Beyond Racism (Prejudice and Bias)
There are “racists” of all races -- and not that only every other, are racists, while one is not.
The major culprit is generalizing without discrimination -- of what is really important to discriminate, and not that one should never discriminate -- in order not to be a racist. The root of racism is prejudice and bias, which is not discriminating properly -- but already having one’s mind made up because one has accepted the generalization as the truth of the particular -- so that one’s mind is not open to discovering the truth of any matter.
One simply then, listens and responds to whatever the self-appointed demagogues tell them to. It is a bigger problem in other countries than in the USA -- and in fact, would no longer be a problem except for the aspirations of a few to exploit such resentments and hatreds. In the confusion of information overload, the mainstream media is likely to exaggerate these animosities as they have in the past to build up their visibilities and circulations (bad news sells).
In the new age of information -- partisan, biased, manipulative information becomes the greatest liability and handicap -- to discovering the unlimited truth of the world, being the limits to that knowing. In a previous time, knowledge and the known, even if limited and prejudiced, might have conveyed some survival value -- because the transmission of real time information was too slow to reach one before he needed to react effectively.
So generalized (biased) information, was often useful -- in encountering the unknown. When we now have the tools that allow us to learn about a particular event and circumstances without preconceived notions of what it is, our responses can be much more accurate, and appropriate to that encounter. The technology of information, makes opinions and beliefs much less important -- and “finding out,” much more important, and in this way, the old prejudices and biases drop away because they cannot stand up to the light of reality when each can determine the truth for themselves on anything.
It is when truth is determined by one person (or group) for everybody else, that prejudice and racism can thrive. In the new culture and technology, it must die -- because people can discover and think for themselves about the many things. This is bad news not only for the would be demagogues who are the supremacists (elitists) in every arena of human activity and concern -- demanding compliance without question.
Once one begins o question these things for oneself, then the prejudices must drop away. So really, the answer to bias and prejudice is conditioning the mind to think for oneself and find out the actual truth of the matter for themselves -- rather than relying on those authorities who have told them what to think, so that they are easily manipulated and deceived.
The right kind of education, is revealed in these minds truly without prejudice and bias -- rather than as always, just knowing what individuals and groups it is now acceptable and “correct” to be prejudiced and biased against.
posted by Mike Hu @ 1:01 PM
8 comments
8 Comments:
Most people are not prejudiced and biased -- because it is destructive to be so. It is far more beneficial to be fair and impartial -- because it attracts one to those who are also that way.
Nobody wants hateful, bigoted, unfairly partisan people for friends and business associates. Unfortunately, because of the taste for sensationalism and outrage, those are the kinds of people brought to our attention almost exclusively by mass media -- seeking to demand our attention -- because they cannot earn it by true merit.
That is to be expected but the question one asks, is why the media popularizes such damaging ideas over all the others vying for their attention -- much more worthy of being broadcast.
That is the unwritten prohibition against changing -- solving problems, rather than exploiting the problem for as long as it is profitable to do so -- which means perpetuating these problems, even while ostensibly condemning them.
But as we see in Iraq, it is not the killings by the terrorists that is so upsetting to the mass media, as it is that the American president wants to do something to change that -- that is so disturbing.
To treat everybody the same, is to treat most people unfairly; what is fair, is to treat each individual appropriately.
Now if I have only one way of responding to everybody and everything, obviously, it will be inappropriate in many, if not most situations. Many responding in this manner, think they are being “sensitive,” rather than totally insensitive.” They are mesmerized by their own words and wishful-thinking, so the reality of their impact on others, is totally irrelevant to them -- yet that is what IS most important -- the effect it has on the other.
It is like those who pride themselves on doing “their own thing” regardless of its effect and impact on others -- when all behaviors are in response to the social context, and nobody is behaving in a vacuum. But that does not also mean that one must be overly concerned about “other people’s opinions” and expectations to rule their lives -- because many demagogues, will let it be known that one always fails to live up to the “expectations” they have for everybody else.
During the last election, somebody with long years of experience and association with the legislature, thought it would serve me right to be elected just so I could be corrupted and controlled by the others. That's a pretty cynical statement from one who knows these people well. Fortunately, or unfortunately, it didn't happen that way, so the best thing i can do is comment on the obvious -- and be amused by all the disinformation tactics.
It seems like "politics" is a green light for lying, cheating and stealing -- by which anything can be justified by ruthless ambition -- cheerleaded by the mainstream media reporters. That is the unreported (it's all unreported now) corruption of power -- of which the power to deceive, is the root of all other mischief.
