Racism.....

Lord help us.

But actual racism is a horrific disease, so don't get me wrong.

I'm just saying that Racism is a powerful tool that can be used both ways.

In my earlier example I would be branded a racist by white liberals. But in fact, I would have just made a judgment call on talent. Sexism, Racism....is a powerful word, whether it is true or not.

What could be deemed "subtle" racism, could just be a white apologist, identifying wrongly with others. Friends of mine, who are not white, tell me it happens to them all of the time, whether they are black, muslim or sri lankan.

It's just as racist as out and out racism.

also, political correctness is very infuriating. an asian woman got promoted over my mother because her school needed to fill their quota of asian teachers, and it just so happens that this woman is utterly incompetent and my mum's basically doing her job for her anyway. me being cross about that doesn't mean i'm racist - OR DOES IT?? I JUST DON'T KNOW??

oh and good call Ronan. may you continue to piss off ignorant bitches like that woman.

WTF? You are equating Oprah to Hitler because of that. For fucks sake!

ronan, you *can't* say that. you know perfectly well why.

Because it's racist?

Hitler is one of those things i don't even joke about as i don't find genocide very funny.

And to address the original point, there is a rather large difference between one black person calling another nigger and white person calling a black person nigger.

OK, i can see why. but in theory at least, this should one day be able to happen, surely?

i have to get back to work now i'm being v naughty.

Well, I think it does. I don't like the word myself, but if the people using it are comfortable with it between themselves, fair enough. But given the amount of systematic oppression and general evil shit associated with the use of the word by white people I hardly think it's suprising that the word still carries a whole pile of extra negative connotations when spoken by a white person. So, I reckon black its perfectly reasonable for black people to get pissed off when a white person uses it.

1. Re: Anthony's comment, I find it ridiculous that any group has "code words". Lenny Bruce made comments that once you use the word repeatedly, you take the power out of that word. You can choose who uses the word, why they use the word - by doing so, you are negating a very valid point.

2. In writing that I forgot my other points.

It's true that with sexual swear words for example their impact lessens the more a word is used. But when a word implies the acceptability of discrimination, if only in the context of its use, I don't know how its impact could ever diminish for those its meaning discriminates against.

however, if black people don't mind being called niggas (i agree this is a better term than nigger, much more pop-cultural!) then who are white people to stop them reclaiming the word and stripping it of its power? surely it's a GOOD THING to do that? the next stage to getting rid of racism is, in my opinion, to FORGIVE - not forget, as lessons have to be learnt from history, but to move on. anyone - black, white, yellow, green bug eyed monsters for crying out loud - who is living in the past and refusing to move on is actually guilty (whether conscious or not) of perpertuating racism and this is where i think Oprah has to step forward.

OK and that was overly poetic, albeit in a kind of grim way.

Dan is obviously right. It's sad but I'm not sure how else to bear humanity.

basically whenever I hear a story about a large group of people coming together in a positive, productive manner, I tend to think they either are all exceptional or are actually pod people from Mars

you left out "there was money involved"

Martian pod people are known to be very fiscal-minded

Actually, Dan, that reminds me why some large gatherings like marches and concerts make me nervous. They represent a temptation for miscreants to show off and also a kind of moral get-out-jail-free card for people to lower, collectively, their standards. Not always, of course, but it makes me nervous.

The town I grew up (and still live in) was extremely discriminating: they would just make it VERY difficult for non-Caucasians. I don't think there were any living in Bruges when I grew up. Though we of course welcomed any nationality as a tourist cause they spent/spend money. Hypocrites. Actually they even made it hard on out of towners moving to the city.

To my dad (from Ghent):"Why do you even contemplate opening a shop here? How will you make a living???"
My dad: "I like to do cultural development."

Assholes. They even pretended they didn't understand us when we talked in Dutch (instead of Bruges dialect.)

Thank god we have all cultures living here now. I am actually very happy about that.

- had one teacher manipulate my grades to "teach me a lesson about humility

I need to know who this was

Just to weigh in with stuff about small kids and race; way back when I was in my teens, my white friend's little sister, who was about six or seven at the time, brought up a perfectly reasonable point "Why do you say that Jason is black? He's brown!"

have you seen/read Malcolm X

Just to weigh in with stuff about small kids and race; way back when I was in my teens, my white friend's little sister, who was about six or seven at the time, brought up a perfectly reasonable point "Why do you say that Jason is black? He's brown!"

― Stone Monkey, Monday, 19 October 2009 21:35 (43 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah, i remember asking my dad why we didn't describe white people as pink and black people as brown, he said "well, it's just a saying, isn't it".

28 years old i was

OTOH I had a class with a crazy dude who would cite graveyard patrons of Denny's as sources, who said he physically could not bring himself to call backgammon pieces "black" and "white" (because it felt too racially charged, is the reason I got from context), and instead could call them only "cream" and "brown."

Backgammon pieces that literally are black and white in color.

is the phrase/concept "chinese whispers" racist?

historically/etymologically probably yes but i'm not sure it's commonly used to advance a concept

not these days anyway, unless preschools are rife w/ orientalist conspiracy

the concept is shit gets distorted as it's mediated (or s.thing liek that idk, chinese whispers in effect am i right people?)

but why chinese?

