Is "black hole" a racially insensitive term?

[I Ratant]

I hope you spotted that one of those people is actually supposed to be a tree.

.
Hey!I worship what I want, and you worship what you want!
Although trees aren't on my list.
Upper chestal areas on females are, though!

 

[Skeptical Greg]

I never would have guessed that Ferrer and Diaz were Latino sir names.. ..

Jose, did give me pause though...

 

[BPSCG]

Be proud of your culture or race or ancestry if you want,

No.

Be proud of accomplishments, be ashamed of failures.

But don't be proud or ashamed of things you have no control over, such as your color.

 

[Radrook]

I never would have guessed that Ferrer and Diaz were Latino sir names.. ..

Jose, did give me pause though...

Really? Many Latinos don't have Latino surnames due to imigrations.

Notable Puerto Ricans with Irish surnames
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Puerto_Rican

Famous Puerto Ricans with French surnames
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_immigration_to_Puerto_Rico

Famous Puerto Ricans with German surnames
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_immigration_to_Puerto_Rico

Distinguished Puerto Ricans with Corsican surnames
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corsican_immigration_to_Puerto_Rico

What does this have to do with insensitivity? Plenty! African Americans tend to show great surprise and even open scorn whenever they, in positions as office workers, encounter Latinos with such non-typical surnames. "So YOU are .....?" is one annoying reaction.

Turn it around and have a Latino ask: "So YOU are a Williams?" Which of course would imply that a Macumba, or some other African name would be more appropriate since "Williams" is a European name, and the sensitivity issue would imediately emerge as well as what they consider a justifiable angered reaction.

 

[zenotter]

Heh, I'm half asian and have a German surname. (ETA: Most people try to guess at my heritage and usually fail, thinking I'm Hispanic or Native American. Nope, I'm a rice cracker.)

I'm also still waiting for MY channel. You know, an asian television channel, along the lines of Telemundo or BET or whatever.

Okay, I've heard there's actually an asian channel in Canada but I'm in the States, eh.

This whole thing reminds me of the Racial Draft bit from Chappelle's Show. Link is here (note: NSFW due to language, if memory serves me correctly). Tiger Woods gets to be officially black, and I LOVE who gets drafted for the other races as well.

 

[TragicMonkey]

No.

Be proud of accomplishments, be ashamed of failures.

But don't be proud or ashamed of things you have no control over, such as your color.

Oh, come on. You're not proud of anything you don't have control over? Not even things like your hairline (when those of your peers are receding, yours is still at full tide) or your grandpa's war record (two Purple Hearts!), your commanding aquiline nose (I've been told it intimidates people at meetings), or the amazing dexterity you have with your toes which enables you to do that trick, the one that makes them scream, she said, and threw her arms around my head?

There's nothing wrong with taking pleasure in one's gifts, even if you don't deserve them, and they aren't really all that much to other people. Just as long as you don't take it too far, but then, that goes for everything you can think of.

 

[BPSCG]

Oh, come on. You're not proud of anything you don't have control over?

This was a major discussion in a recent thread about gay pride. My answer, when Darat pinned me down, essentially amounted to, I try not to be proud of things I have no control over, with limited success.

Not even things like your hairline (when those of your peers are receding, yours is still at full tide)

Disregarding the fact that my hair is rather thin, the answer is no. If someone should be proud that he has a full head of hair, should a bald person be ashamed?

or your grandpa's war record (two Purple Hearts!),

Why should I be proud? I didn't earn the Purple Hearts. If my grandfather had been a draft dodger, or Julius Rosenberg, should I be ashamed? I have a cousin who is a pile of garbage wrapped up in a layer of skin; should I be ashamed because he treats his mother horribly?

your commanding aquiline nose (I've been told it intimidates people at meetings),

Did I spend time at the gym to build up my impressive nose? Or was is simply an accident of birth?

There's nothing wrong with taking pleasure in one's gifts, even if you don't deserve them, and they aren't really all that much to other people.

