rolling "Is This Racist?" thread

Before like kindergarden, my only exposure to black people was the Little Rascals and I remember distinctly thinking that when they get chicken pox, it makes white spots instead of dark ones. :/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHKzn8aHyXg

I was in my late teens before I realized that watermelons don't really cause sickle-cell anemia.

Before like kindergarden, my only exposure to black people was the Little Rascals and I remember distinctly thinking that when they get chicken pox, it makes white spots instead of dark ones. http://i.imgur.com/zi7hd.gif

― dave cool, Thursday, February 9, 2012 11:27 AM

I was in my late teens before I realized that watermelons don't really cause sickle-cell anemia.

― pplains, Thursday, February 9, 2012 12:11 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

if this is a joke i'm going to repost it to the "Is This Racist?" thread oh wait

It's not a joke.

I was in health class and had the worst kind of "waaaiiitt a minute…" re-evaluations ever.

When I was younger, my daycare crew ate some watermelon on the front porch. Our baby-sitter told us not to eat too much or we'd get sickle-cell anemia.

I didn't know what that was and certainly didn't know that it was a disease that affected mostly African-Americans. It didn't come up again until years later in that health class and fortunately for me, I was able to accept my discovery silently in my head. (Instead of raising my hand and completely embarrassing myself.)

holy crap

holy hell

O_O

heh, that reminds me of when my old landlord took me and my sister aside when we were ten to explain to us why there were so many black people in prison. he just wanted to make sure we were properly informed.

did he give you a somber chat about the grim realities of institutionalized racism?

no but one day he did inform me that i wasn't a country boy until i squished some cowshit between my toes

he was right on the latter i guess.

I do that all the time and I'm not a country boy

great start though

and Austerity Ponies OTM

I know Dave (who did the BYU video), and he's actually a really good and smart and funny guy. It's worth noting that a good number of people who know him and know these things about him have called him out on the ill-advisedness of this most recent endeavor (which, from my perspective, is more a result of his high rate of production superceding his good judgment than anything else).

oh well, if you say he's a really good guy.

hey i know Deric W. Haircare, he's a really good judge of character.

"You know, I hate racists as a whole, but on the level individually, I can get along with them 'alright."

I do think it's kind of important to consider the "fight ignorance with ignorance" stinger at the end of this video

"I mean, if Apocolypto's on Encore again, I usually stick with it for a half hour or so."

i couldn't make it to the end of the damn video

"i've had lots of convos with dude and everything points to the fact that dude seriously likes rap music."

Yes, congratulations to you all on your reading comprehension.

thank you!

y'all being some serious dicks to deric

in the face of a public video i'm not sure what relevance he's actually a really good and smart and funny guy is supposed to have

dave not cool

Horseshoe, I'm just saying that it'll be really unfortunate if this particular video winds up being the thing he's most well-known for, as it's not indicative of him as a person to the extent that I know him or of his other work.

Anytime you make a race video, that is the thing you will be most well-known for.

Horseshoe, I'm just saying that it'll be really unfortunate if this particular video winds up being the thing he's most well-known for, as it's not indicative of him as a person to the extent that I know him or of his other work.

― SNEEZED GOING DOWN STEPS, PAIN WHEN PUTTING SOCKS ON (Deric W. Haircare), Thursday, February 9, 2012 2:16 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah it's really unfortunate that he made the choices he did!

But then I knew going in that defending anyone in the 'Is this racist?' thread was going to be a losing battle whether you disapproved of the questionably racist work in question or not, so...whatever.

I forget that things are always either black or white.

Wait...is that racist?

aw, sorry ur feelins got hurt

Deric, I'm not attacking you for being friends with the guy or anything. But I do want to hear a couple of good reasons why it's not offensive for a white person to get dolled up in brown make-up, attempt some sort of gangsta jive accent (at least in the beginning) and run around BYU asking about Black History Month?

I heard that Michael Richards is really nice.

he didn't say it wasn't offensive, wtf

seriously y'all are way overreacting

(which, from my perspective, is more a result of his high rate of production superceding his good judgment than anything else)

where 'anything else' = .....

lmao crut no one is doing anything but clowning on the dude

that video is clearly and aggressively antiracist. dude doing the interviews is clearly and aggressively antiracist. the fact that he decided to do it in brownface may be a lot of things (insensitive, unfortunate, fucking stupid, w/e), but it doesn't necessarily make him a racist himself. intent matters.

oh, okay

pplains, once again: I'm defending him. I am not defending the video. I've known other people in the improv community who would regularly go to some really questionably racist/sexist/homophobic places, and I'd be just as quick to say, "This is wholly indicative of the person I know" if one of those people had produced the video, and just as quick to register my disapproval.

that video is clearly and aggressively antiracist. dude doing the interviews is clearly and aggressively antiracist. the fact that he decided to do it in brownface may be a lot of things (insensitive, unfortunate, fucking stupid, w/e), but it doesn't necessarily make him a racist himself. intent matters.

― Little GTFO (contenderizer), Thursday, February 9, 2012 1:36 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

what is the purpose of your hairsplitting here? its racially insensitive

I think what contenderizer was trying to say is that blackface is always acceptable

Blackface is usually kind of a bad idea.

my fav part of blackface is always when they show the dude while it's getting done

my fav part of blackface

things that should not be a poll