(again) Which one is better?

Dude, GE was pointing out that the guy wrote "Indians" when referring to people from Indonesia, which is kind of dumb. I wouldn't have called him out so harshly, but that might even depend on my mood. In the last year or so I have tried to be more of a jolly guy and walk the path of the Happy Friend, but everyone has moments where the temptation to call someone out for being stupid is too much to resist.

Really this site has smarter people than the vast majority of videogame sites (and by far all fighting game sites) but there still are some dumb things that get said. "Indian" instead of "Indonesian" is pretty embarrassing, but, shit, who hasn't said or written some dumb stuff before?

And this is nitpicky, but you should avoid saying someone's "race" has done terrible things. Race is a social construct. "Ethnicity" is the term to describe the common physical characteristics of a given group. From my understanding, Japanese and Korean people share a very similar "ethnicity" but you are not implicating them presumably in the the crimes of SaiJin's ancestral peeps. I think the word you are looking for is "nationality." Sorry if this seems anal retentive, or if it makes me a "bully."

 

Wow! a little sociology, a little cultural anthropology, a little pathos. Its all good. Now I know when I finally get the opportunity to spar VF with you guys that I'll be sparring with some educated cats!

Its all good
/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif

 

Yeah dat's how we roll... /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

 

Dissmaster, you're absolutely right, this site does have smarter than average fighting game enthusiasts. Also I should use the terminology "ethnicity"... and no, I dont think that you're a "bully" /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif I think that you are smarter than most on this site but I haven't seen you abuse that.
Maybe I was harsh but it's just that abcd is only a kid. I dont think it's fair to call him a retard just because he doesn't know a lot of things. Then again, going back to what you said, it does depend what kind of mood an individual is in /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smirk.gif

It's just I saw a certain pattern and I thought that it was the case. But that's just my own personal opinion, of course it's all about perspective. One man's "bully" or "asshole" can be another man's hero of even comic relief, right Shang? /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
I mean no disrespect by that, not trying to start anything /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/crazy.gif

But yeah, I had a few PM's back and forth with SaiJin and he seemed to be alright except that he was very bitter over the treatment of Asian people by Indonesians. He said that Asians over there get the kind of treatment that Blacks used to get by Whites back in the day. He also said that he does not hate them all, just the majority of them. I did not point out how wrong he was right then and there because I figured that he's still in the early stages of mourning.
Then something happened that made me have a paradigm shift about him:

He asked if I was Italian, due to my last name (it really is Familia, it's Spaniard) and I told him that my father is White (American) and that my mother is Hispanic and Black (the mother's maiden name goes last where I was born) and I never heard from him again. It's been like over a week now and... I dont know, maybe he's busy but what if...

 

Tony, I can totally appreciate the effort to stand up for someone who meant no harm.

As for the other stuff: Whoa, that is pretty wild. I didn't even put too much effort into saying that a person shouldn't hate a whole nation of people. Where to even begin with that one? I think that Indonesia has like 380,000,000 people. That's a lot to hate.

Generally speaking, people from East Asian countriea are, often very unnlightened when it comes to racism and such. Japan for example is for the most part ethnically homogeneous. They do seem to have some wierd and disturbing views about people from different parts of world. Not everyone in Japan, I'm sure, but a lot, maybe even most.

I have heard that for a long time, they thought of black people as really aggressive and dumb. Now the perception has changed and there is an embrace by some Japanese people of hip-hop and others are into black gospel music. I have also heard that it considered cool for Japanese girls to date black guys, like it is maybe sort of trendy like Hello Kitty or something. I could be wrong about this as this information is not scientifically gathered or anything...

If true it is interesting and kind of disturbing. It is an improvement to go from being perceived as thuggish and dumb to being thought as soulful singers and cool dancers, but it still obviously perceives people as being defined by their ethnic identity. Maybe Japanese people see themselves as defined largely by their culture/ethnicity/nationality because Japan has such a distinct and homogeneous (and conformist?) culture. Maybe that is why many of them would try and put other peoples into very specific categories. Or maybe I don't know what I am talking about.

This is random, but when I lived in Taiwan a friend of mine(who was half black, half white) said that Taiwanese people usually thought he was Mexican. Go figure.

What is really sad is this: As many problems as America has with race, as a nation we are more aware that most other nations of race/ethnicity issues and whatnot. Europe, for example, has generally more enlightened politics than the US, but also has those insane soccer incidents. People make monkey calls at black players and throw bananas at them and shit! Fucking madness. That wouldn't even fly at an Eagles game. Not that there aren't huge injustices here, but there probably more different types of people here than in any other part of the world. Ah shit, I went on a big tangeant and now I must sleep.

 

You're a fucking idiot.

Go die in a fire.

 

wow sorry what i wrote re reading it .....i feel like an idiot

 

Don't worry about it dude. Everybody says/types silly shit now and then.

 

DissMaster, thanks for being cool to people you've never met. I agree with a lot of the points you made in your "tangeant". We as Americans definitely need to address our own social problems before we can address other countries prejudices and ignorance.

abcd, you're not an idiot, people who make unprovoked attacks at others are the real idiots. See you guys around /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif