Racism (was Politics)

So far no John McCain supporters have spoken up in this thread sooo... in order to have balance here's a little diddy similar to Will.i.am's "Yes We Can" youtube vid (which won some sort of award recently) featuring the Maverick himself. Enjoy.
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Too funny:

http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/a_press_conference_untethered_from_reality/

 

What it comes down to is context and personal beliefs. Obviously on these forums, or any for that matter, its hard to understand either.

If I made a remark regarding a group as a whole it can be taken several ways...

"All VF players are gamers." This is a stereotypical remark, true or not.

Now lets flip it up...

"All VF players are black." Again this is a stereotypical remark but under your definition, because its focus is on a race and an image of that race it becomes racism. This is where it becomes unfair because anyone can make this statement and some would consider it racism where the person meant no harm.

You didn't highlight the word "and" in your definition above. It was very important because it makes the definition of racism show itself. Simply believing that a race has some character or ability is not racism, its that AND thinking the other race or that race is superior.


We can pull out definitions all day and we can claim we have all made stupid yet unintentional "racist" remarks, but the fact of the matter is some people are too sensitive and just look for any reason to call someone out. I suppose this was the whole reason I brought this issue up. I run into so many people that take things too far for unnecessary reasons.

I also would like to note that while responding I thought of a situation where it really brought to my attention the fact that I had no idea what racism really is. This could be counter productive to my argument BUT my point here is not that of proving something. I worked for Dell for some time and became good friends with of the other Techs. he was a black dude and I was, and still am, white. During that time we had a really annoying manager that never had any idea what she was talking about. I mean, complete douche. So one day me and the other tech got to talking and of course the conversation developed into a "we hate the manager" discussion.

I happened to make a comment regarding my biggest issue...

"Well I think she is just super annoying and a racist, other then that she doesn't bother me."

Obviously the friend turns to me and laughs, "just racist huh?". We both had a good chuckle from it. But it really showed me that as a white dude racism is not something I really experience. I learned quite a bit from it and the friend understood completely. I apologized of course but he didn't care and came back with some random cracker joke.

He was not the type to be easily offended and was able to hold a conversation and laugh when a stereotypical joke was made by the opposite race rather then retaliating with hatred and assuming that person was just a racist.

So in the end I do agree we most likely have a different perspective on racism. However I do know what it is and what the people who condone it stand for, which is obviously wrong in every sense... I think of it like this, would I say that to my friends, about us, if we were all joking around, most likely I would. So if I hear another group of different race or background make the same remark, about us, then I don't care. If I can joke around why cant they, why should I be offended when we just said the exact same thing? Unfortunately not everyone feels this way lol. Otherwise I would have found myself in some awkward situations many times. But when it comes to ME, if a remark is about MY culture, color, gender, whatever, I am not going to be offended by it or ever consider it racist. I just wish others were able to think that way, it would really eliminate a lot of hate.


...This has gone way off topic, sorry, just felt this was a really great conversation. Cant find worthwhile, legitimate, discussions on many forums these days. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

 

Heh, I remember that my english teacher in high school said to the entire class in
seriousness.

"Black people are simply not as intelligent as white people it's a proven fact. White
people statistically are superior to black people in just about every category for that
matter and you just can't prove otherwise."

Gotta love growing up in the 80's.

 

That's unfortunate. Perhaps prior to 60's I could imagine something so ignorant but in the 80's? I feel bad for your entire class to have a teacher make such a remark.

I would like to hope there were no 'black people' in your class at the time.

Also how do you even get on that topic in a class with presumably all white kids?

 

Now THAT is racism. Wow.

 

There were black kids in the class, like 4 and I was one of them. At the time we
laughed at him. Here's the fucked up thing about it, before he said that shit we
really liked the guy. He had a santa claus way about him. It really came out of
left field. I think he said it in response to someone saying something like:

"It doesn't really matter we're all made of the same stuff."

Which he came across and said, "Actually that's simply untrue" and proceed to use
the college prep class as his pedestal for white superiority. At the time we were
pretty level headed about it and started questioning his greatness making him
stumble on things like math problems which he retorted to his oldness as being
an excuse. If I remember the entire class was nothing but a racist mess that day.
None of the white students agreed with him but he was adamant on making his
point.

