Didn’t you celebrate Passover a few months ago? Haven’t you celebrated the emancipation of Jews from slavery and oppression for the past 70 fucking years!?!? Don’t you pay attention to anything??
I was at my dad’s wedding today, and was sitting with one of his aunts, and some other guest. Some wonderful tidbits of conversation:
Aunt: In L.A. (where she’s from) we’re (white people) minorities.
OtherGuest: In this country we are.
Random comments about how neighborhoods are ‘ruined’ by blacks/hispanics moving in and saying ‘black’ when they mean ‘drug addict crack ho wife beating uneducated prostitute murderer criminals’.
Another one was, “I hate Arabs, all Arabs. In the airport I had to be searched blah blah blah, and it’s all their fault, since 9-11. I cursed every Arab there is when I was in that airport.”
FUCK YOU!!! I didn’t even know what to say, so just kept quiet. How the hell can someone with any kind of mind say, “I hate all Arabs, they took away my freedom.” I mean really? Don’t you fucking understand about stereotypes and oppression? Do you need fucking Pharaoh to come down and put your sorry ass to work as a gentle reminder of how it SUCKS to be looked down upon and treated with scorn and disrespect?
I guess that you hear a different thing when we say, “next year in Jerusalem, next year may we all be free.”
(and yes, I know that hatred and ignorance flow freely independant of one’s race, religion, or creed. This is just family spitting in the face of what I think is one of the most beautiful parts of the Jewish faith)
(sorry if this doesn’t make complete sense, I’m a bit drunk and a bit angry)
Eowne, it’s sad when people show their ugly side. It’s even sadder when that person is a member of a marginalized segment of society. You know they’re human and humans have an amazing propensity to be bigots, but it’s still akin to a slap in the face when you’re confronted with it head on.
As an aside, I started to watch Jamie Foxx’s stand up special (on Showtime, maybe?) one night. When he launched into his anti-Arab bigoted rant, I couldn’t turn the channel fast enough. You’d think that even a rudimentary knowledge of history and how blacks were/are thought of in this country would have precluded him from making such disgusting, stereotypical statements. I guess not.
You wouldn’t have been at all surprised about Jamie Foxx’s routine if you’d seen a bunch of black stand-up comedians as I have. A fair number of them devoted almost their entire routine to jokes about one group or another. Gays were the most frequent target, but Arabs were the targets often enough as well. Then of course there’s the fact that they somehow think it’s funny to point out over and over the same stupid stereotypes about white people (“you all just don’t know how to dance”), and then cash in with some cheap jokes about stereotypes about blacks too. I really don’t see why such a large percentage of the black comedians I’ve seen in person go only for these cheap laughs. I’ve seen some really good black comedians who avoid race jokes, but all too many make it their bread and butter.
Considering each person is unique, I wasn’t going to make assumptions about Foxx’s routine just because some other comeidans who happen to share the same skin color as him use Arabs as the butt of their jokes.
Having said that, I, too, can’t stand it when comedians, black or otherwise, presume to tell me what I don’t do. Blacks don’t ski. Women don’t tell men what they’re really thinking rather they just hint around the subject at hand. Oh just shut up.
As a white, protestant-raised, heterosexual male, I can almost take a peverse delight in this. “Yay, my demographic doesn’t have the monopoly on arsehole-dom!”.
Seriously, because I can’t really claim to be in any sort of minority in my country (religious, racial, or otherwise), I do have trouble understanding why people who must have been on the receiving end of prejudice before would choose that path themselves. It’s very sad, and I wish there were a simple answer. Sorry you had a crappy experience, Eonwe. Just remember, the real minority are the bigots. You’ll find them all over the world, but in most cases there are decent folks to outnumber them. For example, how many Jewish people have you met who didn’t say those hateful things? Yep, the majority.
I ditched a bonafide Nice Jewish Boy I was dating over this very issue. He had just immigrated to the U.S. as a refugee, presumably because he was persecuted because of his religion/ethnicity/however you want to define post-Soviet Judaism.
One night, we were supposed to go out dancing. He suggested a place in the middle of the most Godforsaken bumblefuck suburb in the Chicago metro area, the kind of place where people wouldn’t know good live music if it came up an bit them in the strip mall. I counterproposed a super-wonderful reggae club in the city where I’ve been a few times. His response? “I don’t like to go out in the city.” “Why not? It’s a great place, I promise!” “Well, there are blacks and Mexicans there, and they’re dirty.”
