♫anna♫
Global Moderator
Aug 18 2017 - Always In Our Hearts
The Federal Reserve Act is the Betrayal of the American Revolution!
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karma:
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Post by ♫anna♫ on May 26, 2009 19:38:17 GMT
There are legimate cases of racial discrimination of course!
We've come to expect race factors to be sited automatically by defense lawyers, if applicable, in the trials of those accused of severe offenses.
Is claiming racial prejudice sometimes inappropriate?
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Post by DAS (formerly BushAdmirer) on May 27, 2009 23:50:59 GMT
Anna - In this day and age I think claiming racial discrimination is almost always bogus. Reverse discrimination is more likely than real racial discrimination. Look around. Everywhere you look you will see people who were hired because of race or sex or both. The latest US Supreme court nominee is a perfect example. Almost every TV News program is another example.
Just imagine the liberal outcry if any major TV network were to hire 3 white males to do the news, weather, and sports. Never mind that those three guys may have been the best applicants to have applied for those jobs. The station would be committing political suicide to hire them.
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♫anna♫
Global Moderator
Aug 18 2017 - Always In Our Hearts
The Federal Reserve Act is the Betrayal of the American Revolution!
e x a l t | s m i t e
karma:
Posts: 11,769
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Post by ♫anna♫ on May 28, 2009 2:51:34 GMT
Hi Das! Of course people will do whatever they can to get ahead these days and there are always some mean spirited people, who will make life difficult for others, if they can.
People with red hair were persecuted in the Middle Ages because this hair color was associated with witchcraft. I have a dear family member with red hair, whose chosen to dye his hair black to avoid the taunts he'd been getting. Why can't he play the "race card" and shut these taunters up?
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Post by Deleted on May 28, 2009 7:57:23 GMT
It does worry me that in all kinds of areas people try to claim discrimination where none exists.
Take English employment law; there is no case for unfair dismissal for an employee sacked in less than a year unless one of a handful of specified exceptions apply. Race and sexual discrimination are exceptions so dismissed workers are tempted to cry foul when there is no evidence. When I became involved in a trade union, some of my experienced colleagues greeted such claims with a kind of world-weariness; I was quite shocked to hear one hard-bitten activist say "oh no, not another black man who can't do his job claiming race discrimination."
People who belong to a disadvantage group should think carefully before claiming they have been picked upon. For a start, they belittle themselves if they go through life with an imaginary chip on their shoulder. Secondly, it spawns the kind of attitude I have tried to illustrate above; you see four dodgy or false attempts to play the race or sex card, and you may become prejudiced against the fifth - which may of course be quite genuine.
So far as the criminal law is concerned, I actually can't think of any cases where the "race card" has been played as Anna suggests.
Can you give us some examples?
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Post by Deleted on May 28, 2009 9:23:54 GMT
To be blunt, we had to deal with a handful of cases there was no evidence whatesover to prove the claim and where the people concerned could gather no support for it. Of course, many of the complaints don't get any further than a call to the union rep or ACAS. Without evidence there is no point bringing a case to a tribunal. If you look at the statistics, claims for sex discrimination do seem to fare worse than general Unfair Dismissal Cases or indeed for racial discrimination: this is the latest set of figures I could find. Can't cut and paste alas. 2007/8 Employment Tribunal StatisticsI had a quick glance at the 1999 /2000 stats and (if I've read the figues correctly) while claims for unfair dismissal were a little down eight years later and race discimination claims had roughly doubled, sex discrimination claims had seen a seven to eightfold increase, which might explain why so many fell by the wayside.
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Post by chefmate on May 28, 2009 12:46:57 GMT
The "race card" was played at OJ Simpson's murder trail and worked quite fine for his defense; he walked away from two murders.
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Post by Deleted on May 28, 2009 13:16:04 GMT
I can't remember the Simpson trial I'm afraid, so how did he use his colour as a defence? I mean, did he try to claim he'd been framed by racist police, or that they didn't bother to find the real culprit, or what?
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Post by mindy on May 28, 2009 14:43:05 GMT
You see this in the work place often. At least I do. There's one black girl at my work in an otherwise completely white envirement. Several times that she's gotten reprimanded because she isn't getting her work done, she's actually called the union and corporate office and claimed racial discrimination. It was really a bunch of b.s. but she likes to play the race card every time management reprimands her about her job performance- which isn't that great.
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Post by Liberator on May 28, 2009 15:16:30 GMT
There's a certain mentality that sadly glorifies hostile stereotypes about its kind. The result is to feel that to do the job as required is to betray the stereotype for a white, male, heterosexual ... whatever mainstream way of doing things and to claim that it isn't a question of doing it badly, it's one of doing it differently. There's sometimes a very small measure of truth, particularly when devout Jews or Muslims run into religious tabus that actually don't interfere but just look unfamiliar to outsiders. Usually it is just an excuse. At its very worst is a racism that sees all education as white cultural colonisation and acts in practice as a tool of white racists to keep the blacks as uneducated and uncivilised as they like to imagine them.
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Post by Deleted on May 28, 2009 16:20:37 GMT
It is probably true that if you are in a minority you will be scrutinised more closely, because of yor novelty value; even if you are not, you feel as if you are! I don't know about the rest of you, but this would make me feel a bit uncomfortable, and would probably lead me to underperform.
That isn't the same as discrimination of course - just a bit sad.
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Post by Liberator on May 28, 2009 16:26:27 GMT
You'll be scrutinised even more if too much PC has made everybody feel that you are different, they must tread on eggshells because anything might quite unknowingly offend your alien sensibilities and, being so weird, you might immediately take umbrage instead of possibly explaining if there really is an embarrassement. I once felt very out of place ordering roast pork with three other people I did not realise were all Jews (I knew one was). But I doubt it bothered them.
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