Gender roles (split from Japanese/English VAs)

[Benevolent_Ghaleon]

EVERYTHING SUCKS AND YOU WILL ALL DIE ALONE.

I love you. Marry me.

Way to make me come in here thinking someone contributed to the discussion.

[Werefrog]

You know... the movie Harold and Kumar was actually pretty good at showing the harmful effects of the model minority stereotype.

[Kizyr]

I'm the only one offering counter arguments. Everyone else is agreeing with each other. Please don't beat around the bush. Just call me out.
How dare you assume that some racism is worse then others. It's all equally bad. Does that mean you would be fine with people looking down on you as long as your treated the same way economically?

She is calling you out. And yes, your privilege is showing. Most of the attitudes you've expressed in this thread (justifying generalizations, equating perceived racism towards whites with actual racism towards minorities, and so on) all demonstrate a fundamental misunderstanding of what racism really is. The comparison between someone suffering from a splinter versus someone suffering from three broken limbs is still valid.

Bear in mind that you can be privileged in some respects while disadvantaged in others. I'm well-aware that I have "male privilege" for instance; but, I don't come back and say that women who complain about sexism are "whining", or try to say that bias against men is in any way comparable to bias against women. I'm aware that I have certain economic privileges; but, I don't come back and say that people who are poor should just learn to deal with it, or complain about stereotypes of yuppies.

More on the misunderstanding later.

So basically, it doesn't exist because it's really just racism? So you do agree with me? I think I just heard some angels singing. I think some light from heaven just shot down and parted these cloudy ash filled skies.

More accurately, you're agreeing with me. Up until now, you haven't mentioned anything about "positive racism". But given the remainder of your response, you still don't understand my point. That is, perceived "positive racism" nearly always falls into a larger, very negative stereotype.

Most people in the 'dominant' group (B_G is an excellent example of this) are completely oblivious to the negative stereotype associated with "positive racism". There's nothing "questionable" about my example--it's a real problem that exists, that I've encountered, and that many other Asians encounter, whether or not you're aware of it.

Quantifying people into numbers and percentages is racist because you take in no other factors except ethnicity/skin color into account. That's racist. That is exactly what Affirmative Action does. Go figure.

That's also a misunderstanding of what affirmative action is supposed to be. AA is not supposed to be about quotas and percentages. While some places do apply AA through quotas, it's a misapplication of it (and many universities that have done so have come under legal fire for that reason). What AA is, and how it's normally applied (particularly in company hiring practices in accordance with EEOC guidelines), is a system of checks to make sure that there is no discrimination in the hiring process.

For example, if you're hiring someone who was a member of a religious or political organization in college, you can't use the specific religious or political affiliation as a factor in hiring them. If you're interviewing someone, you can't bring up the subject of where they're from (they can bring it up, but you can't initiate it). Those are only a few examples.

Taking caution to treat a black customer well is another example, since at most places the reality--whether intentional or unintentional--is to treat black customers worse than white customers. Taking those precautions mitigates against that trend. And, on that note, one of the places where your misunderstanding of racism is evidence is that you seem to think that any acknowledgement of race is itself racism. Racism exists, and ignoring the fact that there are different races only serves to perpetuate that.

Lets just be clear about the term "racism" while we all know what it means. I don't agree with it's definition. It strives to separate people into different species. I don't agree that it should be called racism. The term racism itself distances your skin color from another skin color by leveling it. In reality we're talking about ethnocentrism.

Ethnocentrism is a more specific form of racism. Race itself is an ascribed concept; you're treated as the race that other people perceive you as--it doesn't matter what ethnicity you actually are, as you can still be the target of racism (which is why I can be the target of racism leveled against Arabs, even though I'm not Arab). You're trying to split hairs where it's completely irrelevant.

Also, recall that this thread initially started when I pointed out your ethnocentrism regarding "femininity" of Japanese men. Namely, that you thought Naruto and JRPGs were accurate representations of Japanese culture, and applied your own ethnocentric viewpoint to draw a conclusion that Japanese men are "effeminate".

