You are white.

Bolded - a straight up example of the overanalysing mentioned in Shiken's post. It doesn't help.

It's true that talking about racism will not make racism and racial inequality go away. It's also true that ignoring it won't make it go away. But doing something positive that will unite all groups, will certainly go a long way into making that happen.

Nobody can deny that there has been progress towards complete equality between groups, and nobody can deny that there's still a long way to go. Unfortunately, it will take generations before that goal is achieved, because the horrific way in which various groups have treated other various groups are still within living memory.  And it will never be achieved until all groups realise that history is in fact something that should be learned from, not something that is used to antagonise one another and perpetuate rifts. Until that is realised, there will still always be groups, meaning that people will never be able to work together to stamp out racism and inequality. All they'll do is keep talking about it, accusing one another of it, and racism in all its various guises will continue to flourish.

It's not an overanalysis. It's an observation of bias. Whether said bias is conscious or unconscious is unclear, but it's there. Why is it there in the first place? Maybe the person in question has concluded that whites are superior based on his own observations, or maybe it's a result of their upbringing and education.

How can racism go away? Or better question, what can the average person do? My answer to that is that everyone can examine themselves. If everyone made an honest effort to lay off their own prejudices, racism would become a lesser issue in society. This shouldn't be looked at on a group level, but rather on an individual basis. If you consider yourself a part of a group and said group's actions do nothing to reduce racism or even fuel it, then you become prone to use the group's actions as justification for your own inaction or racistic behavior. After all, racism is all about putting humans in groups (Team White, Team Black etc.).

Personally, I have racistic tendencies. But that's something I have to work on myself, not have some group do it for me. Shiken's point that Morgan Freeman said it best is terribly flawed. Not talking about a topic doesn't make it go away, it makes it ignored. Willful ignorance is denial. That helps nobody.

Read your post and realize that your way of thinking is part of the problem.  "Why did you generalize nonwhites as part of the problem?"

Oh please, anyone can see that it is directed to EVERYONE.  However because I put the parentheses in a sentence between whites and non-whites, I have to be talking about one group. /s

BTW reread it.  You have it flip flopped.  If you are going to quote me to try to make a point, at least get the quote right.  Also do not bring out one aspect of my post and ignore the rest.  I never said to simply ignore it.  I said everyone needs to shut up about it and just treat eachother as people instead of people of color.  This will never happen if people are always taking about it, but we are too hard headed as a species to actually pull it off anyway.

Shiken's response to Final-Fan didn't properly address what Final-Fan pointed out.

We actually agree on most things, where we differ is the perception of the Shiken/Final-Fan conversation. For Shiken it's easy to say that people shouldn't talk about racism anymore, because it's not going to be detrimental to white people, the group he identifies with. Also, I don't think that Final-Fan meant that upsetting racists is a bad thing, but that's something he should elaborate on himself, because there's not much of a point if we continue this discussion based on guesswork.

I think you've completely misunderstood what I was trying to say.  I'll readdress the argument and try to do a more thorough job of explaining myself. 

Your post that I was replying to: 
Morgan Freeman said it best. Racism will not stop until we just stop talking about it. Until a Black man can look at a white man and vice versa and just see a man, it will never end. Everyone who is not white wants to play the victim (not literally everyone but you get it), and many whites want to pretend that racism is not a thing.
All races need to just shut up about the subject and see eachother as just men and women. No Black Pride, Asian Pride, Gay Pride, etc will ever get rid of racism. In fact, theh will only fuel it. This thread is a perfect example of that, just look at the title. The more you advertise it, the more people will talk about it. The more you talk about it the more racism will come out.
Everyone needs to just shut up and live as human beings. It really IS that simple. Unfortunately we are beings who over analyze every little thing to find SOMETHING to complain about. That in mind, racism will never end.

1.  You said "everyone who is not white wants to play the victim", generalizing that all non-whites do this.  Then you backtracked with your parenthetical statement, "(not literally everyone but you get it)".  This is in contrast to the second part of the sentence, "many whites want to pretend that racism is not a thing".  So when speaking about whites, you made a statement clearly indicating that many (but presumably not all) whites are part of the problem.  However, when speaking about non-whites, you at first made a statement that was a sweeping generalization saying that all non-whites were part of the problem, and then had to walk it back to recognize that that clearly wasn't actually the case.  I never said anything about you not directing your statement at both groups:  I said that you talked about the two groups in different ways, and one of them was more over-generalized than the other.  I decided to illustrate this fact for you by repeating back to you your statement but with whites more generalized than non-whites (the reverse of your original statement), which you misconstrued as me misquoting you. 

