Posted by John Ballard
I haven't watched the whole conversation, but this snip makes me want to do so. Thurston hits several nails squarely on the head.
I hae been pondering this idea ever since the Trayvon Martin killing got into the national spotlight.
See what you think.
The Trayvon Martin affair has set off a much bigger sequence of events than plain old bigotry once did. The sore that had scabbed over has been torn open again and the country is bleeding both racism and bigotry -- and although they are codependent, racism and bigotry are not the same.
Racism is the belief that race is not only definable (it isn't) but that there is a hierarchy of abilities, privileges and expectations that derive from how they rank.
Bigotry, second cousin to racism, is an embedded prejudice aimed at just about any subset of society, whether identified by intelligence, religion, racial identity, country, social group or just about any metric the bigot chooses to apply.
American racism may be dimishing, but American bigotry is not. A case can be made that sans racism our bigotry is more evident than ever.
Here is a link to Baratunde Thurston's website.
And here is a link to Black Googler Network & @Google present: Baratunde Thurston, "How to Be Black"
He's promoting his book with a very straightforward marketing theme: If you don't buy this book you're a racist. Before you get all pissed, know that he is a stand-up comedian and on staff at the Onion.
The talk is about half an hour followed by Q & A.
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