When friends reveal their racism

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Sorry to open up a fresh can of Race around here, but this kind of thing bothers me, and seems to happen often enough to be an ongoing issue: how do you respond when somebody makes a racist remark or joke? I'm of the "don't let it pass" school, which definitely seems to cost me social points (I don't run with a particularly enlightened crowd).

Latest example: out Saturday with a bowling buddy, not a close friend, and after he gets a few beers in him, he starts blowing off unprovoked steam about interracial couples. "I'm not against it, just so long as they don't have children, 'cause the the kids won't have no race" -- that sort of thing. I disagree, point out all the well-adjusted biracial kids I know, make what seem like reasoned arguments in my equally sudsy state. No use, we disagree strenuously, and I've lost one racist asshole for a friend. No great loss, of course, but sometimes I get the feeling half the white people I know are just keeping it in check until we're out of "mixed company." What's offensive, I guess, is the assumption that *I'm* a racist, too, so that when we're alone, white-to-white, they can let fly with the jokes & attitudes.

― briania (briania), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 00:51 (twenty-one years ago)

"I'm not against it, just so long as they don't have children, 'cause the the kids won't have no race"

WTF?!?

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 00:58 (twenty-one years ago)

This isn't particularly insightful or anything, but you're totally in the right and I admire you for reprimanding your friends, which I know from exprience is very hard to do. Sounds like you're better off in the end; one less racist asshole is one less racist asshole.

― Wooden (Wooden), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 00:59 (twenty-one years ago)

You havent lost anyone worth HAVING as a friend if you ask me. People like that only deserve each other.

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 00:59 (twenty-one years ago)

One time I was listening to a Kool Keith CD and my (much older) conservative gun-collecting step-brother got totally uncomfortable like it was physically painful for him and finally said, "Why are you listening to this spear-chucker music? Are you gonna start wearing gold chains now?"
I slapped him in the face and cussed him out.
He said, "You don't know, you sit and home and listen to CDs, but once you get in the real world you'll see what those niggers are like!"
We haven't got along since.

Side note: His favorite band at the time was Limp Bizkit (!): "At least it's half-way rock!"

― From a Land of Grass Without Mirrors (AaronHz), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:00 (twenty-one years ago)

This is where the party ends
I can't stand here listening to you
And your racist friend
I know politics bore you
But I feel like a hypocrite talking to you
And your racist friend

It was the loveliest party that I've ever attended
If anything was broken I'm sure it could be mended
My head can't tolerate this bobbing and pretending
Listen to some bullet-head and the madness that he's saying

This is where the party ends
I'll just sit here wondering how you
Can stand by your racist friend
I know politics bore you
But I feel like a hypocrite talking to you
You and your racist friend

This is where the party ends
I can't stand here listening to you
And your racist friend
I know politics bore you
But I feel like a hypocrite talking to you
And your racist friend

Out from the kitchen to the bedroom to the hallway
Your friend apologizes, he could see it my way
He let the contents of the bottle do the thinking
Can't shake the devil's hand and say you're only kidding

This is where the party ends
I can't stand here listening to you
And your racist friend
I know politics bore you
But I feel like a hypocrite talking to you
And your racist friend

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:00 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost Aaron good on you BTW. I wish I had the courage to do more than say "hey thats not on" to racist assholes.

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:01 (twenty-one years ago)

This is a difficult subject. I don't think I'm of the "If you have a racist friend, now is the time for your friendship to end" school. Like I don't think I believe in breaking off diplomatic links with evil regimes.

I'm not entirely sure that I see your example as straightforwardly racist, either. There are plenty of black people who argue against intermarriage too, because it helps to wipe out what is already a minority culture. I don't agree with them, but I don't think I'd call them racist. It depends on what basis your friend said it, I guess. That you have well-adjusted mixed race friends doesn't mean that it's not 'wrong' in some wider sense (not that I personally believe it is).

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Kinda see yr point N, but I find myself always thinking "but who is purebred anyomore anyway?". Maybe that applies less in the US than in Australia tho, I'm not sure.

I mean is anyone pure whatever anymore? The "not of any race" kind of concept makes no sense nowdays, to my mind.

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:04 (twenty-one years ago)

And purebred is a horrible term. I couldnt think of another tho.

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:04 (twenty-one years ago)

"'cause the the kids won't have no race"
Believe me that's a verbatim quote. There was no "Firing Line" level debate going on here -- just an idiotic bar argument in which I was, believe it or not, outnumbered.

― briania (briania), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:06 (twenty-one years ago)

T'aint no arguing with the determinedly stupid, sadly.

