>>Ar282...you keep inventing new hypotheticals and suggesting they demonstrate your claim. What does a white man's choice of Asian prostitutes have to do with cautious cab drivers?<<

Once again, different races face different types of racism from whites (from others also but we're nto talking about them right now), different stereotypes. The cabbie who refuses to stop for a black male fare is working off the same institutionalized (or societal, if you wish) racism as the white man who goes to Asia to get laid. Both believe it is acceptable behavior--not necessarily laudable but more of a "and if it were you, what would YOU do?" kind of thing. The only difference between the two examples is that one pertains to work and the other pertains to pleasure. Both otherwise function on stereotyping another race to the point of no longer considering them equals, as fellow human beings.

>>Your rewrites are certainly not identical, in that cultural views of various races vary widely, and treatment of 'young, black men' needs to be examined on its own merits.<<

And I highly encourage you to do so because you will find that, in the end, the message is the same: "This is the way we see you. It is the way we will always see you. It's nothing personal but that's just how it is. Accept it and quit complaining, we're really not interested in confronting this inequality because it makes us feel uncomfortable being that we benefit so much at your expense and do not wish to give up that advantage and we're going to get mad and call you a damned PC whiner and a loudmouthed jerk looking for attention if you don't shut up. Now shut up!"

>>Jaded? ME?? That's a new one.<<

Yes, you. The racism isn't directed at you and a large segment of society will agree with you even if reluctantly so you apply it without compunction. I call that jaded.

>>Anyway, I make a careful distinction about the use of the word 'racism'...you seem want it to cover ANY case where the race of the individual is obvious. Calling it 'institutionalized' to avoid having to prove a specific case is slippery logic. OF COURSE there is widespread racism...OF COURSE it is wrong for a cab driver to bypass a young black man.....just as it is wrong for a young man to hold up a cab driver. The fact is, young black often bypass guys who look like them!<<

Talk about trying avoid having to prove a specific case of slippery logic! Give me an example of what you're talking about. Tell me how many black men you know who bypass other black men.

>>My over-riding, basic point is, that you are trying to apply the term 'racism' way too broadly. If every perceived inequity between two ethnic groups is called racism, we lose the ability to accurately portray the more serious offenses.<<

The offenses already are serious. The stereotypes are sexual in their nature and intended to go for jugular. It is tne media that propagates these stereotypes and yet offers nothing to counterbalance them. It becomes "Waiting for Godot" for minorities. They see the stereotypes and feel their effects on themselves and their people and wait in vain for something to counteract it and nothing comes. They wait for it from the same media that dishes on them. Without those counterbalances many of them have nothing by which to judge the truth and works as much on them as it does on that segment of society that has accepted these stereotypes as true even if no one wants to talk about it.

>>I knew a woman who applied for several jobs and was not hired. She intimated it was racism, whereas those who knew her were not surprised at all, because she is just not a very personable individual!<<

This is anecdotal and useless for me. Institutionalized racism is nothing that personal. It is its impersonal nature that makes its machinations against this or that minority so devastating because it seems to be objective, has no bone to pick, and so must be true.

>>You have to reserve serious labels for serious situations.<<

I'd rather reject the serious labels for the most serious situations. As a minority, you get labeled enough in this society. Way more than enough.