2.  You say that people should just shut up and treat each other right.  That's fine as far as it goes.  But if people aren't treating each other right, shouldn't they speak up?  That's the conundrum that it seems to me that you are ignoring.  If injustice exists, if people "just shut up" then they are ignoring the problem.  But if they speak up, then the people who are perpetrating what other people see as the injustice (but which the ones doing it see as perfectly fine) are obviously going to pitch a fit.  That is what I meant when I said "The more you talk about racism, the more racists get upset."

3.  I think that pretty much addresses most of what you were saying in your post, so I don't believe I was "only bringing out one aspect of your post and ignoring the rest".  I guess one thing that the above only touches on tangentially is your claim that talking about racial issues fuels racial divisions and hatred.  Although I do believe the above does not ignore that issue, let me address it more directly here.  While I do somewhat sympathize with that perspective, thoughtful people should be able to discuss the issue without inflaming hatred; and if there are already problems it's not realistic to think they can be solved without talking about them!  What I think is often the case in these kinds of situations is ugly truths being revealed when those who are not being hurt by it would rather not have to look at it.  Like there's a bunch of rotten food in the back of the refrigerator, and not only do you not want to be the one to have to clean it, you don't even want someone else to be cleaning it when you're there in the kitchen.  And, to carry the analogy, some people are also arguing over whether the milk has really gone bad or not. 

Bolded - a straight up example of the overanalysing mentioned in Shiken's post. It doesn't help.

It's true that talking about racism will not make racism and racial inequality go away. It's also true that ignoring it won't make it go away. But doing something positive that will unite all groups, will certainly go a long way into making that happen.

Call it what you like, but it is still an example of overanalysis that can ignite and/or perpetuate hatred. See Shiken's response to Final-fan a couple of posts up from this. In fact, your entire first paragraph could be construed as overanalysis. It doesn't help deal with racism, and as Final-fan said, all talk does is upset racists.

Upsetting racists doesn't stop them from being racist. It can easily exacerbate the problem.

Hopefully my other post will clear up everything that Shiken misunderstood and make myself clearer to you, too, Hedra.  Upsetting racists is, all else being equal, undesirable (as is upsetting anyone).  However, when people expose racism in action, and especially when they take action to put a stop to it, racists becoming upset is going to be an unavoidable side effect.  It's very rare that society makes progress without having pushback from those who like things the way they are. 

(Let me be clear:  I am not saying that everyone who gets upset about these issues is racist.  But "all talk does is upset racists" is not what I meant at all.)

My initial point in all of this was about how overanalysis just doesn't help the cause.

Shiken: "Unfortunately we are beings who over analyze every little thing to find SOMETHING to complain about. That in mind, racism will never end."

I had highlighted a paragraph in your response to that comment (which I have requoted at the top of this post here) as an example of just that kind of overanalysis, which subsequently sparked the debate between Rol and myself.

The misconceptions in the resulting fallout between you and Shiken pretty much demonstrate the negative effect overanalysis can have.

I stand by what I say -  upsetting racists will not stop them from being racist. Talking about racism, exposing racism, highlighting issues, putting in laws to improve racial equality and monitoring statistics are all well and good, and that's moving everything in the right direction on the surface. Yes, it will upset racists, but it won't stop them from being racist, nor will it guarantee against a racist backlash further down the line.

If you really want progress in society, racism has to be educated out of people, and I mean educated out of people from all sides, over a period of generations in a positive way. The change of heart has to come from all those people, and they need help and encouragement to be able to do that.

Final-Fan - my initial point in all of this was about how overanalysis just doesn't help the cause.

Shiken: "Unfortunately we are beings who over analyze every little thing to find SOMETHING to complain about. That in mind, racism will never end."

I had highlighted a paragraph in your response to that comment (which I have requoted at the top of this post here) as an example of just that kind of overanalysis, which subsequently sparked the debate between Rol and myself.

The misconceptions in the resulting discussion between you and Shiken pretty much demonstrate the negative effect overanalysis can have.

I stand by what I say -  upsetting racists will not stop them from being racist. Talking about racism, exposing racism, highlighting issues, putting in laws to improve racial equality and monitoring statistics are all well and good, and that's moving everything in the right direction on the surface. Yes, it will upset racists, but it won't stop them from being racist, nor will it guarantee against a racist backlash further down the line.

If you really want progress in society, racism has to be educated out of people, and I mean educated out of people from all sides, over a period of generations in a positive way. The change of heart has to come from all those people, and they need help and encouragement to be able to do that.