Going ballistic at the slightest provocation gets real old, real fast.
See, very few people do this sort of thing deliberately. Mostly, it's misunderstandings. Little things.
For example, let's say you're quite familiar with The Coon Caricature:
The coon caricature was one of the stock characters among minstrel performers. Minstrel show audiences laughed at the slow-talking fool who avoided work and all adult responsibilities. This transformed the coon into a comic figure, a source of bitter and vulgar comic relief. He was sometimes renamed "Zip Coon" or "Urban Coon." If the minstrel skit had an ante-bellum setting, the coon was portrayed as a free Black; if the skit's setting postdated slavery, he was portrayed as an urban Black. He remained lazy and good-for-little, but the minstrel shows depicted him as a gaudy dressed "Dandy" who "put on airs." Unlike Mammy and Sambo, Coon did not know his place. He thought he was as smart as White people; however, his frequent malapropisms and distorted logic suggested that his attempt to compete intellectually with Whites was pathetic. His use of bastardized English delighted White audiences and reaffirmed the then commonly held beliefs that Blacks were inherently less intelligent. The minstrel coon's goal was leisure, and his leisure was spent strutting, styling, fighting, avoiding real work, eating watermelons, and making a fool of himself. If he was married, his wife dominated him. If he was single, he sought to please the flesh without entanglements.
Emphasis added. That's the bit we're concerned with for now.
Now go read this.
Then, if you've forgotten, see the song intro, and the slightly worrying discussion which followed.
Little things like that. Misunderstandings. I'd say cultural insensitivity, but ah hates when other people talk like that.
np - Scarlet Life (two songs available at mp3.com for streaming/download ), sugar, spice, saccharin & cyanide.
Not sure how my post relates to this, other than the mention of watermelon.
I love watermelon and by golly I am a white girl of Jewish ancestory. You must REALLY dislike me.
No, if I bang my head against the wall, I'll probably lose the security deposit. . .
Anyone want to help me out here? Or am I being too obscure again?
Dawn thinks she's fascinating. She's wrong.
I think she's too caught up in food issues to make the watermelon - big butt - stereotype connection. And "melon deficiency?" The girl's either disingenuous or tone deaf.
Tone deaf.
Frau Olsen's rise in blogdom is inexplainable by anything other then "she talks about sex a lot".
Warbloggers are just fanboys by another name.
Damn, y'all some catty mugs. Why you can't be nice to fol. . . (reads Dawn's recent entries)
I withdraw my objections. Carry on.
Nerdbait alert: http://forums.delphiforums.com/wefgirls/start
http://forums.delphiforums.com/lexal/start
Maybe they'll learn something. Maybe they'll try coming on to the wrong woman and get flamed out of existence.
I'm cool with either option.
Wow...don't look for the bogeyman too hard, you'll start imagining him where he doesn't exist. By the way, I know plenty of people who's "goal was leisure", who's "leisure was spent strutting, styling, fighting, avoiding real work", plent of people who enjoy melons and others who make fools of themselves. My wife dominates me, but before I married, I "sought to please the flesh without entanglements". Before anyone communicates an idea to another person, should they first check to make sure that no experience of theirs overlaps with a stereotype? Lots of white people have large asses and enjoy eating watermelons. I enjoy eating fried chicken as well, though I can't imagine why that would upset anyone. Cheers.
"See, very few people do this sort of thing deliberately. Mostly, it's misunderstandings. Little things."
I don't think I'm asking for too much. Basic fucking reading comprehension skills are enough.
Ok, I'll bite.
Aaron: what about the discussion was disturbing?
Hanging on your every word,
Laura
What is your problem? Did you call Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton so you could start a protest of her website? Just what in the fuck did her blog post have to do with black people? You know who keeps racism alive?...you do. Not whitey, you do.
Laura, it was the bit where Michelle said, "Who needs straight women when you've got us?"
There is no good answer to that question.
angry one, you are joking, right? With the tourists ending up here lately, it's very hard to tell.