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:07 (twenty-one years ago)

racism makes me feel a bit ill and i can't be friends with people who are racist or even people who tell racist jokes. people who foward me racist jokes always get a disapproving response. my parents are pretty racist and just generally highly conservative and since they are my parents and not mere friends that i can cut off we have agreed to a chilly truce on the matter whereby it IS NOT MENTIONED when i am at home. yuk.

― gem (trisk), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, and it slid WAY downhill from there ... some N-bombs droppin', dark warnings to the effect of "pretty soon there won't be no white race left."

― briania (briania), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh dear God.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:10 (twenty-one years ago)

"There are plenty of black people who argue against intermarriage too"

These people are also racist. Racism isn't confined to whites.

― Wooden (Wooden), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:10 (twenty-one years ago)

i fear that there's a whole world out there i don't know about

― gem (trisk), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:10 (twenty-one years ago)

These people are also racist. Racism isn't confined to whites.

Yes, it is.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:11 (twenty-one years ago)

some people use "conservative", in a positive way, don't they?

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:11 (twenty-one years ago)

The Conservative Party of Great Britain certainly do.

― Wooden (Wooden), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:12 (twenty-one years ago)

I have a couple of friends who will occasionally let loose with an off-the-cuff remark that shocks me in how ignorant it is. I don't say anything, though maybe I should. It's less a matter of them hating on other races as much as them singling out groups in certain contexts, i.e. "god, I love where I live except there's this club across the street that plays this rap really loud, and there's all these black people hanging around outside late, talking loud" or "this Mexican so and so, blah blah". it's not straight-up "black people are awful" but there's an element of that in there, unfortunately.

― Riot Gear! (Gear!), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:13 (twenty-one years ago)

yes rjg... i meant conservative as in women should be married by 25 and stay at home with the kiddies, all drug users should be shot (assuming chardonnay doesn't meet the criteria of 'drug'), poor people kept out of sight, that sort of thing. which all pretty much directly contradict my own personal beliefs.

― gem (trisk), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:13 (twenty-one years ago)

What kind of reasonable person even cares about "keeping races pure" and such?
That's a lot of nonsense.

― From a Land of Grass Without Mirrors (AaronHz), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:14 (twenty-one years ago)

do the british "conservative" and the american "conservative" have a lot in common?

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I feel like this kind of confrontation earns me the rep of the self-righteous asshole who just HAS to start something, but what the fuck? Most who know me already KNOW I'm a liberal lefty with lots of ties to the black community, etc., so why start? THEY should be the ones who feel uncomfortable about their neanderthal attitudes, but I'm sure I'm the only one soul-searching on the day after the incident: "WAS I being self-righteous?" Oh, the guilt.

― briania (briania), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:14 (twenty-one years ago)

(I'm not sure I entirely believe that about it impossible to be black and racist, but it annoys me when people define racism in such a narrow way, without taking into account the social context. It reminds me of racists who say "Well it's racist that there's a Black Police Association but no White Police Association" or whatever)

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:15 (twenty-one years ago)

women should be married by 25 and stay at home with the kiddies, all drug users should be shot (assuming chardonnay doesn't meet the criteria of 'drug'), poor people kept out of sight

would your "conservatives" say all of this, proudly?

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:16 (twenty-one years ago)

If I wanted to get silly about this, there's a good amount of Cherokee and Arapaho blood on my mother's side.

OMG I DON'T HAVE NO RACE!

― From a Land of Grass Without Mirrors (AaronHz), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:17 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't say anything, though maybe I should.

none of my good mates are racist but sometimes they make heavily disparaging remarks about drug and alcohol users, which is a field i've counselled in quite a bit. i always say "that's a bit judgmental' and maybe tell them a story about one of my former clients, i reckon it's a good way to diffuse the situation and let them know my feelings without it becoming an argument.

― gem (trisk), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:17 (twenty-one years ago)

would your "conservatives" say all of this, proudly?

yep i think a lot of them would, at least my mum and dad and all of their mates would. i probably used that word in a really misleading way, i'm sorry.

― gem (trisk), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:18 (twenty-one years ago)

I try to avoid the word 'race', because it's based on such flawed concepts.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:19 (twenty-one years ago)

-- Alba (albab...)

Yeah, people who say that kind of thing are cocks, but to assert that racism doesn't exist outside of the minds of white people is naive beyond belief.

― Wooden (Wooden), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:20 (twenty-one years ago)

You don't understand.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:21 (twenty-one years ago)

What don't I understand?

