Atheism Plus/Free Thought Blogs (FTB)

Status
Not open for further replies.
Mr. Scott said:
I found ceepolk's picture online. Halle Berry is prettier but has a similar look. Racially, her look is ambiguous. Could be Native American, East Indian, or light African American. Her avatar, brown chicken eggs, indicates what's important to her: skin color and gender.
Click to expand...

I'd've said Jada Pinkett Smith. Wait a second, is it sexist to compare her to attractive high-powered Hollywood stars? :D
 
qwints said:
In other words, it's not that the music industry or Elvis, individually, were the genesis of racism, but they operated in a racist system and received advantages because of it. We can talk about how they unjustly benefited from a racist system without condemning them.
Click to expand...

I think one of the biggest issues many of us have with some of the people on A+ is that they DON'T do this. They do condemn people based on this. They like to talk about how they don't, in abstract, but when it comes to dealing with people directly they do it very quickly.
 
qwints said:
But we can talk about the ways in which it's not a level playing field rather than just throw up our hands and say, well someone had to get the record deal.
Click to expand...

Companies give the record deals to the people/groups they think will make them the most money. In the past this excluded black musicians. Does that mean that the executive making this decisions was racist? Or was xe simply making the decisions that would make the company(and xir) the most money. If XX% of the country wasn't going to buy records by black artists in the 40s and 50s, is he fulfilling his duties to knowingly sign artists that have a drastically reduced chance to return a profit to the company?

Why do you think we applaud those people who did go the other way, that did take the risk? Because in many instances their job, their livelyhood was also at risk. But that doesn't mean all of the ones who didn't were racist(though I am sure many were). Executives back then didn't make 1000 times what everyone else made, they were hardly set for the rest of their lives simply by getting their severence package.
 
If white parents of the 1950's and early 60's could hardly handle a rock star dancing from the neck down, how much more would they have blanched (see what I did there?) at a black man shaking his hips on stage? Someone had to introduce this music to the mainstream public, and they weren't ready for the whole package. Let's not retroactively turn a small step in the right direction into an affront.

Measuring society against an idealized standard of perfection is a great way to build up our aspirations for the world we leave our descendants, but it's a terrible way to judge our forebears.
 
Last edited:
Tsukasa Buddha said:
Anyone want to be my new Black Friend? Colbert is looking for one too.
Click to expand...

Personally, I love the idea that the way to a more equal society is through having a black friend, not because you like them or think they're a nice person, but purely so that every time you do something they can say "well, that wouldn't have been as easy to accomplish, had you not been white".
 
Wildy said:
I just want to say that was a good article you wrote.

For anyone interested in seeing this definition used "in the wild" so to speak can always look at this.

Somehow a bullying victim still has "power" despite the nature of bullying being one where the victim is effectively powerless. This would suggest that the definitions being used is hopelessly flawed.
Click to expand...

Holy crap !

I thought these SJWs were all supposed to be filled with empathy but here they are, using the death of a white boy as an opportunity to push their retarded definition of racism, a definition that nobody's really heard of and most of those who have ( outside of SJWland and sociology departments ) think it's well...retarded.

Why don't they go have a nice little SJW dance party on his grave ? After all it's one less white boy, one less oppressor, on the planet then retire to Reddit and join the online "I hate men" female supremacist rally they're currently holding.

*puts emotional sledgehammer back into intellectual toolkit*
 
luchog said:
Taken to its logical conclusion, that's just garden variety moral relativism.
Click to expand...

Quasi-realismWP

We should probably move to another thread to discuss this further.

recursive prophet said:
Yet the benefits you call privileges continue today, and it seems to me A+ does condemn all who currently receive them. And yet. you and I and most posting here and at A+ have ALL benefited from centuries of racism and oppressive exploitation of less developed countries, quints. Those who lack our privileges are not even part of the online discussion.
Click to expand...

To the extent atheismplus forum members are condemning individuals for their privilege, they're doing it wrong. Pointing out that people with some kinds of privilege lack the experience of people without that privilege is not, however, a condemnation.