I honestly didn’t know what to respond. He didn’t last long after that. How he didn’t see the irony in the situation, I’ll never understand.
God, I know what you mean. It irritates me just as much when gay guys make bitchy comments about lesbians, or bisexuals, or transgendered people, or femme guys. Shouldn’t you fucking know better?!
Mother Butrscotch recently was at a luncheon where another lady was complaining about how we’re wasting money sending it to Africa to fight AIDS when we should be concentrating on fixing our streets at home.
Mother Butrscotch pointed out that people are DYING of AIDS in Afrida. To which the woman replied, “That’s okay, we don’t have to let them into our country! But our streets are a mess!”
An amazing case of someone mindlessly spouting negative stereotypes while, ironically, complaining about someone mindlessly spouting negative stereotypes while, ironically, being a recent victim of people mindlessly spouting negative stereotypes… :rolleyes:
My own pititful way of ignoring these stereotypes.
It just so happens that the guy who cuts my hair is Lebanese. I mentioned this to my friend (who’s very prone to stereotyping). “Oh, I wouldn’t do that. I bet he’d just cut your head off”, he says". I’ve had my hair cut by him plenty of times since then.
Well, Eonwe, first of all, Mazel Tov on your father’s wedding.
As for the guests and their comments, it simply shows that all families and all religions/races/ethnic groups/whatever have their racists and bigots, including, sadly, Jews. No one group is perfect except for those IPU worshippers. Everyone knows that they’re…
Binkley: Well, dad, I guess it’s safe to say we aren’t exactly a couple of short, Hispanic, Hindu, French-speaking, physically handicapped Communist gay black women. Nope. In every regard, we’re hopelessly in the majority. Ethnically, religiously, physically, economically, politically, educationally, sexually and gender-wise … we’re in the solid majority. For crying out loud, we’re not even in the “moral majority” minority. In fact, we’re as majority as you can get! And there’s darn few of us left!! Do you realize what that makes us?..
It’s not a stereotype if it’s true on an individual basis. We did end up going out to the place he suggested, since he was unwilling to try anything new. The place is surrounded by nothing but strip malls and cheapo 70s-era apartment complexes and chain restaurants. At 10:00 on a Saturday night, there were a total of four people on the dance floor. Disco balls, cheezy DJ, the whole nine.
I’ve been to places in the suburbs that were actually fun, but this sure wasn’t one of them. It sucked. Hell, I grew up in the suburbs if you want to be technical, and I’ve had much more fun bullshitting with friends on the railroad tracks at 4 am with a Slurpee than I did at that godawful club.
Okay, as long as you had a SPECIFIC Godforsaken bumblefuck suburb in mind. Your description could be of my town. Or, for that matter, any of a hundred others. There are reasons I have a tough time getting Chidopes moved to the burbs.* Just because a stereotype is negative doesn’t mean it’s not true on an individual basis. I just thought it was funny how you were doing your own stereotyping while complaing about his.
On the other hand, continuing the hijack, the fact that a bar is on the north side of Chicago and has Guinness on tap does not automatically mean it’s all that great a place to hang out nor, for that matter, does it guarantee that it is different in the slightest particular from a similar bar in the burbs. Except for parking. Some of the places we’ve had Chidopes…well, we forget that it is the company, not the venue. Sipping Slurpees along a railroad track with you people sounds like a nice time.
FTR, it was Des Plaines. Lord, that place bores me to tears. And yes, there are plenty of bars in the city that suck; my suggestion was the Wild Hare, for some live reggae. Live reggae is NOT something you are going to find in Des Plaines, trust me.
Since I wear a yarmulke, I get this disturbingly often.
Yes, you are correct in assuming that I'm Jewish.
You're incorrect in assuming I share your bigotry and hatred.
It was a fine conversation until you started ranting about 'ragheads'.
I usually respond with “Maybe we should just concentrate them in some kind of a camp.”
The horrible thing is that some people think I'm being serious and agree with the idea.
Your description could be of my town. Or, for that matter, any of a hundred others. There are reasons I have a tough time getting Chidopes moved to the burbs.* Just because a stereotype is negative doesn’t mean it’s not true on an individual basis. I just thought it was funny how you were doing your own stereotyping while complaing about his.