Any ways I apologize for assuming you were a Mormon. I certainly understand that not everyone in Utah is a Mormon as I was borned and raised here and am not Mormon. That being said, it is the safe bet.

My point about being a “typical white person” (sorry if my writing was not clear I tend to leave comments quickly and seldom take the time to read what I wrote) was not to mean the you do not fit that description but that the definition of such is incredibly vague.

Reguardless, my point about the black population was not to say that there are literalyy no blacks in Utah. Rather, the African-American population is rather different than in Chicago, LA, Oakland, Atlanta, NY, or any other big city. We have no projects, no ghetto (although I know people like to think the west side is a “ghetto”; these people, in my mind, tend to have never seen a real ghetto) and most importantly we don’t have the same history and experience with race relations that other cities have had. These experiences are going to alter the defintiion of a typical white person. Ergo: If you were to grow up in Chicago as an average white person you would of had a unique experience with other races that would not have been experienced in a place such as Utah; it is my belief it was this kind of the typical white person Obama was speaking to.

In regards to Obama, it’s inevitable that there are typical white people who do not fit his view of such. However, it is worth mentioning that he is just as white as he is black and having half his family being white I think gives him some rights to make such inferences about the average white person. (another side note: isn’t it interesting that the media always refers to him as the black child of a white women and not a white child of a black man esp. considering he was raised more in white and asian culture than in black culture).

I agree that a “true christian” sees people as equal in god’s eyes. However, I would argue that many christians do not necessarily hold this view. E.g., many christians believe that one must accept Jesus Christ as their savior to be saved, so no Jews, no Buddhist, no Atheist or agnostics no matter how moral they are. In my mind it is safe to infer from such theological docrine that these people are not seen equal in god’s eyes. To them, I would say, it’s more like Animal Farm: everyone is equal, but some are more equal.

I hope this makes sense. This is an interesting topic to discuss and I hope my arguments (past and present) do not offend as they are meant merely to provoke some thought and discussion.

Sincerly,

Raymond Sebond
gods_an_american[at]hotmail.com

I find it discouraging that because someone lives in Utah you would instantly assume they are LDS (Mormon). That’s just as bad as assuming that everyone in Massachusetts is Catholic or everyone in Georgia is Baptist. Although I am LDS I have many friends in the area who are not and I am positive they would take offsense at your presumptive thinking.

Regardless, you mention “there are no black people here.” I beg to differ. I had some friends in high school who were and in fact I had a black girlfriend in my youth. Admittedly there are very few blacks in Utah compared to the rest of the nation’s ratios, but again you are presumptive to think that not having a huge black population would simply infer that I am not a typical white person. I am a God-loving, white American who believes all mankind are equal in the sight of God. I would think that any true Christian would have to agree with my philosophy. Am I wrong?

He is more a typical white person than a typical black person. I mean, he is only half black and was not raised in the black community.

Such social biases and what not are a product not of skin color, but the communities in which we were raised and the values they hold.

Your not scared of a black man because you are not a typical white person. First, your from Utah and I’d assume mormon. There are no black people here, your experiences I’d assume have always been positive. Now, had been from Baltimore your experiences would differ. There are also more people in the Baltimore metro area than all of Utah, so their experiences (esp. when coupled with other similar communities) would be more typical than yours.

Seconds, your a mormon (again an assumption), a minor religion in America again suggesting your experiences would not represent the typical white person.