Racism 101

JohnnyPsycho · **JohnnyPsycho**

I just wanted to touch on something that I know has been upsetting many of my white friends, and that is of how uncomfortable they get when a person of different racial or ethnic background uses racial slurs or racial humor. I myself don't find the use of derogatory racial slurs to be very humorous, and yet I still find myself using terms like "cracker" every now and then for humorous reasons. I realize that hurts some people's feelings, but you have to look at it from a brown-skin person's point of view. We've heard racist jokes all our lives and all have at least some point in our lives realized that we were considered "different" by society and had to deal with that exclusion in our own ways. One of those ways is to reclaim hurtful derogatory words. Black people use the word "nigga" as a way of taking the hurtfulness of that word away from racist groups of people. Yes, it is true that white people are now no longer allowed to use the infamous "N-word", and yet modern black pop-cultures uses it constantly. Is it necessarily right? I can't say that myself.

And yes, it is pretty sad when white people get so uptight about some light-hearted ribbing from the "colored-folk", but get over it. White America had a head-start on us, or don't you remember Black-face movies, Little Black Sambo, old Westerns where the Indians were portrayed by white actors as blood-thirsty savages, Charlie Chan, Dr. Fu Manchu, Hop Sing, Tonto, Apu the Indian Kwik-E-Mart clerk, Speedy Gonzales, old Westerns where Mexicans were portrayed as shiftless criminals, old movies where Asians were portrayed as shifty and untrustworthy "gooks", WWII-era movies and cartoon shorts like "The Little Nip", old movies that portrayed blacks as shiftless and lazy "porch negros"... just to name a few examples...

Get over it. It seems unfair, but now you know how it feels. Revenge sucks, don't it? Is it right for us "minorities" to use racial humor to our own enjoyment as opposed to being the butt of the joke? I really can't say. It certainly has empowered many black, Native American, Asian, and Hispanic comedians by taking these jokes and stereotypes back and destroying them from the inside, and yet it has a strange way of alienating white audiences. Of course, we've been alienated our whole lives, so who's to say we don't have the right?

What is your take on this issue? Mind you, I don't want to offend anyone or start any name-flinging. I want an honest and intelligent discussion on this matter, and I would hope that fellow net-geeks would know how to discuss things intelligently.

So, in other words, if you're not going to be constructive, just get the hell out right now.
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dougisfunny · **dougisfunny**

i don't think anyone wants to touch this subject

that or take the time to read all that and make a competent reply... that is tough too...
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The problem with America is stupidity. I'm not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?

Spookmonkey · **Spookmonkey**

dougisfunny · **dougisfunny**

I'm actually in the middle of taking a test otherwise i probably would reply... If what I did read is correct a response I would make is, I don't care about the racial remarks... I don't make them but i just don't care
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The problem with America is stupidity. I'm not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?

Goldfinger2K · **Goldfinger2K**

I'm not bathoered by racial slurs, however, i also don't use them. Most people aren't really bother by racial slurs, but I do have a friend that really is, she takes it very offensively. And i have heard people use racial slurs in derrogative ways much like "back in the day." Even a teacher once, i agree that it is a very serious matter when it comes to offense but some people can't juts let it go when the find things offensive. Somebody alsways has to say something and then it spirals out of proportion. I live in Miami, needless to say that whites are pretty much a minority down here, and I'm hispanic myself. I've never been offended by any racial tye of talk, or offended anyone by this "talk". We recognize that our race is different and we recognize the differences between them but do not discriminate upon them. and i think that this could be a better way to understand one another when it comes to racial issues.

peace
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counterparadox · **counterparadox**

:::sigh::: I think America is missing the point.

First off, what bothers me is that black comedians can say anything they damn well please and people say 'OMG that's pretty damn hilarious!'. A white guy says the same joke and he's a RACIST. What. The. Hell. It's a funny joke. I agree. But why is it wrong for me to say it.

See, the black men and women (I refuse to say African Americans for the sole reason that political correctness is a waste of time, effort, and breath. I don't mean any offense AT ALL.) say, in essence, "We're the same as you. But we have our own culture and music and can say stuff that you jsut can't . . .but we are EXACTLY THE SAME AS YOU. " This is a paradox. People are stupid. People don't deal with paradoxes well.

