New Meme For The Week: ARROGANT.

[Solomon]

Black people are "arrogant" when they won't shut up or take their "place."

White people are never "arrogant", they are "confident."

Dick Cheney isn't "arrogant". Not even after telling somebody to "go fuck yourself" and after shooting someone directly in the face and then obstructing justice.

George Bush is not "arrogant". He's a man of conviction. Confident in sticking with his plan, no matter how stupid it becomes.

Rumsfeld is not "arrogant".

Tom Delay is not "arrogant", neither is Jack Abramoff.

Even white democrats are not "arrogant." They may be something else, but never "arrogant."

White people don't loot, they find food. Blacks play the "race card." We don't play the hand we're dealt, somehow we cheat and sneak a "race card" in there. How handy and dandy is that. Racism doesn't exist anymore, it's just the "race card".

When ten cops beat the hell out of a black man for being so "arrogant" as to raise his hands to protect blows to his head, it's called self-defense for the cops, attack and assault on the police for the black man.

As an aside. How come whenever there's a white fugitve at large, KNOWN TO BE ARMED AND DANGEROUS, they can manage to arrest the guy without beating him or killing him? When blacks are fugitives, especially if unarmed, they usually get whole bullet clips emptied at them.

So many Brunos! All over the place, especially here at DU. Scratch the surface just a tiny bit, and out comes the thinly veiled venom.

[Deep13]

1. "So many Brunos!"

Um, what's a Bruno?

[Solomon]

4. Glad you asked. Bruno is a character on a reality show in which

a white family is made up to look black and black family is made up to look white.

Bruno is the white guy who refuses to see any racism at all. To him, it's all in black people's minds. They look for racism where it doesn't exist.

When he goes in a store as a black man, he thinks the store clerk is being very helpful when they follow him around and ask if they can help him.

The worst problem with Bruno is that whenever there are situations where black people are doing good things that do not fit his stereotype of black people, he can't take it. He avoids the good stuff because it conflicts with his image. He's got to get out of there. Blacks discussing moral issues in raising a family - ouch, "I can't take this, I gotta get out of here". In that way, he gets to maintain his attitude toward blacks, which is terrible.

His wife on the other hand, exhibits the unconscious, non-intentional racism that is so prevalent today. She is totally out of it, BUT, willing to learn from her experience as a "black person".
She makes mistakes out of ignorance, not bad intentions, and gets totally confused by the reaction of blacks to something she said. But her eyes are opened and she realizes she needs to make an effort to understand the differences.

But to Bruno, there's no effort necessary. It's all the blacks fault. They won't work, talk right, eat right, raise there kids right, etc.

His attitude can be summed up in this one comment he made on one of the earlier episodes: "When I was in high school I was the best player on the team, but the blacks guys wouldn't give him the ball. " (He never said anything about why the coach would let this happen).

His attitude is a true metaphor for the american way of life. If we level the playing field and let blacks play, "we won't ever get the ball again."

The wife is devastated when she feels the racism. But Bruno ignores it. His close mindedness is so bad that it's starting to cause problems in their marriage.

[Deep13]

9. Easier for Bruno to live in denial, blame the victim ...

... than it is to be self critical.

[Klukie]

2. I agree with your overall view that racism still exists....

anyone who says otherwise is a liar. I do however take issue with your generalization of whites and this particular forum. There are those who call themselves democrats that are most definately racist. There is no denying that, but to lump us all together I daresay makes you equally as guilty of the atrocity you accuse so many of. I think that this administration and many of its cronies are the most arrogant assholes on the planet. I would never call them confident. Ever! The whole Cynthia McKinney situation has obviously angered you, but I would be careful to avoid becoming what you hate.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

3. Bullshit.

Total, complete, and utter bullshit.

I've heard "arrogant" used to describe this administration thousands of times, on television. Maybe if you're watching Fox News they're "confident".

And if you're talking about DU, you can probably find millions upon millions of times that the word "arrogant" has been used for white males.

So quite frankly, I find YOU to be the racist here.

[Solomon]

5. Riiiiiiightttt!

Okay Bruno.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

6. Time for you to look in the mirror.

[Klukie]

7. Anger tends to take away all reason.

[Binka]

13. Solomon Don't Waste Your Breath

You know where the cool cats hang these days.:hi:

[baby_mouse]

15. Is it possible for a white person to disagree with you

and NOT be a Bruno?

[baby_mouse]

16. self-delete.

[theHandpuppet]

8. Good post.

Thanks for saying what might be tough, but we all deserve to be forced to confront the demon every once in a while.

Women, BTW, too often get the same treatment.

Whereas men are described with adjectives such as confident, decisive, assertive, strong or outspoken, women displaying those same traits are oft described as bitchy, arrogant, pushy, bossy... men are players whilst women are sluts... the list goes on. It's a sly game of semantics, but one too few recognize unless they happen to be on the wrong side of power. We have to ask ourselves just why and when complaining about something, rightly or wrongly, became "bitching", or why we use the words "bitch" or "faggot" to insult men. Or why, when attacking some neocon on DU, there are those who immediately say "so and so must be gay". Yes, gay folks can also relate.

As I said, thanks for the post. Minding our language is more than avoiding those four letter words.

[cali]

10. Is there racism?

Absolutely. Is there racism on DU? Probably. Is finding Cynthia McKinney something less than a hero in this whole mess racism? Not neccessarily. Is describing her as arrogant racist? Again, not neccessarily. Cynthia Tucker described her that way. Is she a racist? Or a pawn of racists? Very doubtful.

As other folks have pointed out, the people you stated are not cast as arrogant, are actually frequently referred to as arrogant. Really, arrogant is not a racist code word. It may be used that way, but it may be used to describe someone who's behaving arrogantly- whatever their race.

[lukasahero]

11. I am often ashamed these days

Thank you for bringing up a difficult discussion. You're going to catch a lot of flack for this from people who are afraid to see what you describe in themselves.

You will not catch flack from me. All you speak is the truth and we should all be ashamed that it's still reality today. It's sick and it's so sad.

[Klukie]

12. I have to disagree.

While the overall theme of the existance of racism is an absolute truth, there are to many generalizations in this op for me. These generalizatons are written as a whole truth and they are anything but. We must be careful because generalizing can lead to stereotyping and stereotyping is definately a form of racism.

[lukasahero]

14. Yup we disagree

Sorry, I don't believe in reverse discrimination which it sounds like you are warning against.

Someone here once said, "oh that's brilliant, get a thousand years head start and THEN say everyone should play fair." I thought that was the best description of a white man's privelege as any I had ever heard.

Sometimes generalizations are just generalizations. I can't imagine why anyone who does not perpetrate the behaviors being generalized would take such offense to the generalization. :shrug:

[Klukie]

17. Well I guess we will just have to agree to disagree.