What is racism?

Glassius · 2020-03-28 23:25:19

pein wrote:

So yeah, if people are offended by the word "nigga' it's a good coping strategy to just own the word and loses its derogatory meaning plus it rhymes with anything

My brother had an English exam and he had to describe a picture with two black-toned guys sitting in from of the destroyed shotgun house, clearly after one of American tornadoes. He started "in the picture I can see two niggas". He was very surprised by teachers reaction (one was laughing, one was angry). When I explained him how offensive it is, he replied: "The fuck! They are constantly using it in movies and no one gets offended!"

Speaking about words that hurt
Consider the video
and the picture images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTHcBbrixyKLH0yX_9KLn7hR29Qgp9Lb0Kc0Ip1lmfrheuYo6l6aA&s

The words may say how nasty is the speaker, but why any decent person would care about nasties?

Also: Slav is offensive? I am the fucking Slav! It is not like Gypsy or Kebab, which is clearly an offensive attempt.

Last edited by Glassius (2020-03-28 23:31:19)

voy178 · 2020-03-28 23:30:07

We have laws against discriminatory language. I suggest you follow them and stop trying to some edgelord.

Glassius · 2020-03-28 23:36:44

Consider there are other cultures with different word meanings. And also countries with different laws. I suggest you to chill.

Last edited by Glassius (2020-03-28 23:36:57)

voy178 · 2020-03-28 23:52:04

Glassius wrote:

Consider there are other cultures with different word meanings. And also countries with different laws. I suggest you to chill.

Anti-discriminatory laws are universal. Every country with a constitution has a clause about discrimination. That is not something you can choose to not accept, it's the law.

Any copout like "different cultures different meaning" is invalid when we're talking about integrity and what we as a society have agreed upon, especially since we're all communicating in English here. If a word is loaded in English, you don't use it, it doesn't matter what your culture says about it. Whether or not a word you use is insulting to you yourself is not interesting.

Glassius · 2020-03-29 00:03:15

Did you notice this is a topic about racism in different cultures and no one here really discriminated anyone besides some jokes? If you go to such an topic, expect experiences to be told from different countries. My brother was English proficient enough to understand most dialogues in movies he watched and considered "nigga" to be equivalent of "buddy" or "dude". I found it amusing and decided to share. Do not expect people to undestand US culture code just because they use English.

But I find your butthurt even more amusing If you don't like topics about how racism is being seen in different cultures and countries, do not read it. But describing such phenomenons is not a crime.

Last edited by Glassius (2020-03-29 00:05:02)

pein · 2020-03-29 00:32:42

just because it's the law doesn't make it right or justified, like prohibition never worked. and obviously they can't control every situation and won't lock you up for calling someone fat.

That video is funny Glassius, I got a lot of strong-willed intelligent female friends and none of them is feminists. You just don't need to demand superiority for the sake of equality. So they deserve every joke about them. Same for vegans.

some law allows that you can bang chickens over 30 kg, doesn't mean you should do it

Oh yeah, fun fact: Hungarian is the dirtiest language in the world. Once a polish guy started listing all the words which mean sex in polish, he struggled around 15. I didn't take a breath telling 25 in Hungarian. Basically, anything can be dirty, also we got a lot of offensive words that don't mean anything on their own, they are just dirty, offensive and used when you are angry, you can chain them up for a long sentence without meaning a damn thing, no one knows what it means but it's provocative. Also, film dubs are better than in their original language due to the combinations of offensive words rhyming and sound.

Morti · 2020-03-29 01:21:48

Elsayal wrote:

Morti wrote:
America is a cooler version of Europe
Enjoy your coronavirus with that President, cooler guys.

Are you kiddin, we eat viruses for breakfast here in America, and shit out freedom.

Morti · 2020-03-29 01:30:38

I wish this discussion could have gone on for ten pages without anyone getting offended and then threatening others.
I would like for humanity to resolve it's differences/
And I can't think of a much better community than one of people who act as parent, for each other, who bond with them, no matter where they are on Earth.

DestinyCall · 2020-03-29 02:25:41

On the topic of racism, from a purely semantic standpoint, I hate when people misuse the word "racist" when they actually mean "offensive" or "racially insensitive" or "racial stereotyping" or something like that.

