Racist or Not?

NCFUBAR

The following story was sent to me ... what's your take?

http://www.thegrio.com/politics/creator-of-dont-re-****-in-2012-bumper-sticker-says-i-am-not-racist.php

I admit I am prejudice (women shouldn't be in combat, old people can't drive, etc, all teenagers are stupid 50% of the time or more, etc), but now I know I am not racist ... I will not post the bumpsticker.

Jermanator

If the bumper sticker was meant as a tool to help Democrats label the opposition as racists, it does a good job. Other than that, I see no use for it.

tennmike

I'm racist; I prefer the human race over all others. Those space aliens can go pound sand. :tooth:

Regarding the bumper sticker, I'd say it's a case of "liar, liar, pants on fire" or a case of not using Spellcheck. And even then, it is a clear case of using the word improperly to convey the thought meant. The word she was shooting for, and missed completely, was:

re·nege
Verb:
Go back on a promise, undertaking, or contract.

snake284

NCFUBAR wrote: »

The following story was sent to me ... what's your take?

http://www.thegrio.com/politics/creator-of-dont-re-****-in-2012-bumper-sticker-says-i-am-not-racist.php

I admit I am prejudice (women shouldn't be in combat, old people can't drive, etc, all teenagers are stupid 50% of the time or more, etc), but now I know I am not racist ... I will not post the bumpsticker.

It's obvious to me that it was definitely racially motivated. However, I still think it was funny. But then if it would have been a joke about a fat pinky white boy I would have probably thought it funny too. Humor shouldn't have racial lines. And people that get bent out of shape over it need to get a life. Yeah Yeah Yeah, I know, it's easy to say that if you're white. But really, we are talking about adults, not 5th graders. People need to get a life. Having said that, I will say that my candidate was drummed out by the liberals. My candidate was a for real Southern Black man that made no apology for that or anything else in his life. He had pride and was a good person. He also had his mind right and he thought along the lines of a person I would trust to lead this country. People, I was 100% for Herman Cain and I'm proud of that, not because it makes me feel good, but because I know I can pick the right person I want to vote for that I think will do the best job and I don't need to worry about anything else about that man. Herman Cain was that man to me and I'll never forgive the Dummycrats and the Racist NAACP blacks for what they did to this good man. They telling me 14-15 years after the fact some bimbos come forth and slam him with accusations. I wish he would have stayed in the race, but I understand why he finally got out. First of all, he was seeing the damage done was too great to overcome, and secondly it was hurting his family. Only a caring person would have bailed when they felt so strongly about what they wanted to do. These jerks should be in a special place in hell for doing this to a good man. OK That's but another political rant from yours truly, but you see why the bumpersticker didn't upset me.

beartracker

I did not find it funny, I think it is sad, when there are so many good reasons to not re-elect Obama that could be used for bumper stickers. Just another divisive tool instead of a chance to be constructive about the failings of Obama. The extremes of our society are polarizing this nation and just because the other side (whomever that might be) stoops to low divisive and unprincipled techniques does not mean we have to do the same. I find it offensive when evil is returned for evil.

Slanteyedshootist

Buncha racists...

alphasigmookie

Yes it is clearly racist. News flash, racists do in fact still exist. However, it is also being used to try and paint a much larger portion of the country as racist which is also wrong.

A saying I've heard before is:

Not all republicans are racist, but all racists are republicans.

This statement is largely true, but it's also dirty political trick. This sort of charged rhetoric and word association type statements are targeted at the unthinking masses who bombed their SATs and unfortunately they work to a large degree. It is the same sort of strategy used by so many conservative talk show personalities that's helped convince so many people that Obama is actually a Muslim. Just part of the dirty world of partisan politics.

Jermanator

alphasigmookie wrote: »

A saying I've heard before is:

Not all republicans are racist, but all racists are republicans.

This statement is largely true...

Really? Are you going to actually tell me that racism is essentially a Republican issue? There are no racist Democrats? Please clarify yourself. That comes across as an incredibly ignorant assertion.

beartracker

Jermanator wrote: »

Really? Are you going to actually tell me that racism is essentially a Republican issue? There are no racist Democrats? Please clarify yourself. That comes across as an incredibly ignorant assertion.

DITTO!!!

NCFUBAR

Jermanator wrote: »

Really? Are you going to actually tell me that racism is essentially a Republican issue? There are no racist Democrats? Please clarify yourself. That comes across as an incredibly ignorant assertion.

I may get beat for this but by god I'll say it ...

I firmly believe their are a lot RACIST leaders who are not Republican that the media and liberals will not call out ...

Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Loius Farrakhan and so on ...

Why does it seem "Caucasians" are the only "racists"?

beartracker

NCFUBAR wrote: »

I may get beat for this but by god I'll say it ...

I firmly believe their are a lot RACIST leaders who are not Republican that the media and liberals will not call out ...

Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Loius Farrakhan and so on ...

Why does it seem "Caucasians" are the only "racists"?

Don't worry NCFUBAR, only those in denial and those that are on the extreme left will beat on you and that should be a badge of honor!!

alphasigmookie

Jermanator wrote: »

Really? Are you going to actually tell me that racism is essentially a Republican issue? There are no racist Democrats? Please clarify yourself. That comes across as an incredibly ignorant assertion.

At least that's the political conventional wisdom and in politics perception ~= reality. A more strictly accurate statement would be:

Most white racists are republicans and most black racists are democrats.

Then again as has become abundantly clear is that truth and accuracy have no place in 21st century American politics.

For the record I am not defending any of this, merely intending to comment on the sad state of the political discourse in this country.

alphasigmookie

By the way the better response to this type of attack is to point out that people like the person with the bumper sticker do not represent you or the vast majority of conservatives rather than going "you guys are racist too!"

One method disarms your opponent while the other entrenches them and indirectly implies that you approve of the racists on your side of the isle.

Jermanator

alphasigmookie wrote: »

At least that's the political conventional wisdom and in politics perception ~= reality. A more strictly accurate statement would be:

Most white racists are republicans and most black racists are democrats.

Then again as has become abundantly clear is that truth and accuracy have no place in 21st century American politics.

For the record I am not defending any of this, merely intending to comment on the sad state of the political discourse in this country.

I would agree that the stereotype exists as you explained, but strongly disagree with the statements. I really don't want anything to do with racists in either party of either color. Race is a man made concept used as a tool to justify treating other people like crap. The sooner we get past it, the better.

snake284

Another thing, when Obama ran for President, I knew lifelong Democrats here that would not vote for BHO. One I know voted for Ralph Nader just because he couldn't stand the thought of a Black president, no matter which party he was with. Then there's another I knew that wouldn't vote and stayed home because he said "I ain't helping put any N _ _ _ _ _ in the White House!!! This guy was an old retired Alcoan union man that never in his life voted for anyone but the Democratic front runner. Then there were Republicans like Abraham Lincoln (Remember him?) who actually went to war for Black peoples and other peoples rights. Yes, it was the Grand Old Party that freed the slaves, while the Democrats were the slave owners. So you are very very wrong about who is racist and who is not.

And also, the Democratic Party has actually kept blacks down. As long as they keep them like that and pretend to be their friend, they get their vote, to say nothing of the failed liberal policies of the past 50 years concerning civil rights. I call it reversed discrimination.

Jayhawker

What Jerm said....

snake284

Quote by Jerminator: "Race is a man made concept used as a tool to justify treating other people like crap. The sooner we get past it, the better." So true Jerm so true.

snake284

alphasigmookie wrote: »

By the way the better response to this type of attack is to point out that people like the person with the bumper sticker do not represent you or the vast majority of conservatives rather than going "you guys are racist too!"

One method disarms your opponent while the other entrenches them and indirectly implies that you approve of the racists on your side of the isle.

Name me a racist on MY Side of the isle.

NCFUBAR

Sad thing here if I remember my college science stuff is some german scientist came up with the race classifications for purpose of anthropological studies but ignorance and prejudices turned the classifications from terms of science to terms of hatred.

tennmike

There's only one race; human, or more correctly, **** sapiens. Otherwise, there would be HUGE differences in DNA, and there aren't huge differences. But there are a bunch of ethnic groups. I guess it's easier to say, "You're racist!" than "You're ethnocentric!". If you substitute ethnocentric for racist, it loses a lot of it's inflammatory appeal even though the meaning is mostly the same. Makes people do this: "Say what? :uhm::uhm::uhm:", when you say 'ethnocentric'.

LostSoul

tennmike wrote: »

There's only one race; human, or more correctly, **** sapiens. Otherwise, there would be HUGE differences in DNA, and there aren't huge differences. But there are a bunch of ethnic groups. I guess it's easier to say, "You're racist!" than "You're ethnocentric!". If you substitute ethnocentric for racist, it loses a lot of it's inflammatory appeal even though the meaning is mostly the same. Makes people do this: "Say what? :uhm::uhm::uhm:", when you say 'ethnocentric'.