By while the legislature may be all but hopeless now, the real hope is that citizens are empowered in their own lives -- rather than being disempowered by government officials in which they have misplaced their trust.
The government is not the solution to everything -- nor are the people in it the most honorable. They have to earn their honor -- like everybody else, and because this is Hawaii, even more than the rest.
That is the sad fate of the legislature. They have become a victim of themselves. the people will be all right. What they must do, is save themselves -- from themselves!
http://blogs.honoluluadvertiser.com/index.php?blog=21&title=who_says_public_access_television_is_a_s&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
Posted on: March 14, 2007 at 6:55:49 pm
Who says public-access television is a snooze?
Viewers of `Ölelo on Wednesday were treated to an extended discussion by state Sen. Clayton Hee, D-23rd (Käne'ohe, Kahuku), about whether the F-bomb is appropriate in daily conversation.
Hee, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary and Labor Committee, read from a letter by a former Honolulu prosecutor who was offended by deputy prosecutor Glenn Kim's apparently frequent use of the profanity.
The letter was raised in Kim's confirmation hearing for Circuit Court judge on O'ahu.
Hee read verbatim: "(Kim) seemed to have a fetish with the word %$%^ and seemed to use it as often as he could in team meetings. After a number of such meetings, Mr. Kim's subordinates decided to make a game of counting the number of times he said %$%^ just to lighten the atmosphere."
State Attorney General Mark Bennett said the use of colorful language is not uncommon in law enforcement. Bennett also reminded Hee that, over a beer in the senator's office, both men may have dropped the F-bomb in an otherwise pleasant conversation.
Kim, and other attorneys in the prosecutor's office, admitted that profanity is not unusual in dealing with the everyday stresses of the job.
But Hee said he was troubled that a potential judge would be so comfortable with the word. "I think it speaks to temperament," he said. "I really do."
Comments:
Comment from: Mike Hu [Visitor] · http://www.freerepublic.com/~mikehu
It seems like a fairly typical power ploy at the Legislature to keep one of the smartest persons who ever came out of Hawaii from a position of judgment -- so they can place one of their less-abled cronies who only does the "good boy" thing of doing whatever everybody else tells them to do -- as their chief requirement for the position.
How about rewarding merit -- rather than just those "mama's boys" who do what the dem party wants them to do?
The last thing we need is less intelligent people for judges -- to provide job security for all the lawyers in the legislature.
03/15/07 @ 08:32
Comment from: Bilbo Baggins [Visitor]
Temperment is a valid consideration.
I don't think simply being familiar with the use of colorful language -- sometimes those words most accurately capture what needs to be said, or to describe a person or event -- but whether a person knows the proper situations for the use of such language (and it's not in court as the presiding judge).
Being smart also doesn't necessarily translate into being a good judge -- I'm surprised that if the nominee is as brilliant as he's being portrayed that the bar assn. only found him qualified as opposed to highly qualified. . .
But does anyone remember the Clayton and Tommy show when the good Senator from the Windward side last held the judiciary committee reins?
03/15/07 @ 09:48
Comment from: Larry [Visitor] · http://disappearednews.com
There were other factors considered besides the colorful language issue.
03/15/07 @ 10:59
Comment from: Mike Hu [Visitor] · http://www.freerepublic.com/~mikehu
Why can’t the Advertiser (union media) provide us insightful writing like this?
http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?fd5544e9-facb-4972-badb-10cd255dd71c
Bully in the School Yard Takes Antics to Hawaii State Legislature
Senate Judiciary Chair Attacks Character of Bronze Star Judicial Nominee; His Style Has Become Both Predictable and Horrifying at the Same Time
By Malia Zimmerman, 3/15/2007 11:15:25 AM
Clayton Hee - Senate
Is it true that Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Clayton Hee was born wearing nothing but black steal toed boots, that he kicked his nurses, that he screamed at other children in the hospital nursery and told them their mama is ugly, and that with force, he tried to take their pacifiers?
Is it conceivable that Hee continued these antics in the schoolyard, kicking around weaker children with those black steal toed boots, rallying a gang of kids to help him? Kids that would steal lunch money, use racial slurs, tease relentlessly, and beat up other kids just for fun?
I wouldn’t be shocked if someone stepped forward to talk about Hee’s past and conjured up these stories, because if this were true, he hasn’t changed much since grade school. The cowboy, turned state Senator, hasn’t grown up one bit.
As an adult, he still plays with relish the role of a schoolyard bully, only this time, thanks to his constituents and his Senate colleagues; he does so as Senate Judiciary and Labor Committee chair. He has all the power that position brings -- power he abuses regularly.