A halloween costume of a hard shelled taco wearing a sombrero is NOT racist. It literally can't be racist, because inanimate objects, like halloween costumes do not hold political views or form opinions about other races. The person who wears an offensive costume might be racist, but the costume itself is not and, in fact, cannot be racist.

As a noun, "racist" refers to a person who shows or feels discrimination or prejudice against people of other races, or who believes that a particular race is superior to another.

As an adjective, "racist" refers to showing or feeling discrimination or prejudice against people of other races, or believing that a particular race is superior to another.

Racism is defined by BELIEF. Therefore, people are racist. Not things. A taco costume doesn't have racist beliefs, so it is not racist and shouldn't be described as "racist", no matter how silly it looks or how much it embodies racial stereotypes or cultural features. Likewise, even a really racially charged costume, like wearing blackface (the makeup used by a nonblack performer playing a black role or character) is not a "racist" costume. Racially insensitive? Sure. Automatically offensive to a lot of people? Definitely. Political suicide? Probably. But racist? No.

The costume itself isn't inherently racist, even if it is in very poor taste or really objectionable, because it is not a person. Of course, choosing to wear a really offensive or inappropriate costume might indicate that person in question holds racist beliefs toward other races (or has a terrible sense of humor). But that's not the same thing as saying "blackface is racist".

I'm aware that this is kind of splitting hairs, but I really wish people would use the proper terms. I do understand why people do it. Words have power. When you call something "racist", it has layers of implied meaning that go beyond the surface. It also tends to get people's attention and shuts down discussion. It is hard to fight against accusations of racism, especially when they are directed at nebulous things, like using the word "black".

In contrast, describing something as "offensive" doesn't have quite the same impact. And calling something "racially insensitive" gets a little cumbersome, especially if you are throwing the term around a lot. But I think accuracy is important when it comes to these kinds of things so we actually target REAL racism, instead of getting distracted by tacos wearing funny hats and silly memes.

arkajalka · 2020-03-29 09:29:56

bett 100% of the people who get offended by these slurs are WHITE, god damn cucks get a life and stop getting offended for others.

voy178 · 2020-03-29 10:08:59

arkajalka wrote:

bett 100% of the people who get offended by these slurs are WHITE, god damn cucks get a life and stop getting offended for others.

People are not getting offended, you're projecting. We are, however, deeply disappointed in your social indecency and lack of empathy.

Léonard · 2020-03-29 10:54:04

voy178 wrote:

People are not getting offended, you're projecting.

That's great! Then there's no problem, right?

voy178 · 2020-03-29 11:04:33

Léonard wrote:

voy178 wrote:
People are not getting offended, you're projecting.
That's great! Then there's no problem, right?

See the other part of my reply. People are acting like teens.

Last edited by voy178 (2020-03-29 11:04:47)

DestinyCall · 2020-03-29 17:05:52

I've known some really nice teenagers. Being young doesn't make you an asshole anymore than being old makes you wise. And I'm betting many of those people are old enough to know better.

MrGold · 2020-03-29 17:13:01

DestinyCall wrote:

I've known some really nice teenagers. Being young doesn't make you an asshole anymore than being old makes you wise. And I'm betting many of those people are old enough to know better.

What you said I'm 15 myself im a zoomer :v but I'm no dumbass to being dumb shit and call people racist. Personnel i don't like my gen myself very toxic i just hope that the ohol community could stop being full of drama and get along as a community that i love :3 ♡

MrGold · 2020-03-29 17:20:31

https://youtu.be/USE86UbsV8c

AmberA · 2020-03-29 17:24:33

Since a lot of new players don't know about or understand the racial restrictions in this game, their first reaction is usually calling the mechanic racist. I've seen this reaction multiple times. In game, rather than saying "We need to find the black people to get sulfur" I'm going to say "We need to find the desert tribe to get sulfur".

This post brought to my attention that I should stop using racial descriptions and instead use biomes to describe the families: desert tribe, jungle tribe, arctic tribe. Even though it is a game and it's the game's mechanic, words and labels do mater and I don't want to normalize anything that contributes to real life hate.

FYI This is a pretty good book about race, So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo: https://www.amazon.com/You-Want-Talk-Ab … 220&sr=8-2

DestinyCall · 2020-03-29 17:40:28

I would also suggest the "flavors of humanity" classification system - coffee, chocolate, vanilla, ginger. Otherwise, you won't have anyway to describe the brown-haired white tribe.

