

You are right, whatever race, no one should be subject to any kind of criticism. I however can see no end to it. It seems as though things have only marginally changed since segregation. It is still seen as improper in a lot of cultures for a lot of races to mix with each other in a relationship sense.

We are living in a modern age and things need to move forward.

[sianperkins89]

I do not think it's morally correct to subject any racial group to slander or prejudice. Yes it's true it has happened in the past as mentioned, the slave trade, and it continues to happen these days, albeit mostly implicitly. I'm not sure I agree that the world is exposed to more whiteness. There are many dark skinned people in this world who have never seen a white person. I doubt there are many white people that have never seen a dark skinned person. However this does relate to the notion that white people have more privileges, and they live mostly in more developed countries that other races and cultures want to share in, and have a right to do so, whereas there are countries and cultures in this world that white westerners would not want to visit let alone set up home in. It's true that there are more white people in adverts and on tv than white people but that is relative to race in the country...according to wikipedia, the UK is composed of 92% white people, so shouldn't this be represented in the media? Would it make sense to have more black/asian etc. than white people in the media as if it's the norm when according to statistics, white is the majority in this country? It may be promoting equality and non-discrimination, which is great, but it would not representing reality, which is that the majority of people in the UK and europe are white.

[07016311]

I agree that we do live in a more multi-cultural world, and I do believe that the chapter by Dyer is outdated. I also agree that it is unfair that black people face the slander that they do but at the same time I don't think it is fair that white people are made to feel guilty about it. The main point that pivots on this argument is the mistreatment of African slaves, this was a very long time ago and it is unfair on both black people and white people to be carrying on this same argument  today. After all, it is just the colour of the skin, why should it matter? I believe that times have definitely changed since this chapter was written.

[ilikethequeen]

I do believe that Dyer's writings brought up interesting questions and realisations, however, I feel that it will not solve racial inequality by making people feel bad for being born white (I, myself, felt that I had done something wrong by being white and thus being the exact person that Dyer wrote about who is unaware of their race). It seems rather a passe idea,although we do have to bear in mind that this book was first published 20 years ago and since then our society has become far more multi-cultural and understanding, to be pointing out that the West is ruled by vacuous white people and drawing a line between white people and other cultures or trying to change white people. Instead, we should be seeking to educate all parties for better understanding, not for the purpose of creating one general 'race' but so that we can live as one society that appreciates and encourages each races backgrounds.