One Person Wants To Make Dancing With The Stars About Race And Not Dancing

Prejudice : a baseless and usually negative attitude toward members of a group. Common features of prejudice include negative feelings, stereotyped beliefs, and a tendency to discriminate against members of the group.

http://psychology.about.com/od/pindex/g/prejudice.htm

Racism 1 : a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
2 : racial prejudice or discrimination
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/racism



Mike Silver is a writer who has covered the NFL for many years, mostly with Sports Illustrated. You just have to read him once or twice to know that he went to the University of California. Cal just happens to be the university of Natalie Coughlin as well. Now that you know that, it is easy to see why a guy whose day job it is to cover the brutal world of NFL football will help a fellow alum write this book about the brutal world of competitive swimming. I happen to subscribe to Mr.Silver's Tweets. I was a bit startled when I saw his Tweet in Tagalog. For those of you who do not read Tagalog it says :

Let's vote for Natalie Coughlin the Filipina contestant in Dancing With The Stars.

The tweet originated from http://twitter.com/sheilamagno . I have said many times in my blog that it is that irrational, baseless, emotional thinking that gets Erap, Willie Revillame , Richard Gomez, Noli Decastro, Vic Sotto , Noynoy etc running for public office and in some cases winning. It has nothing to do with skill in the political arena but with emotional connection. Let's examine the pleas of ( http://twitter.com/sheilamagno ) . She wants people who will care to listen to vote for Natalie solely on the fact that she perceives her as having the same blood. It has nothing to do with dancing. The fact that she writes it in Tagalog limits her audience to mostly Filipinos. We don't know how well Natalie dances or interacts with her dance partner. Sheila does not care how good or bad the rest of the competitors are. As far as she is concerned only Natalie shares her blood (apparently one grand parent is Filipino). That emotional connection means the rest of the field does not matter. Don't know about you but the criteria for voting is "baseless". I really thought Dancing With The Stars was about dancing and not so called nationality. For me it is possible to discriminate against a group just because you have a "baseless" preference to the one person because of an unrelated trait. I am all for people to pick who they want. But to tell other people to pick their choice in a dancing contest and only their choice on the criteria of 1/4 Filipino blood to me totally goes against the word competition. I want to give Sheila Magno a dictionary and read the definition of the word competition. A test of skill or ability; a contest. (http://www.answers.com/topic/competition) Q: What skill or ability does Sheila Magno want you to base your dancing vote on? A: 1/4 Filipino blood If I had to sum up that logic I would state " stereotyped beliefs, and a tendency to discriminate against members of the group." Ask yourself if this person is campaigning on criteria other than those intended? Is her criteria based on race? Not sure about you but in my world applying race as the predominant reason to judge a contest intended on testing skill is RACISM.

Ed

Links :

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/expertsarchive;_ylt=Al3GY6GEE7ysg7T0NTk3OaSr0op4?author=Michael+Silver

http://twitter.com/RealMikeSilver
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previously related posts:

http://cornholiogogs.multiply.com/journal/item/943/What_part_of_beyond_reasonable_doubt_do_you_not_understand_Erap_related

http://cornholiogogs.multiply.com/journal/item/518/Hes_One_of_Us_Thats_Why

http://cornholiogogs.multiply.com/journal/item/263/The_Filipino_Olympic_Effort_and_Results_my_reaction_

http://cornholiogogs.multiply.com/journal/item/886/Discrimination_Can_Cut_Both_Ways


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