What he really misses though, is that that 'separateness' has been imposed from outside, not chosen from inside, the minority communities.
Dumb and Stupid Quotes Thread: Idiotic Source and Context are Key.
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What he really misses though, is that that 'separateness' has been imposed from outside, not chosen from inside, the minority communities.
Ziggy Stardust
Absolutely Sane
I might be daft, but I don't have the foggiest what point, however ridiculous it may be, he's trying to make.
Actually, the 'stew' metaphor' is somewhat more accurate than the 'melting pot' one. But the melting pot is the common one, none the less. It just isn't all that good of one. Every ingredient thrown into the pot adds a bit of it's own flavor to the whole, as well as maintaining it's own flavor. So the 'stew' metaphor is what has actually been true in American history, and the melting pot not so much. But that appears to be his ideal.
Cheezy the Wiz
Socialist In A Hurry
There's this weird concept that conservatives have, I'm sure you've heard it in Europe, I know I have: immigrants move to to our country and refuse to give up their customs and culture, thereby polluting our culture by refusing to integrate [how does that work, exactly?]. Thus our society loses all cohesion over time, because we are like a salad bowl with different parts randomly thrown together with nothing in common to bind us together.
It should be plainly apparent what a racist attitude that is, to say nothing of baseless. Partly because the melting pot he's romanticizing never truly existed, and partly because the "salad bowl" he's evoking doesn't exist, either.
Ziggy Stardust
Absolutely Sane
I see, now I get the salad bowl metaphor, thanks.
Hasn't Bobby ever heard of salad dressing? It's what I use copious amount of if I happen to end up in the unfortunate situation of finding myself at a table with salad on my plate. After I'm done with it everything tastes like mustard and honey like a well balanced society.
Hasn't Bobby ever heard of salad dressing? It's what I use copious amount of if I happen to end up in the unfortunate situation of finding myself at a table with salad on my plate. After I'm done with it everything tastes like mustard and honey like a well balanced society.
Borachio
Way past lunacy
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Hmm. I'm not sure he doesn't have a point. But I think it's a point whose time will come in the rather distant future.
I mean, it would be nice if people were completely colour-blind, and moreover culture-blind, and that people were simply referred to, and referred to themselves, as people. I'd have no difficulty with that at all.
But at the moment, it has to be admitted, peoples' sense of identity is still very much bound up with their ethnicity, whether self-defined or other defined. So, the next best thing to calling a person a person is calling them an American, or a Native-American, or a Turkish-American...or even, heaven forfend, some other nationality?
(I have heard that only 5% of the world's population is American. It's a minority that seems to punch above its weight, somehow. Still, maybe all minorities do?)
I mean, it would be nice if people were completely colour-blind, and moreover culture-blind, and that people were simply referred to, and referred to themselves, as people. I'd have no difficulty with that at all.
But at the moment, it has to be admitted, peoples' sense of identity is still very much bound up with their ethnicity, whether self-defined or other defined. So, the next best thing to calling a person a person is calling them an American, or a Native-American, or a Turkish-American...or even, heaven forfend, some other nationality?
(I have heard that only 5% of the world's population is American. It's a minority that seems to punch above its weight, somehow. Still, maybe all minorities do?)
Borachio
Way past lunacy
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Oh, I see he's Indian. (Not Native-American at all.)
That kind of changes things. I could see some point if he was Native-American.
And a Roman Catholic convert, to boot. (I really shouldn't highlight that, should I? But how can I help myself?)
That kind of changes things. I could see some point if he was Native-American.
And a Roman Catholic convert, to boot. (I really shouldn't highlight that, should I? But how can I help myself?)
Yes. He's from an ethnic group which has experienced discrimination and racism. Just a hell of a lot less of it than nearly any other ethnic group which experienced it has. (If for no other reason than that the number of Indians in the US has been trivially small until just very recently.)
Cheezy the Wiz
Socialist In A Hurry
There's 300 million of us, it must be more than 5%.
The opposite of his position isn't "color blindness," I would never advocate that nor honestly expect it. The point is that there's nothing wrong with having your own identity. Korean-American is an identity, distinct from both Korean and American. Same with Indian-American, French-American, Scottish-American, Iranian-American, etc. What Jindal and other Nativists are objected to is the idea that even this is a legitimate identity. They want you to be just like the existing culture, to give up your identity completely. But more importantly than that, he's justifying racism by saying that it's the fault of the racially prejudiced that other people are racist towards them. Do you see why this is a horrid statement?
Clearly we need to impose some Caesar onto this salad bowl.
That actually makes it less than 5%, since the world's population is over 7 billion.
---
A quote:
"It is difficult at this day to realize the state of public opinion in regard to that unfortunate race which prevailed in the civilized and enlightened portions of the world at the time of the Declaration of Independence, and when the Constitution of the United States was framed and adopted; but the public history of every European nation displays it in a manner too plain to be mistaken. They had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations, and so far unfit that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect."
-Chief Justice Roger Taney, USSC, majority opinion in Scott v. Sandford, 6 March 1857
cybrxkhan
Asian Xwedodah
"If you want access to Hell direct, there are many parts of Brittany that have a door to it."
I found it amusing. Seems to be a bad attempt at English on a French website I came across, makes brittany sound like mordor or something.
I found it amusing. Seems to be a bad attempt at English on a French website I came across, makes brittany sound like mordor or something.
Phrossack
Armored Fish and Armored Men
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cybrxkhan
Asian Xwedodah
What's wrong with Breizh? Still not quite French enough for them?
The website appeared to be either some tourist website or one of those "get to know culture/local sights of x" websites. The page was talking about some interesting Breton legends and myths, and every section looked relatively normal (one section on the forest where Merlin was allegedly trapped for all eternity according to legend, etc.), until that very last, short one.
Maybe the French really do hate them Bretons.
Kinda like Americans hate Texas. And New England. And California. And the South. And Florida.
You get the picture.
