'Patta Rattason' .....

[Missy-Q]

Following Jay's example, these are the most rascist places I have visited:

North Carolina.
Ireland - the further west I travelled, the worse it became.
Moscow.
These are also 3 of the 'whitest' places I have been to.

Least racist would be:

Toronto
New York
Amsterdam
These are also the places which are the most multicultural. Toronto being the most multicultural city in the world, and the least racist place I have ever visited.

Therefore I agree with Jay that the worst/most obvious racism is evident in the area's where there is little racial integration, and where the people involved feel 'threatened' by what is in many cases unknown to them.

I also agree with you that the subject has become disproportionally taboo, in that even to speak about racism, or recognise racism as an issue, could be construed as racist. A no win situation, and one which discourages a healthy debate.

In the US it is far more of an issue IMO. The British Empire did not allow slaves on their own soil (they bought and sold humanity like everyone else, just not at home), and as a result of this there is not the feeling of inherited injustice that still persists today in the southern states of the US. Even now people are going after 'reparations' where they believe their families wronged in the past. I don't condemn this, or fully understand it, but it is only aggravating and prolonging the issues rather than solving any of them.

On the flip-side - I was told at a recent event that a guy I had been talking to was 'next door neighbors' with the current KKK Grand Master/Wizard/whatever. One thing is for sure, whether you know anything about the KKK or not, they don't exactly do their bit to reduce racism...
How are these guys still going? I really want to know that!

In a global society, where the US has the loudest voice, through their entertainment industry, how much of their own, fairly unique, struggle against racism effects the social behaviours of the viewers in other countries? Blacks and whites alike decided that certain 'n-words' are 'off limits' and degrading, and it seemed to me that the only time I used to hear these words was from a racist. In fact, as soon as someone said the n-word, I would know they were a racist and would have formed my opinion of them.
For the last few years I have seen the word used more often than ever before, by blacks more than whites, and I have to say that I don't get it. Does anyone else think that we took a giant global leap backwards? if you do agree - who is to blame?

Would any white guy in his right mind walk into a kareoke bar in Harlem and ask to sing a DMX song? I think they should be able to, but what about when they get to the n-word lyrics? If you leave them out, you are being racist. if you say them, you are being racist.

The Americans, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Germans etc. all have to take their own share of the blame for the rape & plunder that went down in Africa in the 18th/19th centuries. However, the worst traders in slaves were the Arabs, and most African 'slaves' were 'caught' by other black tribes, working for Arab Slavers, who sold a percentage of these captives to western traders. Interestingly, only the people that bought slaves in the west are viewed as 'slave-owners', but a small percentage of slaves ever made the journey over the Atlantic. The Arabs, by the way, would castrate their slaves (male or female) so that they could not breed or dilute the Arab blood. You would have thought that they would get the worst of the hate. Does anyone know if racism is a big problem in Arab countries? I would guess that it is worse.


I think a part of the problem also lies in Hollywood/fiction...
One thing an interesting and provocative history does is inspire authors/writers/directors to document it and give their take. With US history being so short, US writers can't avoid the racism issue. At one stage it was written about in books like Huck Finn etc. and was not portrayed in a particularly healthy manner. Then came 'social awareness', and the black slaves became depicted in fiction in a totally different way. They were highly educated, literate, and obviously 'enslaved'. I don't claim to be an expert, but I also think that, just as talking about racism is seen as racist, making films about it also perpetuates the problem. I can watch a film about Nazi's without hating Germans, so why can't I watch a film about crackers without hating white people? Why is that?

Unrelated story - I once asked a black Pittsburgh cabbie to drive me out to an early 10-man NPPL in the woods back in the day, and he was scared to death to drop me off there. he thought they burned crosses up there, because he had seen so many white people wearing camo. Of course he was wrong (I hope), but that was his perception, and one he will have shared.

I should clarify - I've never seen an instance of racism in Paintball, but then I know all 3 black paintball players in the major leagues, and they're all really nice guys....

 

[Cook$]

If there was a "like" button for the above post, I would click it.