Besides, I'm not simply talking about racism, but bigotry in general. This covers racism, sexism, discrimination based on religion, discrimination based on sexual orientation, even ableism, and so on. In all cases, there's a dominant group, and that dominant group is generally unaware of the extent of discrimination against the rest of the population. Therefore, they tend to suggest "solutions" that do nothing but perpetuate discrimination (such as "ignore it and it'll go away" or "generalizations are based on facts; deal with it"). On that note:

I'm just saying...even though everyone can't fit the bill of a stereotype, many do. They start for a reason. Have you ever heard anyone refer to an Asian person as a "beaner"?

The idea that stereotypes are based on facts is one of the most powerful ones that serves to justify racism and bigotry in general.

Stereotypes are more often based on fear and ignorance, not facts. The Polish were seen as being stupid in the early 20th century--this wasn't based on most Poles being stupid, but because an influx of immigrants from Poland created a new group non-Poles had to compete with for jobs. (The modern equivalent is the endurance of the stereotype of Mexicans as lazy.) Arabs are stereotyped as violent out of fear, not truth. I was stereotyped as being a workaholic and uncomplaining (the "ideal slave") because people wanted a way to take advantage of me.

So, yes, stereotypes do start for a reason. That reason is not an attempt to accurately describe people. The persistence of that myth is one of the major reasons why bigotry is still prevalent in society, and why so many people who justify their bigotry are unaware they're doing so.

Lastly, you tend to say "I'm just saying..." a lot, as if we can't scroll up and see what you were really saying just a few posts earlier. It was obvious that you were trying to point out a contradiction with your earlier post (when in fact it wasn't a contradiction, but merely evidence that you're oblivious to the negative effects of the stereotype you're justifying).

You know... the movie Harold and Kumar was actually pretty good at showing the harmful effects of the model minority stereotype.

That was the main reason I really liked that movie. KF

[Benevolent_Ghaleon]

Some stereotypes DO have validity. They aren't complete BS just because you can't apply them to 100% of the people in the culture.

1. Asian men typically have small penises. (I watch a lot of Asian porn so yeah.)

2. The stupid food related stereotypes have validity. Beaner, ricer blah blah blah... It's retarded but at least it makes some level of sense. I don't see why anyone cares what others eat but whatever.

I can't prove it, but I'd put good money on there being more beheadings in the middle east than here in America.

Now...lazy mexicans...that's nonsense. I've worked with mexicans. Holy crap! THEY never complained about anything and they worked very hard the entire time. Even the short women that couldn't have weighed more than 90lbs.

Some are based on fear, but many make sense even though it's morally wrong to do. Segregating things into labels is natural and is done to keep this simple in your mind.

I'm sick of people saying that we're all the same. If we were all the same, nobody would bother to travel and there would be only one culture. We're simply all equal in worth.

[Kizyr]

Some are based on fear, but many make sense even though it's morally wrong to do. Segregating things into labels is natural and is done to keep this simple in your mind.
I'm sick of people saying that we're all the same. If we were all the same, nobody would bother to travel and there would be only one culture. We're simply all equal in worth.

Who's saying we're all the same? What I and many others are saying is that it's invalid to make judgments about people based on race.

Making judgments about someone based on arbitrary characteristics is referred to as prejudice. When those characteristics include race, it's referred to as racism. How you choose to justify your prejudices (i.e., through justifying your generalizations) is of no concern to me; it's still making a judgment call about people based on race, and hence it still fits the definition of racism--no matter how "accurate" you think it is. The solution is to judge people as individuals, not based on racial stereotypes--no matter how convenient such stereotypes are.

Now, I've heard all this before. To date, I've never met a single racist who actually admitted they were racist--everyone justified it in some manner, and the manner you cite ("stereotypes are based on truth") is one of the more common ones I've encountered. To bring it all back to what you said at first:

People need to stop whining about racism. You can't change people and the way they like to think. Just write them off as ignorant and unworthy of your attention and then associate with people who aren't racist.

This doesn't work because (a) racists usually swear up and down that they aren't racist, and (b) racists generally have a justification for believing what they do. As a result, you have a lot of people exhibiting racism without admitting to it; those are the sort of people who don't go away by simply ignoring them, and they're also the kind who are more likely to be unnoticed by people in whatever "dominant" group you have.

