|
Alumbrado -> RE: Racist or not? (8/11/2008 12:39:32 PM)
|
quote:
A relative of mine was verbally attacked in a department store by a woman in line next to her while trying to return something that came out of the box busted. Because the item was on clearance, they would not let her return the item and she said "What a gyp." meaning of course, that she thought she had been ripped off. The woman next to her called her a racist because the phrase was originally a racial slur against gypsies. It has long since passed into the vernacular and is not typically recognised as having any racist connotation, since most people don't even know the etymology of the phrase. I fail to see how anything can be racist without prejudice or the intent to discriminate behind it. I respect the right those who have suffered discrimination to take offense at overt reminders of that, but I am also of the opinion that I need not join that fight. It is their problem, not mine. I am half-German, but I have never bristled when someone doing an improvised mechanical fix calls it a "Gerry-rig." I just don't have the time nor the inclination to get angry about ridiculous crap like that.
That's not the etymology of the word 'gypsy' or the phrase 'jury rig', but your point is well taken... much of the topic of racism is either about blaming the victim, or about creating offense where none existed.
Memphis had a flap a few years ago when a politician claimed that a rival's references to spam blocker email filters and Nigerian scammers was coded racism because 'everybody knew' that Nigerian filter was a cigarette filter made from cotton picked by the most despised slaves....
Of course the history books didn't know this, since they persist in saying that the cigarette industry didn't offer filters until decades after there were no more slaves picking cotton.
Add to that the false claims made over the use of the word 'renege', or similar bogus assertions about 'handicap' and 'rule of thumb' being perjorative.and so forth.
The 'its only racist if...' tactic is another bit of disingenuity.. Blacks 'can't be racist' when they firebomb Korean groceries, because after all, in major cities with black mayors, police officials, judges, and so forth, and not a single Asian in any such position, blacks have no power. Add to that the ' ...but that N****r played the race card...' tactic.
Bottom line, racism is the belief that one group or another is superior or inferior because of being a member of that group.
Things like jokes about 'gorillas', 'gooks' 'watermelon', et al. that fuel the ignorance required to sustain that sort of belief are serving the racist's agenda, so why pretend otherwise?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cnd7NovxFsg
|
|
|
|
