tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541500.post4908708599449230691..comments2024-03-28T18:35:54.237+09:00Comments on BigHominid's Hairy Chasms: fall of the Butter QueenKevin Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01328790917314282058noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541500.post-74750816321324684502013-06-30T02:14:13.423+09:002013-06-30T02:14:13.423+09:00Its very peculiar to me that whenever a white cele...Its very peculiar to me that whenever a white celebrity is skewered in the media for saying something like the n-word, a group of angry white people always come out to defend the celebrity quoting the whole "well black people call me cracker" mess. Double-standard? Yes! But guess what? The US government had a double standard for white and black people for a LONG TIME. How can a nation abolish slavery and give full rights and citizenship to a group of people and just expect the effects of that enslavement/second-class status to just vanish?<br /><br />No one is saying that Paula Deen should be put in jail. No one is saying that Deen should be censored by the government by threat of imprisonment. She is free to say whatever she wants. She can say the n-word all day long. Problem is that if her customers don't like what she is saying they are also free to boycott her business all day long. If I opened a Jewish style deli and put swastikas all over the windows should I feel victimized that all my customers left?<br /><br />And another thing that people seem to forget/minimize in all of this: black people in the US were enslaved, raped, tortured, and beaten for a LONG TIME. Why is it so hard to understand what an enormous effect that would have on a group of people? If the worst thing we're talking about here is people not wanting to support this woman, then what is the big problem?<br />I hear a lot of people who get upset with "having to be PC" nowadays. I understand and agree with that sentiment to a certain extent, but when it comes to something as simple as this, like simply saying "black" or "African-American" instead of "nigger", I find it so laughable that people get so upset about having to make that change. How is saying "black" instead of "nigger" somehow such a huge inconvenience? But maybe that's the point: those that refuse to make such a simple change that with give respect to a group that has suffered under this government in the (not so long ago) past will reap the negativity that results from that idiocy.Maqzitohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05999245248512331468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541500.post-57616473837072800502013-06-30T00:32:32.197+09:002013-06-30T00:32:32.197+09:00John,
"Just so I'm clear--if I use the n...John,<br /><br /><b>"Just so I'm clear--if I use the n-word I'm a racist. But is it racism if a black person calls me a cracker?"</b><br /><br />Yes, indeed. Blacks can be as racist as whites.<br /><br /><b>"Does calling someone a queen or a teabagger make you a homophobe? Who gets to call someone an Uncle Tom?"</b><br /><br />Considering the recent Alec Baldwin case, in which he used all manner of homophobic terminology to describe a British journalist who wrote that Baldwin's wife had been tweeting at James Gandolfini's funeral, I'd say that yes: Baldwin's revealing more than a mild case of homophobia.<br /><br /><b>"It just seems to me there is a double standard at work here. This piling on Deen is way over the top when so many others get a free pass."</b><br /><br />Undoubtedly. But this is no defense of Deen, who apparently has a <i>history</i> of making racist remarks. Personally, I'd love to see Baldwin crucified for what he said. And you're right: it's not gonna happen.Kevin Kimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01328790917314282058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541500.post-50026976835254244712013-06-29T23:28:21.643+09:002013-06-29T23:28:21.643+09:00Just so I'm clear--if I use the n-word I'm...Just so I'm clear--if I use the n-word I'm a racist. But is it racism if a black person calls me a cracker? Does calling someone a queen or a teabagger make you a homophobe? Who gets to call someone an Uncle Tom?<br /><br />It just seems to me there is a double standard at work here. This piling on Deen is way over the top when so many others get a free pass.Johnhttp://www.mccrarey.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541500.post-9627644048905521112013-06-28T23:51:14.022+09:002013-06-28T23:51:14.022+09:00Chip,
