Offensive Halloween Costume

[Vic Winters]

No, because we oppressed Hispanic people.

Who's we? I never oppressed a Hispanic person in my life. Oh wait, are you blaming all white people for the actions of a select few? Sounds like stereotyping to me.

 

[pjb15]

Your original post offends me.

 

[SunnBass]

Who's we? I never oppressed a Hispanic person in my life. Oh wait, are you blaming all white people for the actions of a select few? Sounds like stereotyping to me.

Shush.
We = Americans, of which you are one.

 

[Ulf Buck]

You have every right to be offended. No one can stop you.

 

[ajschnitzelbank]

The Tumblr crowd. Brianna Wu and Anita Sarkeesian.

There are definitely better advocates for social equality out there, but the people in the spotlight right now make mockery of the legacy started by people like MLK.

Hmm, interesting, gamer-gate women. Don't really know them or anything about gamer-gate, but I do believe there are bad people who are also femminists and involved in other social justice activities, lord knows I've met some. Thanks for responding to me, EMoneyCS2.

My issue with the person with the username Stardust Productions is outright saying the entire feminist movement, and all social justice movements, are selfish.

 

[peledog]

Don't do brown face. Don't stereotype the ethnicity. Good on you for asking. PC is only difficult for those who would rather claim 'free speech' than actually listening to a group's request to be called something respectable. Pure iaziness.

 

[Menorahman]

Well, I am doing my best to be direct, with you, Evan is it? Am I failing? Perhaps. But the fact remains you called feminists and social justice advocates misguided and selfish. And that bothers me quite a lot.

Why does that bother you? Many social justice warriors / liberals prefer minorities be kept down so they have a cause to champion. These are the same people who go volunteer in Africa during college so they can post pics of themselves holding black babies on Facebook.

And then modern feminism...oh boy. Talk about ridiculous. Feminism is now about women getting all the advantages of being a man, as well as keeping their current advantages. Men and women are different, there will always be advantages and disadvantages in each group. Life as a 7/10 white girl is easy-mode, life as a 7/10 white male? Nobody cares about you unless you get a high paying job. Also, wage gap has been scientifically debunked many times.

 

[SunnBass]

Don't do brown face. Don't stereotype the ethnicity. Good on you for asking. PC is only difficult for those who would rather claim 'free speech' than actually listening to a group's request to be called something respectable. Pure iaziness.

Yes!

 

[Awesome Sauce]

You have every right to be offended. No one can stop you.

Wait. Which Amendment guarantees Freedom of Offense, again? I always forget.

 

[pcake]

this isn't the only place this type of topic is showing up today
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[wmhill]

I'm going to bed now, and I'm sure this will be closed by morning.... thanks for showing that for sure, the world has gone mad!

 

[Menorahman]

I love how the real groups responsible for socio-economic inequality (government, corporations, 1%) probably find it hilarious when they see the commoners (us) arguing about this stuff.

 

[peledog]

No, because we oppressed Hispanic people.

Here, from The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Who's discriminated against in America? More people say Hispanics than blacks or women – and it's far from just Hispanics who feel that way.

An Associated Press-Univision Poll found that 61 percent of people overall said Hispanics face significant discrimination, compared with 52 percent who said blacks do and 50 percent who said women.

The survey also underscored how perceptions of prejudice can vary by ethnicity. While 81 percent of Latinos said Hispanics confront a lot or some discrimination, a smaller but still substantial 59 percent of non-Hispanics said so.


It is not unusual for members of a group to feel they face more prejudice. In this survey, that was especially true when people were asked about "a lot" of discrimination. Fifty-five percent of Hispanics but only 24 percent of non-Hispanics said Hispanics encounter that.

"I see it in people's faces, in the way they react," said Raymond Angulo, 66, a Mexican-born U.S. citizen and retiree from Pico Rivera, Calif. "It's gotten somewhat better, but it's still there. I feel like it's never going away."

