rolling "Is This Racist?" thread

USA: slavery abolished 1865
Sweden: slavery first outlawed in 1335

Of course, Sweden has close to zero percent minorities, yeah there's that.

As far as moral high ground goes, Sweden is pretty good about gender equality, invests heavily in the arts (even to a tasteless excess), and hasn't been in a military conflict in two hundred years. The US on the other hand fails to support art in favor of Money and Military culture. The US is the world's number one supplier of weapons, treasure, and political power to the dictators that allow FGM.

OTM on the culture differences. Being totally overlooked here.

I don't think we need to kick the US to note that Sweden is not like the States and that exploring context and using circumspection are always a good way to go.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=swedish+culture+non-confrontation

I have a great degree of skepticism about the malice of the ppl involved.

Has anyone read the TNC piece about the American right not understanding racism in the US as anything more than a means to trip up your opponents? It speaks to a part of the left, too, imho, and if you think this ought to be a learning experince for the Swedish, for that museum and the Culture Minister, that's fine. It may a good opportunity to learn something about Swedes, for some ppl, too.

Listen, Three-Word. Don't talk down to me like I'm from Finland.

Man that reminds me of the Swedish doctor in 'The Kingdom' who cannot quite contain his withering contempt for the Danes.

Just teasing. I'm not Swedish, so I can.

michael white OTM @ 3:05 pm PST

Good enough for a Fin, too damn good for a Swede.

Oh, man. This isn't where Minnesota Nice got watered down from, is it?

*lowers blinds*

The US is the world's number one supplier of weapons, treasure, and political power to the dictators that allow FGM.

― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), den 18 april 2012 23:58 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sweden is actually the world's number one supplier of weapons, if you count per capita. and constantly sell surveillance equipment and weapons to dictators, through government owned companies.

Why would you count per capita?

every Swede spends a few hours a day constructing and exporting weapons.

In between bites of cake, I suppose

Per capita's worth noting given that Sweden has about 9m people and the only countries who export more arms have at least seven times that.

Hmmm....did not know that. Per capita, of course.

Fwiw Sweden was the 1st country to legislate against FGM.

1st Western country

I still am not really seeing how the country's population correlates at all with its capacity/desire to produce weapons, or why that's an interesting statistic beyond "here is a list where Sweden comes first", unless you are looking at weapon manufacture in comparison with Sweden's other industries

bomb sweden

t's a sort of extreme distaste for getting into other people's lives and business. If what you do bugs me, I will avoid you forever before I call you out on it.

File under "things I have spent my adult life un-learning."

http://www.defencetalk.com/swedish-weapons-exports-on-the-rise-24690/

article on this from 2010. it doesn't say anything about sales relative to other countries tho.

Sweden's sixth in the world overall, after the US, Russia, France, China and the UK - all countries with traditionally much larger manufacturing industries and domestic armies.

at least in 2010, 80% of their exports went to the rest of europe. the bomb-basket of europe! like the danes and butter

I am not saying gross production isn't a useful or informative statistic; I am questioning the relevance/usefulness of per capita production in comparison with other countries.

That's really wild, i had no idea about that stuff.

Sweden = Saab Aerospace = fighter jet exports

bizarre thread where i inevitably find contenderizer's stances weasel-y & defensive

it may be that we're just not all that well suited to one another

http://sarahburningham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Heartbreak_Cookie.jpg

http://www.hayibo.com/africans-shocked-by-uncivilized-antics-of-european-savages/

is that like a European version of the Onion or something?

It has a separate category (alongside Arts & Entertainment / Sport / Politics) for Julius Malema - I'm guessing not.

Oh ok I did not pay attention too much to any of the details

/the only thing causes me to defer are my attitudes towards the responsibilities that attend power imbalances./

erg, subject verb. make that: "the only thing that causes me to defer is my personal conception of the ethical responsibilities that attend power imbalances"
--yuppie bullshit chocolate blogbait (contenderizer)

This is a pretty impressive way of saying "I tend to respect the experience of the offended party."

i knew i must have meant something

haha

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOI2GGY1SeE

Sort of feel bad for this guy

I would love to believe that this was just a case of neighbors being suspicious of people in an empty house, but I know it wasn't.

The Newton County Sheriff’s Office is investigating why a couple was confronted at gunpoint by neighbors and then arrested and forced to spend the night in jail when they tried to move into the home they had just purchased, Channel 2 Action News reported.

The Kalonji family had just closed on a foreclosed home and were told by their real estate agent they should go over to the house and change the locks.

But when Jean Kalonji and his wife, Angelica, started working at the home, an armed man and another person who appeared to be the man’s son allegedly confronted them.

“He say to put the hands up and get out from the house, otherwise he would shoot us,” the husband told Channel 2.

The neighbors didn’t believe the couple when they told them they had bought the home and called the Newton County Sheriff’s Office. The Kalonjis didn’t have the closing papers with them, so deputies arrested them, charged them with loitering and prowling and took them to jail.

Yvette Harris, the couple’s real estate agent, said they never should have been arrested.

“They rightfully own this house,” Harris said.

Kalonji, who grew up in the Congo, said the experience brought back painful memories.

“There, they put me down with the gun to my head, and come here, the same,” he said.

Mark Mitchell, spokesman for the Newton Sheriff’s Office, said authorities are “looking into it, exactly what occurred, why it occurred.”

A person at the neighbors’ house said no one wanted to talk to Channel 2 about the incident.

in before 50 commenters explaining that the Kalonjis shouldn't have been acting suspicious

You know, all these gun-happy freedom nuts could pick on some actual bad guys from time to time, instead of poor minorities just trying to get through life. Why don't we ever hear about this happening to some asshole CEO?

i think there's a chappelle show sketch about that

It's crazy how gun usage tends to slide from protection of self to protection of property to protection of property that you don't even have a personal interest in. Hey, someone is doing something mildly suspicious to a FORECLOSED FUCKING HOUSE. Should I call the police? No, I'll just go over there and force them to the ground with my gun.

You know we're LIVING in a SOCIETY!

and the reaction to slow police? "I could call the police but they'll be gone by the time the police get there! I need a gun!"

instead of

"I could call the police but they'll be gone by the time the police get there. Why do we not fund the police properly or have them concentrating on the correct priorities?!?"

xp to that english teacher vid: good lord wtf, that goes from sad to awkward offensive comedy sketch v quickly. he honestly says that he uses the word so he'll feel "more comfortable" with his black students. how do people get to that point in their lives/careers without even the slightest idea of what reclamation is?

as a sidenote, i really hate how in stories like these, there's always a rush to make sure that everyone watching it knows that the black child is an honor roll student, a football player, junior ROTC, boy scout, etc. i'm never sure how much of that narration is happening simply to describe the kid and his hobbies -- it usually comes off sounding like "he's on the good ones" and implying that it wouldn't be a story worth caring about if he came off as a "thug" to white people. can't help paying more attention to it after trayvon.

it's sad that kids have complete idiots for teachers

but really fucking common

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62QSiduReWo

i knew instantly, something was about to go terribly wrong...

"i'm the n[BEEP], AAAAAAAAHHHH!"

the irony of this attack?