What really bothers me is people who act all 'ghetto'. I get more annoyed by white people who try to act ghetto, though. But the whole attitude annoys me. And really, that's where a lot of the racism of today stems from. Minorities act different. Think about it. They act all 'ghetto', a good amount of ganga are made up of only minorities, petty theft is committed more by minorities (Not because they are minorities, but because they are in a situation where they have more of a need to do so in order to survive. Why? Because they can't get the good jobs since they are steryotyped as being theives. So they need to steal in order to ive, thus furthering hte steryotype.)

It's a vicious cycle. The question is, what should be done about it. In 2050, half the nation will be minorities. Spanish will be very prevalent, and I don't like learning new languages (seriously, language is my worst subject.) So what's going to happen?

I'd probably make much more sense if I didn't have a headache. Sorry if I said something really stupid and out of line. I don't ever mean any offense by anything I say. Not racial offense, I mean.
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Syndicate_Assasin · **Syndicate_Assasin**

Why the heck would you say something if you knew it was poking fun at someone elses race.This is just common sense.Everybody has pride and there's no reason to make people feel if they havn't done any thing to you.There's no reason to make racial remarks any way.Oh,yeah,and why are ther black colleges and entertainment networks but no all white colleges and entertainment networks.This is clearly reverse racism
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JohnnyPsycho · **JohnnyPsycho**

Actually, considering the wide array of races and ethnicities among my closest friends, we use some god-awful racial slurs, jokes, and stereotypes around eachother, simply because we know we are only kidding each other. My Chinese pal (let's call him "Sig") calls all his white roommates "crackers", we make fun of one of my other pals (let's call him "Derek") for being a scrawny blonde white boy (he's of German and other indeterminate ancestry, so he's our nice little Aryan punching-bag/pal), I'm the big Native American/Indian/red-skin/"Casino-Owning American", another white pal (let's call him "Sheep-Boy") is my "white brother" as well as "white trash", "honky", "the oppressor", and "the Man" (which is hilarious considering this kid is so anti-establishment he couldn't possibly be anything close to "the Man"). I've got Hispanic pals ("Wet Backs", "Burrito Jockeys"), black pals ("Thugs", "Gangstas", "niggaz"), pals who speak Russian ("Damn Reds", "Ivan", "Vodka Pixies"), pals from Saudi Arabia ("Turban Heads", "Towel Heads", "Kwik-E-Mart clerks"), other Native American pals ("Timber N*ggers", "Skinz")... We all like each other just fine, and by constantly ribbing each other of our seperate race's stereotypes, we thereby distroy the validity of those stereotypes. None of my black friends steal cars or are in gangs (nor do they shuffle for anyone). My white pals are the furthest thing from being the "mean nasty oppressors". My Saudi Arabian pals are definitely not terrorists, nor is my Russian-speaking friend a Communist spy. I definitely am not a drunk, a mystical shaman, or a savage warrior. My pal "Sig" isn't much of a Kung-Fu expert, either. And I can't say that any of my Mexican, Cuban, or Puerto Rican friends drive low-riders.

Basically, I just think a lot of people who take offense to some comedians' use of racial humor are a little too brainwashed by the Political Correctness movement and aren't getting the fact that it's all good-natured ribbing, not to be taken seriously. Black comics who make fun of white people in the audience are simply saying "Hey! You're one of us now, so I'm gonna make fun of you just like you were one of us."

that's my take...
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"The principles you live by create the world you live in; if you change the principles you live by, you will change your world." -Blaine Lee

"I plan to live forever. So far so good." -Steven Wright

JohnnyPsycho · **JohnnyPsycho**

Daikun · **Daikun**

Someone give me a reason why this thread isn't locked yet.

JJc14 · **JJc14**

...i have a tendancy to shoot myself in the foot on these issues, so please don't kill me for the following (though i believe most of us are level-headed anyway)
---

...i think the main reason for people being uncomfortable over racial issues in this day and age is how we were raised...most of us were brought up in the '80s-early '90s, so many of us never experienced the heavy discrimination and racial issues of the first half of the century and could only learn it through our folks and history books...

...i would like to say that most of us were brought up to see others as equals, as our folks probably wanted to shield us from the environment they grew up in, or that's my take on it at least...

...i don't really know what i'm trying to say, but yea...

added:

oh yea, i wanted to relate that to the first statement about people feeling uncomfortable about that even though it's an obvious joke...since a lot of us were brought up in a more "embracing" time (at least compared to a few decades before), comments of that nature, even when purely joked about, may throw some off...i mean, i know there's been times when i've heard some comments and i don't got a clue as how to respond...

