Chris Rock: "White people need to own the actions of their ancestors"

It really bothers me that the knee-jerk reaction to any talk on race that a black person initiates by white people is "Oh hey look at this period in history white people suffered under slavery too. Black people sold white slaves/But look how the English/Americans treated us etc etc". As if this makes the discussion on race by people of any black ethnicity immediately diminished.

Let me ask you these questions: So, white people have been discriminated against and have suffered slavery at some time or another. But tell me do the majority of white people have to be worried about being discriminated against or racially targeted both inside and outside their own country. Who is the majority in charge globally? Who are the colonialists? Non-Caucasians were still viewed as quite inferior up until very recently and in many places that racism holds though people are not as vocal. How many white ethnicities have to be worried about being ill-treated globally? What is the marker of beauty in non-Caucasians? Is it a coincident is mirrors white ideals of beauty (Straight, sleek soft hair, pale skin, non-asian eyes etc)?

Yes, white people have been targeted and some ethnicities have been marked as inferior, but white people have not been deemed inferior overall and certainly those ethnicities have not been deemed inferior and singled out for the same length of time that black people of all ethnicities have. Yes, within black and Asians communities people are targeted depending on religious beliefs and where they come from, that happens in every race in every country, but that is not the issue that is being discussed. Racism by some white individuals against non-Caucasians is, I suppose African-Americans just tend to be more vocal about it in American given their history.

If you think of it this way, outside of Africa, in the majority of countires black people will be judged and marked out and seen as different because of their skin colour (a thing they cannot change like accent or finical situation). Even within Africa depending on the region you are from and the darkness of your skin colour you will be looked down upon by those of lighter skin colour like in North Africa because having a white skin colour due to colonialism is associated with power and beauty.

Now if you are a white person and you go to any country you will not be judged on the colour of your skin. In Africa though I am not saying that there may be discrimination against white people, more than likely you will be deemed to have wealth and power due to your skin colour and thus be afforded respect. Yes white people have been discriminated against in (Irish in England/America, Eastern European etc) but over time they have assimilated. And do you know why? Because they are the same colour as the majority who reside in that country. Then simply change the accent and your assimilated.

For people who have been marked as racially inferior across the world like Asians and blacks assimilation is not so easy. Therefore, while obviously Chris Rock was focused on race relations in the US, race is an issue world wide. Even being black and wealthy does not immediately shed away racist ideas. However I do believe it is wrong for Chris Rock to assume that all black Americans think that same way over an incident and that white Americans all share the same opinion over an incident. That just generalising. I think what Chris Rock was saying, (and just to be clear I am not a fan of Chris Rock's stand up I think he's a crap comedian so I am not standing up for him because I think he's great), is that we must recognise that the generations before us (and he said father not ancestors) had very different views on race and this was across the world (not every single white person but a significant majority). We must recognise this and while also recognising that while we have made great gains we still have some work to do. This is also not saying that black people for every ethnicity cannot be racist either but that we must understand the root of problems with race relations on both sides to over come them.

Just because black people sold black slaves/ Irish people were slaves too does not diminish slavery in America or racism against non-Caucasians. We are hardly still suffering discrimination by the English or Americans that we did given our status world wide and that fact that we are white. I have no doubt that some English and Americans may be racist towards us (a handful of individuals) and maybe some black persons, but that discrimination is not a global trend and does not follow in every country by a significant amount of people. Our skin colour gives us an advantage and that cannot be ignored.