Was Scalf Referring to Blacks in These Posts?

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But at the risk of getting flamed for being too p.c., may I say that referring to African Americans as "blacks" could be perceived as prejudiced.


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It could be so perceived by some, but that would be an erroneous perception.

"African-American" is a potentially erroneous term, as a considerable number of blacks are from, say, the Caribbean islands rather than Africa.

Also, "Asian" is less accurate than "Oriental", as many Asians are actually Caucasian, being from parts of Russia rather than from the Orient. Hence "Asian" may lead to confusion in meaning; it is overbroad.

In the endless quest to devise ever more non-offensive terms, less accurate terms have been devised. [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

I'll even suggest that calling someone something incorrect may be inherently more insulting than using a term which the PC police have currently deemed "archaic" or "offensive" in their latest fad. Remember, "black" used to be the current PC term.

That said, I now generally use "Asian" although I think it's rather silly. However, I use "black" rather than "African-American". Maybe the guy is a "Haitian-American", no?

A decade from now, will we soon need to refer to people as "European-Americans"? Heh.

May the PC-police take a flying leap into an ice-cold lake, so as to wake up their brain cells, the next time they set out to devise even more "politically correct" terms.

[Aytumious]

As has been pointed out, being aware of the various stereotypes that exist in the world and believing in them are two very different things. By your logic, one could never recognize racism without being racist oneself, which is clearly absurd.

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This I don't understand. How does understanding what he meant make one a bigot or racist?

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You made the association when scalf said, "..LaKeisha at grocery checkout...

members of her culture tend to do things slowly and w/o regard to accuracty or completeness." he was referring to black people. Either you were taught this or formulated this association based upon your own experience with black people. Its in your mind now and you cannot escape it. You dismiss the idea but its impossible to dismiss it with 100% certainty. Its going to affect on some level how you interact with black people.

Andy, have you ever changed the wording or felt uncomfortable saying something around an individual just because he/she was black? Do you think you would have felt that discomfort if you had no notions of racial stereotypes?


Stu

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Your problem is that you assume that a person can't understand a belief unless he harbors that same belief himself. Thus, if someone understands prejudice, he must be prejudice. But what about a Christian who understands Islam? Must that person also believe in the Islamic religion? If someone tells a bad joke about incest, and you laugh or are offended (or simply understand it!), are you one who believes that we should inbreed? If you read a work of fascist propaganda, must you be a fascist to understand it?

I'm sorry, but the generalizations that you speak in can only refer to yourself. If that's how you interpret your experiences and thoughts, then you've only accomplished a personal revelation of your own psychology-- and no one else's. It's an error to assume that because YOU think one must be racist to understand racism, that this is true for EVERYONE. You can make such a claim about yourself but no one else.

To summarize I'll quote Nietzsche:

"Gradually it has become clear to me what every great philosophy so far has been - namely, the personal confession of its author and a kind of involuntary and unconscious memoir."

Oh how many of us reveal our unconscious memoirs on these forums. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Thus Spoke Nash Clown.

[adios]

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Why do you think scalf entitled his post "LaKeisha at check-out counter?"

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Now where did I say this? I said in another post that I thought the statement probably showed bias. I wouldn't make the leap that it's necessarily about all blacks. Why do you jump to the conclusion that it's about all blacks? I don't jump to that conclusion because I can't identify blacks in the context of the post. Do you?

[adios]

Lakeisha

[BeerMoney]

Andy, why does it bother you so much that someone might be "A RACIST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

OMG!! He thinks black people tend to act in certain ways because of the color of their skin!!! How come when someone is ignorant about race, everyone gets their panties in a bind, but other forms of ignorance don't bother anyone? We live in a country where most oppose same sex marriage. Why aren't we flying off the handle at those people?

Why is it that at todays universities, a student can punch someone in the face, receive minor punishment, but if that same person who was punched, or did the punching called the other a racial slur, they would be ostracized, kicked out of school, etc.....?

White people need to stop worrying about who's a racist and who's not a racist.

[Fairless]

Sounds like he speaks the truth.

[andyfox]

"Now where did I say this?"

Where did you say what? I wasn't talking about you, I was talking about what scalf posted. He entitled his post "LaKeisha . . ." He felt he couldn't get away with using the word "black" or "African-American" so instead he said "members of her culture." What "culture" do you think he was talking about, a member of which has the name "LaKeisha"?

In his second post, he was clearer, as another poster pointed out: "same people a few years ago in l.a. were outraged that a repetitve dui, drugee, who lead police on a dangerous long chase was mistreated by police;...so it was this same race that felt it was appropriate to stop drivers ofanother race; drag them from their truck and beat them nearly to death."

Seems to me it's pretty easy to identify blacks in the context of both posts.

[BeerMoney]

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Seems to me it's pretty easy to identify blacks in the context of both posts.

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What's your point?

[andyfox]

So what "cultrual group," that he normally actively seeks to avoid because they do things slowly and without regard to accuracty or completeness, do you think he meant by using "LaKeisha" in the title of the post?