From: drollin@seq.uncwil.edu (David A. Rollins)
Newsgroups: soc.motss
Subject: Re: WARNING: Stealth African Marauding soc.motss
Date: 11 Oct 92 22:35:03 GMT
Organization: Univ. of North Carolina @ Wilmington

ST402341@brownvm.brown.edu (Gary Byma) writes:


>I found your posting deeply distressing. And perhaps you are right when you
>say that race relations in this country are not improving. However, for me
>personally, race relations have continued to improve. While I can never really
>understand what it is like to grow up as a member of a racial minority, I
>learned from a friend that it means daily getting up and facing the
>possibility of encountering prejudice and bigotry. And I have not merely
>learned to tolerate minority members, but I believe that my attitudes and
>views have changed and continue to change. I, like you, wish for the day
>when skin color, gender, sexual orientation or whatever might set you
>apart as a minority, won't matter. But, as my father once told me, the
>only person I have the power to change is myself. And I am attempting to
>do that. Furthermore, I attempt to persuade others to change themselves,
>to get them to see their own prejudice and bigotry. Were I in a position
>of power, I might be able to do more. Alas, I am not.
>What really distresses me is your rage. I cannot judge the rightness or
>or wrongness of the rage, but I hope that recognizing it will help you
>deal with it. Confront it. Otherwise it will only grow. And the object
>of your rage will not be the only victim. You yourself will pay a heavy
>penalty. Please recognize that not every white person is the enemy. Some
>of us are allies and we would dearly like to be part of the solution.

>Gary Byma

Gary, I found your response very reassuring. You expressed my
sentiments. I communicate with others in these forums to express
my ideas and to exchange ideas with others. Were it not for instances
like these, nobody would know what race I am or what anybody's race
is, for that matter.

I understand Donald's rage, but I do not agree with his feelings or his
solution to venting that rage.

I have friends of all different races, and I and my friends never give
our racial differences a thought. Who cares about race when you are
friends?

As for the topics at hand, I do not perceive them as being exclusive. 
As someone else has said, you always have the option of "Kill" ing
the thread. Now, if there were a topic that seemed decidedly more
relative to Black people, and some White person had complained, I think
that many Black participants would come out of the woodwork to condemn
him. I see nothing different here.

Unless a post is obviously a racial attack, there can be no such thing
as a topic which is racially exclusive. Donald's problem with the
posting in this group is not a group problem. It is his problem, and
he needs to deal with it.

I am Black, and I do not agree with him at all. I think he needed to
pounce and he chose to pounce here. He is about to face action for
a violent act that he admittedly committed. He should blame himself and
not everybody else for his actions.

Now, in support of Donald, if I had been challenged by the insensitive
jerk who told him to "Suck my dick!," I would have planned my method
of retaliation, however wrong. If I chose to beat him up, bash him with
a baseball bat, or castrate him, nobody would have known it was me, not
even the victim. I guess that I am deceptive in my psychosis, but that
is how I handle my revenge.

Anyway, your response is the most rational that I have read so far, and
it sounds like the way I would have handled the situation, being far
removed from the emotion or the incident.

-- 
David Rollins                 |  I OWN A COMMODORE/AMIGA 2000.  
Email: drollin@seq.uncwil.edu |  I'M GOOD ENOUGH. I'M SMART ENOUGH,
Voice: 919-763-4115           |  AND DOGGONE IT, PEOPLE LIKE ME!