Tastes delicious and avoids using racially-charged language to describe awkward design choices. A win-win.

It still sounds bad when you talk about killing all the coffees, but at least you don't sound real-life racist. And no one will judge you if you say you need some chocolate.

Glassius · 2020-03-29 22:20:03

AmberA wrote:

FYI This is a pretty good book about race, So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo: https://www.amazon.com/You-Want-Talk-Ab … 220&sr=8-2

I've decided to read about it and there is a sentence from it

If you are white in a white supremacist society, you are racist. If you are male in a patriarchy, you are sexist. If you are able-bodied, you are ableist. If you are anything above poverty in a capitalist society, you are classist.

So I admit how terrible monster I am and I fully agree with that video. I also want to admit, making prejudices about white people is totally OK when you are a person of color

DestinyCall · 2020-03-29 23:50:56

The sentence looks like it was cherry-picked. I'd be interested to see the actual context surrounding it.

From what I've read in that book, the author is largely focused on the issue of systemic racism as it impacts black americans, rather than racism in general. Racism in general can be defined as any prejudice against someone because of their race, while systemic racism is specifically when prejudices against someone because of their race are also supported or reinforced by systems of power. It's racism when someone calls you a "nigger" as an insult. It's systemic racism if they throw your resume in the trash because your name sounds too black. The author is a black woman named Ijeoma Oluo who was born in Texas, so I'm guessing she has had some personal experience with both varieties of racism in her life.

As a white person in a white society, you don't typically face systemic racism at all and, if you did, you would probably be shocked and pissed off at the mind-numbing unfairness. Your president is a white guy. Your senator is a white guy. Your governor is a white guy .. and so on, all the way down to your boss who is probably also a white guy. Even if all of those white guys are really cool people, there is no doubt that the system is very white and likely biased toward a predominantly white perspective. Taking care of white people in a white society feels the same as taking care of all people in a white society, because the majority is white. Issues that disproportionately impact racial minorities are not going to get the same amount of attention if everyone involved in making the important decisions are looking at the world through a white lens.

The author's point is that when racism becomes embedded within the system itself so deeply that it is the norm, you can't just fight it on the individual level of one random guy who really hates niggers. That guy is a problem, but he isn't the biggest problem because his influence is small. In contrast, systemic racism is spread across the whole system and influences people's actions in both small and large ways.

It is also important to consider the difference between racism and system racism when people bring up "reverse racism". In our society, rich white men have it pretty nice. They live in a white society. They live in a male-dominated society. They are in the upper class. But that doesn't mean they don't have problems. It doesn't mean that no one hates them. In fact ... a lot of people don't like rich white guys. A lot of people say ugly things about them. The difference is that anti-white bigotry is not deeply rooted into society, politics, the legal system, the economy and every aspect of daily life in ways that make it impossible to avoid, like system racism toward minorities. Living as a black person in a white society is just different from living as a white person in a white society, especially when that white society fosters racist views toward black people. If the situation was truly reversed, a white person would need to move to a black society that holds racist views toward white people. Then the white person would experience true SYSTEMIC racism, where his race makes it harder to find a good job, own a house, drive a car, and raise his children, all because his skin is the wrong color. He would experience random people judging him at a glance and not trusting him because he is a shifty, uneducated, thuggish white guy. He would have to worry about being threatened or harassed for walking in the good neighborhoods or trying to shop in the good stores. He would face artificial social barriers created by ingrained racial prejudices that funnel him toward lower paying jobs and worse neighborhoods.

The author is interested in increasing awareness of the role that each person plays in promoting systemic racism, both by what they do or say to people of other races AND by what they are not doing or saying. It goes beyond your personal feelings regarding racism and how many black friends you have. It's nice if you don't promote racial stereotypes or avoid telling racist jokes in front of black people, but that's not really the main problem. And it's not good enough to simply ignore race and avoid talking about the problem entirely. Racial inequality will still be there, even if we ignore it. We have to talk about it and we have to be aware of our actions, our words, and our assumptions, because they have a real impact on other people.

karltown_veteran · 2020-03-30 02:17:46

This isn’t even about one hour one life. Nowadays people are obsessed with race and micro-aggressions. Oh, I’m sorry, you think it’s racist that a white person is wearing a black panther sweater? I couldn’t care less. Some things are important, some things are just stupid.