I hear you. When someone you love reveals ...Chip,<br /><br />I hear you. When someone you love reveals an unpleasant side of him- or herself, it's impossible to flip a mental/emotional switch and stop loving that person.Kevin Kimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01328790917314282058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541500.post-85288392340747381862013-06-28T23:17:32.193+09:002013-06-28T23:17:32.193+09:00When I was three or four I saw the first black peo...When I was three or four I saw the first black people I had ever met and I said something like "Look Mama!" while pointing. (This was in Maine in the late 60s). We were in a store and my mother grabbed my hand and yanked me, cartoon style with my legs practically off the ground, a few aisles over and angrily told me that "They don't like people to mention that". My recollection isn't that she didn't like black people, but that I had embarrassed her. I never thought of her as racist. I heard her use a racial epithet every once in a great while, although not in this case, and never in regards to a specific person. I never heard her say anything by the time I was in my teens.<br /><br />Fast forward to 2008 and Obama gets elected. Not only her, but her sister and brother - all around 80 years old - start throwing the n word around left and right whenever they were talking about Obama in private. I was shocked. I thought that they were long beyond that, but apparently the way they were raised in the 30s and 40s had stuck with them their entire lives and when a mixed race man became President those attitudes all came boiling to the surface again.<br /><br />Do I hate my relatives? Of course not. I'm just disappointed by this one aspect of theirs and when they start to get going on Obama I change the subject.Chip Laryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00787403805554027107noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541500.post-25165866090579579302013-06-28T14:49:16.844+09:002013-06-28T14:49:16.844+09:00Steve,
Good point. And having lived in South Kor...Steve,<br /><br />Good point. And having lived in South Korea for eight years, and having experienced racism myself, I'm a <i>lot</i> more sympathetic to the black situation in America than I used to be. Experience cultivates empathy. Racism, when supported by the surrounding community, most definitely "becomes its own environment"—pervasive, noxious, and cancerous.<br /><br />John,<br /><br />If I were black, and if a big, friendly white guy put his arm around my shoulder and told me fraternally that I was "the best damn nigger [he] ever met," I guarantee my feelings toward that guy wouldn't be positive, no matter how racially egalitarian his actions seemed. To my ears, he'd just sound <i>ig'nant.</i><br /><br />Obviously, there's a whole other discussion we could be having about the complex nature and history of racism, but I'm not going to weigh down this thread by following that path. Maybe, if I write another blog post devoted more generally to that topic...Kevin Kimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01328790917314282058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541500.post-58134974789237681802013-06-28T14:24:00.959+09:002013-06-28T14:24:00.959+09:00John,
You may have been writing your comment at t...John,<br /><br />You may have been writing your comment at the same time as I was writing my addendum to this post. (See above.)Kevin Kimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01328790917314282058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541500.post-49267667381887977572013-06-28T14:04:22.783+09:002013-06-28T14:04:22.783+09:00Racism, real hardcore racism, runs deep. The reaso...Racism, real hardcore racism, runs deep. The reason is that that sort of inbred, generational, institutionalized racism becomes its own environment--it becomes something that's so much a part of the person and the culture that it can't be seen any more.<br /><br />My in-laws were that sort of racist. They simply could not conceive that there was anything backward about the opinion. SJHoneywellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13550007053995112090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541500.post-6956166896262610522013-06-28T14:03:18.337+09:002013-06-28T14:03:18.337+09:00My father (born and raised in Memphis) used the n-...My father (born and raised in Memphis) used the n-word quite a bit while I was growing up. But I never saw him treat a person of color unkindly (hell, quite a few were shipmates and drinking buddies). Looking back, I put it in the same category as him never saying refrigerator, it was always an icebox. It was just the word he grew up.<br /><br />Regardless, actions speak louder than words. Your Nana expressed hatred towards people based on skin color. Deen used an inappropriate word, but absent some evidence of discriminatory treatment towards blacks, I'm not comfortable with branding her a racist.<br /><br />Frankly, hearing liberals brand any person of color who doesn't toe the party line as an Uncle Tom strikes me as at least equally offensive, yet they seem to get a free pass. I get so weary of these meaningless attacks on anyone who doesn't toe the PC line.<br /><br />I've never seen a worse racist than Al Sharpton, and he's got his own TV show. Ah well, it's all for show anyway. I'd prefer folks just be honest about it.Johnhttp://www.mccrarey.comnoreply@blogger.com