 

[stongle]

Racism, pah! You should try being short. I'd rather have an Escalade with 24 inch spinners than save the VAT on clothes, I can tell you. Mind you, after actually trying to say "Patta Rattason" I might change my name to Shorty Man and try a bit of Ragga Jungle MC'ing. Seriously Pete, "Patta Rattason" sounds more Jungalist than Tarzan. Are you sure it's nothing to do with doing loads of disco biscuits and dancing funny in "Club UK" in your yoof. It was in the area.

On a serious note, racism might be bad; but oppression is much much worse. I can guarantee that some of those silk stocking socialists so shocked by a Golliwog, are quite happy to practice oppression in other forms. Take the left wing love of the Euro. Econcomic oppression device for Southern and emerging Europeans. Since the introductio nof the Euro, German exports to Greece rose 300% whilst Greek exports to Germany only rose 13%. Bit of one way traffic there. No wonder Merkel's been doing her conkers this week on Bank's, German bank's pretty much own Greece these days. My point, and there was one. I tend to agree with Pete. Flag Racism or some soft target up as an absolute horror, but do something much worse on the sly. It's a conspiracy I tell ya! "Patta Rattason, tell em".

 

[Skeet]

I am not about to pretend that I can offer anything akin to some of the posts above, so I will simply allow myself the following thought.

With regards to "if", Racism has been taken too far;

If I think you are a generally nice person, then your sex, age, race, size etc, does not matter to me...you're OK and that's all that counts in my book. And vice versa if I don't think you are OK, race etc doesn't matter.

Sometimes in life, you might meet a person and for no apparent reason, they do not fit your criteria of "like". Simple as that, rare though it may be. They are not aware of it and you don't do anything about it, they are just there and you don't like them.

If a third party asked my opinion of such a person and my response was "I just don't like him/her" and he/she was old, or fat, or ginger etc, I would expect 99% of people to accept that I just don't like that person, as outlined above and not think badly of me.

If the person were Black, or Asian etc and I offered the same loose reasoning for disliking them, would 99% of people still accept it? Or would they think I have racist tendencies?

Point being, it would seem that you are permitted to dislike a person (for no apparent reason), unless that person is Black/Asian etc and to a lesser point, Gay.

So, while I am not in the slightest bit racist; if put in a social situation with a Black person and a White person whom I would not choose as my friends, I could ignore the white person but would feel forced to be sociable with the Black person.

Is that a step too far?

 

[Baca Loco]

But why is race treated so differently??

Ready or not, Pete, here goes. (If I'd bothered to see what you were on about before I agreed to comment I might have thought better of it--if only because it's not a bite-sized subject.) I am, in this post, simply going to give a basic answer to the core question you asked, "But why is race treated so differently?" I haven't read any of the other posts so if I duplicate some material or ideas great minds and all that.
I am inclined to believe there are two related factors at work. The lesser is political correctness which initially developed as a replacement for largely abandoned (or rejected) traditional social [civic] mores. However, in the process of trying to avoid offending anyone over pretty nearly anything that might be construed as a difference one result has been to sanitize both language and thought, attempting not to change people but to control them instead.
PC is part and parcel of the political & social ideology that is driving much of so-called western civilization and has given rise to new social [civic] virtues that wish to insist there are no human differences with respect to the obvious differences like race, gender, ethnicity, custom, religion, etc. No judgment or distinction may be drawn and equality doesn't exist on an individual basis, only in a collective and/or group identity.
Ideologically both streams are the result of post-Enlightenment secularization and the ongoing influence of the Marxian Socialist underpinnings of much of social theory in western academia.
Ultimately this nonsense dehumanizes everybody and denies individual human worth because there is no accepted or universal standard in a largely mechanistic & materialistic worldview.

Was that the sorta thing you were looking for?

