But I don't feel bad about challenging the concept. I do not think you are racist for saying what you think, but I also don't think we are being fair to the president in this particular instance. We're treating him like he shouldn't share his opinion because he's bound to take a side, and we might not like that.
This is only partially true. People my mother's age were treated poorly while we sorted out the civil rights issue. Why do you assume that the children of those people won't have learned any reflexive thoughts/actions from their parents and grandparents? I know that my personal reactions came from stories, and how I was told to act while driving through Gary; not from any instance of a person of color doing anything to me.
If we look at the centuries of war in the Middle East, I think I can say that I'm right that "memory" is definitely passed down, shared and that young people are immersed in the thoughts and feelings of their elders.
I agree with this, but I honestly believe that you will keep hearing the comment I made in my original title if you keep acting like these people have no right to their feelings because they may not have personal ownership of it.
A specific black person may not have been ill-treated at the hands of someone of another race, but that does not mean that the expectation of racism hasn't been completely ingrained in them from childhood. After another few generations have passed, maybe your comments will be correct. Now, we are still living with people who weren't able to sit in the front of the bus. Can you really claim that you think you'd be over that by now?
No, he does not need to start with the way "young black men" (since we're judging them all the same?) behave, though I do agree that it should be included. What you just said there is akin to: "but he was doing it too!"
No, it does not. I do not believe you are a racist (though your previous comment is pretty funny*, given the context), just outspoken. I believe people like you are very important, but I also think that we are big liarfaces when we pretend that they shouldn't have any right to sore feelings by this point.
*by "funny," I don't mean funny amusing