targetman377 wrote:when i was in high school my teacher deifined raciesm to us and he said this "the only people that can be racist are the majority they get this way by opressing the minority." wich to me is a bunch of bull s#$T if you ask me. to be a racist you have to do more than say somthing about a group of people you have to mean it and belive it.
In some ways, your teacher was accurate. On a macro level, the "whites" might be the majority in the US, but this is not the case in many neighborhoods in cities across the nation. In NYC's Bed-Stuy, Harlem, or Chinatown, for example, being white can very easily (and does) lead to being subjected to racism by the population that comprises the majority. This, however, doesn't mean that the majority of people in those neighborhoods are racists, just that someone who would be considered the majority on the macro level would certainly be in the minority on the micro level, and be subjected to racism.
It takes many forms, from being charged higher prices for goods and services, to being ignored in preference for someone of the majority, etc.
The primary problem with defining racism as something someone truly believes is that we still haven't developed the technology to know the human heart (the US Patent Office and the DOJ are standing by, inventors!). Thus, attitudes, actions and words are the best indicators for what someone truly believes.
To claim that a comedian is a racist, unless they come right out and say that they are, isn't really fair, since the audience buys their ticket for the show with the understanding that the comedian is NOT to be taken seriously. However, that's a market driven force. If the comedian is overtly racist in his/her act, the revenue generated from the shows will dry up, and those kinds of jokes won't make money anymore (except, I'm sure, in niche racist markets).
On an internet forum, however, it's much different. There is no tacit understanding of not taking things seriously and there is no real suitable mechanism for restraining attempts at humor from going too far or ceasing to be humor in the first place. Saying "I'm just kidding" is a cop out, and not legitimate. Because of these limitations to the medium, and the fact that the content is user created (as opposed to a performer/audience relationship), one must generally fault on the side of avoiding anything that could be construed as racist. Most importantly, it's the lowest blow someone could make, appealing to the lowest common denominator, going after that which one cannot control.
Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2008 10:49 pm
