Well, I’m not sure what you are. Don’t really care to be honest. But I do think it’s helpful to let people know if their method of communication is likely to be productive or counterproductive with regards to their goals. Not that anyone ever listens!
Ha! Huey is doing just fine with his ROI. 
I don’t know about anyone else, but this thread sure as hell is giving me insight into what it’s like being black in America. Go right ahead and keep patting yourselves on the back about spotting a troll. Nothing he says in regards to the original topic seems out of line for reality. Yeah, he’s the problem when it comes to racism. The leaders of the “women’s movement” here were pissed when someone was #NotAllMen’ing them and yet lead the #NotAllWhitePeople charge. Interesting…
Anyway, I agreed on the terrible sexism here and the racism is just as bad. I’ll throw in my own ageism because I am dying over the idea someone had to google what a “thot” is along with all the other out of touch ways you interact with culture. Turn off the 8649729th viewing of The Princess Bride, read some of black twitter, and interact with people outside your grandchildren who are under 30.
Fuck you. Not all of us are Americans here and not all of us can keep up with slang from halfway around the world.
Besides, no-one knew what a “thot” was six months ago and no-one will know what it was six months from now. It’s ephemeral bullshit and it’s not worth my time learning it.
Who ever said such a thing?
And get off my lawn!
FYI - Thot has been around for at least 6 years (CITE for you humor-lacking assholes Thot | Know Your Meme ) and having no idea about current cultural touch points also makes it super obvious you’re out of touch with social issues.
Now go back to screaming about how being able to quote Monty Python makes you super in touch.
More like six years, but the point is taken.
Y’all spend way more time debating his “anti-white” bias in a thread about living while black in America to make me wonder why this is your focus. But do go on.
So Banquet, am I allowed to respond to Helen’s trolling or would that be hijacking the thread too?
Banquet, may I?
No
This thread has become a confusing clusterfuck that should just be put out of it’s misery.
Can we just go back to hating white people?
I love when people make my point for me. Yep, way easier to call me a troll than do a single minute of introspection.
FYI - I actually signed up during pay to post before real life kept me busy. I’ve been here reading ever since. I’ve grown and had my eyes opened to the world while this place has grown more insular. Liberal safe haven? Only if you’re white, middle aged, and male.
I don’t think you’re trolling. FWIW. I don’t agree with you but that doesnt make you a troll. Huey, on the other hand, is without a doubt trolling with this thread. And doing an excellent job of it. But I’ve explained why I believe so, in exhaustive detail, more than once. No need to repeat what is only going to fall on deaf ears anyway.
“Cultural touch points?” Which culture? There are thousands of cultures, sub-cultures, and sub-sub-sub cultures out there, and it’s impossible for one person to keep track of all of them all, so why bother? What, I should learn to speak like middle-class white American teenagers, or like urban black American twenty-somethings, so that you’ll think I’m cool? Well, let me tell you something: I’m 44 years old and I’ve never been cool a day in my life. I certainly don’t intend to start now.
Besides, I don’t have to care about black culture to care about black people. I think they should be treated with fairness, equality and respect because they’re human beings like me, not because I’m interested in the intricacies of their patois. The way America treats its minorities is deeply troubling (the way my country treats its minorities is also deeply troubling , but in different ways and for different reasons). It should be fixed, not because of what the kids are saying today, or because I’m in touch with black culture, but because it’s wrong. And I don’t need to know what a “thot” is to know that.
That has nothing to do it. You don’t have to care about a culture in order to not be fucking dismissive about anything that’s not in your orbit. You don’t have to care but you don’t have to dismiss it as urban or as some “sub-sub-sub culture”, because, best believe, white folks are using these words at the same frequency or more than people of color. I am not Jewish and, to my knowledge, I don’t have any current Jewish friends but I sure as hell not dismissive of their culture. Further, it’s puzzling why you post on a message board that’s ostensibly headquartered in the one of the most blackest cities in the United States and you’re pretending that black culture is some peculiar “sub-sub-sub culture”? Really? If you didn’t know (and this is possible if you’re Israeli), please, let me be the first to inform you: people of color entertain the shit out these white folks. Top 10 Billboards this week? 7 are black. In Israel this week? Literally, the top 2 out 10 top popular songs aren’t Israeli but African-Americans. Our literature, our music, our food, our art, our dance, our prowess in sports, our actors, our actresses, our comedy, and our sense of humor dominate this country’s culture. If you didn’t know, you should’ve asked somebody.