People come before his committee frequently whom, with joy, he berates, intimidates and puts down -- that is just his style. This is a continuation from the last couple of years when he served as Higher Education chair, where his attacks on the governor’s University of Hawaii nominees became legendary.
Hee also has the superpower to appoint -- or refuse to appoint -- judges that Gov. Linda Lingle nominates. It is a tremendously important position because Senators in his party who hold 20 of 25 seats follow their committee chairman’s lead like good sheep. Hee has the added bonus of being an important part of Colleen Hanabusa’s ability to retain the Senate presidency. So no matter how vicious, ridiculous and vindictive Hee becomes to members of the public or nominees who come before him, the Senate majority is likely to stand by him, just like those kids in the schoolyard who cheer the bully on.
Hee’s most recent target can relate. Hee has decided that Deputy Prosecutor Glenn Kim’s head should be on the chopping block -- Hee as the executioner. It’s an ugly scene being played out in the Senate Judiciary over the last few weeks, most recently as yesterday.
Kim is just one of a long line of people who have had to endure Hee’s mock trials where Hee pretends (and I emphasize pretends) he is the superior mind with damming evidence against the nominee who he has already predetermined will be burned at the stake. Hee plays prosecutor, judge and jury at these things, but not in an American- style court where the one on trial is innocent until proven guilty. He has more of a third world style of justice.
Kim has several strikes against him in Hee’s childish liberal mind. Kim is a Vietnam Vet – a Bronze Star winner no less – but Hee hates anything to do with the U.S. Military. Academically Kim ranked first in his graduating class at University of Hawaii law school and topped that off with a masters and PhD degree from Harvard no less. He was a lecturer on history and literature at Harvard for three years and an assistant professor of English at the University of Hawaii. But Hee despises people who are smarter than him and has frequently attacked administration from the University of Hawaii. Kim is a prosecutor, not a liberal trial attorney, like Hee wants to appoint. To make matters worse, Kim was appointed by sitting City prosecutor Peter Carlisle to head the domestic violence division at the prosecutor’s office and helped force out Liza Tom – one of only two people who testified against him. And (follow this twist), Tom was appointed by Hee’s current attorney on staff, Keith Kaneshiro, the same attorney who served as the former City prosecutor and just one election ago in his bid to be re-elected had his butt whooped at the polls by Carlisle. Bottom line, Kim is in the middle of a turf war.
In the written testimony of Tom, and one of Kim’s former bosses, attorney Lynne McGivern, who was forced to appear through a highly unusual subpoena, they claimed he didn’t like women and looked down at people he worked with.
This might be of concern if 60 people including many others who work above him and for him hadn’t testified strongly in his favor. It might be a concern if Tom, who is leading the charge against him, wasn’t removed from her job by him, and if she didn’t have the so-far undisclosed conflict of working for Hee’s staff lawyer Kaneshiro while he was prosecutor. It might be a concern if McGivern had ever written a negative word about Kim in his file or given him anything but sterling reviews when she was his boss.
Trying to ensure Hee wrapped up his mock trial with a good closing argument, Hee desperately focused on Kim’s use of an expletive at work – the F word – after he lost a trial or had a witness be treated badly on the stand. Kim never swore at anyone in his office, but admitted sometimes out of frustration he would utter a swear word or two. This bad boy cowboy Hee acted as if he were was shocked by Kim’s admission – as if Hee has such a clean mouth. Hee couldn’t hold up his act for too long though – state attorney general Mark Bennett diplomatically reminded Hee that both of them had spent many a night in Hee’s office drinking beer and swearing up a storm, and yes, even using the “F” word.
According to everyone who knows Kim, he is quite a guy and he defended himself admirably in Wednesday’s 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. inquisition hearing, saying “I have never in my 14 years as a prosecutor, treated anyone disrespectfully, dismissively, contemptuously, abusively or inappropriately. I did not do that and I never have.” But Kim’s resilience and strength only served to peeve Hee more. Hee’s attempt to prove Kim has a “poor judicial temperament” failed at every level. But his committee still decided at Hee’s bidding by a vote of 3 to 2 not to “advise and consent” on Kim’s nomination.
But Kim’s history doesn’t matter – Hee’s ego does. When the final vote on his nomination comes to the Senate floor on Friday and Hee spouts off a pompous diatribe about why Kim should be voted down, Kim’s bravery in Vietnam and his 14 years of fighting for victims as a deputy prosecutor in charge of the Domestic violence unit won’t matter. Hee’s character assassination will be completed and Kim’s nomination will very likely be voted down by a 14 to 11 vote. That is unless Hee’s Senate colleagues base their vote on Kim’s merits and not Hee’s harrying.