Krikkiter said:
In which case, what are you doing on an internet forum? Why is it that you and your ilk seem to avoid real world action in this regard?
Click to expand...

I enjoy discussion. I don't seek to avoid real world action, and I can't speak for others.

kbonn said:
Does that mean that the executive making this decisions was racist? Or was xe simply making the decisions that would make the company(and xir) the most money.
Click to expand...

I don't know why they made the racist decision - but why does that matter?
 
Wildy said:
Somehow a bullying victim still has "power" despite the nature of bullying being one where the victim is effectively powerless. This would suggest that the definitions being used is hopelessly flawed.
Click to expand...

I would say that's a fairly charitable description.
 
Mr. Scott said:
Saw this article today: Saudi Arabia punishes two activists for voicing opinion. In my understanding of A+ practices, that is not important, because it's brown-on-brown persecution over that silly freeze peach thing. Right? Lets get back to persecuting atheist white men. Ceepolk is getting bored.
Click to expand...

Oh no he didn't. wow. just, I can't even. wow.

Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Director at Amnesty International.
Click to expand...

why is this white man inserting himself into the problems of brown peoples?

[/ceepolk]
 
qwints said:
kbonn said:
Does that mean that the executive making this decisions was racist? Or was xe simply making the decisions that would make the company(and xir) the most money.
Click to expand...

I don't know why they made the racist decision - but why does that matter?
Click to expand...

Making a decision based on projected profits is racist?


Also, Qwints, if you are going to respond to me, perhaps you could answer all the questions I ask you in a post or on a subject?
 
Squeegee Beckenheim said:
why is this white man inserting himself into the problems of brown peoples?

[/ceepolk]
Click to expand...

This SO MUCH. I've had to work with some far left, social justice-y people before, and it can be pretty unnerving. I think that a lot of European-American leftists are afraid to admit that they're just as scared of minorities as some of the "racists" they point fingers at. The reasons that they give for not doing outreach into these communities is that minorities are perfectly capable of helping themselves, and don't need "the white man" getting up into their business. In fact, attempting to help minorities directly, working side-by-side, could even be viewed as a form of racism: once again, whites are co-opting minority movements, and pushing their values upon them! It's much better to keep these lower-class minorities at arm's length, and do things like rally for speech codes, and stuff like that.

One coordinator of a social justice center told me that we didn't need to do outreach to these people, because our door was always open, and if they wanted our help, they'd come to us. Never mind that they probably weren't even aware of our existence!

If you stop and think about it for a minute, it makes perfect sense, though. I don't imagine many people who are lower-class minorities spend time worrying about politically correct speech, or prefacing their stories with trigger warnings. Probably many of them have bigger problems than figuring out whether or not somebody is using the proper pronoun when referring to a trans person.
 
Last edited:
Wildy said:
I just want to say that was a good article you wrote.

For anyone interested in seeing this definition used "in the wild" so to speak can always look at this.

Somehow a bullying victim still has "power" despite the nature of bullying being one where the victim is effectively powerless. This would suggest that the definitions being used is hopelessly flawed.
Click to expand...

No child, of ANY color, should carry the burden of the misdeeds of their ancestors. Neither should grown-ups, for that matter.

We are all the same underneath the skin. Judging people by their skin's rate of melanin production is insane.

Please, spare us your white tears..
Click to expand...

Tears have no color.
 
kbonn said:
Making a decision based on projected profits is racist?

Also, Qwints, if you are going to respond to me, perhaps you could answer all the questions I ask you in a post or on a subject?
Click to expand...

Signing white artists instead of black artists because of their race is, indeed, racist. Maybe some people who did those racist things felt bad about it, or only did so because they felt powerless to do otherwise. So what? If everyone has a good reason for doing racist things, does that end the conversation?

I will not, and if that bothers you, we don't have to continue the conversation. Feel free to bring up points I haven't responded to again.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Back
Top Bottom