Letters to the Editor
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Most people aren't racist
Can a person not be tired of blacks slipping 'jive talk' into situations that are inappropriate (even if 'appropriate' is clearly an aesthetic issue and nothing more)?
Sorry, LW, but that is not what we call racism. Or, it is what lots of people call racism, but it just isn't.
If your friend told you that blacks have genetic distinctness which results in their having different or less worth as human beings: that is racism. Anything else is mere bigotry, and I think bigotry gets a bad rap. I don't like Italians that much (stupid Southern Europeans with their pursuit of passion and their willingness to stand up in restaurants and announce that they 'love this lady right here') and when some guy gets on TV and acts all Italian, I am well within my rights to sigh and wonder aloud why people think this shit is so charming.
Now, I love jive talk. Maybe I shouldn't, but I do. But of course I understand why people get tired of it. It's tiresome! It's a shtick. Making words rhyme in a non-poetic context. Big fucking deal, Stuart Scott, this is a football game and not your neighborhood barbershop. And you probably don't even go to a local barbershop, so who knows why you're affecting this slang that doesn't even really belong to you.
Anyway. LW. Lighten up.
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Off-topic rant
WTF?
I'm not so impressed with our own assumed air of virtue, we liberal coastal elites.
AND
In fact, I am rather drawn to the bad man, the racist, the reprobate, the criminal, the idiot, the one who doesn't get how he is supposed to behave.
Ummm... Cary, darling... this is all going on the east coast. The racist and the LW live on the east coast. WTF? If you wonder why people are annoyed by "liberal coastal elites," it's because of stuff like this. You seem to be assuming that "liberal coastal elite" = "non-racist" and "the rest of the country" (ie. the Midwest, the Great Plains, the South, and the Southwest) = great unwashed. Quit it. The coasts are a mix. The rest of the country is a mix. Until y'all stop talking to us like we're idiots, you're never going to get the rest of the country to listen to your point of view.
The sad thing is, I think all y'all know that. You just can't help it.
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On-topic suggestion
LW,
I work in a very white, conservative moderately racist office. (law office). When people in my office come up with this stuff, I argue with them about it. I don't drop my relationship with them. I argue with them about it. I don't know that it works, but I don't feel complicit and maybe they rethink their position just a little.
Of course, this also causes them to say outrageous things at times because they know that they will get a rise out of me. "Bait the liberal" is good for hours of lunch-time entertainment.
Ah, well.
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Where to start? Perhaps with the term, "racist"....
Look, if you say the word "racist" in a conversation with someone, you've already labeled yourself in addition to the creep you're trying to dress down.
It (and its counterparts, "sexist", "homophobic", and others) labels you as the moral arbitrator in the crowd. It is a particularly unproductive path to take.
If the guy's a jerk about racial issues, or close-minded about them, say it when doing so is productive. You can even be confrontational about it: "Jack, we really can't have you running down black folks (sic) around Junior. It just isn't how we believe you teach children to look at the world. People are people, and there's enough good and bad people of any race that it's just lousy to turn him against someone he doesn't know and hasn't even met."
The implication is, keep pulling this behavior and you'll lose us as friends.
I walked away from one 'friend' when he responded (to a complaint I made on a mailing list when everyone started posting in French because they thought it was cute and there were no translations or apologies) that I was racist for expressing my opinion. My response was, pretty much, "f*ck you".
You call someone a word ending with -ist, and that's the standard retort. No way around it.
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So - there are no boundaries?
The columnist's answer raises a question or two.
Dear Cary,
1. Why conflate having principles with arrogance?
2. Is any principle worth defending?
3. You state that "social progress will continue none the worse for his presence on this earth." How can you say that?. How do you think "social progress" will come about unless some of us stand our ground?
Your message seems to be: "Since we are all flawed it is simple arrogance to have any principles or standards."
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Thrasher, that's unfortunately nothing new...
>I am so tired of black apologists and white folks making excuses for evil and underdeveloped people.
It always drives me crazy when one white person excuses, defends, rationalizes another white folks racism at my expense when they are not on the end of the white racism.<
It's called the "But he's _really_ a good guy" syndrome. And, as I noted before, the whites who engage in this denial have the luxury of never having to deal with the consequences of tacitly approving racists and their attitudes. (And they almost never see just how vicious those "good guys" can be when their sense of superiority is challenged in even the mildest way.) As well, some whites refuse to believe that they could be fooled by someone who's racist. To admit the truth would make them look bad/foolish, so they'd rather defend such creeps (and put the blame on "oversensitive" non-whites) than admit they've made a mistake.
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re: Dump that redneck bigot ASAP!!!!
Thrasher,
"I am so tired of black apologists and white folks making excuses for evil and underdeveloped people."
I concur in that there is no excuse for anyone making exceptions for their actions and behavior.
Conversely, I am also tired of minority folks and white apologists making excuses for racist minorities. Racism comes in all forms from all walks of life, and anyone making excuses for this behavior is plain wrong.
Bottom line is, people are people and you should treat each as a human being.