The points in between you made, well, as I said it's of no concern to me how you choose to justify your generalizations (although basing your racial stereotypes of Asians off of Asian porn is so ridiculous it's funny). So I'm not concerned with demonstrating how those stereotypes are false at the moment. KF

[meg]

I'm the only one offering counter arguments. Everyone else is agreeing with each other. Please don't beat around the bush. Just call me out.

as you wish. but you should know that you, specifically, aren't the only one i'm addressing. i don't know you, specifically. you, specifically,are just some bigot on the internet. like millions of others. i'm chiefly addressing BG, because i actually kinda like him, and am somewhat disappointed in the arguments he's making here. but, you seem to want me to argue with you, specifically, despite you, specifically, making it abundantly clear there's very little point.

How dare you

oh, indignation. is that supposed to inspire guilt? frankly, it's on old trick everyone's seen.

assume that some racism is worse then others. It's all equally bad. Does that mean you would be fine with people looking down on you as long as your treated the same way economically?

it would be a jolly good start. people are going to think how they think regardless. affirmative action isn't good because it ensures some lucky minority gets more money than he otherwise would (although that helps)--it's good because it makes sure the races intermingle. racism, sexism, agism, most isms are torn down by familiarity. people need to interact and talk to each other in order to understand one another. additionally, i've never actually seen someone discriminated against because they're a "wasp." but i have had a jerk (should i name drop? it's a former member of this board) use that word when he decided the only reason i decided to date a guy that wasn't him was because he was a wasp and the other guy was latino.

Negative comments about a race generally give rise to negative action against a race.

you don't say. i'm shocked. it's not like there's a million other positive depictions of white folk in the media, no sir. those poor whites, always always portrayed as slave-driving, wine-sipping, parlour-using rich folks.

My privilege in what? That I grew up in a latino ghetto?

HAHAHAHAHAHA.

That I make less money then you?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

That I am struggling to work my way through college?

HAHAHAHAHAOHGODMYSIDESHURT.

That I'm passed up on jobs with no skill because I lack a certain skin color? Open your eyes. Please.

Now that my rant is over...back on topic...

now, see, i'd like to stress again that i was mainly taking to BG before, as i have known him to be intelligent, and to listen to reason on occasion. but, you did require that i address you, specifically. i hope you, specifically, are satisfied.

i'm sort of at a loss as to how to address your previous statements (the ones i laughed at). they assume (incorrectly) quite a bit about me, and are irrelevant to the arguments at hand. just because your life is hard doesn't mean you, specifically, don't benefit from being a white dude.

[Jenner]

EVERYTHING SUCKS AND YOU WILL ALL DIE ALONE.

I love you. Marry me.

Okay! ^o^

EVERYTHING SUCKS AND YOU WILL ALL DIE ALONE.

I love you. Marry me.

Way to make me come in here thinking someone contributed to the discussion.

-Sigh- Nobody understands our love.

Any Post he's made in this thread that precedes me posting that picture of Jennifer Connolly on a dime-store pony.

Goddamnit, I was sure that would distract him.

[Benevolent_Ghaleon]

Well porn is supposed to be impressive so you'd think they'd turn down the small guys that came in. Instead they try to make it interesting with things like scat and bukkake. It's ridiculous and pretty messed up.

I gotta ask. How many people of how many races have you met that you didn't label as racist? You've got so many ways to link it in. You've got racism down to a science like Alunissage does with sexism.

[Kizyr]

Reasons for weirdness in Japanese porn have a lot of causes, none of which are relevant to this thread.

You make generalizations about people based on race. When you're called out on it, you then proceed to justify those generalizations. That fits very neatly into the definition of racism. Now, if you tried to say that you didn't buy into those generalizations, you might have an argument; but your primary response to someone pointing out your own racist behavior is to justify it even further. (And honestly, two pages ago I would've still given you the benefit of the doubt.)

Most people aren't racist; only a small fraction of the people I encounter on a regular basis I'd describe as clearly bigoted. But I've run into enough folks along those lines to where such behavior is pretty easily identifiable.

Also, it's not so black-and-white. Some folks harbor some minor racist tendencies, some against only particular races or groups, and for some it's just subconscious to where they try to correct for it if it comes out into the open.

Goddamnit, I was sure that would distract him.

No, you've already shown that one to me once.

EVERYTHING SUCKS AND YOU WILL ALL DIE ALONE.

I love you. Marry me.

YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE AGREEING TO.
STOP NOW BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE. KF

[Jenner]

Reasons for weirdness in Japanese porn have a lot of causes, none of which are relevant to this thread.

