…also what’s your opinion of Paleface’s turd gems like this:
You know, you’re right. I did frame the debate inaccurately. My apologies. By the point really does stand. Just substitute how people dress with how they act. If you dress like an idiot, you just might be perceived as such. You act like an idiot, ditto.
I don’t have time to go back to get full context, but…
I must not be understanding him, because one is in no way like the other.
Yikes. Not a belief I ascribe to.
tomndebb addresses this argument on page 1 in this response to Starving Artist
I think Starving was correct in the post Tom responded to. I also think **Tom’s **points were valid. The only real disagreement I see is Tom accusing him of looking at only one group. I’m sure Starving would grant that there are other groups who are similarly self-destructive in their cluelessness concerning dress. A large swath of black youth does make a highly visible target, especially with how the dress/attitude they don is so glamorized in some circles, so I don’t see it as unreasonable to talk about it.
That may be true for individuals, but anyone who expands it from an individual, (or a collection of individuals), to an entire ethnic group is both blaming the victim and probably displaying a significant amount of prejudice in regards to the ethnic group.
Is this a whoosh? If not, cite. Because I don’t think there has ever been anyone who lived to 137.
OK, I dug around, and you’re apparently talking about Charlie Smith, whose story has been debunked. While dying at quite a ripe old age and no doubt leading an interesting life, he was born at the earliest in 1874 and was apparently, um, embellishing some of his story.
It all depends if enough individuals of a group adopt the same behavior. To take some of the emotion out of the debate, if enough people from a particular area don cowboy hats and vests, we can assume they, as a group, hold values that align with cowboys. Now, those values may be seen as being a good thing to them, and it may be. But when they don that persona they are stick with both the good and bad. The set of beliefs may be seen as a positive from within the group, and as a negative thing by those outside of it.
And I don’t think anyone here is trying to imply that even if you make generalizations, that does not mean every person is subject to that generalization. Conversely, to reiterate, if one person acts a certain way, no one is going to try to project that behavior onto a group. It’s when large groups that can be identified a certain characteristic and also share another characteristic do we start to make associations. And making associations is how we make sense of the world. Not doing so is unnatural. And potentially dangerous.
Speaking of things that stink, your tactic of only using half of the statement is dishonest. And to think that you could get away with it, is a commentary on you.
No, you are not understanding, because orcenio is not participating in an honest manner. See, orcenio took it on him/her self to only provide half of the statement to deride the point.
I’ll explain so you don’t have to go back through the previous posts.
There has been an effort within the black community to purge the “N” word from usage. “Don’t use the “N” word”.
I likened it to: Telling someone not to use the “N” word, was similar to telling someone to not think of the color red.
What orcenio disengenuously omitted was:
What happens? The person can’t help but think of red.
Same thing happens when told to not use the “N” word.
When a black person commits a offensive act, those told not to use the “N” word, can’t help but think of the “N” word.
I think if you have to be told, “Don’t think of the N word,” you’ve got problems the black community can’t fix.
You don’t believe that behavior has anything to do with the usage of the “N” word?
Well, I disagree. Sure, there are those who gratuitously use the “N” word, but I believe that for most who use the term, behavior is the defining factor.
It’s not about behavior. If it were about behavior, you’d go around thinking that about all people, black or white, who acted like assholes. This is a way for you to feel superior and think that the stupid darky has gotten out of line.
And what problem would that be?
Now, let me tell you what I think. I think there are problems within the black community that some refuse to acknowledge or address.
Yes, it is.
No, the “N” word is not assigned to white assholes.
I could see how a group of people might “think” of the “N” word when confronted with certain behavior. But the quote of yours I responded to was equating “thinking” of the color red to “using” the “N” word. You may not have much control over the thoughts that pop into your head, but you do have control over the actions that follow.
So when you see a black person behaving badly, your assumption isn’t that they’re just an asshole–it’s that they’re an N-word? Are you really that unaware of what that word means? You’re not just seeing them as a jerk or a moron–you’re making it clear that you see them as someone uppity.
The fact that we’re even discussing what the black community’s problems are in response to how to combat modern racism is so incredibly insane. If this were a GD on what the problems in black society are, that would be one thing. But the fact that there are people whose first response to “How do we stop racism” is “We wouldn’t have to call you N-word if you didn’t play loud music, wear big pants, and eat fried chicken” is so distasteful to me. Was this board always like this? It’s depressing as hell to read.
I’ll have to disagree here. There is no doubt that nigger is associated with black people, the same way white trash is associated with whites. The fact that the word “black” isn’t in the descriptor is beside the point.
I’ll rephrase–if it wasn’t about race, one would just think, “What a dick/asshole” when Kanye pulls a boner. The fact that someone sees Kanye West getting up on stage and being a douchebag and thinks, “What an N-Word” means they’re not just seeing him as a silly ass, the way you’d react to Paris Hilton, Tom Cruise, or Rush Limbaugh saying something mind blowingly asinine. He’s just an uppity black person, and the bigot can just add it to their list of stupid things blacks do that make racism so necessary, conveniently ignoring the boneheaded things that people of all colors do.
The “N” word is not really the problem. The problem is the belief set that brings the “N” word to mind. And that has two components: preconceived notions and actual observation. The second one is assesses actual behavior. The fact is that a person can act in a manner that is low, distasteful, uppity, however you want to describe, it and you’d be 100% justified in characterizing that behavior as such. It is both fair and logical that if those persons don’t wish you to hold those opinions of them that they should, indeed, alter their behavior. There was a black comedian, Chris Rock, I think, who had a set in which he acknowledges the existence of “niggers”, as a group of blacks defined by certain behaviors.
I just checked and it was him. Here.