Atomicflea wrote:
Eske Esquire wrote:
That article basically alternated between truisms, and incorrectly labeling things racist.
Interesting. Which things?
I'll do a quick copypaste and work through 'em:
I feel like the entire introductory paragraph goes without saying, more or less.
Quote:
This category includes things like wide-eyed acoustic covers of hip-hop songs, suburban white girls flashing gang signs, and this Tweet from Zooey Deschanel: "Haha. :) RT @Sarabareilles: Home from tour and first things first: New Girl episodes I missed. #thuglife." See, it's hilarious, because we aren't thugs—we are darling girls, and real thugs are black people who do crime! Oh, hey, can I call you back? I need to sew more ric-rac on my apron. I hope a black person didn't get into my ric-rac Kaboodle and steal all of it! JK, LOL. RIP, Whitney.
This isn't racist, by any measure. It's ironic, certainly, but racist? Is it implying that people of another race are worse? Generally speaking, no, I don't think so. And, of course, rap and hip hop aren't inherently "black", nor is "thuggishness". It looks like the author had to add her own flourish at the end to try to make it seem racist.
Quote:
Wherein privileged people descend for a visit inside the strange, foreign spaces of othered groups. Like, I don't know, IHOP. Or that "scary" bar in the south end.
Nothing inherently about race here, either. I mean, it's tangential to instances of racism (like if the bar is "scary" solely because it's got a bunch of black people in it). Even then, I'd be careful about whether it's racist...if you're surrounded by a bunch of folk that you're different from, it's natural to feel a bit out of place. Her point is tangential to a logical point about racism, but it'd be an obvious point even if she were she to make it.
Quote:
This is Lesley Arfin crowing about the majestic power of the n-word, and white kids whining that it's "unfair" that black people "get" to use "it". You know, because words are powerful and words are Arfin's craft and would you take the color red away from the best painter on Twitter??? And besides, don't you just find Arfin to be so RAW and DELICIOUSLY NAUGHTY? It's all tied up with the deliberately obtuse people who conflate "freedom of speech" with "immunity from criticism." You "can" say the n-word. Go ahead and say it if you want, Skrillex. And I will go ahead and give you the world's most sidewaysiest eyeball forever. Because it hurts people. Why do you want to hurt people?
Nothing in here is racist, with the possible exception of the Lesley Arfin thing, which I'm unfamiliar with. That people are free to say the N-word, and that other people are free to subsequently judge them for it, strikes me as pretty obvious.
Quote:
Okay, I get what you're trying to do here—having some fun at the expense of the oppressors while setting yourself up as one of the "cool" white people—but mainly what you end up doing is implying that black people don't like informative radio or TED talks. Stuff White People Like: having the best brains! Isn't it great that we can make fun of ourselves while still reminding you that we're better than you?
Granted, I've looked at Stuff White People like exactly once ever, but as far as I can tell, since it's not called "Stuff Black People Don't Like", this doesn't stand to reason.
Edited, May 1st 2012 4:59pm by Eske 
