rolling "Is This Racist?" thread

oh i get it

While I gave Nacho Libre a chance, I was a different person.

^ nomination for favorite sentence on ILX this year

Wow!

I grew up with my mother and grandmother watching a lot of novelas, and something that parodies those same beats (with Will Ferrell, no less!) has the potential to make me laugh pretty hard. But are other people's laughs going to come from the same places? Or will they come from pure derision?

Thinking about this some more, like--I might laugh at a parody of a novela because I recognize it as mocking the familiar (to me) silly tropes of a novela. I think Will Ferrell (or whoever) might argue that those silly tropes are kinda universally recognized as silly; that "worth laughing at" is "worth laughing at" no matter whose culture it originates from. And I guess the counterargument to that is something about power relations--that there's an ethical weight to the history of power relations between two groups, and the history of whites holding power over Mexicans means that their laughter at Mexican culture always has that weight behind it?

I don't know if this is totally the wrong thread for this, obviously I'm kinda thinking out loud and figuring this out as I go. These are complicated issues for me personally, but I'm trying to work through them to come out the other side with some kind of more widely applicable analysis.

Ha! I was though...

haha

also where is max or cr?m to puncture all my illusions of cultural ownership and authenticity

Several layers of complications. Then there is what it means to me vs how it is perceived. How often I have thrown out and ignored how it is perceived only to have that be the main focus later on...

Right??

This is all very important to me, since I'm having a daughter soon and though I don't know what she will look like yet, she will be biracial. I fear the day when either kids make fun of her for speaking spanish and having pale skin or blue eyes and having my last name or having darker skin with my last name and speaking english well. I am hopeful that this won't be a problem for my daughter, but I remember how cruel other kids can be.

this is a pretty good writeup of Casa:

http://www.salon.com/2012/03/16/pick_of_the_week_will_ferrells_incredibly_strange_mexican_adventure/singleton/

..and of course I say that as someone who hasn't seen it speaking to other people who haven't seen it.

Making fun of stereotypes can be hilarious and sort of a relief, but when there's the chance it reinforces those stereotypes it becomes scary to me.

i definitely plan to see the movie fwiw

Me too

Big Hoos, ever discussed whether Cri-Cri's songs were racist or not? I have actually had that discussion on a board once.

the only amusing thing I've seen in any of the Casa trailers was Nick Offerman asking Will Ferrell if he spoke English and Ferrell responding in Spanish "No sir, I do not speak any English." Which was dumb.

He doesn't say "English" he says "American" -- v different!

ah right; I only saw it once

I just saw a guy wearing a t-shirt that said "Did I really just ask A MEXICAN for directions?!"

http://busblog.tonypierce.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/icecreamtruckdancerssj1.jpg

somehow i knew the "re-nig" sticker would already be here but i checked anyway...

i mean tbh i always read heston's brownface as welles just highlighting (oof) the pulpy artifice of the entire project. granted i was mad lifted the first time i saw it.

i feel for obese-americans slighted by Welles' wearing of fatface in that movie

something about the fact will ferrell and the directors being the only prominent non Hispanics in the cast/crew (and the involvement of many well known Latinos) would suggest at least superficially that the movie is not out and out racist. I think it looks like it has potential at least

http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/g.OsYOoqqxp3wgdxSGI4.Q--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en/blogs/thesideshow/bumpersticker.jpg

oh what the FUCK

somehow i knew the "re-nig" sticker would already be here but i checked anyway...

― Wesley Crusher: Teenage F#ck Machine (forksclovetofu), Friday, March 16, 2012 2:23 PM (6 hours ago)

somehow i knew the "re-nig" sticker would already be here but i checked anyway...

alas I did not lol

seriously WHAT THE FUCK

it's a delightful play on the word "renege" do u c

goes well with "my other car is also an asshole"

I can't see much besides red at the moment

brb, angrily posting on Facebook

I'd feel pretty okay about the owner of that car getting eaten by wolves.

About 85,600 results (0.19 seconds)

21 "news" articles about racist picture on Facebook

https://news.google.com/news/more?q=%22don't+re-nig%22&hl=en&prmd=imvnsu&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&ix=seb&ion=1&biw=2088&bih=1264&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ncl=dP0EGG-qrF6fEVMH-H_lGRDANyE6M&ei=4KVjT62QCYr50gGbgam1Cg&sa=X&oi=news_result&ct=more-results&resnum=1&ved=0CCsQqgIwAA

courtesy of Stumpy's Stickers

whose server has crashed, apparently

Bumper stickers have long been a common way for drivers to show opposition or support for political candidates. -- The Daily Beast

8,560 comments on HuffPo on picture someone posted to Facebook

"powered by zen cart"

I don't really think that sticker belongs in this thread. The only possible way you could doubt the racist intent behind it is if you were blind. But even then, blind people's other senses are supposed to compensate for their lack of sight, so I'm sure some of them would pick up on the virulence with their racehate-dar.

we've already been over how this is more of a "This is racist!" thread than it's title would suggest

just saw this on DJP's FB. Words fail me. I google image searched to see if there was anymore and just... wow

Yep, I've seen it all over FB the last few days. Sadly I think there are ppl in my family who would buy it without a second thought.

try reading the s+0rmfr0n+ thread on this sticker for lots of laffs.

sorry, not providing a link.

no apology necessary...

Vile shit on the Internet.... Let's continue to post it on ILX?

i do propose we return to the thread's original topic of at least questionable instances of racism

I mean, how about I start a thread called "Dead or Alive?" featuring 4chan gifs of russian dashboard videos and chinese crosswalk cams.

and when we get something truly gruesome, we can all go "it's a shame, just what is wrong with people?"

kind of implicated yourself with that amount of detail

I remember when I was surfing the web while my wife was out of town... seems a thousand centuries ago. A friend sent me this link that he had found on an auto repair message board. There were some funny gifs of monkeys falling out of trees, a turtle biting a dog on the nuts, maybe a topless hula dancer. There was this banner of an old man with no teeth and he was crying. He couldn't see. I went back to the main menu and there was a thread called Dead or Alive? Inside were gifs J. Budd Dwyer, motorcycle accidents, a guy jumping out of a burning building and a dog licking up its own vomit. And I remember... I... I... I cried, I wept like some grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out; I didn't know what I wanted to do! And I want to remember it. I never want to forget it... I never want to forget. And then I realized... like I was shot... like I was shot with a diamond... a diamond bullet right through my forehead. The Horror.

http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/some_came_running/2012/03/briefly-noted.html