rolling "Is This Racist?" thread

yah fbs is a pin cushion for lazy/entrylev zings atm

I think his posting has changed for the better but I also think promoting some level of self-consciousness about what he's saying would be good.

"baby psychology"

x-post - I thought they both came off badly.

I don't think calling a guy out for being racist is particularly dickish. He was clearly angered by what the mayor said and I think was fairly restrained while making his point and even giving the dumb shit a chance to retract or rephrase what he said.

sorry for use of "dumb" there

if I was the reporter I would have let him keep talking, the mayor is very willing to hoist himself on his own petard, without much prompting.

Anyone who defends frogbs within minutes of him bringing up "racist against whites" is on some next level trolling, imho.

Journalists should let MORE people ramble on and hang themselves, tbh. Covering up the interviewee's real thoughts and/or softening them to make him more palatable probably contributes to people not realizing how HORRIBLE their leaders are.

x-post - Yeah, because I'm a notorious troll.

Laruel otm.

I wasn't serious, just seems really weird timing to start defending him!

walk it back

its not that fbs doesnt post terrible crap, just theres a lot of bad faith from ppl who appresh having such an easy outlet for cheap scorn

"appresh"

That's probably some amount of true, but he could stop being that outlet anytime.

appreesh is the correct spelling

and disappoint a lot of ppl xp

x-post - That's pretty much exactly what was bugging me.

I picked a really bad time to post this btw because I have 2 grant deadlines today but I just want to stress that I'm not disagreeing with the fact that FBS posts a lot of very questionable shit at all. It's just sort of weird how people seem to be going after every single thing he says lately. Not even talking about this thread specifically - just in general.

Then again I don't read every single post the guy makes so i might be wrong. It's just the impression that I've gotten over the past couple weeks.

That reporter did not come off badly in the slightest. If anything, I give him credit for not punching the mayor in the face on camera.

There is probably an argument about the reporter attempting to browbeat the mayor into his own point of view that could be made, but if the mayor had even an ounce of brains he could have said one of a bazillion things to defuse/de-escalate the situation, from saying "that was worded poorly" to "that joke didn't work" to not saying it in the first place.

An interesting info nugget that I didn't know:

Pedro Gutierrez, the owner of the Guti'z bakery, said the comment showed the mayor is out of touch because many Latinos in East Haven are from Ecuador, where tacos are not a part of cuisine, as they are in Mexico. But he said it also shows disrespect for all Hispanics.

So, not only was the comment flip and dismissive of a serious question, it also showed that the mayor doesn't know the demographics of his own city.

I am not inclined to give this fucker any ounce of leeway; the reporter could have shot him in the face on-camera and I would still side with the reporter.

FYI I kind of think anyone taking frog's "racist against whites" as a face-value earnest position needs to check themselves.

Uh, have you read his posts?

Don't be an ass.

Racist against asses.

I'm not trying to be an ass! There have been enough indications in his posts that he might actually think racism against whites is a real thing. At the very least he has a fundamental misunderstanding of racism and how it works.

I mean, right here ON THIS THREAD I am calling out actual questionable stuff he's written; the "racist against whites" post follows a pretty well-established pattern by now where people will pre-emptively accuse him of something so he wades in with both feet in what reads to me as a very unambiguous "whatever, you don't know me" attitude.

frogbs is definitely not worth arguing with a poster I like over

ha agreed!

Many xps to someone: Italians didn't used to be white, at least not I the sense of being unmarked in US society. Neither the Irish and Jews, notably. Cf. "no Irish need apply" etc. All these groups eventually became unmarked/"white" as post-immigration generations assimilated, spoke English, etc etc, because you know they had white skin. There's a book I haven't read called "How Jews Became White Folks" that is about this.

I just refer to myself as Non-Hispanic these days.

(xp) America is weird

Irish not white? LOL now I've heard everything.

The Irish became white after they'd been out of Ireland long enough to stop being a pasty pale blue.

part of frogsbs's charm is it's impossible to tell when he's kidding because it all is delivered the same

Seems like white = Protestant?

basically

There's a book I haven't read called "How Jews Became White Folks" that is about this.

great book. worth reading

"white folks" is kind of a catch-all for a specific blending-in or lack of obvious ethnic difference from the mainstream, right?

the journalist wasn't remotely being a dick, he was being a really good journalist, and i am stunned that in a universe where Fox News exists that this is confusing to anyone.

like, http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_puPnPftfoLI/TMM_6mXJIDI/AAAAAAAAAmM/KW3IZOWBGO0/s1600/Shit_from_Shinola.JPG

when i said "can't wait to read the frogbs defense" i was being sarcastic. cause i knew there was a 100% chance he was going to go with "racist against white people."

there are some msg boards on the internet that i read where fbs would be the most liberal one there (sports boards ugh), it's just surprising to see it at ilx. and it's surprising to see someone post so often in the "is this racist" thread, p much responding to every single thing with ridiculousness and a small amount of racism. it's cheap, but look what thread this is.

anyway frogbs, it is not possible for white people to be the victims of racism, because racism is systemic and requires power. in the arena of race, white people automatically have the privilege so it's not possible to exert racial power over us. and the twitter itself retweets mostly black people saying things written with AfAm dialect bits, most of which are obviously only there because he codes them as black and therefore stupid. the fact that he's a dick to some white people also doesn't mean that that racism isn't clear as day.

anyway frogbs, it is not possible for white people to be the victims of racism, because racism is systemic and requires power. in the arena of race, white people automatically have the privilege so it's not possible to exert racial power over us. and the twitter itself retweets mostly black people saying things written with AfAm dialect bits, most of which are obviously only there because he codes them as black and therefore stupid. the fact that he's a dick to some white people also doesn't mean that that racism isn't clear as day.

hey man, I apologize, I didn't think you'd actually seriously reply to that!

i'm not even sure why you'd think anyone would have to defend a joke twitter account!

in the arena of race, white people automatically have the privilege so it's not possible to exert racial power over us.

Congratulations, you have made me think "I wish Momus was still here".

anyway frogbs, it is not possible for white people to be the victims of racism, because racism is systemic and requires power. in the arena of race, white people automatically have the privilege so it's not possible to exert racial power over us.

maybe totally off-topic here, but i'm not sure this is true. pretty much 100% of all claims of racism against white people in America is bogus subterfuge used to cover up actual systemic racism. at the same time, i'm pretty sure white people can be victims of racism

nope. prejudice, discrimination, perhaps. most dictionaries don't agree, but dictionaries aren't perfect. racism is power + prejudice, and suggesting otherwise is derailing in conversations about actual racism. which is both personal AND systemic. white people will never be systemically victimized. it's important to make this distinction.

So, just checking, it it racist to call you a ignorant Yank with no concept of difference between your country and others?

restricting that generalization to America is probably wise (see my ranting upthread about Kazakhstan)

Or, in the interest of fairness, possibly some awareness of the difference, but no concept that it should stop you making grand pronouncements?

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a319/fladj11/Signs%20Pics%20and%20Sayings%202/GeorgeCastanzaEatingPopcorn.gif

is "yank" even a racially loaded word? you can call me a stupid cracker and it wouldn't be racist. my feelings might be a lil bit hurt but not because of racism, just cause you would be acting kind of a dick.

insert that louis ck bit about this. like, you can do a million little things against me that appear to be based off my race, but in the end of the day i will still have racial privilege and power.

That's crazy.