I aced his tests anyway so although he was a racist pig he was fair. Here's the
pure comedy though next door to Mr. King was another racist teacher Mr. Lynch.
Mr. Lynch was beaten by masked students with baseball bats until he needed
reconstructive surgery. I guess Mr. King didn't take that as a warning since he
made these comments 2 years after that incident.

 

Were that their names really? Because that just makes the story that much more intense.

 

Racial issues post & replies split from politics thread into here, by request.

 

As a foreigner to this country all I can say is I've been noticing this in the 8 years I lived here and I couldn't agree more about some people being "too sensitive".
Sometimes I feel people want to be so "politically correct" that it ends up sounding fake to me.

 

You're being too sensitive...

Just Kidding

Oh my god...As someone who has worked in education, it blows mind that someone would think this, let alone say this. It reveals a mindset that takes the actual mission of an educator and turns it on its head.

There are disparities among ethnic groups on things like IQ tests, but it is impossible to disentangle those numbers from things like socioeconomic status, institutionalized and historical racism, and language barriers.

The book that was supposed to make convincing "scientific" case for race based intelligence (The Bell Curve) has been debunked as the product of two reactionary right wingers who got published by what is essentially a right wing propaganda mill (Regnery).

It's funny that this came up in the politics thread because just the other day I was talking to a guy about Obama's troubles in WV and KY and I said that there are large numbers of people who won't vote for him because the idea of a black man who is blatantly smarter and more articulate than they are is too much for them to bear. Their worldview won't allow it. They would prefer John "Insane" McCain.

 

Yah, those were their real names and they had classrooms right next to
each other. I think Mr. Lynch was eventually removed because he had
a gun in his desk. I saw Mr. King years later and he remembered me
probably because of the line I said to him, "You know you're a very well
spoken man sir, too bad you're so stupid." Anyway he said my name
I looked at him and kept walking.

 

Re: Racism

If you thought that first vid was racist then you're going to flip when you see this:
Japan's Emobile has a monkey portraying Obama O_O

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si-lSLv9b4E

Here's a deeper look into this fiasco:
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRETEjWjYlY

What do you guys think? Racism? Do you believe the company when the say that they didn't know that it would be offensive?

 

I saw that yesterday. Pretty crazy.

 

I think it wasnt intentional. People are making way to big of a deal about this. I see how it is offensive to black people, but the fact remains most Asians wont see anything offensive about it. Why? Monkeys are revered and considered sacred in all Asian countries as a symbol of wisdom. Its been that way since ancient times. Me being part Chinese and was raised in Guam (U.S. territory) was taught both sides of the fence on this. I was taught Chinese folklore as well as American history.

People like to say being ignorant to the fact is not an excuse, which in my opinion is just untrue. They were not exposed to the struggle black people went through or those stigmas they went through. A lot of Americans for instance dont know that people of Asian countries hate it when people get their ethnicities mixed up. They are very offended by that. Americans arent taught that, but most Asian-Americans let it slide because of that simple fact.

I dont think its racist at all. From a strictly Asian point of view, it can be viewed as a compliment. From a Western point of view then yes its offensive.

 

I think it's racist, considering that asians used to think that black people had tails like monkeys back in the day. Wait the companies mascot was a monkey.....maybe not.

 

If it's the company's mascot then it's no big deal

but it's easy to see how people could think it's racist ....since the chances of people knowing its the company's mascot outside of Japan is slim to none

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25673296

It's really disgusting the level of Muslim fear-mongering that these Obama-haters keep advocating. Even though Obama is not a Muslim and never has been.

I really wish that the other 80-90% of peaceful, non-terrorist Muslims would unite, form a rally and conduct a peaceful march on the streets of America just to show the good side of Muslims that we hardly ever get to see in the public eye.

A lot of people don't even know that there are Asian Muslims. Millions of them. When was the last time you ever heard of them wanting to kill Americans? I hate how Muslims get treated but they seriously need their own version of MLK or Ghandi or something and peacefully show that they're more than what these fear-mongers depict them to be all about.

 

"A lot of people" are fucking idiots

 

We had Malcolm X (in the west). We're not pacifists.

and lol at that cover, wth were they thinking?