i got assaulted and robbed tonight

[Matrix]

This is the exact reason why I stopped coming to forums online...they're 90% idiocy and 10% useful conversation.

We're up to 10%?!?!
That's great news. Thanks.

[Ultimatewingchun]

"It starts as I.D.-ing a group of attackers, or addressing a group of people, and soon it becomes racialized discourse, institutional hatred, discrimination, and then expurgation." (Seppukku)

***THIS is truly a load of "politically correct" crap. And needs to be pushed back against every time it rears it's head. People HAVE to be able to identify their attackers - and WILL always be able to identify their attackers.

And there's Nothing that any amount of politically/racially agenda-ized pandering will be able to do about that.

There is no "soon becomes" this or that. There are too many steps and societal/legal safeguards involved in-between A & Z for people to buy into this nonsense way of thinking.

[Seppukku]

"It starts as I.D.-ing a group of attackers, or addressing a group of people, and soon it becomes racialized discourse, institutional hatred, discrimination, and then expurgation." (Seppukku)

***THIS is truly a load of "politically correct" crap. And needs to be pushed back against every time it rears it's head. People HAVE to be able to identify their attackers - and WILL always be able to identify their attackers.

And there's Nothing that any amount of politically/racially agenda-ized pandering will be able to do about that.

There is no "soon becomes" this or that. There are too many steps and societal/legal safeguards involved in-between A & Z for people to buy into this nonsense way of thinking.

Perhaps we should drop all PC labels, revert to racial epithets, segregation, and the recall of voting ammendments?

PC doesn't mean "Politically correct". It means "I won't tolerate your miscegenation through nuanced racial/sexual judgments."

[Seppukku]

For instance: I'm a Japanese American. This is my nationality, not my race. But it describes something that race doesn't--my cultural context. Race makes no distinction between cultures. Hence, if you said: "Africans are closer to our human origins than white people", this wouldn't make any sense because there are lots of white people in Africa.

So, am I a yellow-american? Are you going to lump me together with the Chinese, Thais, Cambodians, Rangoons, Burmese, Vietnamese, or....God forbid...the Koreans?!!! I sumbit, I'm none of the above. There is a world of difference between myself and the full-fledged Japanese; there's a difference between myself and a Chinese person. We have very different cultural perspectives. Or maybe I'm just Asian--as if we're "all the same, and look the same".

Now, when you say someone is "black" rather than "African American", you are in fact linking behavioral aspects (in this case criminality) with skin color. It's a judgment, a blanket statement.

Think about your language UltimateWingChun, and I think you'll agree.

Had he said: "They were African American youths", I wouldn't have so much of a problem, because he's identifying them by their cultural context. And if they were African Americans with a Caribbean accent, he could say: "And they sounded like they were from the Caribbean, because of their accent. Maybe Haiti or something...."

Or, if they have an identifiable slang, or dialect, this could help locate them.

Tagging "black" onto them as a marker of who they are is problematic.

[Seppukku]

Black is so general, it isn't even a good marker of what a policeman should be looking for. What is black? Is it Puerto Rican or Hispanic? Does it include darker-skinned Indians? Are these all the same? Just how tan does someone have to be before he or she's black? Are really tanned caucasians black?

If you have a very freckled caucasian assailant, (a ginger), is he a half-black?

Your answer will be: of course not.

Therefore, "black" is not a good label, and should be abandoned. It is just the new "Negro". And "Negro" was just a polite way to say what I will not say, because it's going way too far.

[Seppukku]

Let's say we have an African American who has spray-painted himself white and commits a crime.

When you describe him to the police, how do you describe him?

When someone says: "He was black, mr. officer", he's only describing the person adjectively. Why not choose to do so with more substance? Why not: "He was African American? He was Chinese American? He was a Chinese American with a Chinese accent? He was an African American with a Caribbean accent?"

Imagine the chaos if you said: "He was white, mr. officer. And he said he was from Compton, and belonged to the Rollin' Sixties".

Every officer in LA would be looking for a white Crip.

[Seppukku]

I think this demonstrates what a superior rhetorical tactician I am.

[Phil Redmond]

Let's say we have an African American who has spray-painted himself white and commits a crime. . . . . .

I know a white African-American and and white African-Canadian. A white African who obtains American citizenship could be labeled as an African-American just like an Irish-American or any other hyphenated immigrant.