However, Jason Welty, a lawn care specialist in Indianapolis who is not Hispanic, said he has seen little evidence of the problem despite working frequently with Hispanics.

"They're treated by most of our clients and the people we work with just like anybody else," said Welty, 30.

The AP-Univision Poll compiled the views of 901 Hispanics, which were compared with the results of a separate AP-GfK survey of the general population.

Attention on whether Latinos face unfair treatment has intensified since last month, when Arizona enacted a law requiring local police to ascertain the citizenship of people they suspect of being in the U.S. illegally.

President Barack Obama called the statute "misdirected" Wednesday at a joint news conference with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, and he said the Justice Department will soon complete a review of whether it violates civil rights laws. But others have rallied behind the statute as a needed step with an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S.

Lisa Navarrete, vice president of the National Council of La Raza, the Latino advocacy organization, said the poll's findings suggest a silver lining in the country's often bitter debate over immigration.

"For a lot of people, regardless of how they feel about what we should do about immigration, they're recognizing that this community has been singled out and targeted," Navarrete said.

About 40 percent of the Hispanics in the survey said they had experienced much discrimination personally – including just 13 percent who said they had dealt with it a lot.

"I was discriminated against, 'You're just a dumb Mexican,'" said Ric J. Romero, 56, a retiree in Albuquerque, N.M., who said he traces his family's origins to Spain, not Mexico. "Yes, there is still very heavy discrimination."

But Sabino Infante, 62, a college admissions counselor from Hesperia, Calif., said he has never experienced the problem. Infante, who is originally from Mexico, attributed the higher perceptions of prejudice by Hispanics than non-Hispanics to some people having "a chip on their shoulder, an attitude."

Among Hispanics, women are more likely than men to say Latinos suffer discrimination. In addition, Hispanics from cities and rural areas are more likely than those from the suburbs to say Latinos face a lot of prejudice.

Matilde Martinez, 59, a Puerto Rican-born New Yorker, said she believes Mexican immigrants face much mistreatment.

"It causes me a lot of pain," she said in an interview conducted in Spanish. "These people come to work and they do work that the Americans won't do for the little pay they get."

There also are partisan differences. Fifty-five percent of Hispanic Democrats and 38 percent of Hispanic Republicans say there is a lot of discrimination against Hispanics, and Hispanic Democrats are more likely than those in the GOP to say they have personally been affected.

Hispanics in the poll perceived discrimination against other groups a bit more often than non-Hispanics did.

Fifty-seven percent of Latinos and 50 percent of non-Hispanics said blacks are discriminated against. Fifty-eight percent of Hispanics and 48 percent of others said they had observed discrimination against women.

The AP-Univision Poll was conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media from May 7-12. It involved landline and cell phone interviews with 901 Hispanic adults and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5.3 percentage points.

The findings were compared to a separate AP-GfK poll of 1,002 adults from the general population, also by GfK Roper. It involved cell and landline interviews conducted from May 7-11, and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.

Thanks fort this. It's all about who oppressed/oppresses who. Racism/prejudice doesn't exist in a vaccuum. White is not the standard or neutral ground many think/believe it to be. Prejudice can go both ways, racism can't. There is no 'reverse racism'.

Just be sensible. Like the Walmart 'Arab' costume - and the Israeli soldier costume - who came up with these ideas? People are annoyed about offending someone, not because they don't care, but because it's a hassle to relearn the crap that was taught earlier in life. That's a poor cop out.

Have fun, be good, and eat real sugar!

 

[Awesome Sauce]

I love how the real groups responsible for socio-economic inequality (government, corporations, 1%) probably find it hilarious when they see the commoners (us) arguing about this stuff.

Excuse me, sir! But I am anything but common. I would say Rare, Epic...maybe even Legendary.

 

[Plectrum72]

See the cartoon on the previous page.

