Spot the racism
Since we’re having fun identifying racism, let’s play a game. A game I, apparently, suck at but others are pretty good at. Spot the racism:
Based on recent events, all of them are racist. You see it doesn’t matter if Mattel was coming out with a new black Barbie next year or if it came from a different Chinese sweatshop and was priced differently. It hurts someone’s feelings. So, it’s racist because a bunch of people agree it is.
Dan Rather, clearly a racist. He used a term our culture has been conditioned to think of as racist in the same series of words in which he mentioned a prominent black person. It doesn’t matter that his incomprehensible Ratherism may have meant something else (what that meaning is, no one knows exactly). If Dan Rather had a job, he should be fired from it.
And the MO students are also racist. I mean, not only did they use a symbol that we’ve been culturally conditioned to think of as racist, they actually did something racist with it. That’s not just plain vanilla racism. That’s double-plus racism! And double-plus racism is the worst kind because, in addition to not being made up, it requires intent.
March 9th, 2010 at 1:21 pm
How do they know it was Barbie racism? Maybe it was Barbie Affirmative Action. Maybe it was an attempt to get Black Barbie into more homes that would traditionally only buy White Barbies.
No way that it would be traditional inventory management or something.
The most ironic part of this story is that this was probably as race free decision as one could get. The price reduction was probably generated from a computer model that looked solely at sku numbers and inventory and made no decision by race. A human probably never even visited the aisle and made a decision.
March 9th, 2010 at 1:41 pm
I think we need an app that we can use, kinda like google goggles, that we can use to scan different things to find out if they are racist. OR maybe a liberal midget that we can carry around in a backpack (think Yoda) who we can run things past to make sure we aren’t being racist.
March 9th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
#1, not racist.
#2, not racist.
#3, racist, but shouldn’t be a crime.
March 9th, 2010 at 1:44 pm
By your standards, 1 & 2 are definitely racist.
And 3 should be a crime. Littering.
March 9th, 2010 at 1:47 pm
Is that like double-plus secret probation?
March 9th, 2010 at 1:49 pm
SayUncle,
By your standards, if a crowd of people hung Barack Obama in effigy whilst burning him with a sign that said “n*****”…it wouldn’t be racist because it would require some sort of context to find it racist.
#1 is a product of supply and demand. #2, saying that Obama would have trouble selling fruit on the side of the road isn’t racist…if he said, “Obama couldn’t sell a bucket of fried chicken w/ a side of watermelon at an NACCP conference” that might have been.
#3, yes, we agree, they should be charged with littering.
March 9th, 2010 at 1:56 pm
Shorter braisted: Can’t keep up so I know you are but what am I. Yawn.
March 9th, 2010 at 1:58 pm
Shorter Uncle: Completely ignore the points other people make and just act morally superior at all costs.
March 9th, 2010 at 2:00 pm
i addressed them all and you kept coming back to the same nonsensical ‘initial reaction, cultural racism’ canard.
And my moral superiority is well-established 🙂
March 9th, 2010 at 2:03 pm
Well, this little exercise is reinforcing the theory of alternative universes.
March 9th, 2010 at 2:21 pm
#1: The reflection of the racism of society.
#2: The reflection of the racism of Southerners of a certain age.
#3: The reflection of insitutional Southern racism and no doubt booze, lots of booze.
March 9th, 2010 at 2:22 pm
I’m going to start selling an “is it racist?” magic 8 ball. It’s going to be just like a regular magic 8 ball, only all the answers are going to be “yes, that’s racist.” I’ll make millions :]
March 9th, 2010 at 3:36 pm
Really? 1&2 aren’t racist, but 3? Can you really give a nonracist motive for spreading cotton balls on the lawn of a black culture center?
I guess you wouldn’t call it racist for them to have burnt a cross or spray painted “NIGGER” on the building either, hmm? Oh, I would’ve typed “N-word,” but surely we both know it’s not actually offensive. I mean, those are just culturally conditioned symbols, right? Nothing offensive at all!
How about painting a nice big swastika on a Jewish temple while we’re at it? It’s a peace symbol, you dolts! How could you think it was something offensive? Oh, you silly people and your cultural conditioning!
March 9th, 2010 at 3:38 pm
“Can you really give a nonracist motive for spreading cotton balls on the lawn of a black culture center?”
That’s kinda the point. After all, I don’t see anyone saying that #3 isn’t racist.
March 9th, 2010 at 3:57 pm
Uncle,
But why is it racist? I mean, if they put cotton balls in the lawn of a white fraternity would it be racist? If not, than it would have to take some sort of “cultural context” to find it racist when placed near a black cultural center.
March 9th, 2010 at 4:03 pm
Same reason the others aren’t: intent.
March 9th, 2010 at 4:18 pm
So you know for a fact that the intent of the chain email, comparing Mrs. Obama to a chimp and “portraying” her as Cheeta, was in no way racist? What do you think the intent was then? I mean, at least some effort had to go with the crafting of the email, finding the picture of Michelle Obama and a Chimp with a similar facial expression, and some retarded backstory about Tarzan’s chimpanzee companion. What was the ultimate goal of the email?
