rolling "Is This Racist?" thread

I have an honest ITR: a friend of mine believes that any celebration involving the breaking of a piñata is inherently racist, unless it is a celebration entirely by and for Mexican people. This had never occurred to me before, but I'd be perfectly happy to accept that it is correct. Do you agree with my friend or not?

My huge almost-entirely-white extended family has included a piñata at our family reunion / Christmas celebration every year for decades in a manner that had previously seemed to me to be free of its historical cultural context (the piñata is not a traditional or stereotypical shape or color, there is no obvious element of "Mexican blackface" surrounding the breaking of it: no costumes, no broken spanish is spoken, etc).

What prompted this specifically was this event , which I'd thought it might be fun to go to, before my friend objected.

oh god i'm a racist aren't i

wikipedia lol suggests that the pinata has roots in chinese, european and mesoamerican tradition, & that the word itself is of italian origin. similar traditions exist all over the world. never heard anyone suggest that the pinata is the reserved and sacred cultural property of mexicans, but i suppose i wouldn't know.

Ha, no fucking way is this racist. If it is, I'll be sure to tell the Hispanic owner of the party store we get our annual birthday piñatas from, that sorry, his products are racist when purchased by people who look like my family.

there is plenty of racist bullshit that happens when white people throw cinco de mayo parties but a pinata used by white people is not inherently racist imo. if they wear sombreros and fake mustaches while swatting at the pinata, it's a different story though

thinking a pinata at a party is inherently racist is kind of getting us to a point where cultural exchange should be shut down entirely

is it racist if i drink tequila?

only if you do it at a Mexican restaurant

I bought some fireworks, is that racist?

fireworks originated in china, you asshole. unless you're chinese you better shelve those

brb building a pinata filled with fireworks.

we're going to hang it and hit it with lit torches, it will be epic.

please don't use the word "epic" unless you are Ancient Greek and blind

otm

brb building a pinata filled with fireworks.

― Disagree. And im not into firey solos chief. (Phil D.), Friday, June 6, 2014 8:58 AM (3 hours ago)

ha, i took these at a friend's rehearsal dinner:

http://i.imgur.com/TJ8QK0a.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/CF42WnB.jpg

a hate crime, imo

The main reason I asked was that I kind of felt where my friend was coming from w/r/t the pinata breaking being part of a cinco de mayo party called "Cinco de Mayhem" that was attended almost 100% by non-Mexican white people. I was just conflicted because I have such fond feelings about my family's Christmas pinata, but I thought I might have, like, a racial blind spot the way Dutch people do about Sinterklaas' 6 to 8 black assistants

your family's pinatas have 6 to 8 black assistants?

american "let's wear sombreros & get fucked on tequila" cinquo de mayo appropriation is much more questionable, imo

okay, sorry for xpost. where is undo.

http://i.imgur.com/l2DSLMt.gif

w/r/t the pinata breaking being part of a cinco de mayo party called "Cinco de Mayhem" that was attended almost 100% by non-Mexican white people.

See, the piñata is the part not being racist here.

i'm sure our Irish readers have similar feelings about the appropriation of St Patrick's day

"What do I want to drink? How 'bout one of those Decapitated Cartel Agents, you know, a little rum and tequila mixed together with grenadine.

What's that? It's St. Patrick's Day, not Cinco de Mayo? Oh yeah, well, how about an Irish Car Bomb then."

otm

http://www.timeout.com/chicago/music/downtown-sound-omar-souleyman

Though a firm favourite of more leftfield festivals and audiences, Omar Souleyman (not to be confused with Detroit legend Omar S) is really as accessible as hummus. The Syrian singer never fails to galvanise a crowd, channelling Middle Eastern music through a techno-informed prism, and is helped out as always by his master keyboardist Rizan Said by his side.

Omar Souleyman: smooth, creamy, available in 8 and 16 ounce containers in your grocer's produce section

what ppl do on paddy's day is nothing to me as an irishman

http://thatsthejoke.net/thatsthejoke.jpg

http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/3174503/chickens.gif

suggest ban nation

micks I can waive

*applause*

it's a type of it, yeah. but is it racist

i'm hispanic and i'm not crazy about speedy gonzales, primarily b/c it because it was used by white kids i grew up with as nicknames/slurs for hispanic people

― marcos, Tuesday, May 13, 2014 12:36 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

many xp. i cant wait to explain to my daughter who speedy etc. also airport dude at ORD brought out a mexican joke for no reason yesterday.

"Great White Shark"

unsure

Awesome Hispanic Whale

curvy colombian crustacean

@lawblob
Why is there no great white shark week?

Every week is great white shark week.

http://www.vice.com/read/austin-was-built-to-be-segregated

haha

Follow Luke Winkie on Twitter.

only 90s ilxkidz will get this

I just saw a blackpeoplemeet.com commercial, figured there had to be a whitepeoplemeet parody, and OH NOES

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwl2y-1SJ2c

Was in a 4th of July parade yesterday. The group beyond us was the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Their bagpipe player played a rendition of Hava Negila. Didn't know what to make of that.

Rolling Stone just had an article about Texas and the gun nuts who live there. One of the Jewish participants of a gun rally drops Judah Benjamin's name and I guess stands back to give the New York reporter plenty of space to beg forgiveness.

Is 'people of ethnicity' an actual term? I am in the UK and someone has used this in talking about 'diversity awareness' training and it sounds like a dressed-up version of 'those ethnics'.

Yeah that's terrible. It's like saying you're only "a race" if you're not white, as if whiteness is the default/neutral from which all else diverges.

A fb friend of mine who is black who I talk about music with a lot got a little insulted that I posted a led zeppelin song on his feed (I knew he didn't generally like them and I was curious to see if he would like The Wanton Song in light of other stuff he likes) -- he said he finds them "almost racist." I hadn't really thought of them that way before in spite of everything I know about their stealing from blues artists etc. etc., yet it sort of seemed obvious why someone could feel that way once he said it -- there's definitely something minstrely about their antics. Then again, that probably applies to like half of rock music up to a certain point in time.

xp Right? My o/h was really taken aback by it but the rest of the email is all about how they've undergone training and built a bespoke training package for staff etc so I wondered if I'd missed something.