Quote Originally Posted by AnthonyF
LOLOL Now I get it. I think she saying cus I called you White. LOLOL I guess she doesn't know what color I am so it's automatically RACIST to call a white guy...white.

-Ant.
Look, for all QD's poking about my lack of intelligence, my point is both a social and an academic one...

Quote Originally Posted by Miranda
I'm tired of the "fake racism" in these forums. You guys don't realize how much that kind of language actually reinforces underlying stereotypes and prejudices, even when you're "kidding." Other people see these forums. They don't necessarily know that we're all friends in real life. They see a bunch of e-thugs talking shit and making fools out of themselves. And that just makes us all look bad.
The meaning YOU place on that kind of race-distinctive language is irrelevant in its broader sociological impact. Not only does it cause harm in terms of the un-initiated IA surfers who may not understand how and under what circumstances you and TDS know one another, but it also causes harm to the socially impressionable in our community. Mine is the same argument that is made against the use of horribly racially derogatory terms even among the "target" populations, and the use of euphemistic labeling of women in that way.

You may not recognize that this is a serious issue, but it truly is. You guys are very lucky to live in a nation where race, while still a charged and potentially dividing issue among many Americans, is not a deciding factor for socioeconomic status and political representation. I have lived in a nation where ethnic lines divide so brutally that children are raised to hate from the moment of comprehension. It is sad and dangerous, and it always begins with the acceptance of divisive rhetoric.

You may think I'm being overly cranky, but these things matter. Every day we socially construct our own identities and the identities of others based on language, interaction and perception. When those become conduits of racially charged speech, however "jokingly," distinctions are made that become harder and harder to unmake.


/rant