On the racism flamewar...

[blackiestark]

I'm gonna say one more thing about the Obama monkey cartoon, and the reaction thereof on my flist. And only one more thing:

Usually, when I see a fuckton of someone else's drama on the web, I have lulz, because I smugly feel like my friends are above that, and because I manage to keep such a drama-free existence, by design

Comments

[bealsabubbette]

is there more? cause i name names. for me, it wasn't the cartoon, it was gerald's treatment of charlotte that made me so angry. (people have the right to opinions, but not the right to be assholes.

i actually got quite a bit out of the comment chain on pat's journal.

[claws_n_stripes]

Oh dear Lord.

You know, there are people offline who are similarly completely unamused by Charlotte's treatment of Gerald.

There are two sides, and not all of Charlotte's friends are on hers.

[blackiestark]

And I'm not taking sides. At all. Not when things get out of control like this. I've made my opinion on the Monkey cartoon clear, and that's where I'm leaving it.

[claws_n_stripes]

I'm not implying you, and I apologize if there's any confusion about it. You and I haven't spoken offline in years, IIRC.

[_jeremiad]

So I was curious and read through your friends page and saw a whole lot of racefail. Tons and tons of ignorant, misinformed, stereotype driven, self-aggrandizing bs. It makes me sad, and it makes me utterly empathetic to your friend claws_n_stripes plight.

Speaking as a black person with a majority white social circle, I often feel like I'm stuck between the same rock and hard place. I can either speak up and risk alienating everybody who refuses to examine their privilege, or I can shut up and swallow all that bile and have people think my silence equals agreement.

[claws_n_stripes]

Why aren't we already friends?

[blackiestark]

I'd like to say that we can all talk about these issues without major drama erupting. But apparently not. And I don't like being asked to take sides when two of my friends go at it drama-wise, even when the subject is not race.

[_jeremiad]

I understand, and I, obviously, don't know any of your friends.

I'm sorry the cartoon had such serious ripples in your personal life.

[soundwave106]

There's been some hair-trigger racial sensitivity over many cartoons of late.

Personally, in many cases, I wish people would stop getting angry over it.

The Obama "monkey" thing I'm undecided on whether it was intentional or not. From my perspective, whether intentional or not, it's certainly ignorant. Ignorance is not something to get angry over, MHO, but the jury's out over whether that's the case. Therefore, I have no real opinion until more facts are known.

Now, there's the incidents that clearly are racist. Such as the Los Alamitos mayor mailing out this watermelon "joke". In cases like this, it's not worth getting angry over. Watermelon stereotypes are dumbfuck stereotype humor from the 19th century. We are now in the early 21st century

[pieces2puzzle]

All outdated "racist humor" does, IMHO, is make a person look very backwards.

I agree. But it also perpetuates stereotypes and when unchallenged lets folks think such racist displays are acceptable. (IMHO, displays of racism met with silence equals acceptance.) Not to mention another important point: it hurts people and understandably so.

Personally, in many cases, I wish people would stop getting angry over it.....I wish, instead of getting angry, more people would just point and laugh.To me, that's the equivalent of a man whose never been raped telling a woman who has been raped that she should just laugh at any rape joke she comes across on the internet. But those types of jokes are never going to be funny. And jokes like that, again only IMHO, only perpetuate an atmosphere of acceptance

[soundwave106]

No, I was definitely meaning to point and laugh at the racist cartoonist, not the racist joke. (Are mean-spirited, simple minded stereotype jokes ever funny? Usually not.)

I feel that anger is half what racists expect, so I feel that this tactic isn't always that effective. I feel it is better to belittle.

And, no, the purpose of belittlement is not to affect the person creating the racist material or those who agree with him or her. It is hard to change the mind of a racist, from my experience. Instead, the purpose instead is to marginalize the racist, to make him look stupid in the minds of everyone else.

That's just my take. I think of racists sometimes as real-life trolls. Think of the best ways of dealing with trolls on the Internet. Anger rarely works (in fact it often stokes the flames). Ignoring or belittling the troll has a chance of working.

I understand why people get angry (of course), but that's just my take on things.

[claws_n_stripes]

Elsewhere, I said:For the record, I asked my mother-- because a black woman who grew up on a farm in Mississippi during the 1940's and didn't have the right to vote until she was 28 years old would know more firsthand about racism than you and I combined-- if the cartoon was racist, and she didn't even hesitate to tell me there was a longstanding history of comparing black folks to simians.
You can also go to my journal if you like, since I'm the asshole who started all this by having the nerve to become offended, and scroll down several entries.

[t_rex]

:-(

[blackiestark]

Exactly.

Pat, Caroline... Not mad, okay, guys? Just want to move on now.

[t_rex]

I don't think Pat's mad.

He rarely comes to LJ now (except to make posts that can become involved, since FB doesn't lend itself to that) and he is sick right now, too. Don't know how long it will be before he sees this.

[blackiestark]

I'll probably call before then. I miss the old whore.

[pieces2puzzle]

:(

*hugs*

[blackiestark]

*grope*

(I'm breaking the mood in here. :D)