rolling "Is This Racist?" thread

idk if I was looking for that particular meme I'd type in "thinking black guy"

In recent months, Mr. Trump has used closed-door conversations to question the authenticity of President Barack Obama’s birth certificate. He has also repeatedly claimed that he lost the popular vote last year because of widespread voter fraud, according to advisers and lawmakers.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/28/us/politics/trump-access-hollywood-tape.html?_r=0

it's like damien thorn is the US budget director

http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=C23C3PqVgR0

"in a perfect world we wouldn't need poverty programs" amazing

what's on mulvaney's forehead?

It's Ash Wednesday

ah

because helping people who need help is what leads to.. people needing more help? of course!

white house statements that read like onion headlines

https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/need-know-violent-animals-ms-13/

Too many innocent Americans have fallen victim to the unthinkable violence of MS-13’s animals.

Oh ferchrissakes! What about dozens of innocent victims who are wedding guests in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and other places, who keep getting violently blown to bits by the heinous animals at the US Department of Defense, who use drone-fired missiles to kill, maim and spread terror?

That's a White House statement? Sadly it's far too late to say, good luck, USA.

Made me go wtf. It'd been a while.

Oh ferchrissakes! What about dozens of innocent victims who are wedding guests in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and other places, who keep getting violently blown to bits by the heinous animals at the US Department of Defense, who use drone-fired missiles to kill, maim and spread terror?

well, those folks are brown

the folks in ms-13 are brown

you can probably join the dots yrself from there

calling 'some people' "animals" is fine. but don't you dare call real americans "deplorable"!

good job whitehouse now do one for "shithole" countries

https://patch.com/new-jersey/cherryhill/cherry-hill-east-principal-apologizes-insensitive-prom-ticket?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=blasts&utm_content=national

NEW: mugshot of the man accused of walking into Boulevard Mall with a fake gun. Emile Daren Hobson has been charged with committing an act of terrorism. @FOX5Vegas pic.twitter.com/QG30Crnw4i

— Tiana Bohner (@FOX5_Tiana) May 18, 2018

wow bad news for the white girl who was walking around Kent State with a rifle

utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=blasts&utm_content=national

facebook.com social campaign blasts national - probably racist

the barrier is Barack Obama, who radicalized the party with his pessimism, who reminded us of past sins, who told Americans they should feel ashamed of themselves

https://nypost.com/2018/07/09/its-not-bernie-whos-holding-the-democrats-back-its-obama/

and then fulfilled by Trump, who has radicalized our pessimism, committed himself to past sins, and made Americans feel ashamed of ourselves

no, really

https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/charlottes-city-council-votes-to-accept-contracts-to-host-rnc-in-2020/275-574409498

BAD OPTICS

https://secondnexus.com/news/trump-administration-not-assist-obama/

I keep getting called "bro", "broski", or some other variation of the term, by black guys. It feels like I'm being made fun of for being a generic white doucher. Which tbh is how I present but anyway. I'm getting through it.

sounds like a scene from Blindspotting

i think you are overreacting

i wouldn't worry until you get called 'brian scalabrine'

I keep getting called "bro", "broski", or some other variation of the term

Are you Polish?

Does “spook” have several meanings or nah? Bc I use “spook” the way we might refer to our resident ILX user’s profession but also I have heard it used against POC so help me out here. Is it one of those things where we need to phase it out bc it’s too close for comfort or is it context specific thank you

You can’t go wrong not using words that can be confused for being kinda racist even if they aren’t necessarily so.

The Human Stain to thread

right obv but also I’m just asking more broadly

I think it’s context specific but also understand why the BBC renamed the show to “MI5” when they brought it over here

A spy is sometimes called a spook because their profession requires them to adopt a certain invisibility. Black people have been called spooks because, supposedly, being black makes them invisible in the dark and this was considered a humorous idea by racists. No black person should be called a spook under any circumstances, but one can usually pick out the intended idea easily enough from the context.

This seems a bit like the controversy over using the word niggardly to describe a cheapskate.

I think it can be useful in describing a spy working within a specific context... but you want to be sure it can't be confused with the epithet which is dated but still offensive xxp

Also I am tempering two pop culture references,

One is back to the future which is obv derogatory and,

A Bloom County cartoon where Steve Dallas is dancing like Michael Jackson and he’s internally monologue-ing about whether he’s working for the feds or not

Niggardly is so obviously antiquated and trolly that is should be retired.

Also sort of related I did a deep dive on “shyster” and it’s historically more about “sheiesse” but it’s veering so close to “Shylock” that it falls in the same not-ok place

Anyway thank u all for this frank and honest discussion

There are so many racist epithets that I've never heard of and only learned about in mid-adulthood. Cf someone I'm normally friendly with unselfconsciously using the word "Shylock" in a phone convo while I was standing right there.

I'd been thinking that it might not be a bad idea to have a thread for words whose racist/xenophobic origins you were not previously aware (cue the story about that one time when I was a kid and had the misfortune of learning what a particular Devo song title meant only after I'd walked through a room singing it while my mom's friend (whose son has Down Syndrome) was visiting).

No I think that's probably not a good idea.

I predict the existence of the thread would prompt a lot of posts that will basically be micro-/aggressions to readers. I regret my anecdotal post above already, because I felt really shocked and bad when it happened and it wasn't even about me. I don't want that experience to continue to hurt others on the internet.

Hmm. I'm just thinking about that thing where hateful speech is so seamlessly absorbed into our culture and seemingly defanged with time and distance that it becomes very easy to thoughtlessly use words and phrases that seem completely innocuous but which have sinister origins. Like I only just learned about 'peanut gallery'.

What exactly did you just learn?

Originally a derogatory reference to unwanted commentary from African Americans relegated to the cheap seats.

You should probably go unlearn that.

If you have some information to share...

I'd been thinking that it might not be a bad idea to have a thread for words whose racist/xenophobic origins you were not previously aware (cue the story about that one time when I was a kid and had the misfortune of learning what a particular Devo song title meant only after I'd walked through a room singing it while my mom's friend (whose son has Down Syndrome) was visiting).

just had to look up if "Blockhead" had any meaning I was previously unaware of

xp The cheapest seats in vaudeville theatres (IE the highest) were also the ones that saw the most consumption of peanuts, the cheapest of the snack foods. Which also made them more likely to heckle by throwing them.

Right, I get that. But also: who do you imagine the holders of the cheapest seats were during the heyday of vaudeville?

I imagine that a significant percentage were African American, but I'm not sure that's how this works, unless you're claiming that all class-based insults are inherently racist?

I think the suggestion is that all the theaters were segregated and that a whites-only theater had a peanut gallery too? eg we are aaalllllll classist

i don't know how reputable this site is but it seemed fairly well written and researched (which suggests it's not racial)
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2015/03/origin-phrase-peanut-gallery/