rolling "Is This Racist?" thread

Karaoke and the "n word"

i started a trayvon thread like 20 minutes ago

http://www.theroot.com/buzz/teacher-student-read-poem-blacker

"I don't know why I posted it. I'm not racist and some of my friends are from different cultural backgrounds."

it's probably not worth pondering too hard, but i often wonder what distinction people who say this are trying to draw.

Elvis Costello putting the word "white" in front of the n-word kind of makes its racial connotations inarguable

the trayvon story is incredibly fucked up

what dictionary is this???

Webster's New Racist Dictionary, 15th ed.

the grape soda bit in that story sort of pushes it into chappelle's show territory.

Anyway, what were the tweets that got the cops after him?

those tweets, definitely racist

http://youtu.be/nA5v2eZ5ZZE

welp

ah, so that's who Dom was retweeting.

I've posted a couple of Trayvon Martin bits on FB, but I guess I didn't realize it hadn't been discussed here before. Hugely tragic, and it's going to be rage-making if Zimmerman gets off without even being charged with anything.

a friend of mine has done the copy for some of the news reports. it's fucking sickening.

when the law was passed a few years ago, most citizens were like "oh, here we go"...and here is the legacy of said law.

esp when that dickhead used to call the cops over menial shit. like he sounds like an overexcitable neighborhood watch dude that suffers from delusions of grandeur and thinks himself a hero and doesn't realize he created the alleged danger that he 'defended' himself from. wouldn't be surprised if he actually believes he did nothing wrong.

foul. did not hear about this until now

the cops saying that the screams were Zimmerman's. why would a dude with a loaded gun be screaming for help? it doesn't even fit occam's razor, his story.

Hopefully the FBI investigation picks up where our incompetent local Sheriffs failed. not that it will be difficult to do a better job. Sanford cops once took about 10 minutes to respond to an alarm I set off by mistake in a theatre once...when they were located down the street.

god, that whole thing is so fucking infuriating. the cops "correcting" explicit witness statements saying that martin screamed for help to indicate that it was zimmerman who shouted.

This guy was a well-intentioned youth with snacks just walking. I got really sad a minute ago, kind of relating that to an ilxor

Nuke Florida

see like...here's the thing. even IF Zimmerman was telling the truth about being jumped (and I have less than 10% confidence in that)...let's examine the events leading up to this.

You call the cops to report suspicious activity which essentially equates to being a 17 year old boy aimlessly walking about town. You have a gun on you that is loaded (in violation of Neighborhood Watch protocol). You pursue the teen, despite the dispatcher telling you not to do it.

You presumably confront the teen for no reason, the teen reacts aggressively, and you shoot him.

Even in THAT scenario, how can he claim self-defense if he provoked an unnecessary altercation and then shot an unarmed man? Granted I don't believe Zimmerman's version of the story anyway, but it's ridiculous that he thinks his version of events make him look that much better.

xpost can I at least pack my things before I flee?

sad thing is, my expectations are that after the FBI investigates, Zimmerman still won't be charged...A. because of the ridiculous Florida law, but B. because so much time has passed now since the incident.

I'm sure they'll find all kinds of evidence of neglect on the police department's end and will sharply rebuke them, as well as Zimmerman, but that's gonna mean a whole lotta fuckall . I'm really hoping I'm wrong though.

an unarmed boy on the sidewalk vs a man in a car -- i can't think of a single situation that would ever require the latter to defend himself. unless driving away unscathed is considered a defensive maneuver.

At the very least Zimmerman has been named and shamed in the media. Thats... some kind of rough justice at the least? No... it isnt, but you know.

There is a chance that, even if the Florida law makes state homicide prosecution impossible (and that is a large if), Fed investigation would lead to charges filed for violations of Trayvon's rights.

Given who posted it, this http://www.theroot.com/buzz/teacher-student-read-poem-blacker was probably gotcha-bait, but I do think it's worth looking at -- there's a fine-line between a genuine interest in dialect and being a dickhead who wonders why we can't have Amos n' Andy anymore. (More Than voiceover dude being one of those dickheads, goddammit.)

xp I bet there are a nontrivial number of people in his neighborhood and nationwide who consider him a hero now. America is actually just that fucked up.

Pretty sure the teacher who asked to read the poem "blacker" is an ignorant asshole.

there were definitely a couple of uncomfortable times in high school in which my teachers tried to match eye dialect

ah, there's nothing like fielding the "what do your people think of slavery?" question in a high school class

And yet, here you are on this thread.

in some ways, being a minority in America is a little like having a permanently itchy scab

"Is this bumper sticker racist? I know, I'll ask the person of color I know on the Internet."

what do your people think of slavery?
What the hell are you supposed to say to that? Christ!
Singling one kid out to be the group spokesperson for whatever group is just bullshit imo.

"Personally, I'm against it."

pplains u are surely the most enlightened ilxor of us all

Minnesotans?

"What do your people think of slavery?"

"Actually my people have a thread about that."

mordy, i'm so color blind that I browse ILX with my monitor turned off, just so I can't tell who's posting what.

I said, "we think it's bad" and looked at him like he was an idiot

Singling one kid out to be the group spokesperson for whatever group is just bullshit imo.

― Marilyn Hagerty: the terroir of tiny town (Abbbottt), Tuesday, March 20, 2012 5:33 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

otm

my US History teacher asked us to write "raps" about the imperial examination system under the Song dynasty. there was one black kid in the class and he was a really serious fan of hip-hop but the teacher didn't seem to like his performance. whereas me and my partner did some terrible rappin' barney rubble sounding thing and she was like "that was EXACTLY what I was looking for!" idk if that's really racist but it was definitely awful and awkward for everyone involved. I think this is where the teacher's logic broke down: asked us to write "raps" about the imperial examination system under the Song dynasty.

I just dry-retched

sorry too busy lolling to be outraged

Still the greatest
http://www.theonion.com/articles/shakespeare-was-like-the-ultimate-rapper,11161/

Singling one kid out to be the group spokesperson for whatever group is just bullshit imo.

this happened to me ALL THE TIME pre-high school

My father had a brief career as a high school teach in an inner city neighborhood in Memphis. He taught history. (circa. 1970 or so.)

He says that when they'd hit the slavery part of the curriculum, he'd divide the mostly black class up into owners and slaves. He'd put the football player on a box in the middle of the room and have one of the other students try to sell him like they're at an auction. When the "slave" balked at his treatment, my 22-year-old dad would say, "Hey, this is the way it was."

As time has passed since hearing these stories, they sound more and more ridiculous with each year. I finally asked him if he really put black students on boxes and held mock auctions, and he says sure did. Gave the kids a lesson to learn how far in civil rights they had come and how much more they had to go.

Sounds pretty heinous to me, but I never lived in 1970. It's all moot now anyway. Dad gave up being a teacher, moved to Arkansas and sold real estate for the next ten years.

he just loved auctions, i guess

uh speaking of this thread title:

http://www.theonion.com/video/sale-of-bet-to-white-supremacist-group-results-in,27660/

Sale Of BET To White Supremacist Group Results In No Changes To Programming

xxpost what did your dad do for the lesson on World War II?

goole, this line was even funnier: "and a little turtle gorges an entire raspberry"