The part of me that thinks “Maybe this Caucasian Club won’t turn into some kind of Nazi clambake” is the same part of me that thinks “Maybe this e-mail from Nigeria about borrowing my checking account to hold millions of dollars is on the level, unlike the last twenty I answered!”
I guess it’s conceivable that some White Pride club could have positive social value, but based on every precedent I’ve ever seen or read about, I wouldn’t bet on it. Being white, even if you’re poor or surrounded by a nonwhite majority, is to have an undeniable edge over people who aren’t white. I just don’t think a support group for the intrinsically advantaged has much in the way of merit.
Yeah, this girl has the “right” to start her little club. And I have the right to hold my nose in response to it.
If you don’t even know whether Ramanujan is part of a minority, then how is the above statement “obvious” at all?
Oh, for the love of Ned.
Yes. No black babies are being eaten. I know that. You know that. agiantdwarf knows that. Ramanujan knows that. And I dare say that agiantdwarf bloody well knows that Ramanujan knows that, which was kinda my point.
And yes, agiantdwarf’s statement meets the definition of hyperbole. It also meets the definition of an inflammatory statement, a misrepresentation of Ramanujan’s position, and an all-around vile and unnecessary thing to say. The cute little roll-eyes smiley doesn’t excuse agiantdwarf from decorum or common decency.
Let’s deal with these little statements, shall we?
Once upon a time, in the mythical land of Hypothetica, lived the Mauves, the Fuschias, the Spirals, and the Paisleys. And the Mauves were sometimes racist towards the Fuschias and the Paisleys were sometimes racist towards the Spirals and the Fuschias were sometimes racist towards the Paisleys and the Mauves together on alternate Tuesdays.
Then many years later a bunch of Mauves got together and studied the history of the Mauves, and as it happens that history gave them insights into the origin of racism in Hypothetica.
And wouldn’t you know it, it was the Paisley’s fault. In Hypothetica, the Paisleys started it. Bastards.
Then some person on the HDMB made a post about Mauves stating that “Maybe in their study of Mauve history they can spot the origins of racism.” Which was perfectly fine, because a statement about spotting the origins of racism is not a statement about the nature of those origins, even if the spotting occurs during the study of one particular culture.
Is the point clear yet?
I believe and state here for all to see the following: maybe, in the study of black history, one can spot the origins of racism. In other words, if I study black history I might learn how racism, both by and towards black people originated. That does not mean that I believe or am stating that racism originated due to black people, or that they were the first, or the only ones or something. I don’t believe that. Instead I merely believe that the facts about the origin of racism may be found in the course of a study of black history.
Surely, Epimetheus and Debaser, your vaunted reading comprehension skills make that perfectly clear.
Now, replace “black” with “white” in the statement two paragraphs above and explain to me how it suddenly becomes a dastardly slur against the white man. Perhaps you can insult my reading skills a bit more while you’re at it, you seem to enjoy that.
Orbifold- actually it is obvious that he is a minority. Obvious he is black too, it is called reading comprehension and memory of his past posts. The way he structures his paragraph, writes from a very good oppressed minority viewpoint either means that he is indeed a black man that has had problems with scummy racists, or that he is a very hateful white person that is well racist against whites. I don’t think even good writers can fake that kind of passion.
No, I am not saying that one can tell if a poster is black or not from how they talk or anyother racist crap, just from HIS post I can tell how he stands. I am shocked that you can’t.
Minorities that are racist annoy me nearly as much as whites that are racists. The only reason they don’t piss me off the same is that I do realize that there are a huge number of racists that are white. Some are even ok with blacks, but hate Mexicans, are ok with Mexicans but hate the French. Hating blacks is not the only kind of racism ya know. Strangely enough, nobody likes to admit that there are just as many minorities that are racist as well, and you know what? There are, and they would be racist if they were the Majority. It is human nature, not white nature.
Get real, he didn’t mean it in this context at all. He was bashing the whites, just as he did on several other accounts in the exact same post. CONTEXT is a key component of reading comprehension ya know. Read the CONTEXT. Thanks.
If you want my opinion from my own experience, many people I have talked to, white and black mostly, tend to think of racism as being only a function of the tension caused by whites oppressive regime of slavery imposed upon Africans. Hating the French isn’t racism, it is just patriotic. Yeah… like those same people didn’t hate the french to begin with.
You can contrive and twist and try to turn your words all around, but hindsight is 20/20, and blathering on about different hypothesis’ of what he really meant to say is pointless. Looking at the context of his post, he meant it just the way several other posters obviously read it as. YOU are the only person that seems bent on proving otherwise, and you are doing quite a bit of verbal backtwisting to do so.
More power to the girl for doing this, it takes alot of guts and conviction to start a Caucasian-Club in hyper-active PC society.
Hell, at 15 I was afraid of asking girls to a dance! I cant imagine the amount of courage it would take to do something like this.
And kudos to the NAACP for doing exactly the thing that makes me think the NAACP is truly the largest racist group out there today.