Emphasis mine. I agree. But taking pleasure in something is not the same thing as taking pride in it.

If we should take pride in certain accidents of birth, should we not therefore be ashamed of other accidents of birth? If being black is something one should be proud of, then doesn't it stand to reason that not being black is something to be ashamed of? If being gay is something to be proud of, then doesn't it stand to reason that not being gay is something to be ashamed of?


To push this a little farther: If being black is something to be proud of, one must ask a number of additional questions:

• What is it in particular that makes having black skin praiseworthy?
• Do white people have that praiseworthy trait also? Or is it confined only to black people?
• If white people do not have that praiseworthy trait, should they be ashamed of being white? Should they do something to mend their shameful color (e.g. have some kind of reverse Michael Jackson surgery)?
• If white people do have that praiseworthy trait, should they, also, be proud of their skin color?
• If white people do have that praiseworthy trait, are there any colors of man that do not have it? Should people of those colors be ashamed?
• If all people of all colors have that praiseworthy trait, then doesn't being proud of it make as little sense as being proud that you have a mouth or a liver?

 

[ponderingturtle]

"blacksmith?"

Well whitesmiths tended to be more skilled, that is becuase they worked in filed and pollished iron, and one errant hammerblow could be hours of fileing.

 

[UnrepentantSinner]

ZO, there is Asian TV on cable, you just need to seek it out. Food Network doesn't broadcast it any more, but Iron Chef aired almost every day until a few years ago and in the evenings when G-4 isn't rerunning cops, you'd think we were watching N*BC.

Back to the OP - I just watched 10 minutes over the course of an hour of broadcast on C-SPAN of Cynthia McKinney accepting the Green nomination. No comment other than that.


*Nippon

 

[bigred]

I'd inform commissioner price that I like devils food cake, but not a big fan of angel food cake.

I was going to call you a racist, but then realized you liked the "black" cake and dissed the "white" cake. Dissing white is OK - proceed

 

[bigred]

No, that's not correct. The sentence should have read, "County Commissioner John Wiley Price made County Commissioner John Wiley Price a national laughingstock this week with the ridiculous umbrage he took over the term "black hole."

Unless anyone thinks that Dallas is the only place where such a buffoon can be elected to a position of public trust. To those people, I submit suburban Atlanta, which six times decided that Cynthia McKinney was the best person they could send to represent them in Congress, or northern Virginia, which repeatedly sends wife-beating, boozing, antisemitic, influence peddling Jim ("I Like to Hit People") Moran to Congress.

Then there's the whole state of California, which looks like ward 6 at your local psychiatric hospital, compared to Dallas.

Do a little digging on the history of Richmond (VA) city council sometime. It makes this Dallas thing pale in comparison.

 

[bigred]

How about black magic vs white magic? Blackmail? Blackened reputation? Black Widow Spider! Black sheep? Black death? Blackball? Black comedy? Black market? Even black Africans raised on that continent tend to use the term "black" when referring to negative things. So are they being racist?

Of course not dummy. Black people can't be racist. Where do you live, Nepal?

"blacksmith?" blackboard and black Hole" are connotatively neutral
terms and make people who take umbrage seem paranoid.

Oh really??? Then why did we get rid of BLACKboards in most schools and now use WHITEboards?? Coincedence? Yeah right - it's the man oppressin again!!

 

[Radrook]

Heh, I'm half asian and have a German surname. (ETA: Most people try to guess at my heritage and usually fail, thinking I'm Hispanic or Native American. Nope, I'm a rice cracker.)

Anthony Quin's father was Irish and his mother Mexican and he always viewed himself as Hispanic and considered Spanish his mother tongue. Shakira's Mother is Columbian and her father Lebanese and she considers and is considered to be Hispanic. In short, there are people with your identical heritage who are Hispanic.

I'm also still waiting for MY channel. You know, an asian television channel, along the lines of Telemundo or BET or whatever. Okay, I've heard there's actually an asian channel in Canada but I'm in the States, eh....

