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Is this racist?

Nursedan

Critical Thinker
Nursedan
Joined
Mar 16, 2010
Messages
490
A friend on Facebook recently posted that, in light of the recent sexual harrassment allegations, Herman Cain was "just another smooth talker wearing pimp hats..." I mentioned that this was a tad racist, asking if he would have said that if Cain were white. The "friend" said that by mentioning racism I had made a bold statement, and that his comment was a joke meant to show that politicians are never what they say they are.

Truthfully, this matters to me very little, but what do you think of his original comment?
 
Is it just me, or is being racist this era's version of being communist? I grew up in rural West Virginia, and seen to-the-bone racists, and never had to wonder if they were or not - they wore it on their sleeves.

Just as a rule of thumb I think it's safe to say that if you have to ask yourself if someone is racist, they probably aren't. Prejudiced a little? Possibly. But prejudice does not equal racism, and if all those people who have been called "racist" by the paltry examples offered across contemporary mass media, then the word no longer has any heft to it.
 
Nursedan said:
But do you think his use of the word "pimp" is racist considering Cain is black? Maybe I don't see your point...
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No. Why would it? I don't think I see your point. Maybe you could explain why you think it is racist?
 
it this a trick question? if we say the pimp association was based on the race of the guy we would be saying we ourselves make that association as well.
 
Alan said:
Why is pimp hat wearing related to race?
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The levels of what is related to race in the US are so deep and convoluted that it might be impossible to really understand the intricacies unless you were born and reared here (and sometimes not even then). That's just referring to white/black relations.

"Pimp hat" nearly always refers to this:

pimp-daddy-purle.gif


Oddly enough the Google image results (with models) for "pimp hat" seem to show far more white people wearing these than black people, while "pimp" by itself shows the opposite...

Basically the implication is that pimps are bad, and people who wear pimp hats are black, therefore referring to a pimp hat while referencing a black man means the speaker is saying he's bad because he's black.

Yes, that's as basic as I can make it. That's what I mean by "convoluted".
 
gumboot said:
Yeah I can't really see how it's racist to be honest.
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Just think back and remember every old Saturday Night Live spoof or 1970's television sit com and you'll see it. The pimps were black, not white, that was a social media type cast exposure.

Maybe the problem here is that those type casts are not generally seen on social media today.
Maybe older people can see the racism and younger people can't because they haven't been exposed to so much of it.
 
Nursedan said:
But do you think his use of the word "pimp" is racist considering Cain is black? Maybe I don't see your point...
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It's not racist. It's only starts to go towards racism if you personally identify pimps as being black, which you seem to be doing.
 
Well, I'm young and that would certainly be an eyebrow-raising statement to me.

mrgrouch said:
it this a trick question? if we say the pimp association was based on the race of the guy we would be saying we ourselves make that association as well.
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Heh, that's my thought as well. Growing up the pimp media image has always been Black for me. Like, there technical pimping, and then there is "the pimp" in those crazy clothes.
 
Roma said:
Maybe the problem here is that those type casts are not generally seen on social media today.
Maybe older people can see the racism and younger people can't because they haven't been exposed to so much of it.
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Somewhat this also perhaps.

The other day, a friend of mine (whose black) wore some glasses to work that were broken, actually missing a lens. I took one look at them, and said, "omg that is so white trash ..."

She laughed, and the rest of the night we kept saying how white trash her glasses looked.

No racism involved .... in the past, yeah that was a racial slur. But now, in certain context, it has simply become slang and the offensive nature of it is being dropped, in so much that I can say it in reference to an African American and it's context is understood completely.

Perhaps in the past "pimp" was a racially associated slur. It's just changed with the times, the Zeitgeist so to speak. Now I wouldn't even think it was racial at all. "Pimp my ride" ... case in point. I think it's in "transition" ... to some it's still associated with ethnicity, to others it has lost that association. It's not blanket across the board though.

The word "dude" is another example. It's no longer just surfers, skaters, and stoners, for example.
 
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Trent Wray said:
It's not racist. It's only starts to go towards racism if you personally identify pimps as being black, which you seem to be doing.
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What? Inviting Obama for watermelon and fried chicken isn't racist, everybody eats those. You are making the association to his race.
 
Alan said:
Why is pimp hat wearing related to race?
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Blaxploitation movies. I'm serious. I've played a pimp & got a friend of mine whose uncle was a pimp in the 60s-70s Harlem (setting of the show) to arrange a sit down with said uncle. Turned out that several of (uncle) Eli's x pimp friends were willing to join. I talked with them for hours upon hours & looked at hundreds of pictures. While they dressed in higher ends suits, the screamingly loud zebra stripes with purple leopard print type stuff didn't show up til after the movies came out.

(granted those guys did a lot of coke in those days so... grain of salt.)
 
Trent Wray said:
It's not racist. It's only starts to go towards racism if you personally identify pimps as being black, which you seem to be doing.
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Yes I have never seen or heard of a white pimp. In the documentary American Pimp (which admittedly was probably biased) there is a discussion of this very fact.

Are you saying it is racist to think that most if not nearly all pimps are black? I really think that's just the reality. Which is why I thought what he had said was racist.

By the way I am aware he said "pimp hats" (ostensibly meaning headware) but I think he chose the word pimp specifically to single out Cain as a black man.
 
Trent Wray said:
Somewhat this also perhaps.

The other day, a friend of mine (whose black) wore some glasses to work that were broken, actually missing a lens. I took one look at them, and said, "omg that is so white trash ..."

She laughed, and the rest of the night we kept saying how white trash her glasses looked.

No racism involved .... in the past, yeah that was a racial slur. But now, in certain context, it has simply become slang and the offensive nature of it is being dropped, in so much that I can say it in reference to an African American and it's context is understood completely.

Perhaps in the past "pimp" was a racially associated slur. It's just changed with the times, the Zeitgeist so to speak. Now I wouldn't even think it was racial at all. "Pimp my ride" ... case in point. I think it's in "transition" ... to some it's still associated with ethnicity, to others it has lost that association. It's not blanket across the board though.

The word "dude" is another example. It's no longer just surfers, skaters, and stoners, for example.
Click to expand...

Are you familiar with the concept of privilage? Because right now I'm seeing a lot of "privilage blindness" here. A lot of the usual justifications for why one shouldn't have to change one's speech or perception.

Unfortunately, I am nowhere near as good at explaining these things as the folks who beat the concept into me are.
 
Trent Wray said:
Perhaps in the past "pimp" was a racially associated slur. It's just changed with the times, the Zeitgeist so to speak. Now I wouldn't even think it was racial at all. "Pimp my ride" ... case in point. I think it's in "transition" ... to some it's still associated with ethnicity, to others it has lost that association. It's not blanket across the board though.

The word "dude" is another example. It's no longer just surfers, skaters, and stoners, for example.
Click to expand...

This is interesting - I would say that calling a presidential candidate a pimp (again, in light of sexual harrassment charges) is much different than using the term the way you did here.
 
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