You make generalizations about people based on race. When you're called out on it, you then proceed to justify those generalizations. That fits very neatly into the definition of racism. Now, if you tried to say that you didn't buy into those generalizations, you might have an argument; but your primary response to someone pointing out your own racist behavior is to justify it even further. (And honestly, two pages ago I would've still given you the benefit of the doubt.)

Most people aren't racist; only a small fraction of the people I encounter on a regular basis I'd describe as clearly bigoted. But I've run into enough folks along those lines to where such behavior is pretty easily identifiable.

Also, it's not so black-and-white. Some folks harbor some minor racist tendencies, some against only particular races or groups, and for some it's just subconscious to where they try to correct for it if it comes out into the open.

Goddamnit, I was sure that would distract him.

No, you've already shown that one to me once.

EVERYTHING SUCKS AND YOU WILL ALL DIE ALONE.

I love you. Marry me.

YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE AGREEING TO.
STOP NOW BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE. KF

Bugger, hush you.

Well porn is supposed to be impressive so you'd think they'd turn down the small guys that came in. Instead they try to make it interesting with things like scat and bukkake. It's ridiculous and pretty messed up.

I gotta ask. How many people of how many races have you met that you didn't label as racist? You've got so many ways to link it in. You've got racism down to a science like Alunissage does with sexism.

I honestly think the best way to defeat racism is to approach it logically and scientifically. Cold hard facts, based entirely on merit of the person. The color of someone's skin doesn't make them any better/worse than anyone. Only their knowledge and skill levels set them apart.

But, most minorities and poor people live in areas with -Dragon Diamond- education so the cycle persists.

the Affirmative Action and other standards that encourage places to have a certain number of employees of a set minority make sure the minorities that can crawl out of their ghettos actually get somewhere.

Even today the media whitewashes everything because they believe Americans won't give any thought/attention/money to anything but white folks.

Oh gods, I'm actually contributing to this in a relevant manner.

The point I'm trying to make is, posting and arguing about it on an internet forums isn't going to change anything. A small handful of people who want to make a difference, probably aren't going to change it either. White men make asstons more than a male of any other racial specification.

And money = rightness in capitalism.

or something. I forget where I was going here.

Do a Barrel Roll.

[Ruby]

You know I had a long thing to say about this, but I just can't quite seem to articulate it correctly. Suffice it to say it had to do with how different areas and neighborhoods tend to encourage certain cultures and value sets, how people with similar characteristics tend to group up together because it's more comfortable for them, the most common factor being race because it's the one similarity that's relatively easy to spot if you have vision, and how that effects people's judgment of people, and how that might be interesting to have a discussion about. Oh well, /that's/ not going to happen.

I also had something to say about the whole racism/sexism topic. Suffice it to say I can't think of anything that would go over well. What I would point out is that people in the currently privileged (Not that I've ever felt particularly privileged in any way due to my genetics, but whatever.) position, while probably not the subject of any real negative racism, probably aren't particularly fond of negative stereotypes applied to themselves either, or the real or perceived belief that it is socially acceptable to apply, act upon, or otherwise propagate those stereotypes. Especially considering that white people will probably be a minority group in this country around 2050.

Though I do have something firm to say about this last point, and that is that Affirmative Action is bad. Getting someone else to use force on other people to enact a policy, even if the policy is good, is evil. By having someone initiate force on your behalf you're just as guilty as the person, or organization, who is performing the act. I understand you want to make up for a handicap that certain groups of people have had for a very long time, but using force to do so isn't the way to accomplish that.

Apparently I can't post an opinion without posting a related video anymore.
And this one even has a second part to it. Yikes.
And even a third!

[meg]

Does that mean you would be fine with people looking down on you as long as your treated the same way economically?

and, going back to my point regarding the above statement. Read this article:

"The study found that women were far more likely to suffer minimum wage violations than men, with the highest prevalence among women who were illegal immigrants. Among American-born workers, African-Americans had a violation rate nearly triple that for whites."

[Ruby]

After reading this article, and it is an interesting article which confirmed something I already knew, I'd like to point out that the statement quoted isn't too useful because when you read it, they could be talking about the actual number of violations of minorities compared to white people and not a ratio or percentage. Unfortunately, many minorities are more prevalent in the lower wealth classes who would have been part of this study, so if for instance there are three black people to every white person in the study then naturally the rate of violations would be three times that for white people, because there are more of them. Now, this very well might not be the case, but we can't tell from what is in the article.