― Wooden (Wooden), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:21 (twenty-one years ago)

My dad is old-skool racist, and I've made it clear that he has to keep the n-word to himself, at least around our daughter, and it would be nice if he could keep that ignorant shit to himself around me and my wife. My brother used to hate black people because everybody who ever sold him crack was black, but as he's started to get his life turned around and take responsibility for his own actions, the ingrained racism is starting to fall away. It's a tough line to walk, letting family members know that their behavior is awful without becoming permanently estranged.

― the apex of nadirs (Rock Hardy), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:22 (twenty-one years ago)

It reminds me of racists who say "Well it's racist that there's a Black Police Association but no White Police Association" or whatever)

oh yeah i hate that stuff too. in australia there are quite a lot of health, education and welfare initiatives directed specifically at the indigenous population, largely because there are some problems unique to that population. i can't STAND it when people say "oh they say they want equality but look at all these 'extra' benefits they get"

― gem (trisk), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:22 (twenty-one years ago)

NEWSFLASH: If you give a flying fuck about ANY of that stuff, you're a racist.

― From a Land of Grass Without Mirrors (AaronHz), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:23 (twenty-one years ago)

"liberal lefty with ties to the black community"

ugh - this is one of the most insufferable things I've EVER read on ILM. Briania, get over yourself. Truth is, your bowling buddy is an asshole - not for his beliefs, skewed and unreasonable as they may seem, but for his method of communicating them, thus tossing himself straight into the "racist neanderthal' pile. Had he been ARMED in this pathetic battle of wits, you may have been forced to defend your opinions - something you might have not been able to do in the face of facts and statistics.

But the fact is that many black I know (and I know plenty, but I'd never dare to say I have any 'ties' to the 'black community,' whatever the fuck that is) are against interracial marriage. More so, on the whole, than the white people I know.

But maybe it's only ok for african americans to want to preserve their precious heritage /culture, right? MY culture is McDonalds, farm foreclosures and football injuries, right?

― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:23 (twenty-one years ago)

The people that say this ("only whites can be Racists") usually define Racism as prejudice from a position of power, so it's not just thinking that other races are inferior but acting on that belief in such a way as to oppress them. And so blacks, by and large, are not in a position to oppress whites.

― nickn (nickn), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Racism as in 'treating people differently on the basis of their skin colour', yes, of course, black people can be racist with that definition.

My point is that it is useful to consider a wider context when talking about racism. Power structures. Given that, either one restricts the word 'racism' to situations where the perpetrator is in a position to oppress with their prejudice, or else one has to treat 'racism' as a fairly neutral term and talk about 'harmful racism' and 'harmless racism' all the time. Perhaps this approach is better, yes, but it's not straightforward.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:26 (twenty-one years ago)

what facts and statistics back up the thought that races shouldn't mix as far as having children?

― Riot Gear! (Gear!), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:27 (twenty-one years ago)

x-post with nickn, there!

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:27 (twenty-one years ago)

(x-post)Um none.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't see how believing in some sort of racial eugenics is acceptable in any way. I don't care which race we're talking about.

― From a Land of Grass Without Mirrors (AaronHz), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:28 (twenty-one years ago)

haha they are like twin posts. you guys are clever at saying articulately what i can only barely conceptualise.

― gem (trisk), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:28 (twenty-one years ago)

It's not necessarily anything to do with eugenics, just separatism.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I mean that regarding "PRESERVING THE PURITY" of a race, or saying that the race will die out if we mix, etc.

By the way: WHERE MY CHEROKEES AT? Think about that one for a minute.

― From a Land of Grass Without Mirrors (AaronHz), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Lucky I snuck in before you, alba! I heard Kevin on the first Real World say this in his argument with Becky and she wasn't buying it. Most people don't define it this way, so it leads to rolled eyes and dismissals unless you talk it through.

― nickn (nickn), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:32 (twenty-one years ago)

I really HATE HATE HATE having to come off like the thought police in situations like this, and there are plenty of great reasons I shouldn't be casting any kind of moral stones, but still I think that the onus should be on THEM to keep their hate-speech in check.

On the flipside: I'm not changing any minds by coming out guns blazing over this. Even if everybody I knew minded their P's & Q's about speech they knew I would object to, some of them would undoubtedly still harbor the attitude.

― briania (briania), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:32 (twenty-one years ago)

heritage is great and all, but fuck it. I celebrate the fact I'm Irish but honestly, it doesn't matter. This rock will be dust in 6 billion years anyway.

― Riot Gear! (Gear!), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Skipping 235 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Weed: The other green leaf

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 23:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I have to back up somewhat and defend Adam's "I dont even notice" comment that Tombot rather snidely dumped on (and a few other people I respect too which is fucking disapointing).

