>>Ar282...lemme get this right- you want to rewrite the man's words in a different context, claim they mean basically the same thing, then shoot down his original point based on YOUR rewrite? The situations you use to parody Cohen simply are not comparable.<<

They are, in fact, identical. His statements about black males in America are America's own institutionalized racism when directed at black males.

It's not expressed that way at Asians because they are the "model minority". So it is expressed in a different way. Black males are portrayed as self-absorbed pro athletes or gangstas, etc. Asian males are simply not portrayed--only the women. In the end, the message is the same: "That's how it is so get used to it."

>>" it doesn't matter why it is done, it based on race—period—and is therefore racism."

total nonsense! It...(meaning the process of instant 'profiling' by someone like a cabdriver) IS based on more than race...which is all Cohen was saying. They don't fret about young, black women, or even OLD black men. Is race partly involved? Of course it is, as a huge majority of holdups of cab drivers IS committed by young men of ethnic minorities. The cab drivers are playing the odds...breaking the law, but making bets on what potential customers look dangerous to them.<<

Again, it is that jaded attitude that enables you to state this without seeing the inherent racism. Suppose you meet a white woman who only dates black men. Is she a racist? Yes, I definitely think she is. Now suppose she says, "It's not race. It's the person he is inside that counts. If he was a two-faced abuser of women, I wouldn't waste two seconds with him even if he was the hottest black man I ever saw." Sounds reasonable until you ask, "But if he was the person he is right now, this person you claim to love so much, but he was white or at least not black, would you still be with him?" You will find you cannot get a straight answer (which means no, she would not be with him--he has to be black--first and foremost).

When a cabbie doesn't pick up a young black male, it is because of institutionalized racism--not necessarily his own innate racism. Cohen has completely bought into institutionalized racism to the point where he confuses it with more blatant forms of personal racism. Since it is not personal, it can't be recism and therefore it is okay for a cabbie to pass up young black males trying to flag him down for a ride just as it is okay for white men to journey to Bangkok and the Philippines to screw the Asian girls. "Its expected of us so it okay to behave that way. It is how the world works." Even if that is true, that does NOT make it okay.

>>Further, you are severely distorting the concept of racism when you profile any remark or action 'seeming' to be related to race that way.
Racism, properly considered, is generalized opposition to and denegration OF a group based solely on race and, usually, ranking one race as intrinsicly better than another....not just 'noticing' characteristics.<<

So the white man who goes to Asia to use it as his personal whorehouse not a racist? And I suppose he would have no objection to Asian men coming to his country in droves behave this way in his country. I suppose this white man must really respect Asian people and consider them equals. I suppose I could consider a black man to be equal to me in every possible way but I'm still not going to give one a ride anywhere because--well, you know how they are.

>>I could easily decide to be careful about entering certain neighborhoods without making wholesale judgments about the race of the folks there. My actions would be 'taking race into account', but not necessarily be racist.<<

But you're talking about a high crime area where everyone has to be careful. That's not the same as looking at a black individual and thinking, "I'm not giving this guy a ride, he's a young black male and they commit holdups." You're now making him the representative of the high crime area you'd never go into.

>>You can disagree with Cohen's analysis,,,but do it fairly!<<

I did.