rolling "Is This Racist?" thread

Parma Police, a racist bunch of men

I like the "they're not racist, they're a criminal conspiracy!" counter-narrative crawling out from under the usual white supremacist rocks. Here's a wacky idea: maybe both?

For the past couple of weeks, one of my facebook friends (a high school buddy's spouse) has been posting up updates or comments like "they're not racist, they're just BAD POLICE. there are white police shooting black kids, black police shooting black kids, black police shooting white kids. why does everybody have to keep bringing race into this?" I've been biting my tongue pretty hard because she's my friends wife and like, I'm going to be charitable and imagine they are in disagreement about this already and hopefully having fights at home about it, but holy fuck.

black black white white, what are you talking about RACE for?

a rainbow coalition of cops shooting people

There's a small part of me that enjoys the twist on the ol' "there are good black people and then there are n–…." except with cops now.

This cop is so good, I don't even really think of him as a cop

Know something funny? One of my favorite tee-vee shows? NYPD Blue.

That neighborhood isn't bad, but it's a little blue if you know what I mean.

Meant to post this earlier, but there's a housing development in the "rural" fringes of the LA area called Plantation on the Lake. I can just image the meeting when they were deciding on the name.

"What can we do to make this attract a, errrm, paler clientele?

http://plantationonthelake.com/

Guess which "tradition" the headline means:

http://www.knoxnews.com/knoxville/life/cinderella-moment-debutante-balls-strive-to-preserve-tradition-civility_76395622

While there is no application process — the Dogwood Ball is by invitation only — there are at least three criteria young women must meet to be considered: they must be sophomores in college and unmarried. They also must be white. Trent said she does not see a problem with the event being segregated.

“I think it’s beautiful that (the local AKA chapter) has started their own for their girls,” she says.

There are lots and lots of Plantation subdivisions, most of them POAs, unsurprisingly.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Riverstone-Plantation-SubdivisionForsyth-County/107095289319155

http://www.plantationtampahoa.com/outside_home.asp

http://www.siennaplantation.com/

http://i.imgur.com/8B1rFat.jpg

I mean, yeah, talk about a word with a historically racist connotation, but on the other hand it's generic enough where I'll take it over anything named after Jefferson Davis or Nathaniel Bedford Forrest.

It seems like it would be less likely to be used in California, kind of startled me when I drove past the billboard.

the "rural" fringes of the LA area called Plantation on the Lake.

Good Lord, thought you meant Louisiana.

Makes more sense your way, I give you that.

me too, and I sadly kind of figured it was possible xp

ignorance about the historic baggage of "plantation"
vs.
knowing about it and thinking plantations are a beautiful part of the antebellum south, shut your mouth about that slavery thing

^^^ the exact conundrum that grosses me out so much about Lady Antebellum

I always wonder if people are going to assume Louisiana when I type LA (and Canada when I type CA). I should get into the habit of being more explicit on national/international forums.

tbf I assumed Louisiana because I've been to a place that had "plantation" in the name there, but it seems uncommon for California

then again, the place in Louisiana was a former plantation that had slaves

It's cool. I don't think anyone ever thought Randy Newman was singing about Bastrop.

Just seeing LA in context with plantation... No, la ciudad de los angeles was not my first thought.

I know, right?!?

L.A. also means "Lower Arkansas" or this place:

http://i.imgur.com/99SiCqp.jpg

Locations I'd expect to find in the "Plantation Places" Jeopardy category much faster than I would expect Los Alamitios.

Although if you had followed my link you would have seen it was California (hee hee). I didn't want to call out Riverside county because it gets tarred with the "white trash" moniker too much. For locals, this is off the 10 between Redlands and Beaumont.

Also, I don't think I've ever seen anything called "plantation" out here, ever. It was a minor WTF moment for me.

I did follow the link but only looked at the images

http://i.imgur.com/IxQD1kp.gif

http://www.eonline.com/news/683013/kelly-osbourne-to-donald-trump-if-you-kick-all-latinos-out-of-america-who-is-going-to-clean-your-toilets

makes u think

i mean, it doesn't seem exactly racist to point out that, in America, latinos aren't always offered especially fair employment opportunities, and they're often hired to do less glamorous jobs for people like Donald Trump?

people are treating this like Kelly Osbourne said that the only things Latinos can do are clean her toilets and buy her records

"i get what she meant" etc etc but c'mon, it's an insensitive and foolish thing to say when you're debating the issues on television
"in America, latinos aren't always offered especially fair employment opportunities, and they're often hired to do less glamorous jobs for people like Donald Trump" is obvs different from "but who will clean your toilets"

uh immigrants from countries not full of rapists, obviously, duh

I could be... Trump

I was planning on giving the toilet cleaning job at my estate to the person who flosses my teeth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zpx0USkDGWE

this didn't have to go here but

https://medium.com/@b4e2015/racists-probably-started-a-white-student-union-at-your-school-they-re-all-fake-5d1983a0b229#.sae7lbczm

students

Had to look a few times at the last few letters of that link

http://sfist.com/2015/12/17/stanley_roberts_again_calls_out_asi.php

the selling the food angle is pretty shitty

dunno why their ethnicity needs to be mentioned at all tho

someone from Glide posted in the comments:

I'm a Glide member and have participated at the grocery bag giveaway...

This is something we're aware happens and, essentially, we turn the other eye intentionally because...

1) We ensure that everyone that comes on time (and many that come late) get groceries
2) This happens but its small number of people, relative to the thousands that are helped
3) Many elderly Asian households in SF are well below the poverty line and depend on food and financial assistance
4) The line takes a significant amount of time to get through; if they are desperate enough to wind through it multiple times for the small amount of money they will make selling them piecemeal on the street. Well, we've provided help to them too

In the end, its a small thing that we don't really see as an issue at all. No we are not going to stamp peoples hands and shame those that come back. Its a pitty that for many here, the faint whiff of injustice (and really, beating on the poor for doing what they can to get by?) creates this animosity towards the poor in general.

For fucks sake, we helped 6,000 to have a chance to have a holiday meal. Focusing on that.

the headline is specifically about "Asian" sellers, the article mentions that "most" are Asian...gross imo

yeah that's p fucked up

if Glide's okay w it then I don't care, really. I've volunteered there before, they are a great institution.

massive respect for the Glide member in the comments.

That entire story is disgusting.

(To be clear, I am not talking about the people selling food.)

Ugggh the racist posts in that thread are basically how my school's entire community talks about Asian immigrants. Somehow the Russians, Ukranians, etc etc white Christian immigrants aren't "lowering property values" but Chinese-Americans are. It's a really toxic stew around here.

A large department store-type property remains vacant for many years, until finally the Salvation Army rents it out. Now no businesses will occupy any of the other storefronts on that block or across from it because no one wants to be associated with people who shop at the Salvation Army (apparently not just suburban highschoolers and theater majors) or have them as customers. Churches with food pantries help only to their own congregation or those known to their congregations--they don't put signs up in public or seek to serve the general public. I walk into the school office and three people who work with children every day are complaining about Chinese immigrants, right in front of me, like it's perfectly normal. Eventually I'm going to need a way to wash my brain besides soaking it in wine.