rolling "Is This Racist?" thread

Ah no I totally get that, but I hadn't clicked through to the article, so when someone posted the Sydney Confidential image, I though they were saying the picture was racist! Lots of "Is it the weird C-crossed-with-quote-marks?"

lol did this moran transpose "off-color" with "off-the cuff"?

http://i.imgur.com/em7p8.png

"off-collar" what

he could probably care less.

off-collar, the stain remover

"off-color" probably not a wise way to characterize a racially offensive remark, but this guy has already proven that his aptitude for putting his foot in his mouth so

it was a perfectly turtleneck apology

I'm kinda feeling very minorly sorry for this guy now tbh, his remarks were stupid but he just looked like he was dumbly flailing and knew it. Which leads one to wonder how he ended up in a post such as mayor, but still.

dont feel sorry for him trayce

Oh for reals i know its a wasted thought, I'm just soft.

I'm working on a project that falls under Washington DC's Chinatown zoning overlay and has a bunch of signage requirements that go with it. This is an example from the design guidelines of what the city thinks is a good and appropriate sign in 2012:

http://i43.tinypic.com/vctboz.jpg

(insert comical gong sound)

It is food you eat with chopsticks don't you see?

lol DC Chinatown

Home of the Verizon Center! And Fuddrucker'a! And, apparently, one apartment building filled with elderly immigrant Chinese.

I would describe that Ming's signage design as more as stereotypical than racist, in that it doesn't carry any genuinely negative imagery. Ain't nothing inferior about chopsticks. They're used daily by a couple billion people. The typeface is also ugly as sin and stereotyped, but it is based on the look of calligraphic brushstrokes, which seems legit, although very poorly done.

You seem to associate these things with truly racist images, like exaggerated "r" for "l" accents, comical slant-eyes and buck teeth, but taken as themselves they just look like crappy design to me, not racism.

I could care less

― frogs you are the dumbest asshole (frogbs), Friday, January 27, 2012 7:17 PM

http://www.incompetech.com/Images/caring.png

aimless otm

xp am0n otm

btw that type face even has a name, 'Chinesey' or 'chop suey' or something.

sometimes i make up imaginary american chinese restaurants by mixing & matching common name elements, like

lucky garden
panda moon
fortune house
bamboo palace

so - is that racist?

Usually the English name isn't even a translation of the Chinese right next to it.

Like it'll say 'Fortune Garden' in English but the Chinese is actually 'Pork Restaurant' or something.

fail to see how that Chinese ad is any different from the Mexican ones with mariachis etc., I dont see Chinese people having a problem with it outside of maybe "come on, this isn't what our restaurant ads look like"

have you asked your chinese friends their opinion?

I don't have any Chinese friends.

oic

I used to work with an impro troupe that did a show in the country, where they got into a load of dreadful stereotypes with varying responses:

Italian accent with-a words-a ending like-a this-a and godfather hand gestures – uproarious laughter

French 'haw' noises and cheap gags about bread sticks – uproarious laughter

Chinese 'velly solly' gags – DEAD SILENCE

It seems to be down to whether the culture is *perceived* as a minority; to view e.g. the Chinese as a 'minority' in this day and age is condescending and absurd imo. Sorry if this ends up as another giant clusterfuck but I seriously dgi.

the chinese are indeed a minority in washington, dc

Sorry if this ends up as another giant clusterfuck

lol no you aren't

French and Italian people are white, traditionally

"there are a billion people in your country, why are you mad that I called you 'slanty-eyes'"

Personally, I think it has something to do with the fact that I have never once seen an Asian person act in this way

how many asian people have you met tho

True, but I've never seen a French person wear a stripy jumper, clutch a wicker basket full of baguettes etc xp

where I live there's a huge Hmong population and the only stereotype about them that really rang true is that they're all really, really good at pool

"there are a billion people in your country, why are you mad that I called you 'slanty-eyes'"

well obviously that's a racist thing

True, but I've never seen a French person wear a stripy jumper, clutch a wicker basket full of baguettes etc xp

well I wouldn't laugh at this either but the image itself is kind of funny

aimless otm, re: stereotypical vs. racist

still, even stereotypes that don't rely on "genuinely negative imagery" can be effectively racist when they reflect an overall tendency to reduce perceived "others" to cartoonish types

the Chinese as a 'minority' in this day and age is condescending and absurd imo

omg lol

So, is this where I should mention the all white production of Hairspray being performed in the Dallas suburb of Plano, TX?

wait waht

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/mixmaster/2012/01/at_plano_childrens_theatre_the.php

wtf

It just came across my twitter feet and I actually did a face palm. Now I have to clean my glasses.

EZ has Twitter feet.

it explains my horrible typing.

haha i did not know enough (ie, anything) about 'hairspray' to recognize the problem

how they weren't going to bow to "political correctness"

This tells you all you really need to know, tbh.

it's a pretty huge problem

in some ways, it's more problematic than doing an all-white "Porgy and Bess"

omg lol