I pit the racist radio jockeys of Power 99 FM

The BBQ Pit
1

This is my first pit thread and it comes with a very good reason. Was surfing around the net and going through news sites and came upon this
article which described RJ’s of the Star and Buc Wild show of Power 99 FM doing something disgusting.

They played an extract of a tape on air in which they had called up a call center executive in India and subjected her to racist remarks. They described the whole incident as a funny one. Going through the transcript I kinda missed the “funny” part. May you fuckers roast in hell and be subject to hundreds of unsolicated calls everyday.

This rant may be influenced in part because of me being an Indian but it was a disgusting act of racism nonetheless. I am sure the doper community feels the same.

2

“Shock Jocks” are the lamest fucking thing ever- that’s a given. But what’s REALLY lame is that he actually says “eff” instead of “fuck” when talking to the girl. You really have to hear how flaccid it makes the already weak and retarded bit!

3

As a die-hard Stern fan, I hate these lame ass imitators probably a lot more than you do. They have a tendency to not get it and go for stuff that is more “shocking” and less “funny”.

Despite that . . . damning a person to eternal torture for heckling someone over the phone? Get a fucking life :rolleyes:.

4

“Filthy rat eater”.

About as funny as syphilis.

5

What race is in India? Must the left turn every word into either meaningless nonsense (like “racism”) or vulgarity (like “liberal”)?

6

Heckling ? this is not heckling, its abuse, nothing less than that.

What makes it worse is that its being done for ‘entertainment’ which translates as more money in pay for the abuser if the show is succesful.

If you follow the other link on that page,

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/987643.cms

Its US racism and abuse but dressed up as a form of protectionism.

All it will actually show to Indian call centre workers, is that the average US citizen is an absolute arsehole, that the US is a greedy and demanding consumer.

How this is going to ever persuade the rest of the world that the US has better values and morals, and something to offer them is beyond me.

The thing is, outsuorcing call centre work is probably not a bad thing anyway, reading these boards, one gets the distinct impression that this is work that is often demeaning, that largely US employees only do it until they can find something better and that its pretty near to the bottom of the US employment pile.

7

I think you may have call center work mixed up with telemarketing. The latter is the one that most people would consider demeaning and get out of as soon as they can. Call center work is usually more customer service and less unsolicited selling. The pay, at least in my area, isn’t great, but it’s better than McD’s, and the hours are often flexible, which helps parents of young children and retirees.

That said, I thought what the DJ did was not in the least bit funny.

Seems a lot to extrapolate from the actions of a pair of wanna-be ‘shock jocks’.

Uh, it’s not like these two were even trying to do that. Is what you’re saying is that anything of this sort, done by a U.S. citizen, is somehow more despicable than if it were done by a citizen of any other country?

8

Several, apparently, but none of them the same as the DJs’, who happen to be black*. I’m curious as to how you feel this isn’t an appropriate use of the term “racism”, as “filthy rat eater” seems to me to be about as clear a racist epithet as any:

I feel that the bolded portion does not in and of itself constitute racism unless the abuse is specific to the target’s race, but in this case it was (or at least it was specific to the DJs’ cretinous misconceptions of what Indians get up to when they’re not taking phone orders from wankers). What term would you use here instead? Nationalism is already taken, and nationalityism sounds stupid.

And while we’re at it, how about your abuse of the term “left”? Do you have any indication that maleinblack’s political tendencies are socialist or statist? Did you perhaps have some other less precise definition in mind? Seems like a bit of a double standard, to be honest.

*And therefore not exactly your classic target for the “left’s” accusations of racism, incidentally.

9

Yes, Liberal, we notice you.

At the risk of hijacking this thread, I’m going to try to prevent the hijacking of this thread by analyzing this ugly, empty post.

The post is notable only for what it does not contain: a position clearly stated, supported, and related to the OP. Any definition of race or racism which would preclude the possibility of white euro-descended Americans having racist feelings toward asian Indians. Any definition of “left” (aside from the unsupported implication that the Times of India, or possibly the OP, represents it). Any actual argument that a) the things said by the Star and Buc “talent” are either not offensive or are offensive but not racially-based or are offensive and racially-based but not racially motivated or b) that offensive, racially-based and racially motivated abuse does not constitute evidence of racism. How the last appendage, equating the word “liberal” with a vulgarity has any basis in fact or any relevance to the topic. An explicit argument that those who would make meaningless nonsense out of the word racism are other than those who wish to practice it without the attending opprobrium. Actually, the structure of his sentence indicates a belief that the word “racism” is already meaningless nonsense, but that argument is not made explicit either.

