That still doesn’t make offensive and racist synonymous terms. A statement can be offensive, even racially offensive without necessarily being racist.
For what it’s worth, my husband called while I was composing this post. He’s black, too, just for the record. He, like me, isn’t one to find racism hiding under every rock and pebble. I’m not accusing people in this thread who find the statement in question racist of doing that, either, I’m just pointing out when he thinks something’s racist, it’s usually overt. He thinks the euphemism is racist and racially offensive.
I’m currently leafing through the Yellow Pages to retain a divorce lawyer…
The joke is not funny, and it’s offensive because of the sentiments it conjures up. Whether or not it’s racist really depends on the intentions of the jokester. My feeling is that if you don’t want to be called a racist, don’t say the joke .
Also, you’re being an ass if you’re sitting there pretending you don’t understand how the joke can could be seen as racist. The racist connotations are clear to anyone with a third grade education.
Gotta go with your husband in this one, Juanita. While I have no problem with being irreverent to racial political correctness, the comment in question is definitely racist in tone, if not necessarily intention. C’mon, comparing black kids to feces? That’s just nasty. Mind you, as a white guy, it’s probably not my place to say which comments black folks ought to find offensive, but damn . . .
JuanitaTech, I realized that my post could be miscontrued as response to yours. I’m not calling you an ass…unless you’re saying you can’t understand how someone could find the joke racially offensive. I simply can’t understand that position. If you only disagree with the sentiment that the joke is inherently racist, then we’re in agreement.
Now all you have to do is buy a box of Pop-Tarts and a few cans of ravioli and we can continue our briefly interrupted love affair!
This thread helped clarify something for me. There was a guy I knew who used the phrase “drop Rudy off at the pool”. I had always heard the phrase as “the kids” and just assumed that Rudy must be a kid he knew. Now I get it. And find it offensive. Odd thing though is that it’s probably the only even remotely racist thing I ever heard him say. I wonder if he even knew the genesis of it.
We seem to be a society devolving into some pathetic lynchmob, clamoring around looking under rocks, trying to find offence where none exists, or is intended. We’ve become fixated on obsessing over every possible slight against anybody, and demanding senate hearings on the issue. (we’re not to the hearing, but give it 10 years). Look at that mayor who used the word “niggardly”, they ran him out of the town on the rails. (yeah yeah he came back, “our bad” :rolleyes: )
[sub]I wonder if you think my using “our bad” to describe how a bunch of presumably black people apologized after the incident will make me a racist.
Hmmm, even worse, perhaps you’ll make the Kalhoun leap of insanity™ and say that I think black people are a bunch of uneducated “monkeys” because they didn’t know the true meaning of niggardly.
The mind boggles.[/sub]
People don’t like different people, it’s a fact of the world, and it will never change. We’d be better off learning to live with this unfortunate side of human nature, instead of screaming bloody murder every time someone says something even be remotely construed as racist.
Something more obvious? Go to fucking town on them, shit, I’ll join you. We’ve got to let this little piddly shit go, lest we’ll destroy ourselves.
I think most people would agree that false accusations of racism–such as in the infamous “niggardly” debacle you mention–are a waste of time. You’d be hard pressed to find a reasonable person who thought otherwise. However, that was never the question.
The real question is…
What is more obvious? Why is this piddly? Certainly you can see in this thread that many people disagree with you and consider that the sentiment espoused in the joke is more than “remotely” racist. Why are you the arbiter of what is silly and what is important? Can you see that it is a matter of opinion and perspective and not objective fact?
Because the little Huxtable kid is specific, not a generalization like above.
People think lots of things, (SUVs are evil, SH was behind 9/11, Illuminati, etc) they’re entitled to their opinion, I am entitled to mine. (you’re all fucking nuts).
Yes it’s a matter of opinion. I’m also of the opinion that we’re headed in a direction that is bad for us. One of the bad things is making a HUGE stink over things that I would consider a sane person to find insignificant. Do you realize how much damage Janet Jackson did with her stupid stunt? Wouldn’t it be great to live in a world were the 10,000 people who called the FCC on some direct batphone 1.7 seconds after seeing a nipple didn’t exist?
Based on finger-waving over an inappropriate (yes, such a racially offensive joke is inappropriate for a MPSIMS thread on a mixed board) joke, yes. Cisco’s the one who started the thread in the first place, not some angry offended person. And to clear things up, the original joke was about the Cosby kids, not just Rudy. I know it’s not that much of a difference, but it makes it more obvious that the joke was about feces-colored kids, not a specific little girl (few people leave just a single bolus in one session anyway).
I don’t think it’s too early in the thread to pose a question. By my rough count, of the posters who have clearly expressed an opinion, a little less than a third have no problem with the phrase, a little more than two-thirds find it offensive, and more than half of those find it offensive at least partly because of its racial implications. Knowing this, will the phrase’s defenders continue to use the phrase? It’s not as if the idea can’t be expressed in other terms, or as if it needs to be expressed at all. It isn’t a free speech issue. Of course you’re allowed to say it, you just can’t dictate what other people think of you when you do. So how about it? Who’s keeping this little gem in their repertoire?
FWIW, I’m white, born in 1963, and I find the phrase absolutely poisonous. The subject is a tv character, not an actual person one can personally dislike. The euphemism is constructed as a metaphor, and there is no coherent basis for comparison, even proffered by its defenders, other than color. The subject stands in for feces, which have no positive attributes, and whose negative attributes (they smell, they’re useless, they spread disease) are well-known canards hurled at black people by racists who make the comparison directly. Color bias is the most visible symptom of racism. I might be willing to believe that a person who used the phrase was ignorant of its racial impact, but I’d advise such a person to remedy his ignorance. Fast.
I never used it before, so I obviously won’t be using in the future. As far as times where I’m in a scenario in which I need to mind my tongue or behavior to not incense someone else? I take it on a case-by-case basis. Some times I hold it, sometimes they’ll have to learn to deal with it.
The “big deal” (god, why do you use quotes so much?) is that you called Airman Doors a racist, and then when I defended him you called me a racist.
Either apologize, admit you’re an asshole, or defend your accusations with something better than “it was an easy set-up because someone else complained first.”
Naw, suprisingly, it’s usually the white folks who cry racism! at the slightest opprotunity. You see, it’s a good way to show how cool and progressive and “in touch” with people of other races we are.
Comon’. Whaddaya wanna bet pizzabrat is a white male in his early or mid twenties, from a middle class family and most likely in college? I’d also throw in “sporting dreds and drives a VW bus” but I don’t want to get too ahead of myself.
You know, when all the people that aren’t white are saying something isn’t racist, but all the people that are white are saying there is, that’s an indication that something may be a little…off.
When did I call anyone a racist? I said the joke wasn’t surprising coming from Airman since he also misses blackface gags. That’s not something I made up, I even provided a link. When you defended it, I said that also wasn’t surprising since you dismissed racism as “not a big deal” in a previous thread. That’s not calling either of you racist, that’s just pointing out that you’re fine with racially offensive jokes. You both admitted fondness for the joke, where did I err? Was I supposed to exhibit surprise at your fondness?