Let me clear and state that I’m not offended, but I do think it’s a regurgitation of the cult-like maneuvering that I see over and over again here. You (and like 95% of the people here) are like vultures. You leave the meat of a person’s post/point to, instead, peck strips of rotting flesh from the carcass of triviality. There’s no focus on what the argument is, just who the person is. The evidence is here, obviously, I mean I write a post, for example, on how racist threads could potentially drive away people of color. Not one single reply was to a substantive point. Instead, all I got was an accusation that I was really any troll, bu not a just any troll, but a white conservative troll here to start trouble :rolleyes:. Or write a post detailing a black man getting killed, and the reply isn’t the substance of that, but to mockingly point out a grammar mistake. Who does that? It’s not just me, though, you can see it everywhere. In the next thread over, one poster, in order to discredit the OP, brought up a thread he posted 12 years ago to conclude that the OP had “personal issues” and that “makes him less rational”. And this said is after he agreed with the OP. WTF? Who does that? You had another poster put up the real-life picture of another poster in order to deliberately shame them as a person of color. White folks then proceeded hide under the cloak of deniability - oh, it was already in the public domain - in order to obfuscate the fact that it was deliberately to done mock a person of color. WTF? Who does that? These strategies are all done to erase an individual’s argument by degrading their credibility, questioning their authenticity, and/or cast aspersions on their intentions. You, like most of the people here, are a cult of bullies. Bullies with ostensible bachelor’s degrees, but bullies all of the same. When this place shrivels like a raisin, you will only have yourselves to blame.
Of all of the people that I have had a reason to truly despise, all of them have been white.
You don’t truly despise Mao Zedong? You commie!
Now see, this is a valuable, critically thought out post that deserves an honest, equally thoughtful response. And surprise! I actually agree with the bulk of what you’re saying here. But the board mentality/behavior you outline here is not confined to situations which present racial anxiety or discomfort to the board. I have experienced the same thing myself at times over my years here when I’ve discussed disability-related subjects.
The strategies at marginalizing the messenger in order to discount the message are not unique to subjects involving racism. They are used whenever an uncomfortable thus unpopular issue is voiced and the majority doesn’t want to confront the issue head-on by being introspective and acknowledging the possibility of their own complicity in the raised issue.
Of course I’m not suggesting that most posters here are racists and ableists. But i am saying that it is quite difficult to overcome the ingrained in-group fueled “bubble” that this board is ensconced in. Even when approaching the conversation in a decidely non-confrontational manner. So when your valid arguments are camouflaged by an arsenal of intentionally provocative and offensive tactics, you do the work of marginalizing yourself as the messenger for them! Trust me, I’ve been there! Give an inch and a mile will be taken.
It shouldn’t have to be like this but that’s the psychology of humans who congregate together with others similar to themselves and get confronted by an outsider criticizing them. So I learned, at least, that I needed to address my own M.O. if I really wanted to be able to effectively communicate to as many people as were open to such communication (however small or large that group may be). I needed to check my emotions at the door.
None of this is to say I dont have deep sympathy for your complaints. But venting and communicating are often at odds with each other. Which are you interested in engaging in? Honestly, I think I have that figured out and you go and post something like this. It seems like such a waste! It’s like pissing in the wind. If you are interested in communicating then stick to communication. Likewise, if you want to vent, stick to venting. Doing both together only confuses things and sacrifices the effectiveness of either.
And I can already predict how my post will be regarded by a certain faction here. “Tone-policing!!” “Condescension!!” “Lecturing!” “Focusing on the poster not the post!” None of that would be true tho. Im just recognizing a pattern that ive seen before and sharing my take and response to it.
You do write well. But you have an unfortunate fixation on tribalism. And who cares if a “person of color” is shamed. Do “persons of color” get some special pass on the internet?:dubious: And fighting bigotry with bigotry isn’t a winning strategy. You should know that. You are obviously intelligent enough.
And let’s think about the title of this thread. Living while black in America. As bad as it is here in the good ol USA it’s still better than lots of places. Even while being black. Are there problems? Yes. Is there progress? Yes. We just had 8 years of Obama as president. That’s progress is it not?