The funny part is that folks (and I know you know which folks I'm talking about) think that waving Jackson and Sharpton over an argument is something akin to a valid rebuttal.
I'll give you a quick rundown for free: Your freedom to ignore the associations that are pretty blatant for other people is what makes you and Dawn chuckleworthy.The all indignant and hurt posturing when you get teased about only amplifies the funniness. Of course, all of this might actually be the start of some helpful (to you at least) dialogue until you started screaming about people of color being responsible for perpetuating racism.
Yup black people should wait around for the number of well intentioned white folks like you and me to buy up enough "End Racism" t-shirts and then...once we hit that critical mass...
Yeah Aaron, so like what's like your problem and stuff? I mean, other than all of this pinkness?
My problem is taking Midol instead of trying the herbal remedies dru suggested in another thread.
That, and destroying the environment with these disposables, instead of the cotton re-usable pads they sell at the co-op.
Let me get this straight... a white woman writes a couple of sentences about eating watermelon and you turn this into a race issue? Don't you have any hobbies?
Hey you know what? I'm an evil white male. Hold on to your hats folks, I'm about to be a racist. Ready?? Here it goes ----> Yesterday I ate some fried chicken and now I'm writing about it in a public forum.
Racist (noun) - "Discrimination or prejudice based on race.
A white woman writes about eating melon without any mention of race or ethnicity. You claim she can't do that without offending you, a black person.
Now, in this scenario... who is the racist?
Duck! He's got a dictionary!
CONVERSATION, n. A fair to the display of the minor mental commodities, each exhibitor being too intent upon the arrangement of his own wares to observe those of his neighbor.
Now try scrolling up and reading the rest of the conversation before all that foam coming out of your mouth gets all over your Sunday best.
Alternately pay attention to our host when he says:
I don't think I'm asking for too much. Basic fucking reading comprehension skills are enough.
a few comments back.
John, I have explained, slowly, and using very, very small words, exactly what this post meant in Dawn's comments section. As you seem to have missed the entire point, perhaps you should read that instead.
I am going to pretend that this entire non-issue serves as an example of the difficulties in cross-cultural communications, rather than proving that there are some astonishingly stupid people running around the planet, and they have Internet access.
Ok, maybe it serves as an example of both.
Aaron --
Thanks so much for the very, very small words. I went back to read your original post and then your comments in Dawn's comments. Now here are some small words of my own. Please read slowly --
Your original post clearly indicated that you were linking Dawn's words to an ethnically based stereotype. You admitted that Dawn did not likely intend to do this, but that her words accomplished that "linkage" inspite of her intent. That is clearly the only way your original post could possibly be interpreted. But don't make an arrogant fool of yourself by implying ignorance of others when, in fact, your original entry very clearly stated one thing and your follow up comments on Dawn's site clearly stated something else entirely.
John
P.S. I can typically handle 2-syllable words, but beyond that I tend to curl up in a fetal position and drool.
Thank you for being with us here tonight, Jacques Derrida.
"Your original post clearly indicated that you were linking Dawn's words to an ethnically based stereotype."
Yes. Two of them, in fact.
"You admitted that Dawn did not likely intend to do this"
Not sure about the word admitted in there, but yes, the author clearly did not take the stereotypes into account while composing the text.
"but that her words accomplished that 'linkage' inspite of her intent"
Uh, no. The text allows for multiple readings, including those never considered by the author. Whether this invalidates them completely is a question for another day.
"That is clearly the only way your original post could possibly be interpreted."
Uh, no. The text allows for multiple readings, including those never considered by the author. Whether this invalidates them completely is a question for another day.
"But don't make an arrogant fool of yourself by implying ignorance of others when, in fact, your original entry very clearly stated one thing and your follow up comments on Dawn's site clearly stated something else entirely."
Again with the implying. Ok, what was I clearly stating in the comments at her site?
Is anyone else feeling that some people *cough*John*cough* are wasting their time or am I the only one?? This is going nowhere so I really don't understand why you're continuing this but hey, it's your time :)