# I pit the racist radio jockeys of Power 99 FM **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 12, 2005, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-racist-radio-jockeys-of-power-99-fm/284364 "2005-01-12T08:44:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-racist-radio-jockeys-of-power-99-fm/284364/21 "2005-01-12T18:35:31Z")
> [@The King of Soup](#): > > Yes, **Liberal** , we notice you. A mixed blessing, to be sure. > [@](#): > > 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. Not possible. All hijacking is assigned by default to me, regardless of whether you or anyone else decides to scribble a desultory essay making my simple remark into the Topic of the Ages. > [@](#): > > The post is notable only for what it does _not_ contain: a position clearly stated, supported, and related to the OP. On the contrary, the position that leftist hand-wringers routinely trivialize their own buzzwords is clear, and the post contains a direct question to the OP, attempting to ascertain what race someone from India is. > [@](#): > > Any definition of race or racism which would preclude the possibility of white euro-descended Americans having racist feelings toward asian Indians. It’s certainly possible for white Euro-descended Americans to have racist feelings toward non-Asian Indians, and in fact is well documented. But I think that that’s because it has long been established that the native savages of this continent are of some different “race” than their erudite and sophisticated conquerors. As I recall, we are Mongoloid, but the Asian Indians are Caucasoid. Am I incorrect? > [@](#): > > Any definition of “left” (aside from the unsupported implication that the Times of India, or possibly the OP, represents it). I think the common dictionary definition will suffice, particularly since it is appropriately riddled with contradiction: “The people and groups who advocate liberal, often radical measures to effect change in the established order, especially in politics, usually to achieve the equality, freedom, and well-being of the common citizens of a state. Also called left wing.” (American Heritage). How can people be both equal and free? Are they all conjoined clones? > [@](#): > > 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. Do you truly believe that every offensive utterance is racist? If so, then admit that you are a racist bastard and apologize, because you have offended me. > [@](#): > > How the last appendage, equating the word “liberal” with a vulgarity has any basis in fact or any relevance to the topic. If you believe that I am alone in noticing how the left has smeared the word “liberal”, then you are either in denial or in a cave. As left-wing extremist, Eric Alterman, has noted, “If all you knew about the word “liberal” is what came up when you plugged the word into Amazon’s search engine on any given day in January 2004, you’d think it was among the worst insults one human being could hurl at another.” Of course, like any clueless leftist, he blames it on the clueless right, giving them far more credit than they deserve, “The demonization of the word “liberal” has been an ongoing project of the well-funded right and draws its fire from intellectuals who should really know better.” ([Cite](http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=131981).) At least I was generous: I said it was merely vulgar; the leftists say it is possessed by demons. > [@](#): > > 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. If it means everything, then it means nothing. If it means verbally bashing both an African an Indian, then it must mean the same for verbally bashing people from France and people from Iceland. I thought you already had a term for “saying things that piss me off” — I thought you called it “hate speech”. Why do you need a redundant term? > [@](#): > > 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.” Let me make plain what I mean. The hand-wringers have taken so much guilt on their narrow shoulders that they feel the need to share it with the rest of the world, projecting onto others their own myopic view of a world whose signs they cannot read, whose pulse they cannot feel, and whose ruination they are causing. > [@](#): > > 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. Oh, so it no longer amuses us, and we invite it to take its leave of us? Is that why y’all call yourselves a King? Y’all imagine that y’all have described a tactic of some sort? The unworthy thing hopes that y’all do not give lessons in chess or warfare. > [@](#): > > 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. Ah, yes, the cause, the cause. The cause must be borne by we who dispair from the emotional hunger wrought by unfeeling men who do not know why we weep. Oh the pain. Oh the pain. ---
