Comments on: Let’s Talk About What We Never Want to Talk About

By: uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 01:13:21 +0000

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By: Justin

Justin — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:27:15 +0000

Jay: I agree that racism comes in all forms, and that some are obviously more immediately troublesome than others. “Choose your battles wisely,” etc.

I also agree that cries of “racism” have become crutch for people who want to play the victim card, or who want to motivate others through irrational stimuli.

In terms of immediate concern, physical violence based on race > politicians using race as a buzzword > web trolls posting racist comments on message boards. But if we agree that racism is displayed in numerous forms, then it stands to reason that those numerous forms each need to be combated in their own way, and in their own scale. I may not personally be able to stop one group of neanderthals from assaulting people of a different race (or nationality, philosophy or sexual proclivity), but if I can present problematic evidence and ask questions that get a few lightbulbs to flicker on in the minds of the general public, it’s a start.

By: Jayvie Canono

Jayvie Canono — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:10:00 +0000

Justin, this is the kind of racism that I prefer to focus on and condemn. It's when a sitting US Senator declares that opposition to his bill is support of slavery. I've been trying to have a discussion here without yanking emotional chains, and you know that if I wanted to go there, I can, but that's not the point here. Racism exists in more forms than what is obvious.

By: Justin

Justin — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:52:57 +0000

Our inability to civilly discuss the nature of racism makes it hard to civilly discuss the nature of race itself. Like so many topics, racism creates such a charged emotional response from people that we react to things much more strongly than we would if we were considering them strictly from a logical point of view.

Of course, if a topic *doesn’t* incite emotional responses, no one talks about it in the first place — even behind closed doors.

By: Angela Smith

Angela Smith — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:46:39 +0000

There’s a big difference between your right to have an opinion on a particular topic and your need to act like a big ol’ baby about it. Suck it up, dude. White folks aren’t a marginalized population, we don’t have it so bad, and we need to stop whining like children whenever someone points that out.

By: Jayvie Canono

Jayvie Canono — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:49:36 +0000

@Angela, the truth about racism is that as long as the feeling of otherness exists, the bigotries based on what is not a choice — racism, age discrimination, sexism — will always come front and center. People are individuals, and racism works in the form of FAT N*****R slurs vs Sharpton as well as ideas like yours, where you have the audacity to forbid a group of people based on their race from having an opinion.

The best means of removing the otherness is community and acceptance by individuals, towards individuals. If you’re the type who cannot see that basing decisions on race — whether towards a positive social good such as admitting into University students of a particular ethnic group whose grades do not square away with whites, or towars an nefarious goal, such as having a whites-only drinking fountain — are inherently racist, then I have no grounds to get into a discussion with you over this.

By: Jayvie Canono

Jayvie Canono — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:41:59 +0000

@Angela:

Whites don’t get to have a “backlash” to “oversensitivity about racism” until racism isn’t a problem anymore.

So you’re saying white people “don’t get,” meaning, “not entitled to” a reaction, based on their race? THAT’S RACIST!

By: Angela Smith

Angela Smith — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:59:23 +0000

@Jayvie: Whites don’t get to have a “backlash” to “oversensitivity about racism” until racism isn’t a problem anymore. Since racism is still a huge damn problem, this is just a bunch of folks whining because they are so selfish and ignorant that having to think about any problem that doesn’t directly negatively affect them is intellectually exhausting.

Come on. I’m white and I can see this is a total bullshit complaint. Open your eyes. Using racial slurs and stereotyping people who aren’t the same as you is neither a “little thing” nor “not actual racism”.

By: Jack

Jack — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:16:29 +0000

I agree with your point that racism is still a real problem today, but this is not a real way of gauging it. The turning point for the awfulness of it all is that only a moron would look up a person’s name (Al Sharpton) in a dictionary – dictionaries don’t do proper nouns. Once upon a time, morons looked it up, and it wasn’t there, so they added it, which is only the cream of the crop of morons. It turns out that morons are more often racist. Only a moron would go to urban dictionary for a real word that is obviously in the real dictionary (feminism), as well as being a movement with a history putting it in the encyclopedia (e.g. wikipedia) as well. The morons get together, they realize they’re in the majority, start handing out +1s for moronic stuff. Is it really any great tragedy that these people, whom we already know to exist, have a place in the virtual world, in a dark corner of a dark corner?
If I want to know what a kangamangus or a cleveland steamer is (with a guarantee that there will not be pictures), well, then urban dictionary is the right place to go. We have an example of the now-familiar concept of non-intuitive results, where we get a much better definition on that site for something like Cleveland Steamer than we get for Al Sharpton.

By: baltimoregal

baltimoregal — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:13:48 +0000

I don’t go to Urban Dictionary for that reason and so many more. For example: feminism is “a federally funded, politically correct, special interest hate group,” domestic abuse is “how you get your significant other to shut the hell up when you can’t please them sexually,” and a woman is “The most powerful money reducing agent known to man.” Even a Republican is “An undereducated american who loves to hate minorities and scam and lie.”

It’s a forum for a bunch of people to be ignorant together. I don’t see it as a backlash as much as groupthink unchecked.