Ballaster, Rosalind (2005). Fabulous Orients: fictions of the East in England, 1662-1785. Oxford University Press. p. 202–3. ISBN 0199267332. "The sinophobic name points to the centuries-old tradition in Europe of representing spoken Chinese as an incomprehensible and unpronounceable combination of sounds."

right on roz

I was gonna speculate it was to do with the gap between the Emperor and local bureaucrats in Chinese society but that makes more sense tsk

ive been kind of amazed at how the world cup has seemingly provided this safe space to be casually half-jokingly pseudo-racist in public for ppl. maybe cuz it's like only borderline metonymic...certainly "the [x]'s are such fucking slimeballs," etc. (big etc.) sounds pretty close to the same sentence without the "the", and i'm pretty sure the sentiment is coming from the same reserve of prejudice in a lot of cases.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/miss-middle-school-bars-black-students-running-class/story?id=11498343&cid=ESPNheadline

you've sure taken your time with it, but as we enter the 1970s I'm sure pleased that you've finally WAIT WHAT?????

OMG.

Soccer / football probably also involves scary issues of class / global poverty / international conflict issues that are enough to scare me off unless the match is in the Americas.

and people wonder why the south spawns such angry rappers. geezus christ how was such a fucking policy allowed to remain in effect for so long?

Yeah west coast rap would be so much better if those dudes didn't spend so much time in student government.

starts wit the kids man

i saw a real-life OMGWTF example of racism early this morning. i went to a local convenience store/bodega to by some stuff (small items of food, cigs, milk). the owners of this bodega are Indians. anyway, at the checkout counter there were two drunk douchebags -- one was on his cellphone berating the customer service rep for his credit card company, the other was standing around silently while his bro' was berating the customer service rep. i was able to suss out that they'd tried to pay for their stuff with a credit card but it had been declined. the bro' on the phone was yelling drunkenly at the customer service rep, asking her questions like "are you in New Delhi?" and "maybe you can't understand that i have money on my credit card b/c you don't speak English." the Indian dudes behind the counter were standing there silently -- even though drunken bro' wasn't speaking directly to them (at that point anyway) and their grasp of English is actually kinda iffy (I've known them for several years now), they definitely knew that THEY were as much the target to the drunken douchebags' ire as the credit card company rep was.

anyway, i left after i paid for my things so i don't know how it all turned out. it was very unsettling, to say the least.

hope ur ok

Did John Quiñones show up?

I was getting a pedicure the other day and there was a dude in there waiting for his wife. He was clearly a little nutty and generally loud and obnoxious but he kept saying shit that was so uncomfortable. First he took the bananas off the buddha shrine they had and started eating them. Then he would speak to the women in a mock accent. Then he actually said to one of them, "Oh I know I'm annoying Rose but you love me long time, right?". I'm not sure how good any of their English was but it was really uncomfortable. Oh he also made reference to them not taking lunch breaks but just eating rice in the back. Anyway the entire time I was just waiting for dude to leave. It was pretty awful.

he took the bananas off the buddha shrine they had and started eating them

lol

oh god

yeah I know

that was pretty funny at first because it was just so unbelievable but then I just felt bad for them cause he was such as asshole to them THE ENTIRE TIME.

was he a white person

curb yr xenophobism

yes he was a white person

u are one of my favourite wite ppl tho deems

wite ppl are the worst tho

i had this out with elmo only last night.

do u know many white ppl nakh, what are yr observations on them

I work at a call center & every once in a while a call starts out with an offshore representative transferring a call to me because the customer requested to talk to someone in the U.S. It starts the call out with me thinking the customer is a bigot, but whatever, try not to judge people. So a call started out like that today, an 84-year-old woman asked to talk to a person in the U.S. It was a really easy problem anyone could have solved but she made it take a long time by being a grumpy grouch. At the end of the call:
HER: Can you register a complaint with those higher above you?
ME: Yes.
HER: Will you tell them the people outside of American can talk to the people outside of America, and Americans can talk to Americans?
ME: I guess that's a diplomatic way of putting it.
HER: Well, what I wanted to say is: "I wanted to choke the shit out of that stupid bitch from ching-chong nowhere."
ME: That is really not a diplomatic way of putting it. Types "customer would prefer we not employ offshore representatives" in formal complaint typing zone.

I mean, whaaat?

need a one-way ticket to ching chong nowhere tbh

I hung up on any racists in my call centre days. Dad being a latin american refugee was always my alibi,both putatively and actually.

i don't see why, if black people have claimed back the word nigger (like gay people and queer - does anyone gay object to being called queer?) and are happy to use it, everyone can't use it!

OK, i can see why. but in theory at least, this should one day be able to happen, surely?

― katie, Friday, 21 September 2001 01:00 (11 years ago)

so many whites desperate for the day when they too can enjoy using the n word

You dont think itd be a good day?

11 years probably satisfies the 'one day' qualifier so i presume she is calling herself a nigger by now

other than being able to do "Real Muthaphukkin' Gs" at karaoke i don't see the practical value

not gonna lie tho it was dispiriting when i noticed there were actually five letters in that username

No i in TEEEEAMMMMMMMMM