**Author:** ![holmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e95f7d/32.png) [@holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/holmes)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-racist-radio-jockeys-of-power-99-fm/284364/22 "2005-01-12T18:41:16Z")
> [@Happy Scrappy Hero Pup](#): > > 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. Wait a minute. The transcripts have these guys talking about their “white American girl” and asking what the caller knows about “white American girls”. A caller who they suspected wasn’t and were apparently glad wasn’t white. So while the content of the call, directed to the woman isn’t racist per se, it looks as if the context WAS, i.e asking **whomever** answered the phone, why ‘black’ products were being sold to white American girls. THAT would have been their “humour”, it so happens that once they got someone with an accent on the phone, they focused more on making fun of her, then their original content. Outsourcing jobs wasn’t their moviation for the call, the fact that white girls are advertised buying beads like Venus and Serena Williams wear were. > [@](#): > > STAR: In… in regards to my six year old, white American daughter who wants to get the quick beads like Serena and Venus Williams. > > STAR: Well, ma’am, what the eff would you know about an American white girl’s – uh, uh – hair? And quick beads. > > You’re a filthy rat eater. I’m calling about my American six year old white girl. How dare you outsource my call? Get off the line, bitch! Racist, don’t know, but race was the moviating factor in making the call…YMMV, of course ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-racist-radio-jockeys-of-power-99-fm/284364/23 "2005-01-12T19:08:58Z")
Lets try this another way, Would the term ‘filthy rat eaters’ have been applied to the person responding to the call if they were American, European, Australian, Canadian etc? Not a chance. These arseholes sought out a foreigner and subjected her to abuse, humiliation and degradation and a threat to ‘choke the eff out of you’ for ‘entertainment’. What possible reason would they have to call her a bitch ? They do not have their jobs on the line from outsourcing, she is not responsible in any way for the export of work to other countries. So in the mildest judgement, we can call them, misogynistic bullies, but the petty Nationalism being played out here, along with the insults are suspiciously racist in tone, especially when you read the transcript and notice that he put on a fake Indian accent to carry out this unjustifiable attack. I reckon any poster here, who knowingly made a call to a person of another nationality, put on a fake accent in order to mock the way they spoke, and then drew attention to a stereotypical image of poverty of that nationality would be called racist. Tell me there is no racist element here then, “You’re a filthy rat eater. I’m calling about my American six year old white girl.” ---
**Author:** ![holmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e95f7d/32.png) [@holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/holmes)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-racist-radio-jockeys-of-power-99-fm/284364/24 "2005-01-12T19:13:55Z")
> [@casdave](#): > > I reckon any poster here, who knowingly made a call to a person of another nationality, put on a fake accent in order to mock the way they spoke, and then drew attention to a stereotypical image of poverty of that nationality would be called racist. They **didn’t** knowingly make the call to a person of another nationality. It was just random, that she answered the phone. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-racist-radio-jockeys-of-power-99-fm/284364/25 "2005-01-12T19:32:02Z")
\>sigh\< You pick up a phone, dial some number and a person with an Indian accent answers, when they do and you discover they are in fact, in India, then you put on a fake Indian accent and personally abuse them with a stereotypical image of that countries poverty. Hmmmmm. Had they not been abusive, and made light humour of the marketing of bead decoration more usually associated with black American females, and perhaps added something about the way this was outsourced and resulting in a little bit of culteral confusion, then maybe it would have been amusing and with a point. ---
**Author:** ![holmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e95f7d/32.png) [@holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/holmes)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-racist-radio-jockeys-of-power-99-fm/284364/26 "2005-01-12T19:54:00Z")
> [@casdave](#): > > \>sigh\< > > You pick up a phone, dial some number and a person with an Indian accent answers, when they do and you discover they are in fact, in India, then you put on a fake Indian accent and personally abuse them with a stereotypical image of that countries poverty. Ok. That’s different than excusing them of making the **choice** to call an Indian person, isn’t it? If you’re going to tar these guys with the “R” brush, then at least get the details of their ‘crime’ correct. so \>sigh\< right back at you. ---
**Author:** ![holmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e95f7d/32.png) [@holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/holmes)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-racist-radio-jockeys-of-power-99-fm/284364/27 "2005-01-12T20:08:08Z")
> [@casdave](#): > > Had they not been abusive, and made light humour of the marketing of bead decoration more usually associated with black American females… Like this [one?](http://www.imdb.com/gallery/mptv/1382/Mptv/1382/9503_0012.jpg?path=gallery&path_key=0078721) heh. ---
