Recently in the office I work this young guy started working, and soon revealed himself to be the typical right-winger, scornful of all liberals, dismissing them all as haters of America. Like a real-life Bob Roberts, a caricature of himself. He’s new to the Washington, DC area and knows nothing about it.
He overstepped the line of decency on Friday. The lead story in the Washington Post was about the serial sniper slayings in Maryland. The picture on the front page showed the son of one of the murdered men, the guy from India. The son was shown being consoled by his friends from school (who happened to be all black). Everyone was worried about public safety with such a dangerous killer at large. So Shit-Head here, who hadn’t heard the news about this, takes one look at the cornrows and football jerseys in the picture and says, “Oh never mind, it’s just the ghetto anyway.”
An older lady I work with, who is not afraid to be an outspoken liberal, politely informed him that this kind of racist talk is not acceptable, especially in the Washington, DC area where all the workplaces are really integrated. Ass-Hole here got all in a huff about this, and insisted he wasn’t racist, that he was only being accused because of his “conservative” beliefs of not being “politically correct.”
Shooting his racist mouth off in front of everyone was one thing, but to persist in willful ignorance after being informed of the facts (the picture was from Montgomery County, an affluent suburban area) — this was just adding insult to injury. I am so glad the lady didn’t let him get away with this. He had better wise up fast if he has any brains at all, if he expects to work in this country. This kid came from a blueblood rich family, the lap of luxury, silver spoon and all that, and just got out of the military (his only justification offered for his outburst was that in Georgia where he just came from, cornrows are only worn in the “ghetto”). It’s about time he had truth and reality slap him upside the face for once. Damn, I was mad, but glad I have the SDMB to get this anger off my chest.
A typical right-winger? I think not. More like a typical child of a wealthy family, perhaps, but hardly a right-winger.
And you are acting like a ‘typical liberal’, automatically associating someone you don’t like with being both a racist and a conservative. (In your mind, no doubt, they are the same.)
Brutus, why so defensive? This creep does happen to be both a right-winger and a racist. All I’m doing is reporting the fact that one day, he let loose with a typical right-wing tirade (slamming liberals who don’t like Reagan), and another day, he shot off a blatantly racist wisecrack. I wouldn’t have associated the two phenomena, but this idiot himself made the association; he whined that he was unjustly criticized for racism just because he’s conservative.
A typical right-winger, eh? In the same way that a typical lefty is a communist, or a typical black person lives in the ghetto, right?
What does his wealthy upbringing have to do with anything? Do you think wealthy people can’t be liberal in their beliefs? Are you one of those wealthy and white = racist conservative types?
The guy may be a jerk, but let’s not paint with too broad a brush here.
Cornrows in Georgia are only worn in the ghetto? I guess that makes Fort Benning, Fort McPherson, and Fort Stewart (to name just a few) part of the ghetto. I’ll be sure to alert the Army about the rezoning.
Jomo, does the office you work in have any sort of liberal political bent? I’m not saying that this excuses this guy’s comment by any means, but it might help explain why he got in a huff about this. I am a moderate (or so I like to believe) and I’ve worked in a few extremely conservative offices. I’d often get in a huff when it was even implied that I might be wrong and jump to the conclusion that they were attacking me because I was some awful liberal. I really should not have done that, but for me it’s an easy enough pattern to fall into when I’m on the opposite end of the political spectrum from others in your surroundings.
Then again, that still was a hurtful and flippant comment.
PS: He’s not a typical right-winger, he’s an idiot. There are racists of all political leanings.
I think Brutus is most likely to be right about this one. People who always lived and worked in wealthy areas might very well think acts of violence are localized “in the ghetto.” He might also be not too concerned about it, since that seems miles away to him.
As for cornrows, I know a white girl from Fulton, MO (socially conservative town of a few thousand people tops) that wore cornrows for awhile. That said, it was pretty unusual. That’s the reason she wore them. Not being an expert on African-American hairstyling trends, that’s all I have to say about that.
Right, left, conservative, liberal, all irrelevant, this person seems to have limited knowledge of black people or has stereotypical knowledge. He’s just ignorant, though he could be a racist.
A liberal workplace? Ha! It tends to be rather conservative in there, if anything. A lot of ex-military types find their way in there. The woman who spoke up is probably the only liberal there besides me. Mr. Racist Ass-Wipe just goes around with a general chip on his shoulder, feeling put-upon because the whole country is dominated by the evil liberal hippies and poor widdle conservatives like him are a persecuted minority. :rolleyes:
For those of you who flamed me for calling him a “typical right-winger” (well, this is the Pit, so I guess you can feel free to flame away for any reason, or for no reason at all if the mood seizes you): I didn’t say that all conservatives are racist — I know better than that. As I said, I called him a typical right winger because he had already (the week before) expressed typical right wing views in general (hatred of liberals, support for Reagan, well what would you call it?). I would not have thought of attributing racism to him or connecting it with his conservative views if he hadn’t opened his big fat mouth and done that himself. Then he said he had to go attend a meeting of the David Duke Fan Club (kidding).
Exhibiting the qualities, traits, or characteristics that identify a kind, class, group, or category: a typical suburban community.
Of or relating to a representative specimen; characteristic or distinctive.
Conforming to a type: a composition typical of the baroque period.
If you didn’t mean to imply that all conservatives are racist you need to choose your words better because that is what your OP implied.
In your last post you use the word again desrcibing hatred as ‘typical’ of those on the right-wing. Being somewhat on the right-wing I resent that statement and all it implies.
It is a typical statement for a tree hugging, communist, hippie loving Clinton feltching liberal like you to make.
Slee
::Yes, the last statement was meant to be ironic. Also, the racist bastard you work with is, well, a bastard::
I read “typical right-winger, scornful of all liberals, dismissing them all as haters of America” as a complete phrase; that is, right-winger used as an adjective, not as a noun, and you didn’t mean that being a racist is being a typical right wing individual. In that case, I would think it would be a fairer description of your co-worker. Is that not how you meant it?
(Also, from a fellow liberal, I think your retraction is a bit lacking. Retracting something because it made people mad isn’t apologizing or admitting you were wrong, so why are you retracting it at all if you don’t feel that way?)
The issue isn’t about tiny semantic issues. It’s about the whole implication of the OP, which is that all conservatives are racists bastards.
JOMO started his OP with idea that his fellow office worker is a ‘typical right-winger’. He didn’t have to go there. He could have said ‘I work with a racists bastard and disagree with him.’ Instead he used a broad brush labeling him, and alot of other people as, ‘Right-wingers’. He also implies in the OP that all rich kids right-wingers who don’t givve a damn.
sleestak, you have repeated misread my intention and meaning even after I explained several times what I meant. You are continuing to deliberately misread what I said, so FUCK YOU.
