I was watching The Daily Show and they were reporting on these Southern folks who had pig races on Fridays which upset the Muslim folks. One of the white Southern guys says, “The big fear is that our kids will have to go to school with their kids.” Unless it was edited out of context, :eek:
People really feel this way and say it in public? Can they really think they have a basis for this? I felt like they had replaced the mixing of races with the mixing of religions or ethnicity in the latest segregation push.
I wonder how widespread this is. What is it that they fear?
My guess is that the Random Southern Guy might be afraid that the Muslim Folks may try to make the Southern People in the area adhere to their societal mores (or assumed ones) as a part of being in the community. I seriously doubt that any of his fears are founded in prior experience or actual facts, though.
Not only adhere to their mores, but they’d also potentially have to give up some of their own that they’ve only been able to hang onto by virtue of belonging to very culturally homogenous communities.
It happens to be Muslims, who are convenient whipping boys these days, but it could just as easily be any other “new” group who actively practices a different culture.
My question is why the Muslims would object to crackers racing pigs. They don’t object to non-Muslims eating pork or drinking beer or letting women drive. Is there something in the Koran about cruelty to animals (assuming it’s actually cruel to pigs to race them)?
As for being shocked at the redneck comment: Come on, gigi, the guy RACES PIGS FOR SPORT! What do you expect from somebody like that – cultural sensitivity!?
That was my concern. I’m not surprised people feel this way, but I hold out hope it’s not too many. But I was surprised he was so forthcoming with the opinion.
Deep South here. No, we don’t all feel the same as that yo-yo, nor do even MOST of us.
Whenever I see idjuts like that on the tube I try to remember that controversial seems to equal compelling news now and that they may have talked to 25 people who didn’t feel that way, yet the one :eek: guy gets his 15 seconds of fame. They sell more cornflakes that way …
They didn’t have to look hard at all. He’s made a spectacle of himself ever since this mosque was made public - to the point where I know what case this thread is about even though there aren’t any details given. There was a Pit thread about it, with this idiot (I think his name is Craig Johnson) [Ed: Wrong, it’s Craig BAKER] getting most of the abuse. He’s previously said he’s doing it because they offended him somehow, I think by asking him to move his pigs off the property the Muslims bought.
Sunrazor, the Muslims in question have said they don’t object to his pig racing. But I’m sure they understand the gesture.
He owns the property that is next to the proposed mosque; in fact, I think it borders it on three sides. He is unique in his ability to stage pig races next door.
I would think that it would be annoying to live next door to a mosque, what with the call to prayer at an unG-dly hour of the morning, if you will pardon the expression.
The Muslims in question have said they don’t care. The guy who did it was trying to provoke them because some Muslims bought some propery adjoining his to build a mosque and asked him to move his pigs off the portion that they owned. He then staged the pig races as kind of trolling effort but the people he was trying to provoke pretty much shrugged him off. He was hoping they would care, but they didn’t.
On NPR not too long ago, they were talking about Muslims and government. One lady who identified herself as a devout Fundamentalist Christian. She said she got emails from right-wing newsletters and such. In any case, she said that some of these emails would be surveys about how the recipients felt about Muslims. Some questions were things like…
“How do you feel about Muslims?”
“How do you feel about Muslims in your community?”
“How do you feel about Muslims in your government?”
“How do you feel about Muslims taking over your government?”
“Do you want Muslims living by you or your family?”
“Do you feel that Muslims are against the American way of life?”
That sort of thing. In any case, she started realizing that these questions were having very bad connotations and that they were completely unfounded and pointed. I’m glad that she saw through the little games they were trying to play.
I know TDS edits things to make them funny*, but no matter how much editing they did, I too thought it was obvious that the Muslim spokesman is not very happy to have this guy for a neighbor. Maybe not specifically because he races pigs (and apparently has a number of jerk friends that come watch) but, if nothing else, because he goes out of the way to try and offend.
And no matter how much editing they did, they couldn’t have made Baker seem like more of an ass. What a creep.
*this segment was pretty much unfunny and disturbing
