People who have no idea what racism really is....

[DrFaroohk]

Inspired by my ultra liberal friend who's in town, I just have to rant...

Not Racist: "That dude has really dark skin."

Racist: "Let's go hang that dark skinned guy!"

Not Racist: "That dude has really slanty eyes."

Racist: "LET'S GO KICK THE FUCK OUT OF THAT SLANTY EYED DUDE!"

Not Racist: Here's a personal one: I honestly can't tell the difference between "brown" people. They even joked about this on South Park. I simply don't see a huge amount of people from each region to be able to identify them. It's just a simple fact. I see a dude with slightly brown skin, he might be from israel, or he might be from mexico. Even brown-skinned actors play multiple roles. It's not racist. It'd be like calling someone racist because they can't tell the difference between someone from Montana and someone from Maine.

Racist: "I don't tolerate no brown people in my town!"

One being an observation, which I don't see as racist. Yeah, guess what. African Americans have dark skin. Chinese people have slanty eyes. White people have pale skin. It's actually true. I don't see how it can be racist. Treating someone negatively because of their race, that's racist.

Like on seinfeld - just because you find chinese women attractive doesn't mean you're racist. And if you don't find chinese women attractive, that's still not racist. We're talking about aesthetic appearances here, not the "person inside". You're making a visual judgement based upon visual clues. No matter how much someone kicks and screams about it, its simply not racist.

Ok, done ranting for a bit. Feel free to call me racist now...lol....

[guywithashovel]

In days gone by, here's something that would often happen on the CS boards.

A member would post a rant about an SC he recently encountered at work. During that rant, said member casually mentions the fact that the SC was black, Hispanic, Asian, or something else (e.g. This black guy started tearing into me over the store's policy even though there was nothing I could do about it! What a jerk!). Then, a PC enthusiast would reply with something like "I agree that he was an SC, but what does his race have to do with it? It sounds like you may have prejudged him before the encounter even happened."

That's another thing. If I'm describing a bad encounter with someone, and I happen to mention the fact that the person is black, female, Asian or whatever, it's a description, not a tacit admission of racism.

[DrFaroohk]

Exactly. I meant to include that very thing as well but forgot. It's just a description. By those people's standards, you could argue that even saying "this guy came in" would be sexist, since why does it matter he's a dude? You could say "this person came in" and now you're humanist, because why does it matter he's a person?

People get way too uptight.

It would be racist if you said "Man, this black guy came in the store...and how I hate black guys! Anyway this black guy came in - god men are so stupid -...."

[Plaidman]

In days gone by, here's something that would often happen on the CS boards.

A member would post a rant about an SC he recently encountered at work. During that rant, said member casually mentions the fact that the SC was black, Hispanic, Asian, or something else (e.g. This black guy started tearing into me over the store's policy even though there was nothing I could do about it! What a jerk!). Then, a PC enthusiast would reply with something like "I agree that he was an SC, but what does his race have to do with it? It sounds like you may have prejudged him before the encounter even happened."

That's another thing. If I'm describing a bad encounter with someone, and I happen to mention the fact that the person is black, female, Asian or whatever, it's a description, not a tacit admission of racism.

True, but this isn't like in person encounter. One may inadvertly mention race, with typing its chosen. Not saying that it means said poster is racist, but unless race is important to the story, then why are you typing the race then? It's not important. You could write that it was a blue woman that screamed at you, and the story would stay the same. Idioitcy is all around, and its not based on race. That, and if anything, by posting the race, you might be furthering the /proof/ that some members need that all race X is horrible. (We do have racist members here).

Basically, unless said race is a major or minor part of the story, there is no reason to write it.

[BlaqueKatt]

Basically, unless said race is a major or minor part of the story, there is no reason to write it.

sorry to pick on ya Plaid but aren't you in a creative writing class?

Use descriptive writing to make your readers feel your pain.

they actually have the reasons for doing it posted there-it's to bring people closer to the actual experience.

for example:
the horse ran through the meadow and sniffed some flowers.

vs

The golden-maned horse thundered through the lush green meadow and then it stopped. It bent its neck to the green grass and sniffed the sweet smell of the colourful flowers.

[DrFaroohk]

And for those of us who key like the flash, sometimes it really is inadvertant anyway. Sure you can go back and change it, but still.

It's just part of the story.