[Kizyr]

After reading this article, and it is an interesting article which confirmed something I already knew, I'd like to point out that the statement quoted isn't too useful because when you read it, they could be talking about the actual number of violations of minorities compared to white people and not a ratio or percentage.

Actually, no. They specifically use language that describe comparing rates among different groups, and not gross numbers ("a violation rate nearly triple that for whites"). If they were talking about the gross number of violations, or the rate of one group's violations to the other (as opposed to "rate of group x is triple that of the rate of group y"), then you would be right, and it wouldn't be a very useful study. However, the way they talk about rate, the definition of it accounts for differences in the number of each population. (To carry out your example, if 5/10 blacks are shorted wages, and 1/4 whites are shorted wages, then the rate of blacks being shorted wages is double that of whites.)

As a statistician, that article was actually pretty good, considering that most news articles reporting on studies like this omit a ton of necessary facts and often imply conclusions that aren't supported by the data (BBC and USA Today are particularly bad at this). There are still other factors that could be at play, but to get into that would go too deep into a statistics discussion and go off-topic again. KF

[Ruby]

Kizzy,

While I understand your point, you're assuming that the author is using the word rate to mean that and not gross numbers. In common usage the sentence in question could mean both things. And contrary to what you are saying the article is not specific enough to designate if the amount of white to black participants was accounted for or not in relation to the sentence in question. Remember we're reading an article about the study, not the study itself, so it's not going to communicate in the same kind of precise language the study itself would be.

Of course, all of the above is assuming the author did not misquote or misrepresent any part of the study. If that were the case, like it has been many times before, we'll be here spinning our wheels for eternity for nothing.

[Alunissage]

Between going away for the weekend and my "view new posts" not updating accurately, I only just saw that more stuff was happening on this thread. Although Meg and Kizyr have already said what should be more than enough to settle this, I'll throw in a few comments and links anyway, having had a hand in starting this to begin with.

Asian men typically have small penises. (I watch a lot of Asian porn so yeah.)

basing your racial stereotypes of Asians off of Asian porn is so ridiculous it's funny

You know why else it's funny? Because every time I see mention of the destructive nature of porn in terms of totally unrealistic expectations, some self-righteous male claims that that's ridiculous because of course he knows the difference between fantasy and reality and would never, ever let what he sees in porn shape his expectations of women and y'all are being just so oversensitive, you silly hysterical females. I fully expect that B_G has made that argument himself, possibly on this very board. And yet, here he is claiming that porn is so accurate a reflection of reality that it's sufficient to base stereotypes on.

I'll leave it there so as to not embark on yet another subtopic.

whites/males/Christians/anyone

Just say WASP cause that certainly doesn't have a negative connotation.

Kizyr's already addressed this, but really, you nitwit, didn't you read the whole sentence? The last item in Kiz's list was "anyone in the dominant demographic", which is the point.

I was thinking about this and I realized how some people (any ethnicity) look at people and have compassion for them simply because they are a skin color. Such as a white person being overly attentive to a black customer, as opposed to normal attention given to any other customer. Or how some people think that Latinos deserve better because they work harder then any other ethnicity.

This really reminds me of the aggrieved tone one hears from men who have just had their casual, unthinking sexism pointed out and criticized, their comfortable views challenged. (What? Isn't it my right to decide what the sexual availability of every woman is based on what she's wearing and talk to and about her accordingly at the level of (c)rudeness I choose, without regard for any other factor including whether she considers that harassment? Isn't it perfectly reasonable to dismiss what she said because, not being a man, she can't really understand the way the world works?) While I obviously was not there when the instances you refer to occurred, it does not seem unlikely to me that you would perceive a lack of the extra attention usually accorded to white males as being treating others better than you, rather than you being treated the same as others are treated.

Along these lines, the classic article "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" and a similar article/checklist about male privilege seem to fit right into this discussion. I have no illusions that either Aaron or B_G will actually read, comprehend, and see themselves in these articles, but for other readers, here's a link to the latter (which links the former in the first paragraph).

A nontrivial portion of posts in this thread by the two individuals named above are covered by the blog article here. I excerpt it below:

Winning the war against equality!

No matter what, your objective is to be able to maintain these three beliefs at the end of any exchange:

1) I'm not racist.
2) I didn't do anything wrong.
3) I don't have to change at all.

