Hygro
soundcloud.com/hygro/
Depicting racism doesn't make something racist.
The unintentional racist.
- Thread starter BvBPL
- Start date
And while I know that they are often associated with black people, after spending lots of time in Texas and Louisiana I can safely say that an obsession with fried chicken and watermelon are a Southern thing, not a black thing. In Louisiana Raising Canes is a religion.
onejayhawk
Afflicted with reason
This, with a quibble.
The paper needs to apologize to everyone for assuming the breacher was racist.
Impugning racism does.
J
Hygro
soundcloud.com/hygro/
Questioning the validity of racism is racist? Am I understanding you correctly?
@luiz, that's the "genius" of it. It would be like if mainland Japanese made fun of Okinawans for eating rice. All the Okinawans are like "that's ridiculous/not fair" while they feel ever so slightly assaulted eating rice (shame, pride, or any energetic distraction). Bread eating Westerners be like "yeah, they do eat a lot of rice those rice eaters". Americans, especially traditionally southerners, love fried chicken and watermelon. So the racists tacked it onto black people as a way to have a frequent reason to associate black people with fitting their assigned stereotype, thereby reinforcing other stereotypes by proxy.
I see. I did notice that even the Southern white folks who are crazy about fried chicken and watermelon still associate it with blacks.
Hygro
soundcloud.com/hygro/
It boggles me, too.I see. I did notice that even the Southern white folks who are crazy about fried chicken and watermelon still associate it with blacks.
Apologies, though, I should have included the caveat that that idea came to me spontaneously a while back but I've never actually looked into it.
Light Cleric
ElCee/LC/El Cid
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I take great offense to this. Popeye's is way better
The few times I had Raising Canes it was pretty bland and generic.
Tigranes
Armenian
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I am really trying to understand the "unintentional" part in this story. I worked in a paper myself and can assure you genuine mishaps and genuine provocations do happen. What was the original intent? Make fun on inept secret service? Replace watermelon with any other flavor and job is done. Take advantage of situation and hint this all could be possible because President is Black? Then there is a clear intention. How can you even properly apologize in that case?
I take great offense to this. Popeye's is way better
Popeye's is disgusting! I've never been to a single one that didn't have cockroaches and flies. But then again I only went to ones in New Orleans and surrounding areas, so maybe not a good sample. I assume the ones in Houston are nicer, but after my experiences in NOLA I wasn't willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Canes is good fried chicken. I'm by no means a fried chicken connoisseur, in fact I don't care much for fried chicken, but Chic-fil-A and Canes are the best IMO.
onejayhawk
Afflicted with reason
My bad. Spell check error, though the paper was impugning him. Imputing racism is racist.
J
BvBPL
Pour Decision Maker
According to the cartoonist, the intent was to make fun of the inept security at the White House. The cartoonist said he chose watermelon because it was a flavor of toothpaste his children like. He said he was unaware of the connotation of watermelons to black people.
Frankly, I think that's a potentially believable statement. I live in New England near the newspaper's city and I think a lot of people in this area are unaware of the subtext of watermelons.
That said, the cartoonist's ignorance is less forgivable than the paper's. I find it hard to believe that the editorial board would be completely unaware.
When the cartoon was offered for syndication, the syndicate asked if it could change watermelon to something else and changed it to raspberry. The cartoonist has said in subsequent interviews that maybe that should have been a signal for him to call his paper and see if they wanted to change it. Well, duh it should have been.
So the syndicate knew what was going on and it covered itself.
Interesting, the Philly Examiner reports that the paper kept the unedited version of the cartoon up on its website even after issuing an apology. It has since taken down the cartoon all together.
To everyone: Please keep this on point as to apologies and reactions to offensive material. I do not want this to be a discussion of the culinary habits of American regions. This thread was started as an RD thread to discuss a specific issue and I would like to keep it that way. Thank you.
Tigranes
Armenian
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BvBPL, if you post here often -- you will notice people never stay exactly on the topic in the exact narrow ways defined by the topic starter. This is CFC OT. I have been a moderator on a forum where topic starter has the right to moderate his own thread, while he himself was moderated by the mods. Honestly, there are so many ways one can go wrong in this politically correct country and politically correct thread.
The reason I never heard about watermelon stereotype is perhaps it is no longer an issue in this country? Stereotype: a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. If something is no longer widely held -- perhaps it is no longer a stereotype?
As South-Eastern European/Northern Middle Eastern Asian I can never get used to the ways Americans see the world. Why am I always asked in all the applications if I am Caucasian, Asian, Hispanic or Black? Is this all that outthere? Why do people even required to think of themselves in racial terms and then be on the constant lookout what word do they say (except the obvious insulting ones).
I believe heart needs to be questioned first. Did newspaper have a problems like this in the past? Editors are people too. If there was a pattern -- take actions. If this was an isolated incedent, accept stupid apology and move on. I had a German friend from some village in central Germany who would crack racial jokes about everyone who was not from his village. Even Bavarians. And he ended up falling in love with Jamaican ballerina, who was black and beautiful. Should I feel bad for hanging out with him?
The reason I never heard about watermelon stereotype is perhaps it is no longer an issue in this country? Stereotype: a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. If something is no longer widely held -- perhaps it is no longer a stereotype?
As South-Eastern European/Northern Middle Eastern Asian I can never get used to the ways Americans see the world. Why am I always asked in all the applications if I am Caucasian, Asian, Hispanic or Black? Is this all that outthere? Why do people even required to think of themselves in racial terms and then be on the constant lookout what word do they say (except the obvious insulting ones).
I believe heart needs to be questioned first. Did newspaper have a problems like this in the past? Editors are people too. If there was a pattern -- take actions. If this was an isolated incedent, accept stupid apology and move on. I had a German friend from some village in central Germany who would crack racial jokes about everyone who was not from his village. Even Bavarians. And he ended up falling in love with Jamaican ballerina, who was black and beautiful. Should I feel bad for hanging out with him?
Good point. Americans will have to re-think how they deal with race. The massive Mexican immigration that is so intensely changing the demographic composition of the nation already forced them to abandon their old Black and White dichotomy. Now they have this "4 Races" system you mention, White, Black, Asian or Hispanic (though technically a Hispanic can belong to any race, in practice they treat it is a racial category). Still it's a stupid system. As this country becomes incredibly diversified, full of people who don't fit any traditional category (Iranians, Arabs, North Africans, Indians from India, etc), not to mention a booming mixed race population, trying to categorize everybody in neat racial groups becomes impossible. And hooray for that. It will be the death of identity politics and racial demagoguery in general. Or so I hope anyway.
John Walker
Chieftain
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Mulatto is the word you are looking for.
John Walker
Chieftain
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That's what I wrote.
John Walker
Chieftain
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But in ethnic terms Obama is a Luo-English American (not Kenyan-English):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luo_people_of_Kenya_and_Tanzania
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Kenya#Ethnic_groups
Because Kenyan is only a citizenship, like British. So either Kenyan-British or Luo-English.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luo_people_of_Kenya_and_Tanzania
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Kenya#Ethnic_groups
Because Kenyan is only a citizenship, like British. So either Kenyan-British or Luo-English.
