Not in my experience.
Public message board. Anyone who’s paid their fees can post. If I’ve been a jerk, report my post to a mod, and they’ll deal with me as they see fit.
You didn’t like the racist joshing some posters submitted, and I can see your point. I made no reference to race in my posts, but I’m still an asshole because I dare to question your self-righteousness? An even bigger asshole than the drunk in the OP?
So you’ve proved my point: it’s not the color of your skin that’s the issue, it’s the thinness of it.
In a thread regarding race, the color of your skin is in fact the issue. If you feel, as a White person (I presume), that my complaints are “self-righteous” and my reaction to something you’ve probably never experienced is overblown, then I will call you an asshole. And your insinuations about my bruised manhood or whatever I think also warranted a negative response. You seemed to have imagined the scenario I described quite differently from how it actually happened and felt you could insult me for it.
I will admit I came off a bit strong, but like I said, this is the Pit and I didn’t think there would be such a huge backlash from White people that want to capitalize on an opportunity to be pricks (me being Asian probably made it helluva a lot easier) and tell me I am overreacting to something they know nothing about.
BTW, my skin is pretty thick from a lifetime of unwarranted disrespect and snide remarks. But that still doesn’t mean I’m going to let people openly disrespect me. If you’re a dick to me, I’m gonna be a dick to you. If that makes me self-righteous, then so be it.
China Guy, in my personal experience there’s no real easy way to deal with casual or blatant racism that your children may confront. I hope they’re good at witty comebacks, because that’s the only real alternative to either violence or just ignoring them.
Liberal, the attitudes I’ve witnessed towards Native Americans and Blacks I find deeply saddening. After centuries of oppression, now they just insult and belittle you behind your back. It’s absolutely amazing how much extremely offensive shit people will say about other minorities to me when they feel I’m not one of ‘them’.
I guess for Asians, since there wasn’t any blatant historical oppression, they think it’s okay to insult and mock us to our face.
Colonization of the Philippines? Japanese internment? Anti-miscegenation laws? Immigration quotas? Exploited labor on the railroad and in the sugar fields? There’s been plenty of blatant historical oppression. It’s more accurate to say that there is a lack of public awareness of said oppression. You’re not going to learn much about most of these things unless you’re an historian or an Asian American studies scholar.
My own opinion is that people think it’s “safer” to make Asian jokes because a) there is a misconception that Asians have never suffered any systematic racism in the US (for examples, see above) and b) the whole “model minority” stereotype gives the impression that Asians are “cool” with that sort of thing and don’t let it bother them. For me, Asian jokes are like any other potentially offensive jokes - they’re funny in certain contexts (like among friends) but not in most, and certainly not from strangers.
I think you’re on to something, HNC. It does seem that there is a greater acceptance of racial jokes directed at Asian Americans. Racial humor is like preparing chit’lins. It’s hard work, and you better know what the hell you’re doing, else people are going to get sick. Something best left to experts. But most racial jokesters think that funny to a sample of one = funny to the rest of the world. This, of course, is rarely the case.
I also think humor is a place where prejudice and hate reside. Experts use humor to point out contradictions and inconsistencies, while most of the time if someone has to explain it was a joke… it probably wasn’t. Which is also why racial jokes in environments where you don’t know people, and absent the ability to read nuances in tone and facial gestures is pretty much a bad idea, IMO.
Several Asian posters have discussed how racial jokes among friends are okay. To which I think :eek: . Lest you think I’m humor impaired, I’ve been told I’m a pretty funny guy. But I don’t get the idea that jokes about your ethnicity are ever particularly funny… to people outside your ethnicity. Poking fun at a stereotype applied to your group, or pointing out that someone is behaving exactly like a stereotype is sometimes humorous. But let me tell you something - if any “friend” of mine ever used a racial epithet towards me, even in jest, here’s what would happen: a) Said friend might lose some fronts; b) The odds of us remaining friends would drop precipitously; and c) If we did indeed remain friends, I’d have to school him or her about what’s not okay.
I have friends with disabilities, friends of different ethnic, racial, sexual orientations, and religious backgrounds. I generally don’t think it’s cool to crack on something that someone has no control over; furthermore, I tend to respect those differences rather than find them inferior to mine (except when it comes to sport allegiances). So if I’m playing the dozens with a friend, I can go to about fifty things about them to crack on before I’d even have to go to race, religion, or ability status. Someone who goes to those things in a few minutes doesn’t know you very well.
I don’t think our recent wars over there have helped. “Oh Jake can call 'em that, he was in 'nam!”