I understood what he meant by that - its not a fucking matter of AVOIDING the fact anyone is of whatever race. Its just... it doesnt fucking matter, you know? Hell maybe we're lucky we live in a city where there literally are so many different nationalities here, there is really no point picking on anyone. Yes, of course there is racism, and classism and whatever else-ism.

I dont see the need to focus so hard on it all the time though, when we're all just fucking human beings. Jesus some people here can be pious.

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 23:48 (twenty-one years ago)

And before anyone shits on me, when I said "no point picking on anyone" I certainly didnt mean there normally would be a point.

Ugh, this sort of crap is the only thing, apart from tedious Momus threads, I hate about ILX.

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 23:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I dont see the need to focus so hard on it all the time though, when we're all just fucking human beings. Jesus some people here can be pious.

OTM. I learned that early on. People are primed to attack, will make leaps from what you say to what they think you mean, and pick apart every word if it gives them a chance to chastise your moral character. But don't listen to me, I'm just a xenophoic, homophic, woman-hater.

― oops (Oops), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 23:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Hey, you too?

― briania (briania), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 23:57 (twenty-one years ago)

the aggressive piousness is more than just annoying, it stifles debate and any real exchange of ideas.

anyway...

― oops (Oops), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 23:58 (twenty-one years ago)

you're all against me.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 23:58 (twenty-one years ago)

why don't you go play chess with your pal Susan Sarandon?

― Riot Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 00:02 (twenty-one years ago)

J'aime les tetons!

― briania (briania), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 00:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Back to the original question, the proper response is to say "wow I didn't know you were so ignorant" and then repeat or paraphrase what they say in a slack-jawed Cletus voice.

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 00:04 (twenty-one years ago)

a thousand apologies, Brian

― kephm (kephm), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 00:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Hey, no prob, I get it all the time. I really am changing that s/n, just as soon as I take my clever pills.

― briania (briania), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 00:23 (twenty-one years ago)

A friend of mine swears that at the elementary school his mom teaches at, there was a kid whose name a teacher would pronounce as "shi-TEED." Eventually the mom came in and demanded the teacher call him "Shithead," as that was his name. I forgot what cultural background she allegedly used to explain this choice of name for her son.

I'm pretty sure this is an urban legend. I've heard it twice from two different people who live in completely different places.

― C0L1N B3CK3TT (Colin Beckett), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 01:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I figured. Should I note that the friend who told me this story is also the closet fascist?

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 01:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I hate to even dignify any of this, and I apologize to the collective ILM because this has gotten out of hand even for me, but, cinniblount, you do know that I live in the South, right?

I must admit I've never been called fat before, and now that I have, TWICE, I have to say, I don't know what people get so upset about.

Limbaugh? That's sad. What is it exactly about me that threatens you so much that you'd threaten physical violence on a message board? Is it because I'm clearly smarter than you? Yeah, that used to make the jocks in high school mad, too.

Be honest, cinniblount - you've never been in a real fight in your life. You can posture all you like here, because you know you're ill prepared for anything more dangerous than a snowball fight. I'll let it go because a) the practicality of me crossing your path is slim, and b) everyone here on ILM possesses the intelligence to know that this is the case. So maybe go fantasy box on a wrestling messageboard or something. This is just sad, and you're making yourself look like the brainless macho dickhead you're trying to make me out to be.

FWIW, though, just hope we never DO cross paths, because I've been known to throw hands for much, much less.

― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 01:31 (twenty-one years ago)

I like that, in one post, Roger Adultry decries messageboard posturing and then says "I've been known to throw hands for much, much less".

― C0L1N B3CK3TT (Colin Beckett), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 01:40 (twenty-one years ago)

I also like the split personality Nuge-style Redneck big upping and "I'm too smart" anti-jock anger.

― C0L1N B3CK3TT (Colin Beckett), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 01:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Hahaha Roger you're a laff riot. Don't ever change (or shave)!

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 01:43 (twenty-one years ago)

I won't, Alex.

Colin - did you read my post?

Nuge-style redneck? I don't know why I even bother explaining myself on ILE anymore. I can't hate jocks, love animals, and own guns at the same time?

― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 01:48 (twenty-one years ago)

hahaha

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 01:50 (twenty-one years ago)

i have to assume you're getting paid or fetishize this kind of monotonous self-adoration now.

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 01:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Besides, both The Nuge and I are PRETTY north. Or are there northern rednecks too?

― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 01:52 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.ntz.info/covers/b00249.jpg

― Riot Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 01:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Encouraging, Gear, but unnecessary, nonetheless.

― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 01:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Did you even read your post, Roger?

