# "Some of the best friends I got is coloured." Wow. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 14, 2019, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057 "2019-07-14T06:32:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/41 "2019-07-15T00:50:32Z")
Sure. Racism is pretty much gone… It only exists in doddering old fools who will be gone soon. So why get excited about it. Just relax - there is not a problem to see here. Look away. Jesus. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/42 "2019-07-15T00:52:27Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > I think it’s more a case, for most here at least, of misplaced priorities and irrationally disproportionately commenting on what is near and familiar. However, it is sad that billions of people live in conditions far worse with no commentary. That in itself seems like unconscious bigotry. There’s plenty of commentary. But people tend to talk about their own communities a whole lot more than others. It’s entirely reasonable to look at how one’s own community can be improved. It’s even possible to do this while also being critical of authoritarian regimes like NK. ---
**Author:** ![Helmut\_Doork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e8c25b/32.png) [@Helmut\_Doork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helmut_Doork)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/43 "2019-07-15T00:59:06Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Sure. Racism is pretty much gone… It only exists in doddering old fools who will be gone soon. So why get excited about it. Just relax - there is not a problem to see here. Look away. > > Jesus. Well actually yes Jesus _could_ eradicate it if he really wanted to, I would think? why _does_ he allow it? Would love to hear your plan to 100% eradicate racism. Its not like smallpox you know. While youre at it, could you come up with one to erase sexism? How about to stop all bullies, domestic abusers and the like? ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/44 "2019-07-15T01:10:49Z")
> [@Helmut\_Doork](#): > > respectfully disagree in this case. this OP concerns a doddering old fool who grew up in the pre-Civil Rights Era south. Trumps not empowering him to do anything- he’s never had a minority tenant in the 50 years he’s owned the place. It’s not like he always had black tenants, now Trumps racism gave him the power to make it whites only. His _particular_ breed is a dying one. Archie Bunker is dead, his friends are dead or dying. You really are a stupid one. Trump’s shenanigans do not give the old racist piwer to break the law. It empowers him to voice his racism today, sixty years into the Civil Rights Era, though. And that should teach him a very expensive lesson. The government agency responsible should now be looking into his rental practices to see how many people he discriminated against and hit him in the wallet for that in addition to taking action against the two latest bigoted stunts. ---
**Author:** ![Helmut\_Doork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e8c25b/32.png) [@Helmut\_Doork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helmut_Doork)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/45 "2019-07-15T01:17:26Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > You really are a stupid one. Trump’s shenanigans do not give the old racist piwer to break the law. It empowers him to voice his racism today, sixty years into the Civil Rights Era, though. And that should teach him a very expensive lesson. The government agency responsible should now be looking into his rental practices to see how many people he discriminated against and hit him in the wallet for that in addition to taking action against the two latest bigoted stunts. Actually Monty, if you read my post, I said this sort of outing of this particular gentleman **does** have a positive- if he is breaking housing discrimination laws, he should be sued into bankruptcy. But Trump isnt empowering **him** to do anything- he was doing this same thing under every President since Nixon probably. He was _caught_ under Trump, he didnt _start_ because of Trump. And he wasnt _voicing_ anything, he was engaging in illegal housing discrimination. His only statement was he has black friends, which is cliche, but not hate speech in any sense of the word. Horrible person, but not a Trump creation. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/46 "2019-07-15T01:18:30Z")
> [@Helmut\_Doork](#): > > Well actually yes Jesus _could_ eradicate it if he really wanted to, I would think? why _does_ he allow it? > > Would love to hear your plan to 100% eradicate racism. Its not like smallpox you know. > While youre at it, could you come up with one to erase sexism? How about to stop all bullies, domestic abusers and the like? You will never eradicate bigotry. Racism is just one form of it; a form that in recent history (and to this day) leads to murder and violence and genocide. It’s entirely conceivable to one day eliminate racism though it would take something extreme. In time, if the worldwide population became homogeneous enough that everyone was one blended race, that’s one way. Or if we made contact with extraterrestrials and they were so different from humans that things like “race” no longer mattered in comparison, that might do it. Or if we had humanoid AI automatons walking around to interact with (another kind of alien). I could see the issue of race effectively vanishing in one of those situations. But bigotry and prejudice will never go away. There will always be something that people will use to divide “us” and “them”, and will unfairly discriminate against “them”. You will never stamp that out, whether it’s about skin color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, favorite sports team… There will be something. That doesn’t mean you don’t still try anyway. You try knowing that you will ultimately fail, because as long as people try, things will get better. Not perfect, but better. But you don’t say that things are better so we get to relax and stop trying. And you don’t stop trying because it’ll never be perfect. Perfect is the enemy of the good. ---