Race has nothing to do with DNA classification ... Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and Species ... are used for classification and race is not one **** is the genus and sapien is the species. The term Race was developed by an anthropologist named Blumenbach in the late 1700's to early 1800's. His idea was 3 basic GROUPS he called races based on physical triats of the skull ... Caucasoid, Negroid and ****.

The definitions of the various words has been so twisted we seem to get lost in the PC wordings.

alphasigmookie

snake284 wrote: »

Name me a racist on MY Side of the isle.

How about the person who put the bumper sticker on their car...unless of course you want to make a case that they're actually a "progresso-lib".

NN

I did human relations, so you will just have to guess.

beartracker

alphasigmookie wrote: »

How about the person who put the bumper sticker on their car...unless of course you want to make a case that they're actually a "progresso-lib".

Out of curiosity, who on the progressive/liberal side do you alphasigmookie think is a racist?

bullsi1911

I am more conspiracy sided on this one. I think this was created to drum up opposition to evil-racist-repbublicans.

alphasigmookie

beartracker wrote: »

Out of curiosity, who on the progressive/liberal side do you alphasigmookie think is a racist?

I would probably put Farrakhan into the full on racist category. Sharpton and Jackson are more opportunists that I'd refer to more them more as "racialist" (I'd put Rush and some of the other right wing talk radio guys into this category on the other side). They aren't full on racists but they use race to their advantage and play around the edges of racism. There are far more "racialists" around these days than full on racists which is alone a good thing and a sign things are moving in the right direction. There are of course other fringe groups and individual voters though that are full on racists. There are plenty of white supremacist groups and even some of the militia groups can fall into this category and tend to be conservative or libertarian. There are also a few "black supremacists" groups and probably even some latino supremacists groups that probably vote democratic.

bullsi1911

cpj wrote: »

Im not racist. I hate everyone equally.

ESPECIALLY people with bumper stickers.

Jermanator

alphasigmookie wrote: »

I would probably put Farrakhan into the full on racist category. Sharpton and Jackson are more opportunists that I'd refer to more them more as "racialist" (I'd put Rush and some of the other right wing talk radio guys into this category on the other side). They aren't full on racists but they use race to their advantage and play around the edges of racism. There are far more "racialists" around these days than full on racists which is alone a good thing and a sign things are moving in the right direction. There are of course other fringe groups and individual voters though that are full on racists. There are plenty of white supremacist groups and even some of the militia groups can fall into this category and tend to be conservative or libertarian. There are also a few "black supremacists" groups and probably even some latino supremacists groups that probably vote democratic.

alphasigmookie wrote: »

By the way the better response to this type of attack is to point out that people like the person with the bumper sticker do not represent you or the vast majority of conservatives rather than going "you guys are racist too!"

One method disarms your opponent while the other entrenches them and indirectly implies that you approve of the racists on your side of the aisle.

Do you find your own self needing to separate from these people, or is the difference between you and these left wing racists so apparent that to do so would almost seem comical?

beartracker

alphasigmookie wrote: »

I would probably put Farrakhan into the full on racist category. Sharpton and Jackson are more opportunists that I'd refer to more them more as "racialist" (I'd put Rush and some of the other right wing talk radio guys into this category on the other side). They aren't full on racists but they use race to their advantage and play around the edges of racism. There are far more "racialists" around these days than full on racists which is alone a good thing and a sign things are moving in the right direction. There are of course other fringe groups and individual voters though that are full on racists. There are plenty of white supremacist groups and even some of the militia groups can fall into this category and tend to be conservative or libertarian. There are also a few "black supremacists" groups and probably even some latino supremacists groups that probably vote democratic.

As I said, just curious about your take on things.

beartracker

cpj wrote: »

Im not racist. I hate everyone equally.

Such and involved dissertation, impressively succinct:jester:

alphasigmookie

The more important question though is how do we marginalize the racists and other fringe elements and focus debate on what matters rather than trying to paint either side based upon whatever ugly characteristics might apply to some of the individuals that happen to vote for each side. A similar type of attack would be focused trying to characterize democratic voters as ignorant inner city welfare queens. Sure there are quite a few of those and they do tend to vote democratic, but it's the exact same type of argument as calling Republicans racist. The sad thing is that these types of tactics seem to work.

Just look at how each side (in many ways successfully) characterized the tea party and OWS. The tea party was just a bunch of old, white, angry, racists. The OWS crowd was just full of broke, unemployed, lazy, dependents of the welfare state. Neither of these assessments is all that true, but ask your average San Francisco liberal and you'll probably get a similar characterization of the tea party. Ask your average Alabama conservative and you'll probably get a similar characterization of OWS.