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Submitted by Rick on Thu, 11/02/2006 - 2:23pm.
Mike Stark: What You Don't Know | The Huffington Post
If only more citizens would step up and ask the questions...
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I've used racial slurs in my
Submitted by The Fire Inside on Thu, 11/02/2006 - 3:15pm.I've used racial slurs in my lifetime but would hardly consider myself a "racist." In fact, it's absolutely ridiculous how "nigger" is a real life "Lord Voldemort." Do I think it's a word that should be tossed around by anyone? No. But to make it some sort of Scarlet Letter?
One benefit to having two distinct sides of a family is watching their interaction within their own ethnic group.
That's why I would say the vast majority of people in general use or have used derogatory terms for groups other than their own without being "bad."
um
Submitted by enpen on Thu, 11/02/2006 - 6:29pm.There's little or no reason we should maintain the use of language that automatically carries derogatory connotations. Symbols, likewise. You don't see too many people rushing to use a swastika to symbolize life and good luck, and for good reason. Language is a constant evolution of symbolic interaction, a single word has the power to evoke happiness or hatred. Why on earth would we want to persist with something hateful?
" Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which they grow."
Being racist has nothing to
Submitted by The Fire Inside on Thu, 11/02/2006 - 6:43pm.Being racist has nothing to do with whether or not you consider yourself to be a racist.
You're right, it doesn't.
Since I don't believe one race is superior to another, I can definitively say I'm no racist.
Why on earth would we want to persist with something hateful?
We shouldn't, but to say someone is a "racist" because they have used a derogatory word would be a mischaracterization of an individual.
TFI, you can't be serious.
Submitted by Rob Richards on Thu, 11/02/2006 - 7:07pm."Living is never a single person's own affair." – Huo Yuanjia
Allen himself would be
Submitted by The Fire Inside on Thu, 11/02/2006 - 7:52pm.Allen himself would be considered a racist (the noose and seeking photographs with the Klan is what did it for me), but I think the other activities cited are pretty questionable.
1. I learned that Allen opposed an official celebration for Martin Luther King's birthday, but he supported an official celebration of the Confederacy. Just how is this "racist?" He's representing Virginia in the Senate. Now maybe it's just me, but wouldn't voting to recognize a conflict in which an estimated 7,000 Virginian soldiers died make sense?
2. He kept a Confederate Flag and a noose in his office The noose is what does it for me here but the Confederate flag display is the same as above (in defending his vote to recognize Confederate deaths).
3. I wonder what other slurs Allen has used I already addressed how I feel about derogatory slurs.
If someone seriously uses hateful words to describe a people it's because they don't put as much value in those people as they do themselves. I just don't know. I've referred to other Caucasians as being "white trash," yet I don't value their life any less than mine. My Hispanic grandmother refers to illegal immigrants as "wetbacks" (which I think you will find is common among those of Mexican descent who either immigrate into the United States legally or were born here). I still throw the word "gay" around to refer to a person or event being "stupid" and would hardly consider it an offense against humanity (as ESPNU commentator Brian Kinchen learned this past week).
I can kind of see your
Submitted by Norm on Thu, 11/02/2006 - 8:28pm.I can kind of see your point. I don't think there's any of us who have never used a slur of some sort even though we are not holding hatred towards those folks. Mine is definitely "gay". I have no problem with people's sexual orientation, and don't use that characteristic to judge a person by any means. If a friend said, "You want to go to a Britney Spears concert with me?" my initial response would be, "That's gay". Not as in, "That's a homosexual" but "that's stupid". I could blame it on high school, beavis and butthead, south park, whatever. I feel a bit sheepish when I use it sometimes. Nobody has ever stated that I offended them, but growing up that's what we said.
My last girlfriend also frequently said "wetback". She was half mexican and the whole border security thing was going on and the first time she said it she had to pick my jaw up off the floor for me. Growing up her Grandfather ( who speaks very little english ) said it frequently and she didn't find it offensive. I sure as shit wouldn't say it though. I'm fond of "white-trash" and "cracker" though.
*smacking my head*
Submitted by enpen on Thu, 11/02/2006 - 9:29pm.Perhaps. If one is aware of systemic racism and the power of language and yet still persists in using derogatory terms, then one is a racist. If one does not "believe" in the superiority of races, yet acts in a way which persists our country's sad tradition, then one is a racist. If one is completely foreign to this country's history, or to the power of language, then one is ignorant. With a lot of thought and a lot of action, one can enact a positive change in our culture of racism. Anything else is either deliberate or lazy.
"Now maybe it's just me, but wouldn't voting to recognize a conflict in which an estimated 7,000 Virginian soldiers died make sense?"
Ahh, the powers of symbols. The Confederacy represents slavery. Do you think there's a better way to recognize the dead than to celebrate a pro-slavery culture? There's still an extremely large population of people in this country that were alive to witness the explicit Jim Crow South. Cultural symbols are powerful, and if somebody demands to use or celebrate a symbol that has positively evil connotations for other people, then that person is demeaning those other people, committing a hateful act and perpetuating a hateful norm.
"Be nice to whites, they need you to rediscover their humanity."
Enpen said: "and
Submitted by Norm on Fri, 11/03/2006 - 11:24am.Enpen said: "and perpetuating a hateful norm" Why am I all the sudden hateful? And who the hell is perpetuating me?
*snicker*
"a hateful norm"
Submitted by Rick on Fri, 11/03/2006 - 11:27am.That's Norm with a hangover, right?
When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion. -C.P. Snow
No no, that's a "repentant
Submitted by Norm on Fri, 11/03/2006 - 11:42am.With a lot of thought and a
Submitted by The Fire Inside on Fri, 11/03/2006 - 11:27am.With a lot of thought and a lot of action, one can enact a positive change in our culture of racism. Anything else is either deliberate or lazy.
Point taken. I'll enter my plea of lazy.
The Confederacy represents slavery.
If I were to fly a Confederate flag (it would be in the form of a small sticker on my car), it would be as a symbol for the last time each individual state stood for itself.
Of course, a more productive and less inflammatory way to do this would be if there were Washington State stickers similar to Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee, etc. I would put one on my car and still achieve the same goal.