Standing up to the schoolyard bully is rare, but it has been known to happen, just not in the Hawaii State Senate. Not yet anyway.
03/15/07 @ 11:51
Comment from: Big Dogg [Visitor]
Mike,
The Advertiser probably doesn't write like that because for one they are not dating a Republican Senator. Wasn't it Malia Zimmerman who got fired from her old job for making up stories??? Wasn't it Malia Zimmerman who wrote the hit piece on Duke Bainum (when her boyfriend publicly backed his opponent). I'm not saying that this was or was not bully tactics, but stories like that deserve no place in the media.
03/15/07 @ 18:14
Comment from: Rootsrundeep [Visitor]
Steal toed shoes? As in steel-toed shoes? Or purloin those toed shoes?
A quick scan of the quoted writing shows at least 15 grammical, syntactical, and spelling errors. Anyone who writes that badly won't get any respect from me.
03/15/07 @ 18:40
Comment from: umlaut [Visitor]
Well Malia may have a past but so does Clayton! Be nice to him, he won't ever be Governor. What goes around comes around.
03/15/07 @ 19:09
Comment from: Mike Hu [Visitor] · http://www.freerepublic.com/~mikehu
Why is it so obvious to everybody else what is going on -- except the union media reporters, who are running interference for these injustices?
Please, let the best represent the people of Hawaii. That would honor and do justice to the people.
Don’t let it happen again.
http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?bd816971-415d-47b5-bb79-0fac773b796a
Glenn Kim: Stellar Judicial Nominee
Too Bad Senate Judiciary Chair Clayton Hee Continues to Undermine Kim's Candidacy
By Ted H.S. Hong, 3/15/2007 1:21:08 PM
It is unfortunate that once again Sen. Clayton Hee has shown his unwillingness to accept the fact that Gov. Linda Lingle is the appointing authority for judicial nominees and that he continues to overstep the Senate's constitutionally limited role of "advise and consent."
It appears to me, that Sen. Hee uses any reason and any excuse to vote the Governor's nominees down regardless of the less than honorable motivations of the nominee's critics.
In the case of First Circuit Court Judicial Nominee Glenn Kim, we have a well-respected individual, who not only has served our country bravely, but who has all the academic and professional credentials necessary to serve as a fine judge.
Just because he had a conflict with a two individuals under his supervision does not mean he's unqualified to be a judge.
The simple fact is that if you're doing a good job as a supervisor, you will upset a few individuals who are less than qualified or not motivated to do a good job.
No supervisor worth his or her salt is going to be loved by every employee under his or her supervision.
Nominees should not be subject to and the Senate in carrying out its "advise and consent" duties should not bend to the tyranny of the minority.
Sen. Hee seems all too willing to use a small vocal minority as an excuse to impose his imperious views on who should be appointed.
In Mr. Kim's case, his critics' opinions appear to have been unchallenged.
Sen. Hee's concern for Mr. Kim's critics' welfare and that he would give Mr. Kim's detractors greater weight is a farce that masks Hee's political ambitions to be Governor without having to stand for election to that high office.
Mr. Kim is more than qualified to be a good judge. It is unfortunate that another person and career has to be sacrificed at the altar of Sen. Hee's ego and ambition.
Ted Hong is an attorney on the Big Island of Hawaii who also served as a University of Hawaii Regent and the governor's labor negotiator.
03/16/07 @ 06:06
I think the most amsuing thing is the damage control people think they can get away once their deceptions are pointed out.
They're hilarious; they've forgotten how to be honest with anyone -- which in the end, is the only thing that can save them, and not piling lies upon lies, until there is no hope for their salvation.
An honest person, not crazed by their own power and self-importance, is the most revolutionary action in Hawaii.
SENATORIAL SCORECARD
Votes for Glenn Kim: Sens. Rosalyn Baker, Robert Bunda, Suzanne Chun Oakland, Will Espero, Carol Fukunaga, Mike Gabbard, Fred Hemmings, Les Ihara, Lorraine Inouye, Donna Mercado Kim, Ron Menor, Clarence Nishihara, Sam Slom, Brian Taniguchi, Gordon Trimble and Paul Whalen
Voting against Kim: Sens. Clayton Hee, Colleen Hanabusa, J. Kalani English, Gary Hooser, David Ige, Russell Kokubun, Norman Sakamoto, Jill Tokuda and Shan Tsutsui
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