Now, now. I’m not calling you a racist. How would I know? What I frequently hear is that I’m racist because I’m white. The healing process can never really begin until I admit that I am in fact a racist because I’m white. It’s like an alcoholic can never really start to get better until he admits he’s an alcoholic. So what I’m giving you is the same advice I get. Just admit you’re racist, then you can start the healing process. It’ll never start until you do.
You find that irritating? Me too.
Eh, decent slam. Not great, but okay.
I’m saying at my level I don’t deal with whites much. Why is that? I don’t know. I don’t particularly care. It just is the way it is. You’d think I’d interact with at least some white males at school, but I guess all the white guys are too busy being wealthy privileged CEOs or something.
No. No, you haven’t had a coworker like me.
Nope, totally not my life experience. I’m gay, and totally get along with all my minority contemporaries. I just keep quiet when they start bashing on white men like I’m not one.
You might be right. Or maybe he just hates his job, because his job sucks. Take the same guy and put him in a job where he makes six figures and he’s surrounded by women and minorities who are all equally talented and educated and making six figures as well he’s probably not going to be thinking, “why am I with these people, I’m better than this.”
Fair enough. I don’t know you, don’t know where you work. Your experience is not my experience.
No, but I’m pretty sure I heard an “I obviously have no response to your actual argument, so I’m going to whine and bitch about some other little thing and hope nobody notices”.
Apparently, “the guy in the green shirt”, “the guy in the board shorts”, “the guy with the sunglasses”, “the guy holding his cellphone”, “the guy with the Nationals hat”, etc. aren’t good enough. And BTW: I’ve only ever heard “black guys” take offense to this, and in fact I have been in the position of explaining the most common white motive behind it (ie, that it’s an easy way to communicate exactly who you’re talking about) to offended “black guys”.
I’ve always found that my female coworkers were happy that I noticed their new haircut. Maybe I just live in Anything-Goes Land, but I doubt it. Have you ever heard of someone being prosecuted and/or fired for sexual harassment because they gave women compliments when they got a new haircut? I’m not a betting man, but I’d wager that “I got fired for complimenting my coworker on her hairstyle” is code for “I got fired for making little comments all the damn time and making my coworker feel uncomfortable around me”.
That’s because “retard” has developed an offensive connotation it didn’t have before, just like “colored” has. Words change sometimes. I know, shocking and awful, oppression against the white man, etc., but hey, that’s our cross to bear in this anti-white-man world.
OK, I’ll give it a shot:
Sharia law is oppressive and outdated. It’s an orgasm of male dominance for people who like to whine and bitch all day about how other people live their lives. It has no place in the modern world, or in any historical context, for that matter. It’s repulsive and disgusting. Saudi Arabia is a disgrace upon the Earth for enforcing Sharia law and should be ashamed of itself.
Also, most terrorists are Extremist Islamic, but only for some definitions of “most”. I hand-counted the terrorist incidents that have occurred since 2002 (for a paper, not for this thread) and 52.2% of them have specifically Islamic motives and/or were committed in Israel (not counting the very high numbers of suicide bombings in post-Hussein Iraq, which have tended to either target Coalition troops or be perpetrated on Muslims by other Muslims). Others were political and secular in nature; a sizeable portion of world terrorism is perpetrated by Communists in Latin America. From 1991 to 2001, out of 143 terrorist incidents around the world, only 34 had specifically Islamic motives and/or were committed in Israel. BTW, being a world civilian has become a lot more dangerous since we started the War on Terror: 293 terrorist incidents have occurred around the world in the last five years (again, excluding post-Hussein Iraq), as opposed to 143 in the ten years before that. But that’s a whole 'nother can of worms, ain’t it?
OK, I’ll try it: Israel, despite its flaws, is a beacon of democracy and freedom in the Middle East. Any and all humanitarian problems it may be associated with pale in comparison to those inherent in the governmental systems of every single country surrounding it. In addition, Israel is a much safer place for peaceful Arabs than the Arabic world is for peaceful Jews.
And let me chime in to say I had no beef with smiling bandit before reading this thread, FWIW.
Really? Because I’m white and I can’t remember the last time somebody called me a racist. Maybe we’re doing something differently. But whatever could it be?
To be fair, IME (and I’ve had the same feeling, even though I’m apparently part of the offenderati myself) it’s not so much “too-good-to-be-here-with-these-[fill-in-the-blank]” as “do they like me? do they think i’m a Bad Guy? am I going to offend them accidentally? do I have to talk differently?” Of course, the answer is generally “maybe, probably not, probably not, probably not”, but it does provoke anxiety for us white folks–because we’re aware of the connotations that come with our skin color.
Of course, it could be that this guy is a racist asshat. There are certainly enough of them around. But it could also be that most of us white people have never had to be “the lone X person”, which can be a near-daily experience for people in minority groups–and women, in some fields. It makes us anxious. YMMV; I was actually one of about a dozen white kids in a grade school of several hundred students, so it doesn’t (usually) make me nervous, but I think that’s all it is for most white people–especially the first few times they ever find themselves in that position.
In a way I know what you mean. We used to tell Polish jokes and I didn’t even know anyone of Polish descent. Before that it was Little Moron jokes. Now it’s “Blond Jokes.” I told a blond joke to my granddaughter and she had to remind me that she is a blond. Damn.