I guess it depends on context, as so many other things do. Among our friends here we have two guys who have a physical disability that makes it difficult for them to walk. They make jokes about their disability all the time, just like I make jokes about being Asian, and none of us mind when our friends join in. There is always a line, though, but as friends we know where it is. (The aforementioned “chink” is most definitely on the other side of the line.) Then again, we have extremely inappropriate senses of humor (on all subjects, not just race and disabilities) that make it impossible for us to socialize outside of our sheltered existence that is grad school, so make of that what you will. 
My two closest friends and I share no ethnicity other than ‘human’. That said, when we joke about each other (which is basically whenever we talk with each other), any and everything goes. We’re smart enough not to do it in places where it could be misinterpreted, but otherwise, the gloves are off and no slur is forbidden. These are people who I have known well over 20 years, so we’ve explored just about every way to insult one another. That said, in how they conduct their lives, I find no traces of racism, and pretty much the only people we can be said to be bigoted towards are the actively and hopelessly stupid.
To each his own.
Well, N. Korea has basically purged the Korean language of all foreign influences. “Foreign” words - those borrowed from Chinese and Japanese - comprise perhaps half of the Korean language, so the Korean that the N. Koreans use has about 50% in common with the Korean we use in the South.
As for reunification issues, suffice it to say that my generation does not think positive thoughts when it comes to reunifying with the North. I’d say more, but must run to class.
[/hijack]
r4nd0mNumb3rs, I’m sorry you have had to put up with the overt racism as well as the more subtle forms. Unfortunately it’s everywhere and unavoidable. I once told a friend that I was ripped off on a trade and said, “Man, I was gypped.” My friend got quiet and then informed me that he was Romanian and that the word “gypped” traced back to the reputations of gypsies as untrustworthy.
What he said echoed with my grandfather’s offense when someone would say that they didn’t give a “tinker’s damn” because of how it reflected negatively on the Irish travelers, commonly referred to as tinkers. He also hated Notre Dame calling itself the Fighting Irish and the way the Irish were portrayed as lazy drunks always looking for a fight. He had heard the stories from his great uncles about the “Irish Need Not Apply” and couldn’t understand how people could tolerate or accept the stereotypes.
I try to be careful with what I say. I don’t “welsh on a bet” or “go Dutch” when going out for dinner. I’m not an “Indian giver” and I don’t wear “dago Ts”. My car by Honda was not a “rice burner”.
Good luck in dealing with racism and offensive comments.
As a slight hijack, which term is incorrect: “Oriental” or “Asian”? When referring to people from the “Far East” (and is that offensive?) such as Japanese, Chinese, Cambodian, etc. and their descendants, is there a term that is proper?
Also, white people are still occasionally referred to as Caucasian (though nobody I am related to came from the Caucasus mountains). Negroid and Mongoloid are outdated and insulting. What are they proper terms for racial descriptions? I’m not “white” but more of a pinkish color. Nobody is truly “black” but varying shades of brown. I have never seen a “yellow” person (except my son when his bilirubin levels were high). So what is the correct term?
I always thought that was ‘welch’.
One time, a cop friend of my dad’s took his MP5 out of the back of his car and showed it to my grandpa and I. Grandpa’s reaction was, “the bad guys wouldn’t have a Chinaman’s chance if you shot at them with that!” He’s around 78, was in the Korean War, and still uses the term “oriental,” and won’t buy something if it’s not made by unionized workers. He’s one of those guys. The thing about him is, he is honestly not racist at all - I hear him speak very fondly of various people from his neighborhood in New York of all different races, and in fact he often talks about his sympathy for minorities and his hatred of discrimination. But it would never occur to him to adjust his language for the changing times.
I had always said “welsh” but had also heard “welch”. Either way, it is a slur against the people from Wales.
Similarly, Scrooge McDuck refers to the allegedly miserly ways of the people of Scotland.
I go by Pinkish-Beige.
I guess my friends and I are different; we tease each other about any and everything, and no one takes offense (if they seriously did, the teasing about that would stop - we tease out of love, not with intent to hurt). I tease my husband about being Catholic, and he teases me about being a pagan; if it were a problem to either of us, we obviously wouldn’t have married.
Maybe it’s a cultural difference; maybe Canadians are a bunch of racist bastards who don’t care who they hurt. We don’t pussyfoot around like you, either, erie (oh, sorry, that might offend felines).
My grandfather was bothered by that stuff but I don’t give a crap, really. Someone could call me a mick, kraut or bohunk (mostly Irish with some German and Czech) and I don’t care. Make a comment out me doing the Papal Aerobics on Sunday and I won’t freak out. Call me a breeder because I’m a heterosexual with children and I won’t try to knock your block off. Say that I’m a FIB (Fucking Illinois Bastard) and I’ll laugh along with you.