March 9th, 2010 at 4:25 pm
i think the intent was to tell a lame joke. Thing about intent is it usually is what is to be proven. Not the absence of.
March 9th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
Uncle,
I don’t think anyone disputes that the intent was to tell a joke, the question is whether it was a racist joke. I’m sure those two kids throwing cotton balls around laughed their balls off…
March 9th, 2010 at 4:34 pm
But intent determines if it is meant to be a racist joke or not. one thing to think ‘haha, they do look alike’. And another to say, well, whatever racists think.
March 9th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
It all requires you or me to try and get inside the mind of the person who created it, which is impossible I suppose. All I can say is that it would seem to me to be pretty common sense that its unwise to A) make demeaning jokes about the First Lady, whomever she is and B) to make compare black people to chimps.
Of course, maybe the “intent” wasn’t that, maybe the original author of the email just happened to see a picture of a chimp making that face at the same time he saw that picture of Michelle Obama…doubtful, but the possibility is always there.
March 9th, 2010 at 4:54 pm
and since we can’t do that accurately, we shouldn’t.
She’s a political figure and she will be subject do demeaning jokes for the duration.
March 9th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
SayUncle,
That doesn’t mean people shouldn’t be called out on it. Its inappropriate and if you are the head lobbyist for an industry that requires good press, it would seem unfathomable to be sending out emails denigrating the First Lady, racist or not.
March 9th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
it is inappropriate but that doesn’t make him a racist nor does it mean he had racist intent.
It’s just the internet. not like it can cost him his job or anything.
March 9th, 2010 at 5:19 pm
None of it is racist. Does it say that blacks are genetically inferior to whites? No.
It’s certainly culturalist. And I believe in culturalism. I read somewhere that Caribbean and African blacks have higher employment and success than American blacks. From my own observation, they also don’t worship thug culture or have ridiculous names. CULTURALISM!
March 9th, 2010 at 5:33 pm
So wait, maybe we should have PROOF of something before we cry “WITCH” er I mean “RACIST”? And maybe this proof should be beyond a reasonable doubt. What a novel idea, Freedom of Speech….someone should make a law.
March 9th, 2010 at 5:40 pm
Freedom of Speech….someone should make a law
Was this guy arrested? No, he was fired (or released from a contract)…the First Amendment does not protect one from private recriminations for public speech.
If you want worker protections for speech you’d probably have to repeal the right-to-work laws that Conservatives have fought for in Tennessee.
March 9th, 2010 at 9:01 pm
Could you file a discrimination lawsuit against the company for letting you go because of what you said? Also is the company publicly or privately owned?
March 10th, 2010 at 1:34 am
Shorter Uncle: Completely ignore the points other people make and just act morally superior at all costs.
And then eventually just quietly go away when it’s clear you’re wrong. 😉
March 10th, 2010 at 1:38 am
More importantly, I can’t get the context on the rather quote, because your link actually goes to the cotton ball story.
March 10th, 2010 at 2:06 am
Fuck white people, fuck black people, and especially fuck the milk chocolate people. Fuck yellow people, fuck red people and especially fuck lightly tinged yellow people and pink people.
Now motherfuckers. deal with that. Everybody screams racism, but damn few of you have dealt with it. And that applies to all the colors in the above paragraph.
I have. It ain’t pretty, but neither is it an excuse to be a worthless whine bag.
When you feel obligated to make special dispensation to someone because their color is different from yours, you are a racist. Especially if that special dispensation is in their favor. Because you have said they are not capable unless we superior humans give them advantages no one else gets.
Oh yeah, did I say fuck you motherfuckers that find racism in everydamnthing.
March 10th, 2010 at 9:30 am
“And then eventually just quietly go away when it’s clear you’re wrong.”
No. I go away after we’ve hit the second circle, realizing it’s pointless. Or because I see something shiny.
March 10th, 2010 at 11:03 am
Oh and the watermelon (RACIST!) link has been fixed.
March 10th, 2010 at 11:24 am
It took me a moment to get the cotton ball thing. Since it has been how many hundred years since cotton was picked by hand? I had just gotten a tetanus shot so I was thinking medical.
If you could connect the dots so quickly on the cotton balls being racism maybe you should be wondering why?
March 10th, 2010 at 11:48 am
If you could connect the dots so quickly on the cotton balls being racism maybe you should be wondering why?
Basic knowledge of American history…?
March 10th, 2010 at 12:28 pm
“Basic knowledge of American history…?”
Any knowledge of current history? And by the way, white people picked cotton too. Yet no outrage there?
So Sean, what would have happened if the cotton ball incident had been ignored as a stupid childish prank?
March 10th, 2010 at 3:56 pm
So Sean, what would have happened if the cotton ball incident had been ignored as a stupid childish prank?
I imagine the Mexican janitor would’ve cleaned it up 😉