When I lived in NY city about thirty years ago I regularly watched a Japanese channel. They provided written interpretation for shows commercials and movies. Why the Latino community lacks the motivation or finds it so hard to provide the same interpretational service is beyond me since doing so would help to dispel much of the inane stereotyping which they are constantly subjected to.


BTW

Telemundo is more Puerto Rican and Cuban oriented while Univision is mostly Mexican oriented.

 

[bigred]

Hey the Fonz used to say "correctamundo" a lot - was he Latino??

Anyway, I wonder if any Dallasonians are crying about this:

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/

Gotta love the creative interpretation by CNN

 

[Skeptical Greg]

When I lived in NY city about thirty years ago I regularly watched a Japanese channel. They provided written interpretation for shows commercials and movies. Why the Latino community lacks the motivation or finds it so hard to provide the same interpretational service is beyond me since doing so would help to dispel much of the inane stereotyping which they are constantly subjected to.
....

What do you mean by interpretation.. Japanese subtitles for English audio, or vice versa ?


How would adding 2nd language subtitles to television programming dispel stereotyping in the Latino community ?

 

[Radrook]

What do you mean by interpretation.. Japanese subtitles for English audio, or vice versa ?

English subtitle for Japanese audio.

How would adding 2nd language subtitles to television programming dispel stereotyping in the Latino community ?

The stereoptying cannot be dispelled because it's a deeply ingrained psychological need. But it very well might be minimized by exposing the American audience to the reality of Hispanic racial diversity which simply doesn't lend itself to the category of "brown" but which encompasses European white, African black,and and Asiatic yellow, especially via its native Ameriucan population as well as all combinations of these in different percentages in accordance with geographical distribution and national boundaries.

 

[Radrook]

Hey the Fonz used to say "correctamundo" a lot - was he Latino??

Anyway, I wonder if any Dallasonians are crying about this:

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/

Gotta love the creative interpretation by CNN

Technically Italians are Latins since the term originates from the latin tribes of the Italian Penninsula and their Latin languages. But when Hispanics use the term they are restricting it to the Spanish-speaking people of Spain and its former New World colonies. Brazilians and Portuguese might be somewhat included a well. The Fonz was depicting an Italian but he himself isn't of Italian descent. Actually, I've heard Italians say that the first Latin HW boxing champ was Marciano and not John Ruiz.

 

[Radrook]

Of course not dummy. Black people can't be racist. Where do you live, Nepal?

Many victims of the supposed non-existent black racism would beg to differ.

Oh really??? Then why did we get rid of BLACKboards in most schools and now use WHITEboards?? Coincedence? Yeah right - it's the man oppressin again!!

The product called spic and span can be accused of being racially insensitive and you don't see the Latin community making a big deal out of it. In fact, they totally ignore it. Put the shoe on more sensitive foot and all hell would break loose.

 

[TragicMonkey]

The product called spic and span can be accused of being racially insensitive and you don't see the Latin community making a big deal out of it. In fact, they totally ignore it.

The terms are unrelated. The insulting term is a corruption of "speak", as in "no speaka da English". "Spic" as in "clean" is of Dutch origin. It meant "nail". The expression "spic and span" originally meant "new", as in a newly made piece of carpentry. The association of "new" with "clean" and the change in language shifted the meaning.

 

[Radrook]

The terms are unrelated. The insulting term is a corruption of "speak", as in "no speaka da English". "Spic" as in "clean" is of Dutch origin. It meant "nail". The expression "spic and span" originally meant "new", as in a newly made piece of carpentry. The association of "new" with "clean" and the change in language shifted the meaning.

Yes, I know its origins and a know that "spic" isn't a derogative term within that product advertisement context.

However, the exact term "spick and Span" was used by rednecks in the TV episode of the program. "The Waltons" as an intended insult to an Hispanic who was seen as not staying in his place. Recently the comedian Mencia mentioned it jokingly in the same manner. But do you really believe that if the "N" word were being used instead the company using it wouldn't have come under criticism and they wouldn't have had to change it by now?