**Author:** ![Helmut\_Doork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e8c25b/32.png) [@Helmut\_Doork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helmut_Doork)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/47 "2019-07-15T01:24:35Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > You will never eradicate bigotry. Racism is just one form of it; a form that in recent history (and to this day) leads to murder and violence and genocide. It’s entirely conceivable to one day eliminate racism though it would take something extreme. In time, if the worldwide population became homogeneous enough that everyone was one blended race, that’s one way. Or if we made contact with extraterrestrials and they were so different from humans that things like “race” no longer mattered in comparison, that might do it. Or if we had humanoid AI automatons walking around to interact with (another kind of alien). I could see the issue of race effectively vanishing in one of those situations. > > But bigotry and prejudice will never go away. There will always be something that people will use to divide “us” and “them”, and will unfairly discriminate against “them”. You will never stamp that out, whether it’s about skin color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, favorite sports team… There will be something. > > That doesn’t mean you don’t still try anyway. You try knowing that you will ultimately fail, because as long as people try, things will get better. Not perfect, but better. > > But you don’t say that things are better so we get to relax and stop trying. And you don’t stop trying because it’ll never be perfect. Perfect is the enemy of the good. I agree, and I agree every time this happens, you should post it online so anyone who sees it and knows the person knows they are scum. My opinion was just it happens several times a week or so, way too common for a pit thread, especially when its not some young teens, but instead a 90 year old redneck coot. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/48 "2019-07-15T01:25:52Z")
> [@Helmut\_Doork](#): > > Well actually yes Jesus _could_ eradicate it if he really wanted to, I would think? why _does_ he allow it? > > Would love to hear your plan to 100% eradicate racism. I “If you can’t eradicate racism 100% with one simple plan, then it is pointless to do anything to fight it. Might as well just accept it and do nothing.” I’m amazed at how often this asinine trope is trotted out. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/49 "2019-07-15T01:27:39Z")
> [@Helmut\_Doork](#): > > respectfully disagree in this case. this OP concerns a doddering old fool who grew up in the pre-Civil Rights Era south. Trumps not empowering him to do anything- he’s never had a minority tenant in the 50 years he’s owned the place. If you don’t think Trump is empowering racism, you’re a fucking idiot: > **[How Trump Fuels the Fascist Right | Bernard E. Harcourt](https://www.nybooks.com/online/2018/11/29/how-trump-fuels-the-fascist-right/)** > > President Trump is no mere entertainer or buffoon, as many want to believe. Instead, he is carefully, skillfully, and consistently speaking directly to his hardline nationalist supporters in their exact language, making their tropes and memes his... [https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/12/politics/white-supremacists-cheer-midterms-trump/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/12/politics/white-supremacists-cheer-midterms-trump/index.html) > **[Bunch: Just following orders? Trump's not-so-secret police go wild](https://www.inquirer.com/philly/blogs/attytood/Just-following-orders-Trumps-goon-squad-goes-wild.html)** > > A flood of disturbing episodes at our airports and in immigrant neighborhoods have made it clear: Homeland Security officers are running wild, trashing human rights and tarnishing America's image. Good people need to speak up. ---
**Author:** ![Helmut\_Doork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e8c25b/32.png) [@Helmut\_Doork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helmut_Doork)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/50 "2019-07-15T01:27:49Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > “If you can’t eradicate racism 100% with one simple plan, then it is pointless to do anything to fight it. Might as well just accept it and do nothing.” > > I’m amazed at how often this asinine trope is trotted out. Your sixth post stating the same basic rhetorical thought. Care to address how to eradicate racism, specifically in the hearts of 90 year old hillbillies? ---
**Author:** ![Helmut\_Doork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e8c25b/32.png) [@Helmut\_Doork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helmut_Doork)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/51 "2019-07-15T01:30:20Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > If you don’t think Trump is empowering racism, you’re a fucking idiot: > > [How Trump Fuels the Fascist Right | Bernard E. Harcourt | The New York Review of Books](https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/11/29/how-trump-fuels-the-fascist-right/) > [https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/12/politics/white-supremacists-cheer-midterms-trump/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/12/politics/white-supremacists-cheer-midterms-trump/index.html) > [Bunch: Just following orders? Trump's not-so-secret police go wild](https://www.inquirer.com/philly/blogs/attytood/Just-following-orders-Trumps-goon-squad-goes-wild.html) reading is your friend, and could have saved you time with the linking- I do not doubt Trump empowers racists! But not the one in the OP! He has been an unrepetant racist since the Truman administration! hes not quoting Trump- he may not even know who the president currently is! ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/52 "2019-07-15T01:36:07Z")
I thought you’d moved the goalposts to “I just don’t like this pit thread because it’s way too common” ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/53 "2019-07-15T01:39:03Z")
“Trump empowers racists, but not this guy because I know this.” “If you can’t eliminate racism with one simple plan, then don’t bother talking about it.” “Racist old guys are a common pit thread theme, so who cares” There ya go. ---
**Author:** ![Helmut\_Doork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e8c25b/32.png) [@Helmut\_Doork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helmut_Doork)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/54 "2019-07-15T01:39:57Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > I thought you’d moved the goalposts to “I just don’t like this pit thread because it’s way too common” Moving the goalposts, does anyone read here? That was the entire point of my FIRST post in the thread, and my only point since?!? 90 year old redneck southerner is racist, film at eleven? ---
**Author:** ![Helmut\_Doork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e8c25b/32.png) [@Helmut\_Doork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helmut_Doork)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/55 "2019-07-15T01:45:49Z")
Would you pit same guy if he said he didnt allow single women tenants, or women who had jobs or wore pants? No, you’d laugh at the pathetic ignorant old fool and realize he’ll be dead in two years anyway! ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/56 "2019-07-15T01:46:29Z")
Then report it to the pit thread police. You sure get wound up about pit threads you think are lame. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/57 "2019-07-15T01:57:57Z")
> [@Helmut\_Doork](#): > > reading is your friend, and could have saved you time with the linking- I do not doubt Trump empowers racists! But not the one in the OP! He has been an unrepetant racist since the Truman administration! hes not quoting Trump- he may not even know who the president currently is! You might be right, but maybe not. Maybe five years ago he’d have just seethed about “coloureds” tainting his building but kept it to himself, and passive-aggressively ignored her next request to fix the heat in her place. Maybe he thought that he could go so far as to evict someone and in today’s climate that would fly under the radar, and when that didn’t work he came up with some BS excuse about non-existent damage. Again, maybe he’d have done this anyway because he’s an old school racist who does this all the time and finally got called out for it. But there’s no way to know. The point is that you don’t know better than anyone else, unless you have some information about this man that hasn’t yet been shared. > [@Helmut\_Doork](#): > > Would you pit same guy if he said he didnt allow single women tenants, or women who had jobs or wore pants? No, you’d laugh at the pathetic ignorant old fool and realize he’ll be dead in two years anyway! I think that would be worth pitting, absolutely. That’s still ignorant bigotry and illegal discrimination. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/58 "2019-07-15T02:02:13Z")
Helmut make sure your pit to non-pit posts don’t exceed a secret ratio or you might get Huey Freemanized. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/59 "2019-07-15T02:03:01Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > I think we still have a ways to go. > [Fox & Friends praises Trump’s bigoted tweet telling Democratic congresswomen to leave the United States](https://www.mediamatters.org/video/2019/07/14/fox-friends-praises-trumps-bigoted-tweet-telling-democratic-congresswomen-leave-united-states/224205) > > But thanks for doing your part, and clearly, unequivocally calling out racist comments when you hear them from anyone in your life. I gotta say judging from your comic book take on racism in the US, I am going to take a wild guess that you live in the land of the Lilly white? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/60 "2019-07-15T02:07:44Z")
> [@Helmut\_Doork](#): > > Well actually yes Jesus _could_ eradicate it if he really wanted to, I would think? why _does_ he allow it? > > Would love to hear your plan to 100% eradicate racism. Its not like smallpox you know. > While youre at it, could you come up with one to erase sexism? How about to stop all bullies, domestic abusers and the like? \*”Smallpox? Hmmm. Are you pondering what I’m pondering Pinky? “I think so, Brain, but where are we gong to get sixty-three million blankets?”\* [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057.md?page=4)