Racist or not, white people darkening their skin to look black look, at best, ridiculous and utterly lacking in creativity. And if “has black skin” is the takeaway for the costume…it’s maybe not the best costume. It’s not as though every white person has the same skin tone, yet you don’t see little girls lightening their skin to play Snow White, for instance.
It doesn’t imply that at all. 
It is consistent with the possibility that it is at no one’s paygrade. (Probably though, powerful media players do have some element of this kind of control. But, that’s not implied by what I said before.)
You’re familiar with the theory of evolution, right? It’s something like that.
But don’t mistake me for asserting that no one can have any degree of meaningful power over the language. I can see how I might have given that impression. What I am saying is that almost no one has meaningful power over this, and absolutely no one has legitimate authority over it.
Let’s keep this simple. Forget whether the party’s theme was inherently racist or whether the frat boys meant any harm.
Should it have been absurdly obvious to anyone with half a brain that this party was likely to offend black people? Of course. So, SOMEONE in the frat should have said, “What the hell is wrong with you idiots???”
Using terms like “inner thug” to clearly mean “styles stereotypically or actually popular among black people” is racist.
Encouraging non-black people to attend an event dressed in African-American stereotypes or tastes is racist.
As noted by other posts above, given American history and white European history in general, this kind of thing is mockery or disrespectful, whether or not anyone thinks that such mockery or disrespect is “deliberate.”
Hell, I’ve been calling Chris Christie a political “thug” for a few years now.
I guess I’ve been just confusing him with Ben Carson.
The black community embraced the coolness of thuggitude and surprise surprise it has come back to bite em in posterior.
I don’t care.
Who is this “black community”? All black people? Everyone except the “good ones”? How did they indicate they were “embracing” the “coolness of thuggitude”? Because there are some musical performers—popular among all races—who in some songs might have used lyrics that role-played violent, criminal, or anti-social behavior who might have worn certain styles?
Can you quantify how many this were, or explain how you can look into the minds of individuals to deduce that listening to certain recordings or adopting certain styles of clothing are “embracing thuggitude”?
Are you sure that thugs are the origin of such styles rather than simply among a larger group of people who picked them up?
And what is “thuggitude”? Are you acquainted with the realities of living in America as a black person, where people might be labeled by the law enforcement community or the white majority as “thugs” based merely on appearances or based on making assumptions about their criminal records when these criminal records are tainted by widespread discrimination by the justice system against them based on their race?
This idea of “thuggitude” is a trap for black people created by white people—We get to judge you based on arbitrary standards based on how we persecute the people in your community. To a significant number of people, anything perceived as coming from the black community is going to be denigrated as thuggery or some other derogatory category.
What evidence do you have that thug is “overwhelmingly applied in a negative manner to people of one race”? There’s a whole world out there that is outside your personal experience.
Mhm. And so when an invitation suggests that folks dress like “thugs” you don’t expect that most of the guests imagine they’re being asked to dress up in black stereotypes?
My opinion is based on my experience and others’ I’ve heard from. I’m not aware of any data that suggests how it’s used in either case.
Why? It’s about as creative as most costumes. You’re dressing up as someone else.
Okay, ALMOST no one. No reason why I can’t be one of the special ones.
I don’t. And note that the flyer says “inner thug”.
Donating the proceeds of the event to the Dallas Boys and Girls Club would be an unusual charity to pick for a group of alleged racists.
I could just as easily ask “is it possible some black people could attend this party, and enjoy it and not be offended by it?”
If I call someone a thug, it’s because they act like a thug. Just FYI. It can apply to any race. It is not arbitrary. It does not apply to anything.
Just because someone else goes around being racist doesn’t make everything I do or say racist just because they use certain words.
Or it means “styles stereotypically or actually popular among hiphop artists and their fans.”
A subtle but important difference.
This frat should have had a juggalo party instead. Mostly white fans, clown makeup instead of black makeup, mostly embracing their, well, I can’t find a better word for it - thuggery.
What do you think? Given what you acknowledged about the racist history and associations of blackface, for example. Do you honestly believe that could happen?
WTF does “blackface” have to do with this?
Where does it say that any citizen has the right not to be offended by anything?
Actually lots of people lighten skin with makeup for costumes. You ever been to a costume store or a play? People also darken skin via tanning. People looking to be offended will never fail to find cause.
What kinds of rights are you talking about? An explicit, legal right? What makes you think that an explicit, legal right has anything to do with this?
There are a lot of things that aren’t based in explicit, legal rights that we should still denounce, discourage, and make clear that they are socially unacceptable. That doesn’t mean people can’t still go ahead and do it, but they will then do it under the unambiguous judgment of the general public.
Subtle and important? Maybe. Maybe not. If so, maybe not in the way you imply. Hiphop is a style of music, and a pretty broad one at that. If you automatically associate hiphop styles with violent criminality, then that’s pretty important too. And it’s pretty easy to show that hiphop styles are very closely associated with segments of the black community.
Do you really believe that the majority of Juggalos are violent criminals?
This is just head-in-the-sand stubbornness. Once you are aware that a word has certain social significance, your use of that word says something about you. You can’t just point to a particular definition and say “I only mean that one thing” when the entirety of social context shows something else.
:dubious:
I don’t know what difference this is supposed to make.
Both these comments reflect a very pervasive kind of ignorance about racism. Racism is not a switch. It’s not just applicable to people who consciously and deliberately choose to be racists and sign on to a charter of things that are racist.
Racism is something that bathes our entire society and affects us all to one extent or another as a whole, in groups, and as individuals. It doesn’t take a card-carrying racist to hold a particular racist attitude, or make a particular racist use of language, or engage in a racist act.
Any one of us can and do all of these things. Our society was far more racist in the past, but it is less so now, and one reason is that we as individuals and as groups started calling out racism in whatever way it was manifested and from whomever it came.
In very important ways, we have eliminated some of the most horrific manifestations of racism, but that process is far from over, and what it means that any time a racist attitude, statement, or action becomes apparent, we as a society call it out and discourage it.
It has nothing to do with whether a particular person is a racist or admits to being a racist or signs on to the identity of a racist. It’s about fighting racism. And we have to fight it within ourselves and we have to fight it when we see it around us.
You don’t get to sit back and say “Well, I’m not a racist, so I can do or say whatever I want without criticism, so long as I can claim that you can’t prove that I did it because I’m a racist as a state of being.”
This itself is offensive in its dismissiveness and it helps preserve the racism that still exists in our society. There are millions of people in our society who suffer on a daily basis because of racism. This isn’t some pretend ghost that people are “being offended” about because they’re bored.