Why should we try to change what people say if it's neither wrong nor hurtful? Jeeez I spent the whole last post demonstrating that such language is NOT a generalization (expressing "all X do Y) but reflects the preferences/norms of a group. I really really don't see how "you (A) people like B" means "every person of culture A likes B", because it's not logically implied at all - a culture is perfectly capable of finding something popular without every single person belonging to that culture finding it well, and we are capable of referring to cultures as wholes instead of simply collections of individuals. When there is a perfectly tame and reasonable explanation, it's really going out of one's way to suggest that a sentence implies something else.
Why are we so insistent on finding harm in just every single racially-themed comment?
These sentiments can still be phrased in a better way that prevents any misunderstands or feelings from getting hurt. I'm not sure I understand this resistance to saying "I hear hockey is very popular in Canada" instead of "you people like hockey." To me, "you people like cricket" sounds just as silly as "you people like watermelon," and why would anyone ever want to be associated with that?
All of the divisive judgments you just made against people is inherently racist because it a) is exclusionary and hurts those you do not consider "disadvantaged"
through their race (okay?), and b) because nowhere have you made any calls or statements regarding treatment of people by
anything besides their race! Where the hell is your paragraph about how everyone is subjugated by racism, or heck, just a split about "content of character"?
tl;dr it's another case of
Reverse racism. There isn't a big bad system any more than there are racist people. It's that simple.
I'm not sure I understand what point you're trying to make, here. I do not know what judgements you're claiming I've made. Are you saying that any and all reference to race is inherently racist? That calling attention to the difficulties and injustices faced uniquely by some groups takes away attention from other inequalities?
I don't have a paragraph about everyone being subjected to racism because not everyone is subjected to racism. I as a white person will almost never be subjected to racism, especially not the systematic, institutionalized racism faced by many. For me to even claim that such a thing is possible is horribly minimizing to the people who face that every day.
Reverse racism actually still remains a point of contention within racial discourse, so you're standing on some pretty shaky ground. If you don't believe that there is a system of oppression that disproportionately affects black people, I would encourage you to do some research. Studies have proven that
people with names that sound white are 50% more likely to get called for a job than people with black-sounding names, that
black (and latino) people get stop-and-frisks over 4x more than white people, and
here are even more ways black people are discriminated against by the judicial system.
I did not write about how people are judged by their character because this is a thread about racism, so I am only talking about how people are judged by their race. Multiple examples have been given in this thread of black people being unfairly judged just because of their race, and that isn't being acknowledged. Racism is a complex topic, and if you would like to continue discussing it, I encourage you to please learn more and read accounts from black people first, because saying this will be fixed by just being nicer to each other really trivializes and simplifies a very serious and complex topic. I look forward to reengaging with you then. :)
I respectfully disagree. Just because you belong to the minority in question here does not give you the right to reclaim the word that had horrible origins. That is why the black community in the United States long since had a funeral for the N-word; they discouraged even their own from using it. I do agree that outside groups' (ie the majority) use of these words hurt more, but I digress. By using the word, you continue to give it power. Semantically, I would agree with you that a word can be reused for other purposes, but when it comes to race and racially-heated words, it's best to just put them to rest. Like my opinion on keeping those convicted of murder off the media, it's best to let them just silently drift out. This is, of course, the ideal. Realistically, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to retire a word. You yourself even stopped using racist jokes ironically because you realized it did nothing but propagate the usage. So too does using it within the community. I used to call my own boyfriend a "fag" out of jest, but I realize now I'm just continuing to breathe life into that word.
Only people from the group who bore the brunt of that word get to make those decisions. We do not get to tell people "hey, I know that word really hurt your community and you are taking a great deal of strength and power by reclaiming it, but we think you shouldn't do that and
we should get the final say, not you." For a group that has been subject to the whims of another for so long, I hope you can see why that is important.
While I agree about not giving media coverage to criminals, I do not think that is comparable. For the black community, the n-word is a huge part of their history, and in many ways, to "let the word die" means erasing part of their history. It's very meaningful to them, and I would strongly encourage you to read accounts from black people about why they believe this.
I have to wonder if the country your raised in affects your view on racism. Lots of people on this site are from America but In England Racism isn't an huge issue like it appears to be in America, I'm not saying it's perfect, of course not we have a few bad eggs but in comparison to other country's we just don't have the same deep rooted issues. Of course some police will stop a black person more often than a white person but it seems to be fairly well distributed.
Maybe it's because we don't have guns, so we don't here about the police shooting innocent people on the grounds that because of there skin colour they looked dangerous or suspicious or whatever crock of bull they come out with to explain away the ingrained racism of the American police force.
I don't see a racist issue in what my uncle said, I understand there was no maliciousness intent so I don't consider it worthy of being reprimanded. He's stupid I'll give you that but he's a man that has no idea as to how his words could be construed.
I'm from Canada, and this has definitely affected my views, and has made me very aware of race issues in the US. Race relations are very different in the UK, but I do not know the specifics. Can you look up some statistics on who police tend to pull over? That would help shed some light!
As I mentioned in my first post, you can tell your uncle "that wasn't cool of you to say" without accusing him of being a racist. Words can hurt, and a lot of people will apologize and avoid something if they know it's rude or hurtful. Again, it depends on his personality and your relationship to him, but it's something to consider.
~Psychic