# Should we seek to change racist atitudes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 25, 2005, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-seek-to-change-racist-atitudes/337134 "2005-12-25T03:59:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-seek-to-change-racist-atitudes/337134/41 "2006-01-04T05:32:59Z")
> [@Grits and Hard Toast](#): > > Would you put my statement I mentioned in an earlier post, “I guess you haven’t met my friend Dan yet, he is the black guy at the end of the bar.” in that category? If the most obvious way to separate Dan from other patrons is by skin color, hell no. > [@](#): > > But when people say things like Pizza Brat, "That most showboaters are black gives an Occam’s Razor style explanation for an otherwise bemusing nationwide invective against such dances. What offends you is the sight of proud black millionares flaunting their latest success in front of the nation. There’s a history of whites being offended by blacks doing nothing more than asserting themselves in this country, summed up neatly by the term “uppity Negro” I am going to think absolutely anything I say that might be negative against someone black will get me labled as a racist. **pizzabrat** – I humbly suggest – has a tendency to assume he knows exactly what offends your sensibilities. Sometimes I think he’s right. But I usually bring it up in terms of “what a racist tends to do” rather to attack one specific poster to at least ameliorate the possibility I could be right. It keeps the conversation flowing and gives everybody a chance to save a little face. I think any sports fan, black, brown, tan and white, who hates showboating in the end zone, are going to be more intolerant when black players do it because, shit, we definitely like to put on a show, and it’s definitely more likely to be planned than completely spontaneous. I also think fans who constantly harp on black players for showboating, be it spontaneous or not, might have other issues. Dunno. Dunno if it’s worth pointing out. Hey, if it helps, I, speaking for myself, would probably just call you a bigot before I called you a racist! And I’d coach it in some snarky **Askia-speak** like, “Perhaps you’d need to be a member of an ethnic minority to fully understand this.” But I’m with you on fear of labels. People keep trying to label me as ‘a nice guy’ and ‘a real gentleman’ around here all the freaking time… I’m compelled to memorably act like a jackass at least 20% of time just to keep that shit from sticking… 😃 Yo, I’m straight up HOOD, y’all. _Never forget._ MOVE, BITCH. GIT OUT TEH WAY!! ---
**Author:** ![pizzabrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@pizzabrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzabrat)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-seek-to-change-racist-atitudes/337134/42 "2006-01-04T14:31:43Z")
> [@Grits and Hard Toast](#): > > But when people say things like Pizza Brat,… I am going to think absolutely anything I say that might be negative against someone black will get me labled as a racist. Why? I took offense at a repeated, national phenomenon of criticizm towards blacks in general, not one person saying something negative against someone black. It may be easier for whites to regulate complaints of racism to obvious offences that they themselves are certain they’ll never be a party to, but if you really think racism is a bad thing, then you’d have to accept that such apathy is useless. It’s the little everyday barbs that are so common and accepted that do the most damage, that remind blacks how unwelcome they are in general in their own country and then breed nihilistic attitudes towards society, that then leads to nihilistic behavior that affects us all. The fact that only some might view this showboating controversy as racism is the problem. The point of pointing it out is to encourage a bit of introspection about the subject so that you can better identify and oppose racist sentiments. Unforturnately, the usual response is a knee-jerk rejection of the idea that something you said could possibly be racist, and further resentment towards the anti-racism movement (BTW, I mean “you” in a general way, not as in you personally). ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-seek-to-change-racist-atitudes/337134/43 "2006-01-04T15:17:27Z")
> [@Weirddave](#): > > Well of course, but my entire point is that (from what I observed on one single night 10 days ago) the bartender’s racism had zero negative effect on his black patrons, so what difference does it make? It’s possible the bartender saw the black patron as just another customer and treated him as such, as opposed to the dancing “niggers” in the endzone. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-seek-to-change-racist-atitudes/337134.md?page=2)