 

[Missy-Q]

Ready or not, Pete, here goes. (If I'd bothered to see what you were on about before I agreed to comment I might have thought better of it--if only because it's not a bite-sized subject.) I am, in this post, simply going to give a basic answer to the core question you asked, "But why is race treated so differently?" I haven't read any of the other posts so if I duplicate some material or ideas great minds and all that.
I am inclined to believe there are two related factors at work. The lesser is political correctness which initially developed as a replacement for largely abandoned (or rejected) traditional social [civic] mores. However, in the process of trying to avoid offending anyone over pretty nearly anything that might be construed as a difference one result has been to sanitize both language and thought, attempting not to change people but to control them instead.
PC is part and parcel of the political & social ideology that is driving much of so-called western civilization and has given rise to new social [civic] virtues that wish to insist there are no human differences with respect to the obvious differences like race, gender, ethnicity, custom, religion, etc. No judgment or distinction may be drawn and equality doesn't exist on an individual basis, only in a collective and/or group identity.
Ideologically both streams are the result of post-Enlightenment secularization and the ongoing influence of the Marxian Socialist underpinnings of much of social theory in western academia.
Ultimately this nonsense dehumanizes everybody and denies individual human worth because there is no accepted or universal standard in a largely mechanistic & materialistic worldview.

Was that the sorta thing you were looking for?

Dude, thats the most racist thing I've ever read. I didn't even understand most of the words, but it's clear you were using them to mask something. That something must therefore be racism.

This explains why you had that one night with Missy, and then never called her back. You were obviously reliving some kind of 'Southern Gentleman Fantasy'. When I look back on the things you made me do I feel cheap and ashamed. True, I felt cheap and ashamed at the time, but now it's worse, thanks to your probably blatant, yet undecypherable racist remarks.
You say there are 2 related factors, yet you only mention 1 (PC). Was the other also shrouded in flowery dictionary-speak, or did you leave it out, because it's so racist?

Just when you think you know someone....

 

[Robbo]

Holy Baloney, I go and ask Baca to contribute to one of our threads and Missy steams in with her somewhat seedy revelations of passionate nights long past ......

Mind you, once again, Missy has come up with a post that had me laughing so much that 'er indoors was accusing me of hitting the bong again ...
Though, on a similar note, I was kinda wonderin' if Baca had woken up after swallowing a dictionary in his sleep and before I was ever gonna reply to his post, I was having to enroll in a few post graduate English lessons ..... still, it all makes for an interesting and entertaining read from all parties who have posted thus far ....

I hope more people post in this thread to see what others may think upon the subject.
I can understand that some might be deterred after seeing some of the posts here but please, don't be .... we all have opinions, it's good to see them all ... except for any that disagree with mine which according to some people attracts an immediate ban .....

The more the merrier !!!!

 

[Baca Loco]

Dude, thats the most racist thing I've ever read. I didn't even understand most of the words, but it's clear you were using them to mask something. That something must therefore be racism.

This explains why you had that one night with Missy, and then never called her back. You were obviously reliving some kind of 'Southern Gentleman Fantasy'. When I look back on the things you made me do I feel cheap and ashamed. True, I felt cheap and ashamed at the time, but now it's worse, thanks to your probably blatant, yet undecypherable racist remarks.
You say there are 2 related factors, yet you only mention 1 (PC). Was the other also shrouded in flowery dictionary-speak, or did you leave it out, because it's so racist?

Just when you think you know someone....

[O/T] You just can't let it go. The way I remember it I had to call an ambulance for you and at the hospital the doc assured me you would be okay. He said it was a combination of exhaustion and ecstasy. I had a plane to catch but I sent flowers. Ships passing in the night and all that. Would a dirty filthy racist behave like that?

 

[Baca Loco]

Holy Baloney, I go and ask Baca to contribute to one of our threads and Missy steams in with her somewhat seedy revelations of passionate nights long past ......

Mind you, once again, Missy has come up with a post that had me laughing so much that 'er indoors was accusing me of hitting the bong again ...
Though, on a similar note, I was kinda wonderin' if Baca had woken up after swallowing a dictionary in his sleep and before I was ever gonna reply to his post, I was having to enroll in a few post graduate English lessons ..... still, it all makes for an interesting and entertaining read from all parties who have posted thus far ....

I hope more people post in this thread to see what others may think upon the subject.
I can understand that some might be deterred after seeing some of the posts here but please, don't be .... we all have opinions, it's good to see them all ... except for any that disagree with mine which according to some people attracts an immediate ban .....

The more the merrier !!!!

Was trying to be brief. It was, after all, a dissertation quality question.

 

[Missy-Q]

[O/T] You just can't let it go. The way I remember it ......

So you DO remember it!