"Uncivilized" black people

[macphile]

I am reminded of this little...incident: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...0uPJ_blog.html

At its heart, it kind of depends on what one means by "civilized." The interwebs tells me this: 1. Bring (a place or people) to a stage of social, cultural, and moral development considered to be more advanced: "a civilized society". 2. Polite and well-mannered.

The first is a verb, but the idea is there either way. So is a rap star socially, culturally, and morally "advanced"? I'd say yes, generally. Polite and well-mannered? Maybe... A rap star can be just as educated and polite and...whatever...as anyone else. And goodness knows, the successful ones have a ton of money, a nice house, the whole deal. Was the person in this case going after their "style" or after the individual?

The implication of that ad is, in my mind, unpleasant. It has nothing to do with what kind of guy that guy is. He was the same person with the afro (I assume). But basically, dressing "white" and having short hair is civilized. Anything else is...well, some tribe of cannibals or something. Ouch.

[Estil]

One thing that first popped into my mind about this whole "civilized" thing was this idea of "Five Civilized Tribes" from way back when. So what did this say about the other tribes? That they were well, "not" civilized and if so what was so "wrong" with them? :P But yeah this whole "civilized" idea based mostly on outward appearances is not cool at all.

And for the record I did grow up in rural areas, projects and YES, a trailer. Though the rural/farm lifestyle was never really for me personally I have a great deal of respect for rural folk. They tend to be hard working, down to earth types, at least from what I've seen. And I did attend college (University of KY) and earned two BAs, plus my own wife got to hob knob with some of the Ivy League back in her younger days AND she earned a master's degree in criminal justice a few years back. And you know what? Some of the professors I've seen at UK were really good/nice people too. So I can certainly see how tempting it is to fall back on negative stereotypes (especially if they're the kind like say, the "white trash" ones mentioned here society doesn't seem to think is that big a deal) but you could foolishly be missing out on some fine, fine people doing that. To borrow a quote from a classic NES game, "And that would be a shame."

[DGoddess]

Some of it...is because rednecks are idiots. Even though their vehicle is only fit for scrap, they'll hang onto it, "because it's a Camaro (or Mustang/Firebird/whatever) and I can get me some money for it." Never mind that the vehicle in question was wrapped around a tree and will never see the road without some serious time and money being spent on it. No, it'll sit in their front yard until the owner passes on and trailer's new owner no longer wants the vehicle sitting around.

It's not just the white "rednecks" who do this w/vehicles. I have a very nice couple who live across the road from me who have what used to be a 1970 Opel 2 door parked by their home that's been sitting for over 20 years. It's well beyond repair . . . it's basically a rusted shell but for some unknown reason, the husband refuses to part with it.

And this couple is an older, educated African American family. He's a retired drug/alcohol counselor, she's retired as well. The husband is also an ordained minister. Their 2 kids are grown and on their own and they have teenage grandchildren who come by on occasion to visit. They've been in the neighborhood longer than my family (and we've been here 25 years ourselves.) Everyone likes them, there's nothing bad to say about them at all.

Just for reasons unknown the husband has that hangup over that bucket of rust.

[Gravekeeper]

....we're resurrecting threads from 2012? >.>