If you can hold on to that, then you win!

Tactical options:

A. It's not that serious

1. We didn't know better (and we never will)
2. You're too sensitive
3. It's not a big deal because it's just (a movie, a song, a book, words, etc.)
4. Why should we care? (You don't matter anyway)
5. We didn't mean any harm (But we'll do it again)
6. I was drunk on klanschlager/high on nazi-X/taking Xanax

B. But!

1. POC do XYZ to themselves (so it's ok that we also do XYZ)
2. I'm oppressed too!
3. Hey! Look at sexism/classicism/Global Warming! Diversion
4. One POC says it's cool
5. POC can discriminate too!
6. What about reverse racism?
7. We're not discriminating AS MUCH (as other people/as we used to), isn't that good?!? Give me a cookie.
8. My best friend/spouse/adopted child/my ancestor 5 generations back is POC
9. I've done XYZ, which proves I'm not racist, and I get a free pass for anything else I do.

C. Dismissal!

1. You're oppressing me by making me be "PC"
2. You're too stupid to be in this conversation and everything you say doesn't matter
3. Racism is over now
4. If we don't talk about it, it'll magically go away
5. Under my definition- it's not racist
6. You're too angry/You're being irrational
7. Racism has always existed, we can't fix it, you should stop complaining.

D. Threats

1. Be glad it isn't worse, we could be doing XYZ/I'll give you a reason to cry
2. You brought this on yourself/ If you people didn't... XYZ
3. Go back to where you came from!

[Ruby]

Well if it makes you feel better I did read those two checklists. Though I have to say a lot of what is on that list isn't exactly what I would call privileges. Advantageous? Convenient? Helpful? Sure? But they don't really seem to fit what I would call privileges. But semantics aside what would be your desired method of fixing the inequalities in both lists?

Oh, and please, please, don't say government. If you do I think I might cry.

[meg]

government.

crying yet?

in all seriousness though, in my opinion, the easiest route to eventual equality is just making sure the kids grow up without the influence of racism/sexism/etc, and with the awareness of what exactly constitutes these things. the older generations (behold my sweeping generalization) tend to be a bit of a lost cause, as they've spent a lifetime justifying their ignorance. sadly, as they also happen to be raising the new generations, well...

it's pretty much going to be a slow, uphill struggle. there are no especially good methods. open exchange is good, but most people are terrified of that, as it exposes their personal "isms." and everyone has some "isms" somewhere (the feminist movement, for example, struggles with race and LGBT issues)--we're fighting with a natural and often useful instinct to group people into easily labeled boxes. we're also fighting with the dominant group's tendency to act like everything's perfect now, when it's obviously not. to be honest, i kind of think that second one is more dangerous than the first, as it quite effectively shuts down communication.

[Shin Otaku III]

YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE AGREEING TO.
STOP NOW BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE. KF

-Sigh- Nobody understands our love.

^This <33

Way to make me come in here thinking someone contributed to the discussion.

I'm terribly sorry B_G. Unfortunately, I would have nothing to add to the topic, because all that needs to be said has been established in detail by Sonic#, Alunissage, and Kizyr. Here, I'll go ahead and summarize this:

1. Racism in ALL forms is bad and not going to go away by being ignored.
2. Sexism in ALL forms is bad and not going to go away by being ignored.
3. Anime is not a valid source for representing the Japanese culture.
4. Porn is not a valid source for forming the belief of ANY race's penis size.
5. Stereotypes/generalizations that are race/gender specific are not helpful to anyone.

I believe Jenner attempted to derail the topic at first, because everything that needed to be said has already been established. If you and Aaron want to continue to nit-pick and attempt to find counter-examples to everything, then I would consider this topic past page 3 nothing more than feeding the troll(s) with rehashed arguments that have already been answered.

-Shin Otaku III

[Werefrog]

government.

Government for a serious answer. This is true at least to some extent. We need laws to prohibit workplace discrimination. We need laws against hate crimes. We need federally funded programs in school which are designed to teach students that sexism and racism are wrong (and how to evaluate and change their attitudes) and teachers who make an honest attempt to punish sexual harassment in school (no more, "boys will be boys." When they sneak into a locker room).

All of these require the government. Contrary to Ronald Reagan's axiom, the government is not always the problem. Quite often, it's part of the solution.