rolling "Is This Racist?" thread

props to SD's abdul ref btw

wait, me? What?

he means my display name

like if some indie bicycle bacon bring-your-dog event was called "off the chain" or something

this doesn't raise any alarms for me, tbh. dumb, but not something i'd consider having concerned words over.

yeah goole you might be overthinking that one a bit, unless it was packaged in like gothic script and "urban" stylings. basic ppl say 'off the chain' now, calling an imaginary (but v v possible esp in mpls) event maybe racist is a little hand-wringy.

if anything such an event would be ageist because no one my age thinks anything is off anything else unless it's a hook

off tm

^^^ ageist

i think she was making an 'on the money' joke

By "my age" do you mean your distinguished colleagues of my approximate years, or tiny tiny babies?

Remember I am very old.

idiom is cyclical, the decrepit are almost always the mothers of youthful invention, i look forward to the day when my brood gathers about my knee all babbling "cool beans!"

nb i have never uttered the phrase 'cool beans' and may god strike me down the day that happens

I caught myself using "hella" yesterday.

lol at Laurel being "very old"

I think I have blouses that are older than most of the women on ILX.

who among us does not say off the chain?????

i don't think i've ever heard anyone say that phrase unironically

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEO805O76qM

To be safe, I never utter anything unironically

This week's neo-fascist bloopers summer special:

Plan B in Skrewdriver t-shirt blunder, oops that's embarrassing:
http://thequietus.com/articles/09423-plan-b-apology-for-skrewdriver-t-shirt-misunderstanding

Opera singer withdraws from Bayreuth festival due to having a swastika tattooed on his chest wtf:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/22/russian-singer-quits-bayreuth-festival

So that opera singer changes his chest tat from this:

http://static.blogo.it/soundsblog/nikitin_evgeny-400x300-432x324.jpg

...to this:

http://bilder.bild.de/fotos-skaliert/nikitin-27562424-mbqf-25247682/2,h=493.bild.jpg

What I haven't seen commented on is the fact that he still plainly has the Algis rune on his chest, hello:
http://www.adl.org/hate_symbols/neo_nazi_life_rune.asp

I was gonna say!

nazis stole all the best symbols : (

a white rapper actually wearing a white-power T-shirt in public is like a Paris song coming to life

The shirt's image is from a photograph in one of those SKINHEAD CULTURE straight-ups books (not Nick Knight's SKINHEAD but similar) - it's not a Skr3wdriver tee. Subject is standing in front of a wall with the band's name graffiti-scrawled upon it.

Still, an avoidable shitstorm because that's not immediately obvious and it appears nobody involved knew the reference, anyway: I probably would've asked the stylist to change shirts to have a few looks for the shoot... and then winnow out the offensive shirt when choosing the images for the feature. Dumb, dumb Shortlist fashion department. Dumb, dumb Plan B - when musicians dress for a shoot, it's important for them to remember that an exchange of views about wardrobe choices with everyone who sees an image in a magazine is impossible.

I kind of can't get over the fact that dude calls himself Plan B tbh

it's because he is taken orally after unprotected sex

iirc this book is about race war: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_B_(novel)

odds of a skinhead being a chester himes fan probably pretty low tho

This just in: Plan B is not a skinhead, not wearing a white power t-shirt.

xp no just a coincidence

The Yevgeny Nikitin is a little more complex. I work in opera; one of the singers in the current Bayreuth production of Holländer is a good friend of mine (I have not discussed this incident with him -- they are in full-on "save the production" mode with another singer), and other friends of mine have worked with him. When a gay person of color who I know to be an intense anti-fascist tells me "Yevgeny is no Nazi", I believe it. The tattoos were a dumb-ass youthful decision that he does not want to remove -- he covered the Swastika and keeps the rune (which was also widely reported in the German press) because it has more contemporary non-Nazi meaning.

What's insane about this is that it's the Bild newspaper -- the Daily Mail of Germany -- that started this story, and that he left after intense pressure from the Wagner family and Foundation. I have heard from good insider sources that several family members remain, erm, true believers, and I know that other folks in the Wagner Foundation are big ol' Nazis. Saw a concertante performance of a Wagner opera in honor of a board member recently (outside of Germany, it must be said); in the audience was a young man wearing an outfit based on a stylized SS uniform, and he was not wearing it ironically and he was greeted warmly by the guest of honor. The Wagner scene in German-speaking Europe has some pretty fucking creepy elements that get most obvious in Switzerland.

That is really interesting; I figured there had to be a lot more to the story because I find it really hard to imagine that a dude covered in racist tattoos would be able to get a lot of contemporary opera work

(although I am not finding the more contemporary non-Nazi meaning for that rune very easily)

Oh, new age and pagan types use the rune. More than those types use the swastika, too.

One reason he gets gigs is that he's pretty good;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOrdhb6z9us
he also has excellent stage presence, which is (unfortunately) more important in the German-speaking opera world.

yeah he is good, I'll be over here silently hating on him

Opera nazis, who knew

(not meant ironically)

Oh, new age and pagan types use the rune.

The quickest way to ruin your argument imo

yeah he is good, I'll be over here silently hating on him

goes for Wagner too obv

Just reporting, haven't met or worked with the guy. I generally trust my friend's judgement, though. Have met (in Europe) other ex-boneheads who didn't get rid of their tattoos.

http://pigeonsandplanes.com/2012/07/interview-gunplay-speaks-on-drugs-swastikas-and-his-deal-with-def-jam.html/2

http://cdn.pigeonsandplanes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/gunplay2.jpg

The swastika tattoo is a big controversial topic amongst your fans as well as critics. Can you clear the air on that?

that's some crazy ass shit

dumbass

aaron mcgruder character

lol, otm

I wonder what the tattoo artist who did that design for him was thinking during the process

probably "when is Ashton Kutcher going to jump out at me"

kinda can't help but lol at a black man with a swastika tattooed on him sorry

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jul/26/london-2012-greek-upset-racism-ban

I don't even get the joke!

It was poorly formed.