[Seppukku]

Actually, no. He would be a Nigerian living in America, or a South African living in America, or an Ethopian living in America. He would only be an African American if he was ethnically African.

You're confusing nationality with ethnicity--a common mistake. For instance--persons like myself are Asian. We are from the continent of Asia. However, I'm Japanese-American in terms of my nationality. You could call me Asian-American for my ethnicity. But in ethnic terms, I'm Asian. It's a very broad category.

Africa is not a country, it's a continent. When describing ethnicity, we make use of continents because that's the most accurate way to describe racial distribution throughout the earth. "Whites"=Caucasian/European. "Blacks"=African-....... "Yellows"=Asians. "Reds"=Amer-Indians. "....."=Arab/Indian.

This isn't being "PC". It's about accuracy. If I say I'm a Japanese-American, it's because I see that I don't identify with the whole *friggin' continent of Asia.

*Hey, did you know that in the seventeenth century "Frigging" was the word they used for "masturbation"?

I bet you didn't. I think this demonstrates how learned I am.

[tjwingchun]

*Hey, did you know that in the seventeenth century "Frigging" was the word they used for "masturbation"?

I bet you didn't. I think this demonstrates how learned I am.

I knew even before hearing the Ian Drury track "Frigging in the rigging", I also know what a merkin is as well as the use of pickled nutmegs related to prostitutes in Victorian times.

I am a Geordie living in Majorca so what does that make me.

[Seppukku]

I knew even before hearing the Ian Drury track "Frigging in the rigging", I also know what a merkin is as well as the use of pickled nutmegs related to prostitutes in Victorian times.

I am a Geordie living in Majorca so what does that make me.

I have the world's most valuable collection of merkins, and rent them out for a small fee. (Don't worry, we martinize them).

For those who don't know, a merkin is a kind of jerkin for the place where men do their squirtin' for a birthin'....

[SAAMAG]

Holy crap man. I know you're trying to show how socially adept you are with your bantering; but seriously, the only reason we're debating this is because Phil mentioned something about it (ever so subtly).

It's no different than Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson--it's simply pulling the race card to propogate that we're all still racist. **** man. I get sick of hearing the ****. I've got friends of every race, creed, and color. NONE of them get mad when I use the word black, or yellow or whatever...it's ****ing semantics man. Get over it. It's not the word--it's the intent of the speaker using the word.

I'm white, vietnamese, and chinese. People use all sorts of terms when they talk about my races, do I give a rats ass? No...why? Because I know the intent isn't malicious--and I'm an adult who doesn't need to pull the race card all the time.

Sep', your soapbox is getting wrinkled and mishapen because you've been standing on it much too long.

[SAAMAG]

We're up to 10%?!?!
That's great news. Thanks.

No worries!

[Matrix]

It's not the word--it's the intent of the speaker using the word.

I'm white, vietnamese, and chinese. People use all sorts of terms when they talk about my races, do I give a rats ass? No...why? Because I know the intent isn't malicious--and I'm an adult who doesn't need to pull the race card all the time.

Recently my brother and a distant cousin were working on our family tree. I had always thought of myself as Irish/Scot based on my limited view of my own history. It turns out there's also a lot of German and French and believe it or not - black (Cuban). I was surprised, but also thrilled to hear this news. I'm happy I don't fit nicely into some little WASP box. I think we're slowly moving to understanding that we're all just people. This evolution seems to be moving at glacier-like speed, but it is moving.

I don't know if you saw this story on 60 minutes. but I found it to be interesting. It goes to show you that your self-image may not match reality.

Of course we should also keep in mind that racism is real and should not be trivialized. Let's not turn it into a witch-hunt.

[bakxierboxer]

I have the world's most valuable collection of merkins, and rent them out for a small fee. (Don't worry, we martinize them).

http://www.urbandictionary.com/defin...term=martinize

An earlier definition had it that the term referred to the methods of one Jimmy Martin,
who would masticate dirty laundry (women's underwear, to be more specific) to remove "certain stains".

Jimmy was "homeless" but drove a recent model Cadillac on the theory that:
"You kin sleep in yo' cah, butchu cain't drive yo' house!"

As for "personal hygiene", he'd simply buy new clothes whenever the old ones began to stink... possibly due to the lack of wardrobe space in his Cadillac/house.
OTOH, this is merely a point of conjecture for anyone who happens to care.... if any such person actually exists.