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 01:53 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm from Maine Roger, I can assure you there are northern rednecks.

― C0L1N B3CK3TT (Colin Beckett), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 01:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Also; Rednex.

― C0L1N B3CK3TT (Colin Beckett), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 01:54 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm just saying, Roger. Not just one hand.

― Riot Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 01:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Northern Europe, though. (x-post)

― C0L1N B3CK3TT (Colin Beckett), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 01:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually, if you're going to get technical, last time I 'threw' anything it was The Club. Someone should write a book about that.

― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 01:57 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.canadiantire.ca/media/images/Automotive/Security/SteeringWheelLocks/0340655_100_CC_2efb.jpg

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 02:05 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.nappyhead.co.uk/images/badass%20v.jpg

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 02:06 (twenty-one years ago)

damn you xp

http://images.canadiantire.ca/media/images/Automotive/Security/SteeringWheelLocks/0340656_160_CC_2eff.jpg

― Riot Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 02:07 (twenty-one years ago)

ihttp://homepage.schleswig-holstein.de/holfort/Dosen/WRclubsoda.jpg

― Riot Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 02:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Hahahaha

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 02:11 (twenty-one years ago)

http://images.killermovies.com/c/clubdread/gallery/poster.jpg

― C0L1N B3CK3TT (Colin Beckett), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 02:14 (twenty-one years ago)

fyi, roger, blount has fought in A WAR

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 02:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, but come on Yanc3y was that a "real" fight? I mean with jocks and shit?

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 02:35 (twenty-one years ago)

ihttp://www.nativefields.com/tom/main/images/outcastminstilshow.jpg

― sometimes i like to pretend i am very small and warm (ex machina), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 02:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I would rather have my fingernails pulled out one by one than have a discussion with Roger (who is frankly incapable of having a discussion unfiltered by bullshit generalization and hyperactive fingerpointing.)

-- Alex in SF

haha!! the ironing is delicious!

i nominate thee for the "most un-self-aware poster of 2004" award, aka pot-meet-kettle

― small beer, Wednesday, 27 October 2004 03:35 (twenty-one years ago)

And I'll nominate you for "another anonymous fuckwit of 2004" just to return the favor.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 04:55 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.just4kidsmagazine.com/rainbowcastle/peace_dove_olive_branch_m.jpg

― Remy (x Jeremy), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 05:03 (twenty-one years ago)

ihttp://www.familypoet.com/graphics/DuckHunt.gif

― Riot Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 07:35 (twenty-one years ago)

hmm, whenever someone lets loose with something so tired, I just laugh loudly and go "Say WHAT??!" And repeat it to them, like it's so ridiculous I can't believe it passed their lips.

I grew up in the south--and people down south think they have some lock on the "truth" about "black people" and "Jews" and so forth, as if the rest of the world "hasn't lived with them like we do." Yeah, and they've been to Boston, New York and Chicago (and Denver for that matter). My idiot brother-in-law regularly uses the word "nigger" in front of his young kids, and his football/fishin' buddies all use it too. Went to Bourbon Street once and saw a lotta "niggers" down there, they were weird. So I'm well acquianted with this mentality. Lots of older southerners, and younger ones too, have this unhealthy fixation on "race-mixing" and I find it so risible. Anyway, someone says something like that to me, that's it--they're axed (if only I could find a legal way to ship my bro-in-law to, I dunno, Kenya...).

― eddie hurt (ddduncan), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 18:41 (twenty-one years ago)

at the expense of seeming uninteresting... my friends and i make racist jokes all the time. and it's not some manifestation of latent "real" racism. i find race funny, i would consider myself to be pretty enlightened about race issues. i have lived in a lot of culturally diverse neighborhoods and a lot of cultural cul de sacs too. i am not so into a lot of the more powerful slurs, just because it feels weird saying them... but i think as far as jokes go, pretty much anything is fair game. and i'm not talking about really stupid Q & A jokes or anything, not just sitting around telling fucked up racist jokes. more just absurd observational humor. and i feel comfortable doing this around whatever minority friends i have as long as they're comfortable with it. we're all human beings, trite and true.

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 19:53 (twenty-one years ago)

I think that's a healthy attitude as long as the people you're with understand where you're coming from, FWM.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 19:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Where'd Rocky Balboa go, anyway?

― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 19:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Where'd Rocky go, anyway?

― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 19:59 (twenty-one years ago)

(I changed it because I like Marciano better)

― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 20:00 (twenty-one years ago)

FWM - are you making jokes about race, or are you making racist jokes?

― DV (dirtyvicar), Thursday, 28 October 2004 16:34 (twenty-one years ago)

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