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Forums - Politics Discussion - An open letter to the black community of VGC

 



- "If you have the heart of a true winner, you can always get more pissed off than some other asshole."

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RolStoppable said:

Hi, my name is Rol. I am a VGC-holic.

I grew up in Austria, a country that is infamous for being less than friendly to people who are different. It wasn't until the age of 12 that I learned that there are words for foreigners and people of other ethnicities that are not derogatory, because xenophobia and racism are so deeply ingrained in this country. I suppose it's part of our DNA and I am sure most of you know which events took place in the 1930s and early 1940s. For many years of my life I've gone with the flow and made fun of Neger - a term that I don't need to translate - without even knowing why we had so much disdain for black people. Austria didn't colonize the African continent like, for example, France, so seeing a black man or woman in person was an incredible rarity and therefore all the hatred couldn't possibly be based on any real life events.

I think fear of the unknown is the biggest driving force for racism. People get tremendously paranoid of bad things that could happen if those people settled nearby and eventually they begin to mistake their frightening fantasies for reality. VGC offered me the opportunity to communicate with people from all over the world, so I could talk to people of various ethnicities and races free of prejudice, because in my mind everyone defaulted to white male. It wasn't until someone revealed personal details that I saw them as something other than white and male. It was an interesting experience without a doubt. My findings were that black people are rude, selfish, ignorant, arrogant and stupid.

Indeed, there is no discernable difference between white and black people, because I found all the same things in white people. The same holds true for positive traits. The biggest thing that changed in my time here is the level of my reaction to the revelation that someone is not a white male, but actually a black male. A decade ago I was like "Whoooooaaaaa, d21lewis. You are black?!?!?! But you were always a cool dude in my mind...", so there was shock and disappointment. Over the years it became less pronounced and it was more like "Whoa, NobleTeam360 is black? But he is really cool. I mean, sure, he is a Dallas Cowboys fan, but everyone has their faults."

NobleTeam360 helped me to get over the shock by saying that he is only a quarter black.. or an eighth? I don't really remember, but what's important is that it really did help at the time, because it made me think of how I prefer milk chocolate over dark chocolate. Although lately I've taken more of a liking to darker chocolate because it has a less sugary taste, so I don't swear by Milka anymore... hold on, I didn't make this thread to talk about chocolate.

What I am trying to say is that my time on VGC has made me an at least tiny bit better person than I was a good decade ago. Nowadays white guys actually freak me out more than black people, because when I make racist posts on this site, it's not the black community who is the most offended. I get PMs from white guys like "Don't you know that black people have no sense of humor? Have you never watched Damon Wayans' show My Wife and Kids?", and I just shake my head. That show wasn't bad. And more importantly, if we can't joke and laugh about something together, then we really have an actual problem. That is all.

Thanks for reading.

They had so much fun back in the days.



Being on vacation is always great.

Last edited by Barozi - on 11 September 2018

I don't know. As a black person, I never found you offensive. Anyways, thanks for the apology I guess. I'm glad you're less ignorant now than you were when you first joined : ) (not saying you don't still have a long way to go)



Huh, always knew you were a jerk but never took you for a racist. Well it's good to see basic common sense triumph over brainwashing.



People make the mistake of thinking criticizing culture is criticizing race. Races are largely the same, it's cultures that are different. Unfortunately those on the left sometimes fall in to the trap of not being able to differentiate between the value of cultures, because they see segments of racial groups that identify with those cultures instead. So you end up with people unable to speak out against certain religions, or segments of population (which may happen to be a smaller race homogeneous section of a population, but which isn't it's defining characteristic) because they identify doing so with speaking out against the race, rather than culture.

So don't be racist (duh). But also don't be someone that can't see the difference between criticizing culture and criticizing race. It's happening a lot nowadays.

Also when you mention this...

"I think fear of the unknown is the biggest driving force for racism. People get tremendously paranoid of bad things that could happen if those people settled nearby and eventually they begin to mistake their frightening fantasies for reality. "

I wonder if you might be confusing cultural concern/protectionism with racism. My friend who is Polish for example does not want the country to take in any refugees from the middle east. Not because he is racist, but because he wants Poland to maintain its national identity and because there is a legitimate concern for security. You might disagree, but that's not the same thing as being racist. Now sometimes those sentiments are coupled with actual racism for sure, but they're not a necessary feature.

Also a lot of people in this thread seem to be judging groups based on small sample sized personal anecdotes. Anecdotes of a few people really cant tell you anything about any single group of the 7 billion people living on this planet.

Last edited by contestgamer - on 11 September 2018

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I'm a white American male. Luckily, I've had exposure to many different people of many different backgrounds. My longest lasting romantic relationships were 5 years with a Nicaraguan girl, 5 years with a Korean girl, 2 years with a Pakistani, and now I'm married to a Croatian that I've known for 6 years. I also live in a very diverse area (Annandale, VA, USA). So, I've learned a lot about people from different cultures, and of had the opportunity to travel outside the US a little bit.

Basically, I learned that all people are about 98% the same. But, someone being similar to you is not remarkable. So, we tend to only notice the differences.



As a black male, I never found you that offensive . I've see much more offensive stuff by other users on here. But thanks for the apology I guess lol. there were quite a few members that were black that I met here and chatted with regularly



This is a funny post. I have seen you around and we typically have positive interactions although I never thought about what may be going through your head about me. I do find myself to be funny in the way of thinking everyone is not racist until they express as much. What I am saying is, I would have never known you were racist based on the posting habits I have seen you have place on display.

Growth is a wonderful thing. Muhammad Ali once said, "The man who views the world the same way at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years" and if you had kept that mindset for the rest of your life, you would have wasted much of your life. Good on you.



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This is Rol so not sure if serious...



Morgan Freeman says it best.
Interviewer: "How are we going to get rid of Racism?"
Morgan Freeman: "Stop talking about it!"

It's only an issue because people make it to be an issue... If people stopped bringing up race entirely, stopped seeing race and see the individuals themselves, all the issues disappear.

I think VGC strives to be as equal-opportunity as possible regardless of political conviction, race, gender, sexuality, religion... You name it. And that is fantastic, but people aren't just those descriptors, they are people first.



--::{PC Gaming Master Race}::--