If someone tells me that they are offended by a word or expression, I won’t use it. I have run into too many people over the years that have gotten pissed off when a common expression is used. I consider it along the lines of swearing. Some people don’t like swear words and so, when I first meet someone, I limit swear words to an occasional “damn” or “hell”. When I get to know the person better I’ll bring out the big guns.
And, featherlou, we all know what you are!
I’m with you, I just ignore insults for the most part. Groups of guys that are bigger than I am coming toward me yelling “faggot” I tend to notice just because of the high probability of them attempting to harm me physically. If there is no clear physical threat, I just ignore it.
Funny. Usually groups of guys that are bigger than I am coming toward me are mostly yelling “asshole”. Since I don’t look particularly like a rectum I tend to ignore the comment (then I quickly turn and run so they can properly see an asshole).
Why would strangers call you “faggot”? Unless you are doing something that would blatantly show that you are a homosexual (participating in a gay pride parade or performing PDAs with another man would be the most obvious ones) what would give them reason to think that someone they don’t know is gay? It’s not like you have “I’m gay and proud!” tattooed to your forehead or something. Or do you?
Sorry about the smartassness (is that a word?). But seriously. What would give a stranger the impression that you are homosexual?
No clue to be honest, I guess I just give off a gay vibe or something. I’m the first one to admit that I’m not the most masculine guy, but never really think of myself as that femme acting either. Maybe it’s like the nerd pheromone from that Simpsons episode. 
It is more understandable when I’m with my BF…let’s just say he totally exudes GAY!
I work in a place with a high percentage of Asian folks. (What was the end result, is Oriental a bad word? I tend to tell folks I’m Occidental when they ask where I’m from, I didn’t get the memo on Oriental.)
There were several jokes about the VT thing going around, but only out of customers earshot and I’m sure some of it was a matter of deflection.
Look at the bright side OP, I got to listen to a guy talking about how great the sex is with asian girls. Most of the comments I hear about stereotypes are pretty nice ones, as far as stereotypes go.
I’m a skinny white woman and I don’t care how pissed off you get here. I don’t care if I like your tone or if you might need to take a break. The pit is here for you. I’ll defend with my subscription your desire to pit your little heart out.
I was duly warned the other day for buying muriatic acid, the guy felt the need to tell me to be extra careful and that it was dangerous. My husband has never been warned about it. Then again, he is your classic WASP man, so he lives life with a halo.
Unfortunately, their are many idiots in this world and a full half of them are below average.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
I hope your character will always be what is judged and if it is not that you have the strength to face a day where that will be the case.
I’m a backwoods, inbred southerner and my hope for a day that Martin Luther King, Jr. described lives on.
Is this a whoosh?
Look, I’m a Black guy. I’m supposed to be good at basketball. That stereotype has never worked to my advantage. If I’m good, it’s because I’m Black and not because I spend a lot of time on my game. If I suck, I’m some sort of genetic aberration. (FTR, I mostly suck, and I’ve heard the tail end of that stereotype more often that I’d like to admit.)
Auntbeast, you’re a White woman. Suppose I stereotype you as being rich. Well, that’s nice as far as being better than being stereotyped as poor, right? So I come to your house and make fun of you because you have “cheap” stuff and I know you’re rich. Or better yet, I key your car because I know you’re rich and you can afford to get the scratches removed. These are pretty stupid examples, but the idea of a good stereotype doesn’t make sense to me.
My response to this is that I don’t think what you’re alluding to affects your day-to-day opportunities at jobs, education, safety, and human dignity. I have many aspects to my identity that I rarely think twice about. Being American. Being male. Being straight. Being nominally Christian and understanding the Judeo-Christian world fairly easily. If you made fun of me on any of those issues, it wouldn’t bother me, because it’s just words, and as a member of all of those groups, the likelihood of you being able to seriously impede my life because you think I suck because I’m a guy are close to nil.
I’ve sung the praises of Peggy McIntosh before, but I really urge folks who haven’t to read her essay on White privilege. That’s basically the difference between being annoyed and even laughing at someone’s ignorance versus being hurt by it.
Just for the record, I think if most people met me in real life, they’d assume I was a pretty even keeled, fun loving person. Which I am. But I don’t like the way that it’s become acceptable to gloss over historical inequities and act as if calling a White person “honky” and an Asian person “chink” are the exact same thing. It’s the same on a very surface level, but the latter has a much more sinister effect. I’m against both of those names being used, of course.