I look at it this way: Who knows better if I'm being racist? You or me? You do? Really? You can read my thoughts, my intentions, my personal feelings? You're suddenly part of the psychic friends network? I didn't think so. Which leaves ME. The only person who really knows for sure is me. Therefore, its my word on the subject we'll be taking, unless you can pull something better out of your ass.

[Plaidman]

Ok, fine, look at this way the Dr.

Say you have made 60 threads about SCs.

In 50 of them, you have posted about a Black person doing various things.


(granted, it's an extreme example).

This can make one come to only a few conclusions.

1: You live in an area with nothing but black people
2: You only notice when a black person does something bad, and not when any other race does it.

Sure, you may claim your not a racist, but when your majority threads have nothing but saying this black person did this, (Yet nothing in the story has any bearing on said race, like him going off on you because they think your racist for example), then the above are really the only two one can conclude. The first one can make sense, but a good chunk likely wouldn't see that and jump to the second one, IE "Wow, that poster sure posts a bunch of stories on black people, haven't seen any on asian, or whites even"

On the same hand, if you want to go off on how your just /describing/ the person, how often do you really state "So this white guy came in and did this"? From what I seen from those that must describe the person's race, they only go "This person", unless it's a different then white American, in which case they are more then willing to go "This Mexican" or "This Russian".


Yeah, you may scream your not racist all you want, but when your actions dicate otherwise, people can rightfully assume that your indeed a racist.

EDIT: I type in a flash too. But I tend to skip words, not add them due to thinking far faster then I type. So I don't buy that Oh I just added that person's race that was different from mine because I type fast.

[DrFaroohk]

Or 3: I live in an area with very few black people. I don't mention white people because its a given that the person I saw was white. It'd be like saying "This human being with two eyes, two lips, a nose, hair, two ears, two arms, and two legs came in..."

But if it was "This three armed man came in and...." because that's very uncommon and it helps to flesh out the story some.

Similar to the example above, its the difference between "this human came in and was mean to me."

or

"So this black dude comes in the other day - big motherfucker, too - and starts swearing up and down that we were out of Newports - and man was he pissed - tells me he's going to jump over the counter and shank me if I don't get on the phone to the manage right now and let him know what's up."

[Wingates_Hellsing]

Even if it's not relevant, it's part of what happened. The person typing knows this so when they think of the SC, it's not those two letters that pop into mind, it's the image of a short, black, gray haired asshole who was wearing a bunny sweater while ridiculing the poster's jeans, or whatever. Almost none of those details are truly relevant, but they are part of what identifies the SC in question. If the person isn't pouring over their post to insure that it isn't offensive, chances are they'll include some or all of those details.

Also, supposing someone did post about a black person 50 out of 60 times (which is preposterously extreme) that still doesn't prove anything. Those numbers are as preposterous as many of the explanations, but those do happen. Unless you can prove that they get other SCs that they ignore or omit you've got nothing. They damn well could be working the graveyard shift in the middle of an all-black project and therefore, since all their customers are black, all the sucky ones are black too.

[Plaidman]

Or 3: I live in an area with very few black people. I don't mention white people because its a given that the person I saw was white. It'd be like saying "This human being with two eyes, two lips, a nose, hair, two ears, two arms, and two legs came in..."
"

Why is it a given? If it's the first one, it just shows even more of a racist attutide. "Man there are so little black people here, and they all do stupid things!"

America is a pretty decent mix now, only slightly more white people then black.

Saying its a given your speaking about a white person does nothing for your argument of only saying a person's race is for description. You ether say all races for that, or just mention a race when its important to story.

[Plaidman]

Even if it's not relevant, it's part of what happened. The person typing knows this so when they think of the SC, it's not those two letters that pop into mind, it's the image of a short, black, gray haired asshole who was wearing a bunny sweater while ridiculing the poster's jeans, or whatever. Almost none of those details are truly relevant, but they are part of what identifies the SC in question. If the person isn't pouring over their post to insure that it isn't offensive, chances are they'll include some or all of those details.
.

Funny how he must describe that it's a different race, but doesn't feel like describing it when it's a white person.

[Vash113]

Why is it a given? If it's the first one, it just shows even more of a racist attutide. "Man there are so little black people here, and they all do stupid things!"

America is a pretty decent mix now, only slightly more white people then black.

Saying its a given your speaking about a white person does nothing for your argument of only saying a person's race is for description. You ether say all races for that, or just mention a race when its important to story.