I know, it is hard to pick out words and comprehend them, but there they are. I wasn’t talking about previous posts, I mentioned past history and posting style in regards to how do I know he is a minority.
I am sorry it would only take mind reading for you to infer things about a person based off their writing.
Lets try this from a different angle. You do agree that a negative stereotype that is given to a class of people based on race is racist? I.E Irish are all drunks, Arabs are all towel heads, and Mexians are all gang members?
If you say yes, tell me why it is NOT racist to ascribe a negative stereotype to Caucasian.
OK, I thought about it. I suppose it would completely depend on the person who you selected to attend the meetings. You could, oh I don’t know, not use an idiotic thought experiment to perpetuate stereotypes, and judge an individual by what’s in their hearts and not the color of their skin. Just a thought.
I tend to feel that this is the whole reason behind the creation of the group. There seems to be a cottage industry of backslapping over ‘sticking it to the man’ by being non-PC. So the young lady has her 15 minutes. yay.
I want to go on record as saying that the young lady can start whatever sort of group she likes, so long as she’s not advocating any sort of illegal action. However, I am very interested in he motives behind its creation, the membership policies, and what sorts of activities are planned under its sponsorship.
Universally, every Black Students Association that I have known has accepted and even embraced non-black members as long as they had a sincere interest in issues that faced the African American community, as well as common interests with the other members (like any other club I’ve known). Though of Indian descent, I have been a part of the BSA in high school and college. I am interested in whether the same is true for this young woman’s group, and what membership requirements are.
Oh goody, loaded questions. The answers to your questions are “yes” and “I never said it wasn’t”.
Let me answer some more questions, just to get them out of the way:
Do I think Ramanujan’s post implied that racism originated with white people? No.
Do I think Ramanujan’s post implied that non-white people are never racist? No.
Do I think Ramanujan’s post implied that white people are never the victims of racism? Yes.
Do I think Ramanujan’s post implied that all white people are rich and go to nice universities? No.
Do I think Ramanujan’s post implied that only a well-off white kid at an expensive university would start a Caucasian club? Yes.
Do I think Ramanujan’s post was racist? Well, that is a toughie, because of that first “yes” above. The stereotype that white people are never the victims of racism is a stereotype, but I’m not at all certain that it’s a negative one. I think the answer to this question is “no”. Clearly opinions differ.
Do I think Ramanujan is racist? I have absolutely no idea. I have not read through his (?) entire posting history, and my only previous experiences with him have been in mathematics threads. For all I know Ramanujan is a cybernetically enhanced dolphin with a lisp, who is rabidly racist against swordfish.
Am I sick of talking about this post when Ramanujan hasn’t had the courtesy to make any replies himself? Yes.
People, people, allow I, the Grand Master of Everything, speak:
Give 'em their Caucasian Club. If it goes sour, condemn it then. But until and unless that happens, you’re a hypocrite and a bigot with all this “rich white person” talk.
It’ll finally shutup those annoying what-if machine hobbyist who insist that this country is so racist against them that if “white people were to start a white something-or-other, then everybody would blah-blah-blah!” Well, a white person did start a white something, and what happened? NOTHING! It got some national press because of its noveltly, but where are the hordes of feral blacks holding protesting placards, their mouths foaming with hypocrasy? Still tucked safely inside of your paranoid imaginations, that’s where. Instead all we get is some gentle disagreement from the local NAACP, an endorsement of “It’d be tight” from a black classmate, and a bunch of head-scratching from the rest (and some pumped fists of encourgement from those previously “disenfranchised” by the invisible PC monster).
So in case you were too dumb to realize it before, this incident should tell you: YES, WHITE PEOPLE CAN STILL DO WHATEVER THEY WANT IN THEIR OWN GD COUNTRY!
[A whole bunch of twisted logic and double standards crap snipped]
Tangential, but not a hijack.
At what point, exactly, does it become okay for whitey to have a club like this? Much like conspiracy theories in other threads, it seems that the goalposts keep moving.
I have yet to see a valid reason that this club is inherantly more dangerous/offensive/whatever than any other club. The best we’ve seen is that it could turn into “some kind of Nazi clambake”.
Of course, nobody here would insinuate that any such black club would become the Black Panthers (complete with Black Power Salute after every win at an athletic event?). Because that would be racist.
So, in the interests of keeping the goalposts firmly planted in one place, where’s the line? When does whitey get to have the same rights as everyone else?
Is it where asian-americans reach the point where their mean income beats that of whites? Do we then immediately disband all of their (now-racist) clubs?
Maybe it’ll be the point where african-americans have a lower percentage of their population in prison than another ethnic group? Then they become the racist bad guys, and ethnic group X is the victim who gets to make clubs that would have been considered racist the week before.
There’s no two ways about it: it’s disrespectful in that it mocks the seriousness of the minority clubs, and therefore it’s offensive. Tongue in cheek or not (and I say not, judging from the initiator’s quotes and the school’s history), it’s a negative move for racial understanding in that school, not a positive one.