You cannot simply deny the existence of power structures. Humor does not exist in a vacuum. It IS funny to mock Christianity because it has been on the top of the totem pole for the past two thousand years. It can stand to be knocked down a few pegs. Mexicans have been scraping the bottom for the past five hundred years - precisely BECAUSE of that position of power Christianity was enjoying all that time. They've payed their dues. It's not funny to see someone knocked down who's already at the bottom.

It's the same reason why you throw someone a roast to mark an accomplishment, and not at their funeral.

No, THIS attitude is the crux of the problem - it is the definition of privilege. You would also do well to reference the cartoon I posted, it demonstrates why intent alone is not sufficient to escape culpability.

A white southerner in the 60's might insist that he finds racism reprehensible even as he moves his children out of a desegregating school. Today we would recognize that as an inherently racist act, but his awareness of the term is limited by his time and place. You need not be so limited - as we have already dismantled the mechanical racism in our culture (institutional programs such as segregation) we are currently battling down the much more obscure enemy of systemic racism (the meta-processes by which minorities are still being oppressed).

Your life is a boat adrift on an ocean, you can be forgiven for not realizing the myriad invisible currents that determine your course. But to continue pleading ignorance when those invisible currents are pointed out to you, you've now crossed the line to willful ignorance. Stop and add up all the ways your socio-economic status has been impacted by your whiteness. If your answer is any flavor of "it wasn't," then that's how you know you have white privilege. Because the simple fact of the matter is that every other minority will have a long and detailed answer to that question. Still believe lack of intent equals lack of harm?

You may have done nothing yourself to subjugate native Mexicans, you may not have personally infected anyone with small pox, you may not have cheated any sharecroppers on their day's wages. But whether you realize it or not, your entire life has been defined by the ways you have benefited from those who did. No one's asking for reparations, no one's even asking for an apology. They're just asking you to take a step back from yourself, show a little humility, and to skip the part where you salt the wounds your fathers left.

So as as a 3rd generation Irish-American who grew up poor (food stamps and government cheese poor, not quite on welfare poor) my life has been defined by those who cheated sharecroppers and infected Native Americans with small pox? Neither your cartoon nor your explanation of power structures apply to the circumstances under which I came to adulthood, but I'm supposed to feel guilt over my "white privilege?" As most people try to do, I have improved my circumstances in life over that of my parents and am trying to do the same for my children. Haves and have nots are not defined by skin color. Humor being okay if it pokes at a position of power that can stand to be taken down a few pegs, but not okay if it pokes fun at those in a lesser position is hypocracy. Climb down off your high horse before you get a nosebleed.

 

[SunnBass]

Thanks fort this. It's all about who oppressed/oppresses who. Racism/prejudice doesn't exist in a vaccuum. White is not the standard or neutral ground many think/believe it to be. Prejudice can go both was, racism can't.

Just be sensible. Like the Walmart 'Arab' costume - and the Israeli soldier costume - who came up with these ideas? People are annoyed about offending someone, not because they don't care, but because it's a hassle to relearn the crap that was taught earlier in life. That's a poor cop out.

Have fun, be good, and eat real sugar!

Again, bravo.
If you were sitting next to me, in a bar, at his very moment, I would buy you all the beers.

 

[peledog]

Who's we? I never oppressed a Hispanic person in my life. Oh wait, are you blaming all white people for the actions of a select few? Sounds like stereotyping to me.

This is a common misconception. Racism doesn't exist just on a personal level. It's is structural, institutional and systemic. White privilige is all around. Ask any person of color.

 

[Vic Winters]

Shush.
We = Americans, of which you are one.

But I never did what you claimed I did. You seem to have no problem pointing the finger at others and declaring them guilty based solely on their country of origin. What the word for that again?

 

[SunnBass]

Humor being okay if it pokes at a position of power that can stand to be taken down a few pegs, but not okay if it pokes fun at those in a lesser position is hypocracy.

Please, clearly yet concisely, and in your own words, explain how that is hypocrisy.

 

[SunnBass]

But I never did what you claimed I did. You seem to have no problem pointing the finger at others and declaring them guilty based solely on their country of origin. What the word for that again?

I said shush.