I’m with you. Social outrage gets exhausting very quickly.
So many people are just looking for things that offend them.
I keep hoping society will learn to ignore this stuff. Instead of allowing one person to alter policy at schools, colleges or businesses.
Just wait until the offended person passes a Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Stalks of cotton bolls have been used as rustic decor forever. I don’t get it.
Like this?
Very much so; thank you for sharing that.
And it happens on both sides of the Left/Right aisle too, you know. I was practically flamed off of a pro-gun message board for daring to articulate potential positive aspects of owner licensing and firearms registration, even as I also articulated all the down-sides gun owners already know of, and fear (justified or not).
I broke with the catholic (not Catholic) dogma of the hive-mind, and for that I had to be punished, chastised, ostracized.
Maybe I’m just getting “selectively deaf” in my old age, from all the shouting-past-each-other that seems to be what passes for civil discourse these days.
It makes it incredibly difficult for this bisexual, fiscally conservative, socially libertarian, middle-class, gainfully employed, tax-paying, gun enthusiast white male to “get on board” with much in the way of social activism.
As soon as some “objectionable quality” of mine falls outside of some group’s “accepted norm,” I’m generally made to feel (“Nazi fascist!”) uncomfortable (“Baby killer!”) enough (“die you fucking faggot!”) to leave.
But what about all the overblown accusations, like this cotton thing, from the right (or the “anti-SJW” side)? In this case, the guy invited the Hispanic students for dinner and fed them fajitas. Then he invited the black students for dinner and fed them cornbread and collard greens, along with specifically choosing cotton-imagery decor for some reason. Stereotyping is pretty tone-deaf at best, and outright racist at worst. This thing was worth criticizing, IMO, and was not social-justice craziness.
Craziness and overreactions happen, but as far as I can see, they’re just as common or more on the “anti-SJW” side as the social justice side. Maybe you’re only seeing the one side and not the other.
You know, my first instinct when I read this article on Yahoo was to look away, look away. Now it’s too late.
Funny, I just read an article about that. See point #3, “We Wind Up Radicalizing Ourselves:”
No, I agree with you wrt the University Pres.; that part came in a bit later, though. My OP was really only about the lady in the Hobby Lobby getting all huffy and self-righteous about a sticks-and-twigs decorative floral display.
At a bare minimum, the U. Pres. deserved a pointed ":dubious: Really??" I hope whatever “Board of Directors” or whatever Universities call them have a pointed talk with Mr. U. Pres. Maybe drive a little social awareness into him with a clue-by-four.
Action and reaction, and then counter reaction, followed by counter-counter reaction, with the volume creeping a bit higher with each salvo that’s exchanged, until no one knows or remembers (more likely, cares) where it all started*, or where it will end; for now, there is only “The War!”
*Actually, I think we do know where it started: someone, somewhere, back when, took a stand against something that was wrong. And the people who benefited from that wrongness harumphed, or struck back, or locked up in prison those who protested the wrongness, or just killed them outright.
And then the gloves came off.
And it just kept on from there, going back-and-forth, waxing and waning as conditions in each particular time and place allowed, or dictated.
I casually used the phrase wait just a cotton picking minute once in front of my supervisor. I remember she stopped what she was doing and kind of looked at me for a couple seconds, presumably deciding whether it was offensive or not. She decided it wasn’t, but the whole incident has made me more cautious of using the phase in polite company. Same with the word niggardly.
Just more eggshells to walk on.
For the record I refuse to believe that cotton in and of itself, should be considered offensive. But the whole thing seems blown out of proportion anyway.
Serving fajitas is in no way insensitive. They are a Tex-Mex dish. Collard greens, maybe. Trying to serve food that your guests will be comfortable with is not inappropriate; include a couple of other diverse dishes.
The idea that any American college student in 2017 might not be comfortable with food that isn’t an ethnic stereotype seems pretty questionable to me, and itself a little offensive.
And while offense is an inherently subjective thing, you should have a lot of sympathy for a black student who finds a cotton centerpiece at a black student dinner offensive.
After all, cotton isn’t just some neutral stereotype associated with the South or with African-Americans, like collard greens. It is the symbol of over a century of plundered labor used to make America’s economy in the 19th century. I mean, it’s not like the University President made a burning cross the centerpiece. But it’s also not the same as choosing to serve watermelon and cornbread.
Fajitas aren’t an ethnic stereotype; like nachos, they are recognized as Americanized versions of Mexican food. Trying to serve food that your guest might actually be familiar with and like is more polite than questionable.
The fact that fajitas are Tex-Mex, and not authentic Mexican food, does not negate them being food chosen to meet a stereotype. Surely you understand that.
Your assumption that Latino students at a Tennessee college might be unfamiliar with non-Tex-Mex foods is absurd.
Mehhh…way more poor white people people picked cotton than any black people ever did. And for that matter people in the north and europe had no problem buying said cotton.
Heck I know white people still alive that picked a butt load of cotton back in the day.
Yeah, slavery was bad and sucked mmmkay?
But lets get off this meme that slaves built the south while everybody else was just sitting back drinking mint julips.
And if cotton is racist…I don’t want to even fucking know what polyester did…
Do you have a cite for this?
Do you have a cite that I am wrong?
So he should have a monkey throw a dart at a menu to select food? What’s wrong with assuming that a Hispanic person might like a fajita? It’s obviously not certain that a random Hispanic person likes fajitas but it’s not a bad guess.
It’d be offensive and racist to have pineapple if a friend from Hawaii visited? At what point does this nonsense become recognized for being nonsense?
And your intellectual Twister exercise is equally absurd. Fajitas are not identified with Latinos. Fajitas can be vegan/vegetarian. Fajitas are customizable. Fajitas are an excellent choice for a meal with strangers.
Huh? From 1800-1865, the vast majority of cotton was picked by slaves. Plundered black labor continued to be the primary source of cotton for decades after.
Correct.
Slaves didn’t build the South. They built the whole damn country.
Cotton was primarily picked by slaves, and slaves primarily picked cotton. Slave labor was 4/5ths of the South’s economic output. And in the 19th century, cotton was king. It was the leading American export for over a century, and for many decades a bigger export than all other exports combined. It was the significant driver of the growth of industry and finance in the North. We can debate the precise contribution of slave labor to US economic development, but there is no debate that it is staggering.
I haven’t read through the entire thread, but I have read the link, and yesterday I saw another story about the college dinner. I guess people aren’t being taught the concept of context. Decorating your house with sprigs of cotton is perfectly fine if it goes along with whatever motif you are using in the room. Hosting a dinner for African-American students, and changing out the centerpieces to ones that contain sprigs of cotton is at least racially insensitive, if not racist. It is the context that matters. When you intentionally juxtapose African-Americans with sprigs of un-picked cotton, the first thing that should pop into the mind of anyone who has read a history book is some reference to slavery. the fact that a college president doesn’t see that is mind-blowing.