AmberA · 2020-03-30 06:50:09

Excellent summary DestinyCall! It comes to mind, even today playing in OHOL, because many times I've seen a baby born and their first word is the N word. Yes that is racist BUT it's also systemic racism for all the other people who see the baby do that and tolerate it...or even punish me for cursing that racist baby. I see both forms of racism in this game regularly, the individual saying racist things and the people around them who let it happen.

Legs · 2020-03-30 07:07:42

I think some of you "people" really need to go back to reddit.

edit: thanks for the gold kind stranger!

DestinyCall · 2020-03-30 08:24:49

The race-based restrictions in this game create some really uncomfortable parallels with real world racism, but OHOL also offers people the ability to play as a racially diverse cast of characters, which I think is really neat. The randomization ensures that you will get to experience the game from many perspectives - male and female, ginger and browns.

There are four "races", but two of them are white-skinned, so even before the races were divided out into separate families, being brown or black tended to put you in the minority. It is even worse if you decide to travel and find yourself the only coffee in a sea of vanillas. Or a lone ginger in a brown village.

In an ironic twist, the racial specializations update has improved things by hard-coding a reason to value diversity. Simultaneously reinforcing racial stereotyping and encouraging tolerance ... a bit of a mixed bag. Random violence against the "outsiders" and viewing anyone who looked different from you as a threat was commonplace in the Rift. If you came to a new town, looking for a place to stay, no one could understand your language AND they might decide to stab you for being the wrong color.

The majority of this community is pretty decent, but I think most of us have probably experienced racism while playing as a black or brown player or even ss a white/ginger. Sometimes as a joke, sometimes as obvious hate speech, sometimes as an uncomfortable blend of the two.

One experience that stuck with me was back when a mother could have a baby that was one shade lighter or darker than her own color. This resulted in brown mothers occassionally giving birth to a random black baby or white baby. Being born white didn't matter that much. But being the ONLY black person in a village could get ... weird.

In one life, I was born as a black baby to a brown mother. I was the only black person in the village. My mother was surprised by my color. Someone made a joke about who the daddy was. Then someone else asked if they could buy me because they had always wanted a slave. My mom played along and I was sold to a random old woman who proceeded to call me her slave and order me to do stuff until she died of old age. I asked her to stop, but she ignored me and kept roleplaying as a slave owner, commanding me to water berries and other stuff. Nobody in the village did anything about it. I couldn't even curse her because I was just a kid. I have no idea if she was actually a racist or just took the "joke" too far, but the whole experience was deeply unsettling. I can only imagine how bad it must feel to deal with that kind of joking as a black person in the real world.

In a later life, I had a guy call one of my black kids a slave right in front of me. This time I was an adult with a knife in her backpack, so it was over quickly. I don't tolerate that shit.

Gogo · 2020-03-30 16:01:46

I'm glad I'm living in mono-race country and we're avoiding all racial problems, this topic already exhausted me and I can finally see the point, ppl are exhausted too and wanna avoid racial things by calling races other names.

Last edited by Gogo (2020-03-30 16:02:01)

One Hour One Life Forums

#26 2020-03-28 23:25:19

Re: What is racism?

#27 2020-03-28 23:30:07

Re: What is racism?

#28 2020-03-28 23:36:44

Re: What is racism?

#29 2020-03-28 23:52:04

Re: What is racism?

#30 2020-03-29 00:03:15

Re: What is racism?

#31 2020-03-29 00:32:42

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#32 2020-03-29 01:21:48

Re: What is racism?

#33 2020-03-29 01:30:38

Re: What is racism?

#34 2020-03-29 02:25:41

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#35 2020-03-29 09:29:56

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#36 2020-03-29 10:08:59

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#37 2020-03-29 10:54:04

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#38 2020-03-29 11:04:33

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#39 2020-03-29 17:05:52

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#40 2020-03-29 17:13:01

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#41 2020-03-29 17:20:31

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#42 2020-03-29 17:24:33

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#43 2020-03-29 17:40:28

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#44 2020-03-29 22:20:03

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#45 2020-03-29 23:50:56

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