My friend keeps on saying that Black Beauty Contests are not racist but I am trying to say that Black Beauty Contests are racist. The only 1 reason that I can think of is because it excludes white people from joining. I need more ideas to defend my thought. If anyone could put in their thoughts for me, that will be great. Thank you very much.

I don't think it's racist per se, but if someone came along and set up a 'white peoples beauty contest' then all hell would break loose.

I don't think its racist at all - I think its ok to hold a whites-only or blacks-only beauty contest.

if you called it 'white people's beauty contest', it probably would, but if you came up with a creative name, like 'snow maiden beauty conest' or something less corny, it probably wouldn't

You need to get over that kind of crap. There are all kinds of beauty pagents for women of different races. If you think it is racist because of who its for your probably a closet racist yourself.

Thing i don't understand is that if a white person says the word "nigger" they are a racist and if a black person says the word "nigger" its fine...

Or, perhaps he is someone, like me, who would like to forget all this "Race identity" stuff, and treat people exactly the same regardless of thier race.

Normally I would agree with you, but when it comes to beauty contests (which I'm against anyway, but that's beside the point) people who aren't racist tend to prefer one over the other. I would prefer to have kids with a light-skinned woman because I'd prefer my kids to look like me. I can't help it. I'd prefer having a kid of my own to adoption, but if I were to adopt, I wouldn't care what color the kid's skin is, because I would be perfectly honest about where they came from. But to me, Asian, black, and Hispanic women are exotic. I go home to a "white" women but I like to look at the foreign women. I was talking to a Mexican dude about this at a party, and to him, white women are exotic. He finds Latin women boring, because that's the norm to him. I've got nothing but respect for people who truly don't base their preference for their lover on race, but it's like an in-grown thing with me. But I certainly don't call it racist, because it's purely on the sexual/love side. Professionally and platonically, race has absolutely no bearing on how I feel about someone. We all have blood on our hands, one isn't better or worse than the other.

I wouldn't consider "Asian Beauty Contests" racist at all. I'd like it... it would narrow it down to Asian women, which I tend to find the most attractive. :"> But hey, my girlfriend knows it, and she knows who I come home to. In fact, she was confident enough to take me to Hooters... We haven't got any around here (you'd think so, in liberal California, but no, not in Northern CA anyway) and she insisted, since I'd never been... even when I suggested another place.

I dont like that word either, but I was asked the same question quite a few years ago when I was in the army by a buddy of mine who's parents were from egypt. The only way I could have way explain why it is more acceptable comming from a black person than a white person is the common experiance shared by most black people that very few white people have experianced. For example a black guy i've never met before in my life greets me with 'what up my nigga' more than likely we've got similar experiances in common in way of being a black person in the U.S. where as if a white person I dont know greets me that way I may innitially take offence because of having experianced some racism and not knowing that white person has a problem with black people or not. In another way it is taking the power away from such a derrogatory word.
That would be optimal for no one to be identified by race at all, but most people I know are proud of their heritage and rightly so. Most black people in the U.S. have no idea of where specifically their family came from in Africa because that heritage was taken away during slavery and a new heritage has formed since those times and it is the heritage of being 'black' in the U.S.

Well in my opinion "being a black person in the US" should be no different than being a white person in the US. This is the 21st century, something as silly as the pigmentation of one's skin shouldn't matter. Not that I say history and heritage should be erased, no, it should be honored, but now, living in the now, we should all be equal.

About the "N" word, I don't like it either... that or the "C" word... those are words civilized people just don't use IMHO... black people use the word kind of like how we say "dude"... "my nigga" is a greeting of sorts, and it's usually understood that it's not an offense. A white guy says it to a black guy, that's different. Especially if one says -ga and the other says -ger. There's the difference. If a white guy were to say "what up my nigga" to his black buddy, and they had been doing this for years, it wouldn't be a big thing. It's all a matter of perception.

End of the day being a black person in the US is different to being white, because you have an entirely different ethnic background. Black people have a different culture to white people, as do Jews, Asians and so on. Pretending everyone is the same culture is often called 'Colour Blind Racism' because you may offend someone inadvertendly by thinking that their culture is the same as yours (for example, offering a muslim pork, or a Hindu beef)

Personally I find the term a little too strong myself, as 'Racism' has too many negative connotations in people's head.

That is the problem, it is different. Lets say I go to a store in some small town in Wisconsin, I am more apt to be noticed than my upstairs neighbor who is a 48 yr old white guy. We both work for the same company, have quite a few common interests and very similiar views on politics, but I'm brown, he isnt. On the same token if an asian family moved into the apartments where I live I would probably notice them before I noticed another white, black, hispanic, or family from India move in because there are quite a few families of those ethnicities in our complex and no asian families that I have noticed to date.

I know what you mean. Even with gender it's like that. You have car insurance for women only, waiting areas at train stations for women only, women-only areas at gyms yet the men don't. Had it been the other way round all hell would break loose.

Heh true. Women are special though.

it's always different for the section that's traditionally been marginalized. When a pendulum's swinging from one side, it doesn't stop at the middle, it keeps going.

I would have thought that it was because it's kinda ironic. A black person can't really insult someone else for being black, so they just use it for some sort of greeting instead, or a joke.