Why is it a given that this implies racism? I'm so sick of this ultra-sensitive nonsense and no, America is not all evenly mixed and homogenized. On the contrary, there's still a majority of Caucasians in the country, not for a whole lot longer but white people still outnumber all other races. Not to mention people aren't spread out evenly. When I was studying at UMW I was lucky if I saw a single black person on campus each day and might spy an asian way off somewhere once a week... if that. So yes, it bloody well is noteworthy if someone was not white, just like it would be relevant if someone was wearing a pink shirt in a sea of blue shirts or someone was walking around with a mowhawk at sunday service. If I mention that in a conversation does that mean I'm racist against Mowhawks? Heck no, but for some stupid reason every time a race is even mentioned it must be RACIST!

The racism card gets pulled so much these days that it hast lost a great deal of its meaning and true racism has almost completely been replaced by this hyper entitlement trash.

True racism is a bunch of people dragging an innocent guy out of his home and hanging him in a tree for having a different skin color, or burning down a church used by those of another race, racism is not being surprised when half a dozen black people walk through a neighborhood that's 99.99% white people and telling someone about it, or visa versa. You think I wouldn't get stares if I took a stroll through Chinatown?

The world is not black and white (no pun intended), everyone says something now and again that could be interpreted as racist from our ultra-sensitive modern society. Does that mean they are racist? No, no it doesn't. People have forgotten the terror of lynchings, the horror of apartheid, of segregation and replaced it with slightly hurt feelings or sensibilities.

I wonder what the civil rights leaders would have to say about the stuff getting the "racist" label today, I doubt they'd agree.

[Wingates_Hellsing]

Funny how he must describe that it's a different race, but doesn't feel like describing it when it's a white person.

Because, like he said, white is the default because it's much more common than anything else. For a person of a different race to do something is comparatively anomalous, so race is then specified so as to point out that, in that case, it wasn't the default, it was something else.

That which is most common is the given, and since white people still out-number the combined minorities, white is therefore the given. Besides, the population is far from equally dispersed. It makes perfect sense in the same way as only mentioning that someone is tall or short when they're taller or shorter than the norm.

[Plaidman]

Hey, it's fine. If DrFaroohk, or any of the other people at any boards must post the person's race because they feel it's /descriptive/ writing, all I ask is they do the same for white too. As for America, it is still pretty mixed. Walk down my street, and you'd have to walk pretty long and far before you ever see just same race over and over.

Idioticy doesn't go on one race in this world. For example:


1: So this guy came in, stole a bunch of beer and ran out. While he was running out, he got hit by a car and went flying, beer spilling from his hands and drenching a bunch of near by walkers.

2: So this black guy came in, stole a bunch of beer and ran out. While he was running out, he got hit by a car and went flying, beer spilling from his hands and drenching a bunch of near by walkers.

3: So this asian guy came in, stole a bunch of beer and ran out. While he was running out, he got hit by a car and went flying, beer spilling from his hands and drenching a bunch of near by walkers.

4: So this white guy came in, stole a bunch of beer and ran out. While he was running out, he got hit by a car and went flying, beer spilling from his hands and drenching a bunch of near by walkers.


Now the above is a true story. Which one is it? Does it matter? Saying the race did NOTHING for the story, other then to paint some image in your head. You want to have a dream, and imangation? Then THINK the fucking race up yourself. Half the time when I read the stories, I think of it as a person that is green, or purple just for the laughs, because race shouldn't have anything to do with a story about a guy getting hit by a car. A person buying any menthol cigs shouldn't have a race name attached to it, but I bet ya fifty bucks if you changed menthol to newports, a huge chunk would instantly jump to the person being black, even though it was a white person. You want to scream that your not racist, then you really shouldn't care what the race is that is in the story, be it you reading it, or writing it.

[Hobbs]

Actually, I always get quite offended when someone asks me if I'm Mexican. I politely inform them that, "No, I'm American."

Also, when I was hanging with my gf's family at her b-day party, her aunt asked me, "What kind of Hispanic are you?" then added the ubiquitous, "Oh, I'm not racist, I love your people's food/tacos/etc." I really didn't know how to respond to that. It was my first time meeting her family, so I perhaps was more polite than I should have.

I get offended at being called "Mexican" because my family, for more than a century, has served in the Armed Forces of the United States of America. When people ask me why I don't consider myself Mexican, I reply, "Let me put it to you this way, if Mexico gets invaded, I don't give a damn."