**Author:** ![lucyetc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19b73/32.png) [@lucyetc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lucyetc)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-racist-radio-jockeys-of-power-99-fm/284364/28 "2005-01-12T21:25:25Z")
Jesus Christ. Yeah, let’s nitpick casdave’s posts and cry political correctness gone mad because of those fucking liberals… instead of just admitting the bloody obvious: these DJs were being racist. They weren’t being tarred with the brush of racism: they brought it on themselves because they ARE racists. Filthy rat eater is simply _not_ an all-purpose insult like “asshole”. I find it really hard to believe that anyone would use it randomly, in a case where the abusee was not associated with poverty. Then there’s also the fake Indian accent. Not always racist, perhaps, but in the context of this phone call which is at the very least intended to wind her up, it doesn’t help. And then they ask her what she would know about white American girls. And then they just call her a “bitch”, which isn’t remotely funny, and is certainly wanker behaviour if not racist. Suspended for a day - I bet that told them! :rolleyes:Complete tossers, and the fact that this is a debate surprises me. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-racist-radio-jockeys-of-power-99-fm/284364/29 "2005-01-12T21:43:14Z")
> [@lucyetc](#): > > these DJs…ARE racists. Ok, let’s say they are. I don’t believe they are, I think they just have maladjusted senses of humor, but whatever. Let’s say they _are_ racists. Does that make them “monsters”? Does that mean they should burn in the pits of hell for all eternity? I’d love to have grown up in the perfect, happy-huggy, ultra-liberal utopia that 99% of dopers seem to have grown up in, but here in the _real world_, there are a hell of a lot of racists, and as long as they aren’t actively hurting people because of their racism (KKK, Nazis, etc), there’s not much you can do besides call them an asshole and get on with your life. In all reality, your run-of-the-mill racist isn’t any worse than your run-of-the-mill jerk or asshole. There are very real injustices in the world to bother with. This is not one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Scrappy\_Hero\_Pup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ea5d25/32.png) [@Happy\_Scrappy\_Hero\_Pup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Scrappy_Hero_Pup)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-racist-radio-jockeys-of-power-99-fm/284364/30 "2005-01-12T21:49:38Z")
> [@lucyetc](#): > > Filthy rat eater is simply not an all-purpose insult like “asshole”. I find it really hard to believe that anyone would use it randomly, in a case where the abusee was not associated with poverty. Yeah, but “poor” is not a race. So if I call you a “filthy rat-eater,” I’m not being racist. Neither am I being racist if I say “stop outsourcing my calls.” I am not being racist if I make fun of your accent. I’m being insensitive, sure. And I deserve to be taken to task for it. But let’s call a spade a spade here. Star and Buc Wild were being insensitive. But racist? There’s plenty of reasonable doubt on that one. (waits to be taken to task for use of the word “spade”) ---
**Author:** ![holmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e95f7d/32.png) [@holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/holmes)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-racist-radio-jockeys-of-power-99-fm/284364/31 "2005-01-12T21:54:47Z")
What nitpick? **casdave** posed a question based on events that did not happen the way he laid it out. Was it wrong to point that out? If you’re going to start painting, then get the base coat right first. Secondly, assume that they didn’t randomly get an Indian, but an American from the South. Do you think they wouldn’t have mocked her accent? Or asked her some other stupid ass question? If they ask her if she lives in a trailer or call her “white” trash, is that any less racist, than calling an Indian a “rat-eater”? Would people be up in arms over that? What if they called her a “road-kill” eater? These guys are arseholes, i agree. The question is are they **equal opportunity** arseholes? If I treat everyone I speak to badly, regardless of their ‘race’, am I a racist or just an arsehole? I don’t know these guys, I’ve never heard their show; perhaps someone who has can answer that. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-racist-radio-jockeys-of-power-99-fm/284364/32 "2005-01-12T21:55:59Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > I’d love to have grown up in the perfect, happy-huggy, ultra-liberal utopia that 99% of dopers seem to have grown up in, but here in the _real world_, there are a hell of a lot of racists, and as long as they aren’t actively hurting people because of their racism (KKK, Nazis, etc), there’s not much you can do besides call them an asshole and get on with your life. Er… isn’t that pretty much exactly what’s happening in this thread? These guys are getting ranted out on an anonymous internet message board. It’s not like they’re being chased down the street by a torch-wielding mob. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-racist-radio-jockeys-of-power-99-fm/284364/33 "2005-01-12T22:10:01Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Er… isn’t that pretty much exactly what’s happening in this thread? These guys are getting ranted out on an anonymous internet message board. It’s not like they’re being chased down the street by a torch-wielding mob. We’re having trouble finding the torches. Wal-Mart is sold out (something about torches being a seasonal item), does anyone know where the nearest Ace Hardware is? ---
