In this thread, yours truly expressed his opinion re the intelligence of “most of the black ladies in congress”.
Granted I compared it unfavorably to “Republicans” so it was considered quite an insult.
Isn’t the group that I referred to small enough and observable enough that the cries of “racism!” should have been given a second thought?
Upon second thought, wouldn’t you say that the thread is actually a better example of the tendency to cry “Racist!” in a crowded SDMB thread?
Here’s a definition:
For the sake of argument, let’s take the phrase “or racism” out of that sentence, leaving us with “the act of bringing race into a debate”. By that most basic definition, that us precisely what you did, is it not?
The actual quote, for those that don’t want to hunt for it is:
This is vile and ignorant on a couple of levels. Aside from the apparent racism, there is the demonstration of how little you know about the global warming debate.
In all, I’d say that the post makes you look terrible. And pointing a finger at your chest, batting your eyelashes and saying, “Racism, who meee?” isn’t exactly improving the situation.
I am not sure why this is in Great Debates, but the fact that you singled out a specific group of people by race and sex to denigrate, introducing that off-topic slur to a thread in which neither was actually being discussed gave a strong feeling of both racism and sexism to your post.
Who would be “our guys”?
What is your opinion regarding the intelligence of the (by my count) 14 black Congresswomen based on?
Republican politicians.
I don’t think that’s right. Just because race is being discussed doesn’t mean the “race card” is being played. I think you need more qualification. Perhaps “unnecessarily”, or “inappropriately”.
I think if you say, “most of the black ladies in congress are dumber than our guys.”, that’s a statement that needs more qualification. I mean, if you want to actually name names and explain why you think they’re dumb, that’s one thing, but just to make the blanket statement that most of the black women in congress" are dumb comes across as racist, at least.
Fair enough. The main point remains the same, though - that it was Colonel Must-er…I mean it was WT that unnecessarily injected race into the conversation in the very first response of the linked thread. The fact that he started a new thread here to accuse others of “playing the race card”, well that’s just the cherry for the sundae.
I have no idea. Maybe you could post a few examples in previous threads of what you believe to be unwarranted playing of “the race card”, however you define it. Then we can see if your premise holds water.
If you are going to state that a certain group of persons is unintelligent, and the only parameters you use to identify said group is “black”, “ladies” and “Congress”, you shouldn’t be at all surprised if someone questions whether such a statement as expressing racist (and sexist) beliefs. It’s perfectly OK to be a Congressist, though, so go for it on that one.
Of course, the OP could quickly eliminate any confusion as to his intentions by simply stating whether or not he believes that being black or ladies really has some bearing on the intelligence of the group in question. I wonder why he apparently doesn’t want to do that.
Couldn’t have put it any better. I thought the comment, even in that forum, was a sure sign the poster had been drinking.
Agreed. I don’t know why he injected race. It was not helpful, and in fact, muddied his point.
The defense, as I get you, seems to be one of accuracy - that is to say, it would be racist to say that “most black ladies” were stupid (not to mention sexist), because that is far too wide and far too general an accusation to make, and it is one we do not have evidence to support. To say that “most of the black ladies in congress are stupider than our guys” is not racist because it generalises less, and presumably there is some evidence (to your mind) to support the notion. That it is not racist because it doesn’t generalise based upon race - you have reached a verdict on each of those people and summarised. And that, presumably, their stupidity is not, in your eyes, as a result of their being black (or women, though in congress might be one ;)). Which seems reasonable enough.
That said, I have to agree that it does seem suspicious to bring race (and gender) into a discussion which would seem not to have any bearing upon those issues. A person may, certainly, entirely innocently come out with some condemnation of some group; people do it all the time, with little issue. However, just as a person who launches into a discussion who insults Democrats or Republicans when they haven’t been mentioned yet in the thread might well be assumed to have some grudge or prejudice against them, so too does it seem a reasonable response to think likewise in terms of race or gender.
IOW; it’s suspicious because it’s specific for no apparent reason.
Going by RNATB’s count of 14 black Congresswomen, can you actually, without looking it up, name eight who you consider dumb, and any evidence you have for such a claim?
If you had to guess, what would your guess be? There was absolutely no discussion fo race prior to the crap the OP started spewing, and it wasn’t even close to relevant to the topic. I’m wondering what you, as someone who seems to see eye to eye on political issues with him, would put it down to?
There wasn’t a point, it was brainless ranting and race baiting.
nm
An unhelpful aside. One that was meant to point out the idiocy of the other side. And if one ponders the idiocy, it’s easy to see how those to jackasses—Braun and Lee—would come to mind. They’re easy targets. The way he did it was unhelpful. Race needn’t, and shouldn’t have been brought into it. But in describing those two, blackness is a descriptor. I think it was dumb, though not necessarily racist. For me, a racist statement would imply a cause between their blackness and idiocy. Personally, I don’t think their is. I think they happen to be idiots, they happen to be women, and they happen to be black. He would have been much better off (and not just to avoid the flak he’;s getting) if he had said something along the lines of, “…most of the democrats in congress”, or most of the democrats in congress, like Lee, Braun, Kucinich, etc."
But he didn’t say Braun and Lee, he said “and most of the black ladies in congress are dumber than our guys.” Of all the idiots in Congress, why do you suppose he picked out women of color to go with? It seems so … unnecessary. Unless there was something else.
But, again, why do you think he used the modifiers he used. I agree with you that it was dumb, but don’t you think there is SOME reason he picked those two modifiers?
Again, my guess is that if one were to think of dumb congress douchebags on the left, that those two are apt to be at the top of the list. They are for me. Not that they’re the dumbest necessarily, but their dumb and have a high profile.