Here's an interesting thought, in Begga's thread, if one of the options had been
2 African American men and and an African American woman
And the result had been, for argument's sake, the 2 men were engaged in a gang turf war, having both fathered several children by the woman,
Would we have laughed, or been offended? The other funnies are also based on racial and national stereotypes, none of them particularly positive, yet we all think it's funny and can laugh at our own perceived idiosyncracies.
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Amusing article which sums it all up very nicely...
Quote:
...In fact there are few things white people love more than being offended.
Naturally, white people do not get offended by statements directed at white people. In fact, they don’t even have a problem making offensive statements about other white people (ask a white person about “flyover states”). As a rule, white people strongly prefer to get offended on behalf of other people.
It is also valuable to know that white people spend a significant portion of their time preparing for the moment when they will be offended. They read magazines, books, and watch documentaries all in hopes that one day they will encounter a person who will say something offensive. When this happens, they can leap into action with quotes, statistics, and historical examples. Once they have finished lecturing another white person about how it’s wrong to use the term “black” instead of “African-American,” they can sit back and relax in the knowledge that they have made a difference.
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This matter, like them all, is a complex one. I think all the issues raised by everyone are valid to a certain extent, I too was a little shocked when I saw the Swiss fancy dress, Native American people black tribesmen from Africa, Chinese guys and a guy in a home made kilt!
I think that it is important to understand that these fancy dress selections (although more prudently avoided) are never intended to disgrace or show malice to another’s identity or ethnic group.
In Britain the awkwardness of 'blacking up' is always capitalised on in comedy, but generally in an ironic way to indicate the stupidity or lack of sensitivity of the character who is doing it.
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lil piece of info, Rockstar games releases all their games iwth multiple languages, so the swiss version is as good as any other, except of course for the price.
Amusing article which sums it all up very nicely...
Nice comment
"I once had a total stranger come to the defense of a friend of mine cos someone called him “black” instead of, and I quote, “using the more politically correct term African-American”
to which my friend shrugged and casually replied, “But I’m neither African nor American, I’m French.”
I laughed so hard I had juice coming out my nose"
Tom
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"I once had a total stranger come to the defense of a friend of mine cos someone called him “black” instead of, and I quote, “using the more politically correct term African-American”
to which my friend shrugged and casually replied, “But I’m neither African nor American, I’m French.”
I laughed so hard I had juice coming out my nose"
Tom
It's funny actually how if asked to describe someone who is white then most white people don't even mention skin colour in their description, but if the person is black then the description normally starts with the skin colour
lil piece of info, Rockstar games releases all their games iwth multiple languages, so the swiss version is as good as any other, except of course for the price.
So why are there multiple versions on that site, one with English, one with DEU/FRE etc?
The English one is cheaper anyway, so not complaining.
It's funny actually how if asked to describe someone who is white then most white people don't even mention skin colour in their description, but if the person is black then the description normally starts with the skin colour
Is that true in reverse?
My son was describing one of his class friends the other day. He said he was dark skinned and lived down the road.
That narrowed it down to two immediately. He certainly wasn't being racist, just observant.
If he hadn't mentioned that he had dark skin then it would have made it a lot more difficult to work out who he was talking about.
If I had told him that he shouldn't have mentioned his skin colour, what sort of message would that have sent to him?
Skin colour is a feature like ginger hair or big breasts or being skinny.
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It's funny actually how if asked to describe someone who is white then most white people don't even mention skin colour in their description, but if the person is black then the description normally starts with the skin colour
Is that true in reverse?
Depends whether you're in, say, Ghana or Switzerland.
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In Britain the awkwardness of 'blacking up' is always capitalised on in comedy, but generally in an ironic way to indicate the stupidity or lack of sensitivity of the character who is doing it.
Some comedy also targets innocent children vs. overly political correct parents... oh, wait.
"kids in blackface" i suppose .. i mean black face???? what sort of headline is that
its only racist if you think worse of other people surely so the fact that you notice, make comment on it and object to it.. for me kids in africa have black faces so kids here would have to do some thing to look like that.
im sure there wouldnt be an outrgae if kids in africa whited up to look like western kids
the fact you are bringing it up and are anoyed by it concerns me more than anything..
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I read the first two pages and then skipped to the last ...... boring ... but also a little bit interesting. The boring part was the old "racist" rug being pulled again. Interesting was how people like to denegrate darker people, what is wrong with face paint to look like a dark person? It`s all just skin pigmentation caused by the countries/ancestors people are descended from.
I am "white" but not white. I keep getting asked "Hey you are South African, and a white person? .. Howcome you are SO dark skinned?" It`s a long story - goes back about 400 years to my ancestors, and gets complicated and boring.
I am not black ... just a light shade of dark brown, and a darker shade of brown in summer. If anyone painted themselves brown to impersonate me ... should I be offended?
As was said before here ...... get agitated over kids paintiing their faces black and you make an "issue" of skin colour never thought of before in their innocence. So, if a black person painted their face white would that cause the same reaction? Is "white" somehow superior to "black"?
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Maybe they took their cue from Beyoncé, the photo shoot and article mentioned in this blog (and this one too) was done for a French magazine, perhaps the girls in question read it / saw it.
I'm willing to bet that teens would simply think that if Beyoncé thinks it's okay, it's okay.
Edit:
BTW, all those groans for the OP are pretty pathetic.
Criticizing her for what you assume to be her lack of cultural insight here while not taking HER cultural background into account is pretty ignorant me thinks. WE ALL go through stages of figuring out what parts of our "old" culture are things we wish to embrace or lose and plenty of those cultural reactions are so ingrained we simply don't think about them... until something (like kids dressing up in FULLY "authentic" costumes) comes along to shake us up and have a look at how our "old" culture differs from where we find ourselves now.
So, you may as well groan yourselves for not taking her culture into account.
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