The advantage of posts like these is that one can appear to attack without the responsibility of defending anything, because one hasn’t actually said anything: the debate can then be drawn off-topic with the help of outraged posters who reply to the obvious assumptions behind an assertion, but who will flail helplessly against the wall of “I know what I meant and you don’t.”

I am posting this here because it is an old, tawdry, oft-discredited and somehow still effective tactic, and it’s appearing more and more frequently on the SDMB. I urge members to see it for what it is: as the unarmed but passionate anarchist, lacking a bomb, presenting us with a mere sputtering fuse.

I don’t mean to step on your lines, Dead Badger. I’m a slow typist. But if the OP is to have a chance at a fair discussion, we have to ignore those who for unknowable reasons would throw themselves on a grenade aimed at crude racism.

10

Bravo, The King of Soup.

Sam

11

Help me out, here.
How is the term “filthy rat eater” racist?
How does it single out the object of the abuse based on race? It ascribes certain traits to the object of abuse, but none that feed into or play off racial stereotypes or even cultural ones.
When I lived in Louisiana, I didn’t get to shower as often as I would have liked. I also made a meal or three of nutria, sometimes in those lull periods between hygenic maintenance.
That makes me (or made me) a “filthy rat eater.” And my race has never come into question.
Incidents like this and the “University of Pennsylvania Water Buffalo Debacle” only serve to limit the effectiveness of actual protests as well as melt the actual thinkers and the protesterati into one meaningless Chicken Little group in the mind of the mainstream. Every actual racist incident that deserves stamping out gets less attention and serious debate because a couple of people get all up in arms and start marching simply because two deejays aren’t smart enough to think of a more snappy insult than “filthy rat eater.”
Get over this and onto a real cause.

12

In which case accusing you of being a “filthy rat eater” would be a statement of fact, not racist abuse. The DJs described this woman as such simply because she was Indian. It is thus racist abuse.

Happy Scrappy Hero Pup, meet context. Context, meet Happy Scrappy Hero Pup.

13

How do you know that?

How do you know that they did it because she was INDIAN? How do you, Dead Badger, know that Star and Buc Wild were disparaging her being INDIAN by insulting her with a term that does not include ANY references to Indian stereotypes?
They did it because they were too stupid to think of anything better. And I have just as much proof for my assertion as you do for yours (perhaps more, because I’ve heard these idiots before and they aren’t very imaginative).
Read the Penn article, Badger. It is irresponsible and stupid to create a brand-new epithet out of whole cloth simply because one wishes to be offended. When someone else gets to decide what I mean every time I open my mouth, will you be happy then?
Webster’s Dictionary, Dead Badger. Dead Badger, Webster’s Dictionary.

14

What race is anybody?

If you can state so confidently what isn’t a race, you must have a great definition as to what is a race. Let’s have it.

Or let’s at least have a definition of "racism.’ If this doesn’t qualify, what does?

15

It doesn’t matter if it’s racist, it is creepy shit of the highest order. I can’t imagine any audience that would find it funny.

16

That’s why they called her in the first place, that’s how. That was the whole point of their stunt. They were abusing an Indian for “stealing US jobs”.

Taking the article at face value, I agree that in the Penn example, the student was probably not uttering the insult with racist intentions, since the insults seem so far removed from any racial stereotype I know of as to be merely absurdist abuse. I also agree that the authorities overreacted massively. I don’t see how this gives us any insight into the DJs’ intentions, though.

No, however I will continue to apply what seems to me to be common sense in interpreting people’s motives. It’s pretty damn clear to me that “filthy rat eater” is a lame attempt at a racial/national stereotype coming from someone (as you say) too stupid to think of anything better. Shorn of all context, then no, the conclusion would not be as easily reached, but these people deliberately and specifically sought out an Indian to abuse, and called her a “filthy rat eater”. If a someone is too thick to concoct a culturally accurate racial epithet, are they immune to charges of racism, or are they just a particularly stupid racist?

Perhaps more importantly, who the fuck cares? They’re still shitheads. The segment is hugely offensive whether racist or not, so it’s hard to see where this shrieking about the “offenderati” comes from. These two morons abused and threatened an entirely innocent woman for the entertainment of their listeners, purely because she was Indian. Don’t you find that offensive?

