rolling "Is This Racist?" thread

Like my mom always said, if you can't say something nice about a person... click on the Flag Post link.

frog post

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

http://savethefrogs.com/art/2009/images/Frog-with-Flag-Michael-John-Kongo.jpg

"LOL, Fuck Muamba. He's dead." wasn't the tweet that got the authorities' attention, right? I should certainly hope not. Anyway, what were the tweets that got the cops after him?

yeah, they don't say what the actual offending tweets were. probably for the best that they're not reprinted.

"According to the dictionary [the N word] does not mean black. It means a low down, lazy, sorry, low down person. That’s what the N word means."

what dictionary is this???

hasn't Elvis Costello argued the same thing? ("Oliver's Army" uses the word but really isn't about black people)

otm

don't trust elvis costello's cred on this issue

no elvis costello is well-known to be a really sensitive, intelligent interrogator of race

Woman Is The Low Down, Lazy, Sorry, Low Down Person Of The World

hey, has there been discussion on the death o trayvon martin anywhere else on this board?

Bicentennial Low Down, Lazy, Sorry, Low Down Person Of The World

hasn't Elvis Costello argued the same thing? ("Oliver's Army" uses the word but really isn't about black people)

It isn't? Really?

thought it was about kids in Ireland? what's your interpretation?

re: Trayvon Martin, Florida's "stand your ground" law is incredibly fucked up

i've been wondering why trayvon hasn't gotten much talk except for i think a link upthread. doesn't really belong in the "is this racist" thread but i'm sure certain members can come up with a defense of zimmerman.

re: Trayvon Martin, Florida's "stand your ground" law is incredibly fucked up

the fact that costello specifies "one less white n****r" makes me think... maybe that is not such a racially neutral term?

then again, i'm no elvis costello

I'm sorry, I was trying to play faux-naif there.

Is there anyone who thought "Oliver's Army" was about black people?

Karaoke and the "n word"

i started a trayvon thread like 20 minutes ago

http://www.theroot.com/buzz/teacher-student-read-poem-blacker

"I don't know why I posted it. I'm not racist and some of my friends are from different cultural backgrounds."

it's probably not worth pondering too hard, but i often wonder what distinction people who say this are trying to draw.

Elvis Costello putting the word "white" in front of the n-word kind of makes its racial connotations inarguable

the trayvon story is incredibly fucked up

what dictionary is this???

Webster's New Racist Dictionary, 15th ed.

the grape soda bit in that story sort of pushes it into chappelle's show territory.

Anyway, what were the tweets that got the cops after him?

those tweets, definitely racist

http://youtu.be/nA5v2eZ5ZZE

welp

ah, so that's who Dom was retweeting.

I've posted a couple of Trayvon Martin bits on FB, but I guess I didn't realize it hadn't been discussed here before. Hugely tragic, and it's going to be rage-making if Zimmerman gets off without even being charged with anything.

a friend of mine has done the copy for some of the news reports. it's fucking sickening.

when the law was passed a few years ago, most citizens were like "oh, here we go"...and here is the legacy of said law.

esp when that dickhead used to call the cops over menial shit. like he sounds like an overexcitable neighborhood watch dude that suffers from delusions of grandeur and thinks himself a hero and doesn't realize he created the alleged danger that he 'defended' himself from. wouldn't be surprised if he actually believes he did nothing wrong.

foul. did not hear about this until now

the cops saying that the screams were Zimmerman's. why would a dude with a loaded gun be screaming for help? it doesn't even fit occam's razor, his story.

Hopefully the FBI investigation picks up where our incompetent local Sheriffs failed. not that it will be difficult to do a better job. Sanford cops once took about 10 minutes to respond to an alarm I set off by mistake in a theatre once...when they were located down the street.

god, that whole thing is so fucking infuriating. the cops "correcting" explicit witness statements saying that martin screamed for help to indicate that it was zimmerman who shouted.

This guy was a well-intentioned youth with snacks just walking. I got really sad a minute ago, kind of relating that to an ilxor

Nuke Florida

see like...here's the thing. even IF Zimmerman was telling the truth about being jumped (and I have less than 10% confidence in that)...let's examine the events leading up to this.

You call the cops to report suspicious activity which essentially equates to being a 17 year old boy aimlessly walking about town. You have a gun on you that is loaded (in violation of Neighborhood Watch protocol). You pursue the teen, despite the dispatcher telling you not to do it.

You presumably confront the teen for no reason, the teen reacts aggressively, and you shoot him.

Even in THAT scenario, how can he claim self-defense if he provoked an unnecessary altercation and then shot an unarmed man? Granted I don't believe Zimmerman's version of the story anyway, but it's ridiculous that he thinks his version of events make him look that much better.

xpost can I at least pack my things before I flee?

sad thing is, my expectations are that after the FBI investigates, Zimmerman still won't be charged...A. because of the ridiculous Florida law, but B. because so much time has passed now since the incident.

I'm sure they'll find all kinds of evidence of neglect on the police department's end and will sharply rebuke them, as well as Zimmerman, but that's gonna mean a whole lotta fuckall . I'm really hoping I'm wrong though.

an unarmed boy on the sidewalk vs a man in a car -- i can't think of a single situation that would ever require the latter to defend himself. unless driving away unscathed is considered a defensive maneuver.

At the very least Zimmerman has been named and shamed in the media. Thats... some kind of rough justice at the least? No... it isnt, but you know.

There is a chance that, even if the Florida law makes state homicide prosecution impossible (and that is a large if), Fed investigation would lead to charges filed for violations of Trayvon's rights.

Given who posted it, this http://www.theroot.com/buzz/teacher-student-read-poem-blacker was probably gotcha-bait, but I do think it's worth looking at -- there's a fine-line between a genuine interest in dialect and being a dickhead who wonders why we can't have Amos n' Andy anymore. (More Than voiceover dude being one of those dickheads, goddammit.)

xp I bet there are a nontrivial number of people in his neighborhood and nationwide who consider him a hero now. America is actually just that fucked up.

Pretty sure the teacher who asked to read the poem "blacker" is an ignorant asshole.

there were definitely a couple of uncomfortable times in high school in which my teachers tried to match eye dialect

ah, there's nothing like fielding the "what do your people think of slavery?" question in a high school class