But for a lot of people, making Jews, women and blacks into stereotypes for the sake of a joke just perpetuates a stereotype that isn’t true. Not everyone is smart enough to know that it isn’t so. Some people out there are so stupid that they actually want to believe those stereotypes. It makes them feel secure. That kind of ignorance doesn’t need to be encouraged.
Nyah! If you were told that, that’s not the generic corp. sensitivity standard. It’s better to leave off personal comments on appearance on the job unless you are good friends with the employee, but one nicely worded comment about a hairstyle is not going to be considered sexual harassment. Repeated comments about personal appearance might be or repeated compliments or comments about looking “sexy.”
My head isn’t so far up my ass I have no idea what goes on in the world?
Seriously though, if you’ve never been called racist even though you’re white, you’re just not getting out much and I have to wonder how much time you spend with your fellow Americans. I’m not talking about walking down the street and having people throw rotten tomatoes at you or something. You hang around with minorities enough, you’re going to get dished on for being part of the privileged class. Sometimes jokingly because they know you’re not really. Sometimes seriously because you’re dealing with some sort of activist.
Look, I understand where the OP is coming from, and I don’t think his feelings are completely without justification, but neither do I personally feel all victimized or anything. I know my skin color and all humility aside, my stunningly good looks give me an advantage in life.
I don’t think I have ever been called a racist unless it was in handful of threads on the dope. I was born in the Bronx, I grew up in a very mixed raced school in Jersey, I was in community college, the Navy and at no shortage of Baseball games in the Bronx. I seemed to have mixed pretty well without managing to get called a racist.
Zoe, I have to ask, what makes you an expert on this.
I mentioned the hairstyle thing as it was specifically brought up at two different jobs. Maybe my state is just a lot more litigious than yours. fetus, have you never been at a sporting event where nearly half the people all have the same colored shirts on and the same hat? If not try a Yankees, Cubs or even an Angels game and of nearly any NFL game.
No; I’m just critizing the tendency of certain posters to demonize people on the opposite end of the political spectrum from themselves. I think it is exactly this type of political behavior that is most damaging to a republic. Most posters aren’t like this, but there are some, and I think we all know who they are.
Of course we do, but aren’t those people simply a part of the spectrum itself? I mean, by demonizing a person for what he or she believes, simply because it is opposite to what YOU believe automatically earns you a place on the spectrum below the people you’re attacking. I would rather know the people and who they are than have them exist and abide their natures in secret.
Why do you need someone to tell you anything as if you don’t have the sense to figure out things for yourself?
Oh wait, you must be continuing on the whiny theme that white men are a bunch of emasculated wusses that don’t know whether they’re coming or going because society is forever beating them down with PCness. Okay, I’m following now.
Just to say that this wouldn’t necessarily have the desired effect. I have been to the Grand Canyon and walked off the edge. Actually very enjoyable. It’s called the Skywalk.
I’m not sure exactly what policy you’re advocating, but have you been to a Hollywood comedy club lately? The jokes are almost all racial, ethnic, linguistic or sexual in nature–the latter category generally playing on the stereotypes of one or more genders–and the audience laughs not because the jokes are new or creative–they aren’t–but because it’s a great, relaxing way to release the tension we feel inside as a result of the battle between our natural psychological impulse to separate people and things into well-defined but essentially meaningless categories* and our social obligation to keep that category-thought from influencing how we treat our fellow citizens.
There’s a long sentence if I’ve ever written one…
*Black/drives a Volvo/drinks lattes/drinks tea/has a degree/doesn’t have a degree/etc.
I hang out with plenty of “minorities”, and I can’t remember the last time I was seriously called a racist, if ever (not counting grade school, where the other kids probably just called me a racist because that’s what their peers and their parents told them to do). Jokingly, sure. More often, I’m the butt of Jew jokes by the white people who know me well. But they’re jokes. I’m not bothered by “you’re an oppressor” any more than “you’re a penny-pincher”.
I suppose I can get behind that. Well, not literally.
When were you called a racist here? I’m genuinely curious–I can’t remember that, and I’ve always thought of you as one of the more tolerant people around. I always assumed you grew up as part of a white minority in your neighborhood like me.
Well, sure. But that’s a different kettle of fish (although you can probably still use “the tall one”, “the short one”, etc., but not for many people), and I think anyone who got offended by it in that context (assuming they even hear you) has something strange going on.
Not often enough to care or worry about. Once in a thread about the French* and once ironically in a thread where I was partially defending Al Sharpton and mainly not condemning him and a guest poster seemed to think I was an African American and that was the only way anyone could defend him. I think probably one or two other times. But hey, I get accused of being a righty and a lefty at different times. I find it humorous.
I grew up in a school system that was probably 60-65% white and 35-40% black. So, I wasn’t part of a white minority but I guess I grew up in an environment where we mixed freely. That and wandering around my grandmothers south Bronx neighborhood in the late 70s & 80s where looking back, I probably should have had some fear, but still didn’t. Strange thing, apparently if you are friendly and unafraid or at least unaware you get treated as a fellow human and not some punk white boy from the burbs.
Jim
As Og is my witness, I thought we were still aloud to make French jokes.
