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Forums - General - Is this ad racist?

bigjon said:
BenKenobi88 said:
SanitySavior said:

Racism doesn't excist. It's always blown out of proportion that the real meaning of the word has lost its meaning.

Uh...it totally does.  Where exactly in the US do you live?  If you're in rural areas I'm SURE you've heard white fold being racist against black people, and if you're in a black neighborhood, there's tons of blind hate against white people...it still exists to some degree everywhere.

 

 Racism does exist. Especially in the Deep south. But it does exist up north, but it is not the same, it is more against Black Culture (thug, etc.) than the color, because most have no problem with a black guy who acts "white" like Obama. So I do not see Obama's race hurting him... the deep south usually votes Red anyways. But people use the race card for their own gain. You can hardly do anything without being flag as racist. It has led to their being lower criteria for exceptance into schools for example. Lets put it this way, if a white guy and a black girl apply to Harvard, and both score a 1300 on the sat (old scoring system) the black girl will most likely be accepted, but the white dude had better be rich, or know people with a 1300. Now when you get above 1400 you were looking much better. It really does annoy when black people exploit their race.

About the lipstick on the pig, when Obama tried to explain what he meant he said McCain's tax policies were the pig and Sarah Palin was the lipstick... so basically he said she "sexys" up his policies. That does border on sexist. Also, Obama was highly noted for making sexist remarks against hilary, so it carried over a bit. But yes, they should be warry of pulling the sex card too much.

You do realize that given the disparity in school facilities generally available to black children vs. white children, it is more impressive for a black child to score 1300 on the SATs than a white child.  Of course this is not universally true, but more often than not, this is the case.

As for the Obama comment, he said that as a joke on Letterman.  Yet now you are stating it as if its the truth.  Your as bad as these crappy political ads.

 



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Hell no. We put that ad out and it is the truth!



Hawkeye said:

 

The blind people would be unaware of the races and there would be no racial tension. The majority of 3rd party viewers would report varying levels of racial tension. I myself in all likelyhood would report that there was a small amount of racial tension. I belive people are inhently racist, and that we cannot fight it but never truly eliminate it. Sort of how humans inherintly have savage characterisitcs that can be greatly supressed but not destroyed.

I tend to agree with you on most of that, but I don't know that it is inherent in humanity.  I would agree that noticing differences is inherent from a young age, it is after all essential to distinguishing between individuals.  The question I would ask is whether or not that 'difference' information is used to make negative inferences about others and whether it is race information specifically that is used or just all information and we are simply only sensitive to the race component due to our past.

My theory on this would be that, if we are predisposed to racism, then it is because of the mechanisms for inter-species competition that were required in ages past.  The instinct within each person uses these differences as justification for competive behavior, only its not just in the typical squabbling sense you would see in intra-species competition, but in those exploitative ways seen between inter-species competition (particularly those of "man vs beast").  To be clear I'm not suggesting that this is a case of different species (I would disagree with that suggestion strongly based on scientific evidence, not to mention moral outrage), just that the biological mechanisms that drove inter-species competition is now responsible(a root cause) for driving what is actually an intra-species division.

If that is the case I certainly don't see it as any sort of justification for the behavior either.  If the majority of people can control that instinct a majority of the time then it boils down to self-discipline, which is the foundation of civilized society and in essence the unspoken contractual requirement of all members who join (ie self-control).

In todays world it seems that stealth racism is the name of the game.  Both in terms of exploiting people's sensitivity to racism (which is racism in its own right), and in terms of the duplicit nature in which truly racist commentors often go about their business.

The real challenge of stealth racism is that it can be exploited from both sides. While the emotional aspect of it drives some to be so oversensitive to it (in most cases legitimately so) that even folks who are truly not making a comment born out of racism can be accused of it, while at the same time others intentionally use it as a weapon in many cases skirting the edge of acceptable quite adeptly.  In short, stealth racists can be cause for frivolous accusation while still being a very real problem. In this sense racism is very much a form of terrorism.

 



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