Anyone else noticed this trend to basically deny racism exists, ever existed, and if you have an anecdote you can save it because its obviously an attention getting lie.
If you have a story about a personal experience where someone treated you unfairly and you suspect it might be racism, you better have a taped confession from them admitting they are racist and let it effect their decision making. And even then you’ll probably still be dismissed.
Have a public official saying something obvious and damning on video you say? Don’t worry people will be along shortly to do some amazing mental gymnastics to explain why its actually YOU who are the racist! When the mayor said he was disgusted by the darkies he is obviously talking about chocolates!
Then you have the racism trolls who lay booby trapped comments, using every stereotype they can think of along with some statement like “fucking animal” and when someone calls them one it they reveal…GASP I was talking about a white guy you racist! hahaha! :rolleyes:
When you end up in a argument with someone because they claim racism was rare and unaccepted even in the 1940s…it just gets sad
Sure, it’s been going on since racism stopped being socially acceptable. Most people are racists, nearly all in my opinion, but they don’t want other people to think they’re bad people who believe in that bad racism, so they imagine there’s some good type of it, and their critics are just unreasonable people who ignore the obvious differences between the races. They can prove their assertions too, they’ll tell you about the time they saw one of those people do something bad, and then they’ll tell you how good they are by pointing out the accomplishments of other members of their own race.
Of course there are no races, and these people are vile idiots.
Every time the TV shows that Mitch McConnell - U.S. Senate saying that the goal is to defeat Obama I am taken back to my youth in Kentucky and I hear and see him say, not “defeat Obama” but rather “defeat the colored boy”. A few news commentators are beginning to get away from denying the racism in Washington politics but not many.
Racism exists alright and it can ruin lives, but there is a certain type of person who walks around awaiting someone to say or do something that can be construed as racist, so that they can then feel sorry for themself and have an excuse to be “holier then thou” with everyone else.
This doesn’t just apply to racism but the other" isms" , sexuality, feminism, whatever.
I recall a gay guy on these boards apparently being incredibly upset because he and his partner stayed in a Canadian motel, that had GASP! a bible in the draw of the bedside table.
He was outraged because apparently somewhere or other in the Bible its anti gay or something.
And some of the complaints of racism are equally lame and trivial.
I remember many years ago having to expel an Afro Caribbeann from a cinema, his first words were “You’re doing this because I’m black”.
My reply was “No I’m doing this because you didn’t bother purchasing a ticket”.
The nett affect is that after a while people who might otherwise be sympathetic to the plight of those who have GENUINLLY been victimised, become indifferent to reports of racism because they’ve already catergorised complaints to be yet more self indulgent, self pity regardless of whether or not the person is a genuine victim.
There also seems to be an underlying ethos, that if someone makes an accusation of racism, then the accused is guilty until proven innocent.(Just like those accused of rape are in fact)
And before you ask, no, I’ve never been accused of rape.
I sincerely wish that we didn’t take race as seriously as we do. Sure, it exists, but it doesn’t mean a damn thing. I miss the staff at a restaurant I used to work at. I’m white, and the kitchen staff was almost all black, and the racial jokes we used against each other would curl your fucking hair. I won’t repeat any of the racial epithets I threw around in there other than to say I would never used the “n” word (I used about everything else I could think of though!), and it was comedic self defense. Call it locker room talk. I did have to come back with something racial when they were busting my balls by debating if I was a “saltine” or a “ritz” cracker. I won’t rehash the conversation here, but trust me, it was fucking hilarious.
I loved every minute of it, and I miss Dave Chapel for his ability to mock the racial divide.
Met a Nunga fella Vince in Adelaide once in a pub down the city centre, nice bloke, after a few schooners went our own ways. Both a bit wonky on our feet, nothing too severe. Out front we said our ooroos, Vince in the usually louder and emphasised Nunga way. This attracted a group of Japanese tourist who started pointing and taking pictures of a drunken Aboriginal who they deemed was acting out the stereotype. WTF! I thought: fucken nips everything’s a fucken freak show. Poor Vince just doing his stuff in a way he’s probably done it for years and now being treated like a freak show. Eventually, I couldn’t deny the very fact it was us whities who perpetuated the fucken myth in the first place so the fucken nips could have their fucken freak show now!
Deny fucken what! Don’t make you feel proud, put it that way.
What irks me are people who qualify their statements about racism with something like:
“Although most people are not racist…”
“Although racial discrimination is not a big deal anymore…”
“Although racism is going the way of the dodo bird…”
Just because racism is not as violent and scary as it was back in the 1960s does not mean it’s dead.
What gets me is that many people–including Dopers–have at least one anecdote from recent years of someone being a big racist around them. But if a black person makes the mere suggestion that racism has affected their lives, they are interrogated endlessly, as if no one alive today remembers that codified segregation, KKK rallies, openly bigoted politicians, or even racist Tom and Jerry cartoons ever existed.
Okay. Fair enough. Here it is in a coherent nutshell: Visitors to Australia have preconceived ideas about the Aboriginal people and drunkeness and when they visit and they see a drunken Aboriginal person their stereotypes see a source of entertainment rather then the real people behind the stereotype.
A major cause behind that stereotype is the fact that Europeans took away everything they once held dear and plied them with alcohol. Decimated, depressed, and abjectly broken-hearted they literally degraded themselves drinking on the street, playing up to the stereotype in an attempt to fit in.
So when I was faced with the stereotype, in this case Japanese tourist thinking that even a slightly drunk Aboriginal person was a source of amusement because of the very stereotypes that my European culture perpetuated in the past made me feel ashamed.
Therefore, there is no denying racism as, because of attitudes and values from the past, it comes back to haunt you. Unless we fully expunge ourselves culturally and as a society of these racist values and attitudes then examples like this will always be shoved back in our face.
PS - Meds on the table ready to go; what can I say, my team won the football and I’ve been drinking all night; ESL, where do you want me to start?
Bloody hell, did it again. Sorry fellas …though technically in my defence, the n word is short for Nippon and Nipponese which is the old word for Japan and Japanese.
However, point taken, and shall not do it again. Dennis the Aussie (ooops, Australian).
