3 ms·

We have very different experiences then. But again, what word would be better? Is there anything notable about the statement "Black people eat a lot of chicken"

We have very different experiences then. But again, what word would be better? Is there anything notable about the statement "Black people eat a lot of chicken"? What adjective should we use?

mistermann 10y ago
Well, it's a stereotype, that a lot of people find offensive, depending on who they are talking to of course.
- burkaman 10y ago
  Ok, so do you think people should say "that was racially stereotypical" rather than "that was racist"? This seems like a really minor semantics argument. I'm trying to figure out if you and other posters here actually disagree on what kinds of comments are and aren't acceptable, or just on what we should call them.
  - mistermann 10y ago
    I personally don't think it's racially stereotypical, so no. As far as I know, the stereotype came from the southern USA, is that not correct? You call it semantics, I call it calling bullshit on moral busybodies who think they are bringing people together when actually they're driving them further apart. Do you watch much stand up comedy?
    - burkaman 10y ago
      I watch some. How could that not be racially stereotypical? It's clearly a stereotype, as you said yourself, and it's clearly applied to an entire race. I'm not sure I could think of a better example of a racial stereotype. You can argue over whether or not it's offensive, but that's not what I'm asking.
      - mistermann 10y ago
        It's culturally stereotypical, not racially stereotypical. > it's clearly applied to an entire race Clearly? How so? You likely think I am playing a game of semantics, but I genuinely think if we keep playing this game of trying to find reasons to be victims, things will never get better, even if that is what all parties want! The reason I brought up comedians is because they seem to allow normal people a view into this world, where we can admit that black people in the south eat a lot of fried chicken. Know why? Because it's cheap, and delicious! Do some racist rednecks still say things like that with an intent to cause harm? Yes, and what should we do? Laugh at them for using such an old, tired, irrelevant, pathetic joke of an attack. Because really, it's really nothing more than that, the rest of "what's there" is often purely in our minds. We're telling helpless teenagers that don't know any better over and over that a huge portion of the population hate them because of their race, and it is simply not true! We seem determined as a society that racism lives on forever, and it is really unfortunate. For example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIgSQDQC0qc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIgSQDQC0qc What should New Zealander's do here, fire up the navy for a show of force off the coast of Sydney? Or should they crack a smile and say "good on ya mate"? Will we forever think of people who have a different color of skin than us...or actually, to be more precise, that have non-white skin, because that's what it's really about, isn't it, thinking that people who are non-white are "different" and must be handled with extreme caution. I reject that completely.
        burkaman 10y ago
        All I can say is that it is true. Look at this article, and please try to ignore the provocative headline, I just can't find a better presentation of the data: http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/are-white-republicans-more-racist-than-white-democrats/ http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/are-white-republicans-mo... You can explore the data yourself here: https://gssdataexplorer.norc.org/variables/vfilter?keyword=&subjects=Blacks&years=2014&yrmax=2014&yrmin=1972 https://gssdataexplorer.norc.org/variables/vfilter?keyword=&... As you can see, 15% of white people think black people are more unintelligent than intelligent. 35% think they're more lazy than hardworking. 25% wouldn't want a relative to marry a black person. 20% wouldn't want to live in a half black neighborhood. And this is just people with conscious biases that they're willing to report on a survey. We can argue about what counts as "a huge portion", but these percentages represent tens of millions of people. There's so many ways to show that racism is still a huge deal in America, but it's really easy to think "I'm not racist, I've never seen anyone be racist, these people must be making it up". I doubt I'm going to convince you with this comment, but it's stereotypes all the way down. The idea that only old rednecks are racists is itself a harmful stereotype, because it simply is not true.

We have very different experiences then. But again, what word would be better? Is there anything notable about the statement "Black people eat a lot of chicken"? What adjective should we use?

mistermann 10y ago

Well, it's a stereotype, that a lot of people find offensive, depending on who they are talking to of course.

burkaman 10y ago
Ok, so do you think people should say "that was racially stereotypical" rather than "that was racist"? This seems like a really minor semantics argument. I'm trying to figure out if you and other posters here actually disagree on what kinds of comments are and aren't acceptable, or just on what we should call them.
- mistermann 10y ago
  I personally don't think it's racially stereotypical, so no. As far as I know, the stereotype came from the southern USA, is that not correct? You call it semantics, I call it calling bullshit on moral busybodies who think they are bringing people together when actually they're driving them further apart. Do you watch much stand up comedy?
  - burkaman 10y ago
    I watch some. How could that not be racially stereotypical? It's clearly a stereotype, as you said yourself, and it's clearly applied to an entire race. I'm not sure I could think of a better example of a racial stereotype. You can argue over whether or not it's offensive, but that's not what I'm asking.
    - mistermann 10y ago
      It's culturally stereotypical, not racially stereotypical. > it's clearly applied to an entire race Clearly? How so? You likely think I am playing a game of semantics, but I genuinely think if we keep playing this game of trying to find reasons to be victims, things will never get better, even if that is what all parties want! The reason I brought up comedians is because they seem to allow normal people a view into this world, where we can admit that black people in the south eat a lot of fried chicken. Know why? Because it's cheap, and delicious! Do some racist rednecks still say things like that with an intent to cause harm? Yes, and what should we do? Laugh at them for using such an old, tired, irrelevant, pathetic joke of an attack. Because really, it's really nothing more than that, the rest of "what's there" is often purely in our minds. We're telling helpless teenagers that don't know any better over and over that a huge portion of the population hate them because of their race, and it is simply not true! We seem determined as a society that racism lives on forever, and it is really unfortunate. For example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIgSQDQC0qc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIgSQDQC0qc What should New Zealander's do here, fire up the navy for a show of force off the coast of Sydney? Or should they crack a smile and say "good on ya mate"? Will we forever think of people who have a different color of skin than us...or actually, to be more precise, that have non-white skin, because that's what it's really about, isn't it, thinking that people who are non-white are "different" and must be handled with extreme caution. I reject that completely.
      - burkaman 10y ago
        All I can say is that it is true. Look at this article, and please try to ignore the provocative headline, I just can't find a better presentation of the data: http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/are-white-republicans-more-racist-than-white-democrats/ http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/are-white-republicans-mo... You can explore the data yourself here: https://gssdataexplorer.norc.org/variables/vfilter?keyword=&subjects=Blacks&years=2014&yrmax=2014&yrmin=1972 https://gssdataexplorer.norc.org/variables/vfilter?keyword=&... As you can see, 15% of white people think black people are more unintelligent than intelligent. 35% think they're more lazy than hardworking. 25% wouldn't want a relative to marry a black person. 20% wouldn't want to live in a half black neighborhood. And this is just people with conscious biases that they're willing to report on a survey. We can argue about what counts as "a huge portion", but these percentages represent tens of millions of people. There's so many ways to show that racism is still a huge deal in America, but it's really easy to think "I'm not racist, I've never seen anyone be racist, these people must be making it up". I doubt I'm going to convince you with this comment, but it's stereotypes all the way down. The idea that only old rednecks are racists is itself a harmful stereotype, because it simply is not true.