...i'm starting to question whether my opinion matters, as its become apparent to me that i can't really call upon prior experience to racism and discrimination...
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counterparadox · **counterparadox**

First off, Daikun, this thread hasn't been locked because a good debate every now and then is fun for some of us, and brings a little meaning to this board. The fact that we can hold a level, logical debate without killing each other sets us apart from other boards and makes us the only MB that I enjoy going to every day.

That was put in bold so that no one misses it.

Goldfinger2K · **Goldfinger2K**

I completely agree.

peace
_________________
"one time yug!-Steve O Fuss
Y.U.G.
"If I threw a stick would you go away?"-a shirt
"Toonami, better than getting kicked in the nuts!"-me
"If I was so inclined, I would have groped you five times!"^O^hohohohoho!-Vash

JohnnyPsycho · **JohnnyPsycho**

actually, I often feel as though I'm pandering to the majority most of the time. Here's an interesting quandrary:

In my house, we use words of all sorts of different origin on a daily basis, but the ones that used to bother me the most were the ones my parents used to refer to other races. My dad refers to white people as "kchi-mookiman" (Ojibwe), and my mom refers to white people as "haole" and black people as "popolo" (Hawaiian), and yet "outsiders" who look at this see it as though my parents are using some sort racial slurs when referring to these people by these words. These are simply the words my parents grew up using when referring to said "others", and often times it seems even to me that they are using these words deliberately in order to "secretly talk about whites and blacks behind their backs".

This is stupid, and I realized that after a while. My parents weren't being mean spirited by referring to white people as "kchi-mookiman" or "haole". They weren't secretly conspiring against said races of people. I realized that my hyper-sensitized "P.C.-meter" was picking up on something that was completely benign. Yes, us minorities are notorious for wanting to be respected and referred to by a certain title or titles (African-American instead of Black, Negro, or Colored; Asian-American instead of Oriental), and yet we are also among the first to keep to our own ways of referring to eachother. Hypocritical? I don't think so, necessarily. It just takes a while for everyone to be able to jump on the same bandwagon (or same ethnic-title, as the case may be). Plus it goes back to the idea of seperate cultural identities coexisting within a society without assimilation into a majority cultural identity.

Case in point, I know plenty of people who hate the phrase "Native American" because it makes it sound like this whole place was America the whole time. They identify with "Native American" just as much as they identify with "Indian". I have a sneaking suspicion that those in charge of assigning "Politically Correct Racial/Ethnic Monickers" weren't those who were necessarily a part of said racial/ethnic group. Just goes to show, you can't always please people even with your best intentions, i reckon...

So, use of what many people refer to as racial slurs often date back to simple words used to define a racial or ethnic group in that person's language. Sometimes the translation sounds bad, making the people who use the words seem like some sort of racist ogres. Are my parents hypocrites for using these words in a society that wants us all to designate "kinder, gentler" names for eachother? Am I too programmed into the P.C. culture, and just over-reacting? Is my case the same as cases where people came from homes in which black people were referred to as "niggers" or white people as "honkeys", "crackers", etc.? Are we all just a little too worked up on words, or do words really have such a powerful emotional impact? Is there really a way to dispell any negative power that words can hold?

Wow, I realize I just asked a lot of questions, but I think they're good questions to ask oneself.

[/RANT] heh heh heh
_________________
"The principles you live by create the world you live in; if you change the principles you live by, you will change your world." -Blaine Lee

"I plan to live forever. So far so good." -Steven Wright

Goldfinger2K · **Goldfinger2K**

I believe that words really DO have a lot of power. And that power is often misused in our societies.
It all depends on the message that the person saying the word is trying to communicate. And people often misunderstand, and sometimes things don't come out the way you want them to sound. Not just just with racial slurs, but any thing being said. And the fact that many people grow up very differently and say diffenrent things that they are taught is just an example of how little we really understand each other and shouldn't judge by first impressions, or even seconds. Like JP said, even HE sometimes believes that his parents are using racial slurs when to them it's no more than a word of reference.

peace
_________________
"one time yug!-Steve O Fuss
Y.U.G.
"If I threw a stick would you go away?"-a shirt
"Toonami, better than getting kicked in the nuts!"-me
"If I was so inclined, I would have groped you five times!"^O^hohohohoho!-Vash


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