**Author:** ![baronsabato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed655f/32.png) [@baronsabato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/baronsabato)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-racist-radio-jockeys-of-power-99-fm/284364/34 "2005-01-12T22:18:57Z")
I think what the two DJs did was terrible, and I’m surprised some posters don’t find their remarks racist. It is indeed a racial (or maybe cultural, I don’t know) stereotype that Asian Indians [eat rats](http://server.journalism.wisc.edu/j617/travel/link8.htm), much like how it is a stereotype that East Asians, especially the Chinese, eat dogs and such. The fact that the DJs spoke to the girl with a mock Indian accent doesn’t really help their case much. ---
**Author:** ![malkavia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malkavia/32/5621_2.png) [@malkavia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/malkavia)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-racist-radio-jockeys-of-power-99-fm/284364/35 "2005-01-12T22:22:04Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > What race is in India? Must the left turn every word into either meaningless nonsense (like “racism”) or vulgarity (like “liberal”)? You’re so weird sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-racist-radio-jockeys-of-power-99-fm/284364/36 "2005-01-12T22:33:58Z")
> [@Baronsabato](#): > > The fact that the DJs spoke to the girl with a mock Indian accent doesn’t really help their case much. Wow. The Simpsons must be the most racist TV show of all time. “One twenty-nine cent stamp? That’s a dollar eighty-five.” — Apu Nahasapeemapetilon ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-racist-radio-jockeys-of-power-99-fm/284364/37 "2005-01-12T22:42:32Z")
I take it as black guys making fun of white guys – pretending to be dumbasses with the outrage over jobs being outsourced and references to “my little white girl.” If they weren’t actually abusing someone, I would think it was kind of funny the way Crank Yankers is kind of funny, but they got a little mean for it to be funny. ---
**Author:** ![pizzabrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@pizzabrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzabrat)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-racist-radio-jockeys-of-power-99-fm/284364/38 "2005-01-12T23:19:53Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > I’d love to have grown up in the perfect, happy-huggy, ultra-liberal utopia that 99% of dopers seem to have grown up in, but here in the _real world_, there are a hell of a lot of racists, and as long as they aren’t actively hurting people because of their racism (KKK, Nazis, etc), there’s not much you can do besides call them an asshole and get on with your life. In all reality, your run-of-the-mill racist isn’t any worse than your run-of-the-mill jerk or asshole. Ok, we get it - racism doesn’t affect you, so you don’t care. I still don’t get what you gain from being so anti-anti-racist. If you care so little about racism, why say anything in threads like this? Why not leave these discussions to those who _can_ take racism personally? ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-racist-radio-jockeys-of-power-99-fm/284364/39 "2005-01-12T23:29:45Z")
> [@pizzabrat](#): > > Ok, we get it - racism doesn’t affect you, so you don’t care. I still don’t get what you gain from being so anti-anti-racist. If you care so little about racism, why say anything in threads like this? Why not leave these discussions to those who _can_ take racism personally? Yes, of course. You are exactly right oh mighty wise pizzabrat. This is the exact same logic that says if you don’t want to “kill all ay-rabs” you are anti-American :rolleyes:. ---
**Author:** ![Cyros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a698b9/32.png) [@Cyros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyros)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2005, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-racist-radio-jockeys-of-power-99-fm/284364/40 "2005-01-13T00:05:14Z")
I’m surprised the poor rep stayed on the line as long as she did. Any call centre I have worked for, as soon as someone swears at me, I tell them to have a great day and hang up. Furthermore, if you have an actual issue with outsourcing, do not think you’re making some grand point by haranguing the rep. Contact head office of the company or stop using their services. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-racist-radio-jockeys-of-power-99-fm/284364.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-racist-radio-jockeys-of-power-99-fm/284364.md?page=3)