Depends, do you consider your average non-Ethiopian Jew as white? Cos hereabouts we do, but then, Hitler and his pals would gladly have condemned the whole of Spain to the gas chambers for being too dark-skinned and having a general bad case of Catholicism.
Blonde, blue-eyes white? No. But white? Yes.
Tales from the Spanish Civil War of 1936-9 indicate that the Italians spent most of their time chasing skirts; the Germans considered our skirts too darkie to be chaseworthy.
You’re gonna love the movie THE NATIVITY STORY this December.
Seriously- you just might. They’re actually going for a Mediterranean-looking cast.
(Tho “Mary” is actually Kiwi- the WHALE RIDER girl.)
I agree with you about too-white Holy Family decorations, but WASPish Magi constitute maybe half of the Magi figures I see. Rather, the other half of Magi figures I see are multi-ethnic- European, African & Asian.
No no no no. Don’t risk breaking your stork scissors on him. Use the pinking shears.
I may be the only person in America who doesn’t get his panties bunched up over ANYTHING about Christmas. Not “Merry Christmas.” Not “ho ho ho.” Not the decorations. Not the bell ringers. Not the TV specials. Not the music on the radio being too holiday-centric or not religious enough. Really, as we approach the end of the year, I just think, “Hey, Walt! You made it another year! Have a glass of brandy and be happy!”
I think a little bit of “Well, I don’t have to get my panties in a knot over this,” would go a long way in mending our country.
Oh, I knew what I was starting. I like to have dangerous enemies. It keeps life interesting. But for the benefit of any children or morons in the audience, kids, don’t try this at home. Taunting the Ladies’ Sewing Circle is like tangoing with a bull made of fire. Only professional jackasses such as myself should even consider stepping to the LSC.
You are correct and I thought of that after posting. The cards I see have Mary with light brown hair and blue eyes, and the kind of never-sees-the-sunlight skin that I myself (of northern German ancestry) have. But I would certainly consider Italians and Spanish as “white”, just not particularly WASP-y.
As an ex-Catholic, I have my own ideas of what constitutes a bad case of Catholicism, but my own answer to that is a great deal less radical. My cute little fresh-off-the-boat German grandparents, Alvina and Reinholdt, however, felt that suffocating either in hell or in a gas chamber wasn’t a harsh enough punishment for ME, for turning away from their Lutheran faith & becoming a Papist. They’re surely spinning in their graves at my even more terrifying pagan beliefs these days.
–Beck
Brilliant! Not caring and not acting, that’s the way to change the world!
Fallacy of the Excluded Middle.
Correct – on his part. I’m not the one whose position depends on it being impossible to care about both 24 Hour Jesus music and gay rights, or implying that somehow caring about one actually hurts the cause of the other. So the zero-sum game mistake is also being made.
No, on your part.
Not daring and not acting about what, is the question. Taking religious holidays out of a public school where everyone doesn’t share the same religion, that is worth fighting over. Getting offended & upset because stores cater to a holiday that is observed by the vast majority of people in the culture, because it 1) helps encourage spending, and 2) most people seem to expect and enjoy it…that just doesn’t seem worth the energy expended.
“Worth the energy expended”? The energy expended by not shopping somewhere and writing a letter to the management? Again, what specifically is the complaint here about if not an objection to people who care about something you don’t? It’s not enough that they have to endure the 24 Hour Jesus, but they also have to be indifferent to it, or you’re not happy?
And Swan, explain yourself. What excluded middle are you talking about? He said “less panty twisting would make this country a better place”. He didn’t say “less panty twisting about Christmas music”, he said, in general, that getting LESS upset and taking less action about things would make the country a better place. Where does your objection apply?
“Less panty twisting” does not exclude the middle. Not one bit. Your reply of “Not caring and not acting”, on the other hand, most certainly does.
WW never said people shouldn’t care or act at all. He said that, in certain situations, they might do better to act less.
This is a clear cut case of excluding the middle.
Me not happy? I’m perfectly happy for you to boycott anyone you want…it’s the American way. I have no objection whatsoever to your being offended by whatever you wish. I don’t necessarily understand why one would expend energy in that direction, but that doesn’t mean I have an objection to it…go for it, you have my full approval.
No, he did not. He said that IN GENERAL, not in certain situation, the country would be a better place with more complacency. This is clearly absurd. Maybe not when it comes to Jesus music, but as a general statement such as the one he made, it’s ridiculous.
Right. So the purpose behind your post criticizing not just shutting up and accepting the fact that one is a minority was?
The goat-felching pinking shears? I lent them to WhyNot a few posts back.
I didn’t read it that way. It sounded to me like a more colorful way of saying “You have to pick your battles.”. Some things are worth getting in an uproar over, like getting SSM legalized, and others, like what music a store owner decides to play, are not. YMMV
Do you suppose that whining about Christmas Music is “the way to change the world”? In an energy-expended for good-gained ration, it is even less efficient than ranting on the Internet. Indeed, if there’s any effect at all, it is a negative one, contributing to the general lousiness of an already poorly paid and much mistreated retail professional.
My post was advice, is all. Life really is less enjoyable if you choose to be offended by muzak or by the routine greeting of a store clerk. You are fully entitled to be offended, even outraged, but you lessen you own enjoyment of life, and you do not serve the greater good by unpleasant and ill tempered.
There’s a difference between being oppressed by religious discrimination and merely encountering visual and audible evidence that other people are celebrating a religious holiday and/or encountering insufficient evidence that other people are celebrating a holiday to the degree you find appropriate. Whether you are upset about an imaginary “war on christmas,” or bitching about Christmas music, you are actually illustrating not religious bigotry by others, but an extreme sense of entitlement where everyone else in the world must tailor their lives to accomodate you.
But again, that’s a completely false dichotomy. For one thing, the big things don’t spring fully formed from nowhere, but add up from little things. For another, absolutely nothing stops a person from both writing a letter, and even getting angry, about Jesus music and fighting equal marriage rights.
(As I’ve already pointed out repeatedly, but people are too busy whining that I’m better at the Pit than they are to actually pay attention to what I’m saying, it seems. Insult me, curse me, tear apart my arguments – I invite it! Flame away. But for chrissake, people, if all you can say is ‘He’s so meeean and aaangry’, you just fucking automatically lose. And that’s pathetic, because I’m just some ugly jackass with a huge chip on his miniscule shoulder.)