American Racism

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Dear America,
Please get a grip. That you see racism every time Australians feature African Americans on TV reflects more on you than us. There are no strong feelings about African Americans here because they're such an extreme minority that we don't often encounter them. We don't have the same stereotypes that you do.

I hadn't heard about your blackface minstrel shows in the 19th century - nor had anyone else - until you all got your knickers in a knot. They eat lots of fried chicken? Right, okay, if you say so.

Seriously, we're not racist against African Americans - we have plenty of ethnicities that have some effect on our lives to be racist to. Stop projecting and being so touchy, because you're coming off as absurd. We actually have a fairly different culture and mindset over here and have no idea what you're talking about or why you're upset when you start whinging about these things.

 

On behalf of America I would like to apologize to you. We can't help ourselves. Special interests have browbeat us so badly that we spend all of our time trying to avoid being labeled "racist". It doesn't matter if it is about color, religion, sexual orientation, sex, etc. We are terrified of the "hustlers" that have made carears shaking us down over anything and everything. We know not what we do.

 

There was a similar thing about I think it was the DS,, the european adverts showing a white woman and a black woman in various fighting poses, some where they were equal, some where one or the other was dominant.

But hey, mix in an arab and it's all good

I got accused of being racist for saying I wasn't that fond of a particular comedian because he relies on the race card too much excuse me for not wanting to make a fuss about what colour he is

 

Snook has the right of it -- Connick in particular had no choice -- he HAD to make a fuss or the special interests in the US would have strung him up and left him hanging out to dry. If you are white, (or even worse, white and male) you are not allowed to say anything at all, and even your silence can be twisted by the PC Brigade into horrible, genocidal racism and/or sexism.

Maybe I should take my friend's advice and move to Australia -- he lives there with his hot wife and says it's wonderful.

 

I actually believe that while America may be too PC-ish at times, that we are currently among the most racially tolerant societies you'll find, simply because of our diversity. On the street where I live, you'll find just about every race and ethnicity you could think of (well, there's no Pacific Islanders or Native Americans - unless you count the Hispanics - so not every one). Of course, the current PC over-reaction may in fact stem from the fact that not too long ago there was a lot of racial tension.

I do not see a KFC ad portraying a black man eating fried chicken to be overtly racist. In fact, it may be sound marketing - I know a lot of black people (and white people of course) who like fried chicken. I tend to think of fried chicken as more of a "southern" food than of it being a black food. The reason I don't see it as racist is that there was no negative connotation of the black guy eating KFC. I would imagine that the goal of the ad was to get more people regardless of race to try KFC - it's not like we trying to specifically get the black segment of Austalia's population - there simply isn't enough of them to make such a marketing tactic effective.

 

Aldeth, my community must be even more diverse than yours, then. We have a Pasific Islander woman married to an elderly black ex-military man, both singing in our choir, and I'm part (a very small part, but still a part) native american! I guess we really do have it all!

Beyond that, I think you're spot on about the chicken thing. In New Hampshire when I lived there (as a child), KFCs were in the same category as foreign foods. Chicken was baked or broiled if it was eaten at all. Now, here in Virginia, it seems like KFC is the second most common restaurant, just behind Hardees! I'll admit it's good food, but these southerners treat it like the Holy Grail of eating!

As for the media frenzy, TGS has it right. In the US, the people that did those things, or even stood by while they were being done, could and would be strung up and beaten with the proverbial stick. It's a sad, sad thing, but it's also true. Personally, for KFC, if I had written their response, it would be:

"We deeply and sincerely apologize for the grevious insult we have dealt American society as a whole. We did not realize that fried chicken was uniformly hated by all. From our sales levels, we had thought it was deerly loved by a great many Americans of all races and religions, but now we see these purchases must have been made to burn the fried chicken at the stake. From now on we will accomodate this American past time by including a small wooden stake and a set of matches with every meal. We will likewise ammend the commercial to include the gift of said stake and matches."

 

I think the saddest part about being so overly PC is that the actual, supposed "offers" of the incident are seldom questioned if their feelings were *really* hurt or not. Instead, the ultra-PC troops hang onto the notion that someone MIGHT get offended.

Just as long as the context is unambiguously meant as humor or at least tongue-in-cheek, pretty much anything goes IMHO. Conversely, even the most perfectly veiled stabs, no matter how minor and innocent, are to be worried about if they are caused by *actual* hatred and/or spite. What a nightmare for the legal system...

 

As a fellow Swede I felt I had to jump in and help Sir Rechet here, the word you were looking for instead of "offer" is "victim". Not trying to be a smarty pants but your post would not make sense to any non-Swede.

 

I was kinda wondering why he used "offers". I knew what he was trying to say, but I was wondering if he missed some letters. Offenders? No, those are the one's who did it in the first place. Offendees? Then where'd the 'r' come from? Translation confusion makes more sense.

 

People here can save their apologies for me, since I'm not giving any. Instead, I'll give you Dave Chappelle. And yes, SOME white people in the South will use anything to beat blacks over the head with, even fried chicken. I've seen and heard it up close a few times in the recent past:

Watch out for Dave's adult language....



More real American "PCism."

http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=24408&title=diversity-in-first-class

Sorry, I've been missing all the action in AoDA, but I've been suffering from the dreaded H1N1 over Christmas. I'm better, but still trying to get past it. I will say that's it's as bad as they say it is.

 

I love Dave Chappelle

 

Ach, my bad. In swedish, "offer" literally means "victim".

Language 1 - Sir Rechet 0