17

Unfortunately, such an audience is quite easy to imagine in this country.

18

You know what? Fuck that DJ. I work in a (non-sales) call center in the US, and sure, there are always worries of outsourcing, but that’s not doing anything helpful, that’s just being a great big throbbing cock.

We used to get people who thought it was very funny or vindicating to abuse our staff who have foreign accents. They would call them liars and yell at them when they told them they weren’t in India or Pakistan – they were located right here in Des Moines, IA. Quite frankly, as long as the person can read and write fluent English, I think it’s great to have people who have foreign countries of origin – a lot of them have better work ethics than Americans.

19

I’m angry because a long, well thought-out post just disappeared into the bowels of this infernal machine. Please take that into account.

Dead Badger, please stop answering arguments that haven’t yet been made. **Happy Scrappy ** is questioning the impact of a possibly racist college DJ and implying that every accusation of racism exists at exactly the same level. He does not dare make the argument that random insults directed at a person of a different ethnicity does not constitute racism, because, frankly, there is no support for such an argument. At the same time, he avoids (in the same way I described) arguments directed at the unsupported assumptions contained in his post.

Meanwhile, there is no reason to pay attention to minor distractions like this. Let anyone who opposes you stake out a position, define it, support it, and defend it. No one who can’t do that deserves more of a response than I demonstrated in the first line of my first post.

Good-bye now, posters who would rather defy identity than racism. Show me an actual fact that leads to an argument that leads to a conclusion, and stick around to defend it. Then the attention paid to you, good or bad, will at least have been earned.

20

King, I do make that argument. I make that argument and I defend it.

Calling a person of African descent, Indian descent, Canadian descent, Chinese descent, an asshole is not a racist comment. It’s an equally-applied epithet that degrades part of their personality (as perceived by me), not their race.
Here’s an example for you (oh, by the way, get your facts straight- Star and Buc Wild are syndicated morning-show hosts, not college DJs. If you forget the simple things, how are we to expect you to keep track of the big picture?):
On picket-lines I have walked, we have harassed strikebreakers as they come onto the premises. I have (among other things) spit on their cars and called them scabs and thieves. because that’s what, to me, they are. They are strikebreakers and they are stealing the jobs of people who are trying to achieve justice in their workplace. Whether or not you agree with me, that’s a pretty well-defined, cut-and-dry explanation of why I use the words “scab” and “thief.”

Now, if five white guys cross a picket-line in a row, they will all get this treatment from me. If the sixth is a black man, and he gets the same thing (which he would), am I being racist? No. because I’m not insulting him as a black man, I’m insulting him as a scab and a thief who is taking the job of one of my people (and, by “my people,” I mean the workers on strike).

If the strikers are predominantly of one race (say, white) and the strikebreakers are predominantly of another (say, Indian), and all who cross the picket line are our metaphorical Indians, and they get the “scab” treatment, I’m still not being racist. Because even though the group has “Indian” as an identifying characteristic, they have another shared identifier, being scabs. And, by yelling “scab,” or “shithead,” or “thief,” or even something like “fithy rat eater,” I’m insulting them for engaging in the action of strikebreaking, not for being Indian.

The Penn case is similar in that Eden Rabinowitz used a word to mean “idiot” that was leaped upon by the protesterati for spurious and incorrect reasons to be a racist epithet.

There is nothing in “fithy rat eater” that singles out Indian-ness, just as there was nothing in “water buffalo” that singled out black-ness, just as there is nothing in “asshole” that singles out Chinese-ness, or what have you.
My point is that there is equal evidence that Star and Buc Wild were insulting the “taking of jobs” aspect of the call center employee as there is to support the contention that they were insulting her national identity. In fact, there is more. They’re getting on top of her for “stealing US jobs,” not for being Indian.
I’m not saying that Star and Buc Wild aren’t morons. They are. I’m not saying they’re paragons of sensitivity. They aren’t. But in this case, there is no evidence to convict them of being racists.
There you go, King, my man.
And, by the way, the post is neither long, nor well-thought out. There is no link to the actual transcript of the call, which might have provided context, and there is no argument for or against the OP’s contention that the remarks are racist except, “I’m of Indian descent and I am offended.” That’s exactly the ridiculous and over-the-top attitude displayed in the Penn case.