rolling "Is This Racist?" thread

I guess at bottom, I'm willing to give 30 Rock of all shows a pass on any minor racism because all of the characters are original and complex enough to transcend it. The AA humor is what bothered me the most, because the implicit message seemed like "wink wink, you know there wouldn't be black people here otherwise."

OTOH I can think of some relatively progressive stuff the show has done with gender and sexual orientation, e.g. having a powerful, dominant gay male character (Will Arnett) and having a straight female impersonator. Even though they're played for comic effect, it's almost unheard of for network television to acknowledge the existence of such people.

Pretty much any time I see five asterisks together these days, I assume it either means "igger" or "ucker".

how do you figger?

i'm just a sucker.

Even though they're played for comic effect, it's almost unheard of for network television to acknowledge the existence of such people.

This kind of thing is surprising until you realize that we do live in a country where Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle is considered racially progressive.

that's a really good movie

i don't know about "racially progressive" but it's definitely smart about race

I don't think I've seen that movie since it first came out but yeah I don't think I can hate that movie

I think it's progressive in the fact that it's A) not a kung-fu movie and B) stars an actor of Asian descent anyway, in a lead role.

you mean two actors, right?

i'm not sure comic movies can really be progressive in a positive sense but harold and kumar is good, like 30 rock is often good, at limning white racism. and also good at analyzing the differences between how antiblack racism is expressed and institutionalized versus sort of nativist anti-Asian American racism.

Well really just starring one such actor is kind of unusual. In general American movies don't star actors who aren't white or black unless they're in roles that couldn't be replaced by a white guy. In some cases they're even willing to forgo major plot points in order to fit white guys in (see the blackjack movie 21). Obviously guys like John Cho and Kal Penn will always be able to find work in minor roles but to actually like, be on the poster, is really something

thanks for explaining

so what did you think of the movie, frogs?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_Ebony_Shoe

The Belgian Ebony Shoe. Really.

http://www.rsca.be/photodbase/articles/lukaku20110509.jpg http://www.rsca.be/photodbase/articles/boussoufa20090511.jpg

i was reading this article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Kompany and i saw the link and i was like "oh please oh please oh please"

Even with the 30 Rock talk, I'm so glad this thread is finally back on track.

Soccer, possible racist patronizing…. if that shoe turns out to be edible, I think we're going to be in business.

Werner Herzog and his crazy series of bets with Romelu Lukaku

Do you think the ebony shoe thing is more bad because it's an "ebony shoe" or because it's patronizing to have a separate award for best african footballer?

Little bit from column a, little bit from column b.

Maybe there's an award for the best Dominican player in baseball. And I have to keep reminding myself that other countries aren't quite the melting pot/salad bowl/spice rack that is the United States of America, so cherry picking out people of one particular continent there might not be the show stopper it is here.

But the EBONY SHOE? Again, I'm sure there is some historical explanation that 50 years ago when the firsat afdoaidsh;aopplayer coame to tbelgiaum theao;dfhdklsjfa, but EBONY SHOE?

Would love to see an award for the best white player in basketball

- "You have many awards, Mr. Kompany. What's this small one here?"

- "Oh, yes. That is my Ebony Shoe Award. I've won it multiple times."

- "Well, it certainly is ebony. Quite unusual. Tell me, how did you come about winning it?"

- "I was the best player from Africa in Belgian football. For this, they gave me an Ebony Shoe Award."

Not the best white player, frogs. Best player from Asia or Europe.

Though the first thing I did do is scan the list for South Africans.

yeah i've seen that ebony shoe before, the name is quite....striking

the idea of a prize for best african footballer isn't necessarily wrong, since a lot of excellent african football players have begun their careers in belgium, legacy of colonialism and product of a lax player registration system iirc

there was an entire team of players from the cote d'ivoire at beveren a one time

however the award being given to both african football players and those of african ancestry is patronizing and stupid, kompany was born in belgium and plays for the belgian national team but because he is half congolese he is somehow categorically different from flemish and wallonian players

belgium probably shdn't exist anyway so there's that

http://i.imgur.com/J8Q0n.jpg

kevin mirallas, five time winner of the platonic shoe given to belgian players of hellenic extraction

residual guilt for the Congo and King Leopold?!?

i'm guessing americans think it's racist primarily for the 'ebony and ivory' imagery rather than for belgium's near-genocidal exploitation of its colonies rare woods, minerals etc

platonic shoe is the shoe from which all other shoes derive shoeness presumably

I did think of Ebony and Ivory first, but now that you mention it, I had forgotten about that "Belgians In the Congo" line from We Didn't Start the Fire.

lol

I always tend to wonder if the Ebony shoe could be won by say a white Namibian/South African.

Also, I think Mbark Boussouffa won it a couple of times, who was born and grew up up in Amsterdam (sure of Moroccan descent, but still...)

also, would Ryan Giggs be able to win it

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9dCY0ixWanA/Tm6MH8oGgFI/AAAAAAAABso/DP9n8enFdqg/s1600/waffles.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/j7iGK.jpg

that doesn't even make a lick of sense. there are no fat chinese people?

I'm pretty sure the Chinese cook their rice too.

and i don't think they put of lot of butter on it

http://www.shanghaiist.com/attachments/shang_dan/cute-chinese-baby.jpg

so very fat

"switch from routine to rice"? Isnt white rice like the most routine side you could possibly make apart from mashed potato?

Not if you're a good Amurrican.

people in the U.S. didn't eat much rice at all, back when - getting people to think of it as something usual at dinner was a very long effort driven in part by the fact that you can grow it in eg Texas, Louisiana, South Carolina et al

Was rice uncommon in America in 1967? Really?

oic

recently I was told that a cafe is bring run by 'the chinese' (by which she meant 'a family of east asian descent')

idk know why their genealogy was a crucial element of who's running the cafe

I can't really back this up though this is mainly going on my old cookbooks from the fifties/sixties which often have some "for a change of pace, try a rice dish" thing - looks like on some quick googling that rice was being grown in the colonies from 1694 so I'm guessing the "eat more rice" thing is more of an "increase sales" deal than a "make people think of rice as a thing you eat" one, I don't know, I need a grant for further research on this