rolling "Is This Racist?" thread

Accent is a good example of whiteness norms - you're expected to assimilate to some "standard" if you want to move up in the world.

A shame this whiteness thing brings up stuff like, "why do black people talk about slavery"? I'm having a major conflict on my Facebook h.s. group over something more subtle - how even allegedly "sensitive" white people prefer to move away from the "inner ring" burbs. The less white these burbs get, the less desirable they are. As in, "I don't want to live near a fried fish joint, my home value will decline." To the point that people I thought were my friends have referred to my neighborhood as "ghetto". If that isn't white...

So there's this:

http://media.irishcentral.com/images/MI+australia-no-way+Irish+Voice.jpg

Eh, this guy talks the talk, but I get the feeling he can't walk the walk. If he's all that's standing between me and the land of the long weekend, I think we're homefree.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT12WH4a92w

http://i.imgur.com/SYoMqBe.jpg

hasnt been updated in 2 days, seems like a record, nice work america

ok, here's a new one... 🎺 let's play Is This Racist!:

popular denver burrito chain with several locations plans expansion to nearby ft collins, whereupon residents protest its name, "Illegal Pete's"...

http://www.coloradoan.com/story/money/2014/10/22/residents-ask-illegal-petes-change-name/17738197/

protestors claim that using the word 'illegal' in reference to a person in any manner evokes the term 'illegals', a pejorative often used targeting immigrants

the owner claims that the word 'illegal' was chosen for its connotations to cool underground activities or whatever and has nothing to do with immigration or anything of the sort

you heard what each side has to say, now it's up to YOU to decide... IS!.. THIS!.... RACIST!?!

You don't really have a stellar track record on these things so I'll go ahead and call it for you: it's racist

who knows what the "intent" originally was, but I say when a business name is at least equally open to racist and non-racist interpretations, probably best change the name

Especially if you're a capitalist.

Ha ha hahaha...anyone remember Sambo's?

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/30/pancakes-and-pickaninnies-the-saga-of-sambo-s-the-racist-restaurant-chain-america-once-loved.html

Sambo may refer to:

Sambo (racial term), a term for a person with African heritage that is now considered offensive
Sambo (martial art), developed in the USSR
Sambo, the main character in the 1899 book The Story of Little Black Sambo
Sambo's, a restaurant chain
Sambo's Grave, grave of a slave (died 1736) at Sunderland Point in Lancashire, England
TG Sambo, a Korean computer manufacturer
Sambomaster, a Japanese rock band
Sammanboende (or samboende), a Swedish term for people in cohabitation
Sambo, the name in Ecuador for cucurbita ficifolia, a type of gourd
Sambo, a romanized term for the three ancestral treasures of Chinese culture
Sambo, Irish and Australian slang term for sandwich

yis ruin everything rly

we say 'sanga' instead now

ttytt we favour sangidge ourselves

Brown hand shaking white hand to illustrate low crime rate (not sure if link will work). Pasadena's tech website (Innovate Pasadena).

http://i1.wp.com/www.innovatepasadena.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/IP_City-of-Innovation.png?resize=940%2C2737

Open in new tab and click for full size.

wrapper turnt sanga

^ made this same pun in my head

so, annie lennox, huh. like...you can tell the media that beyoncé is not a real feminist, OR you can cover "strange fruit" on your new album, but doing both in quick succession seems like a terrible idea.

whoa wtf

I just found this in a box of pictures and letters. From Pendelton, Oregon, c. 1979.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5608/15004800363_9602bbf012_c.jpg

I've never been to Pendleton but I live sort of near it, and I swear I've heard stories about it having a big kkk presence that went on much longer than you might have expected.

Weird. We lived near Pilot Rock. Do you know it?

I used to eat at sambos when I was a kid. Very scared of the dude in the tiger costume, according to my mom. I guess they all got turned into Denny's and coco's. From wikipedia:

Sambo's is a restaurant, formerly an American restaurant chain, started in 1957 by Sam Battistone, Sr. and Newell Bohnett. Though the name was taken from portions of the names of its founders, the chain soon found itself associated with The Story of Little Black Sambo. Battistone, Sr. and Bohnett capitalized on the coincidence by decorating the walls of the restaurants with scenes from the book, including a dark-skinned boy, tigers, and a pale, magical unicycle-riding man called "The Treefriend".

apparently the original sambo's (in Santa Barbara) is still open

oh whoops I didn't see the daily beast article

That's funny, I remember the controversy. We grew up in such a liberal, PC area that it was waaay bad to eat at Sambo's. I had to eat there once and was mortified, afraid my super liberal church would get wind of it, my civil rights cred tarnished. It was like a Denny's. then Denny's got reamed for discrimination. With the Aunt Jemima suit and all, maybe pancakes are hopelessly racist.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11174663/Paris-Opera-cast-refuse-to-perform-for-veiled-woman.html

Seriously, I'd be happier in a world were niqabs were a thing of the past but I would be also quite happy if an opera choir didn't mind my clothing enough to refuse to perform and make a huge deal out of it. This reeks of typical french islamophobia, subtly veiled under woman rights issues and it makes me sick.

i remember eating at sambos! Been a helluva long time.

There used to be a Sambo's over where the Walgreen's is now. They tried to pass off Sambo as being some sort of Indian boy, but we knew.

The high school Denny's was never the same once they replaced the cigarette vending machine with one of those stuffed animal crane games.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Friday, January 13, 2006 11:17 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I remember drinking the most refreshing glass of water in that Sambo's. Maybe I was a kid and had never bothered to drink water in a restaurant before.

I just found this in a box of pictures and letters. From Pendelton, Oregon, c. 1979.

I came across a cache of old Sambo's

my mom worked at a Sambo's when I was little (prob. 1978-1979). They had classic country on the jukebox and one of the waitresses gave me a stuffed rabbit for christmas.

I mean this is like... not v good, right? If not deliberate then at least pretty unfortunate?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8x81Rpl_FA

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ben-stein-obama-racist

Wow that dude has aged badly

he's about 70. his ideas sure haven't aged well.

"ideas"

ideology and trivia

Has there been discussion of that Lena Dunham/Lil Jon vote spot that ran recently? IDK if it's overtly racist, but something subtly rubbed me the wrong way about it, with the 'voters' being mostly white or at least college-y looking. Maybe it's just a spot narrowly targeted to that demographic and I'm reading too much into it, but it felt a little too much like Lil Jon was a prop.

tbf when is Lil Jon not a prop

I think also it being lena dunham using him as a prop especially irked me

so fucking pissed off right now

http://kstp.com/news/stories/S3612199.shtml?cat=1

http://blogs.mprnews.org/newscut/2014/11/gang-sign-story-backfires-on-kstp/

Gang sign vs. The lindy england

this station specializes in this shit....called up their news hotline to complain, they are so concerned about "welfare fraud" it has it's own goddamn menu option

https://soundcloud.com/matthew-lee-helgeson/kstp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBLBxb29maw

Anti-Black Pete activists go to London dressed as Black Pete to record the response of people confronted with blackface. It will make fuck all the difference in the Netherlands probably but I applaud the responses. Oh, and they bump into Russell Brand by accident.

New niece for me! So looking at baby clothes (and of course you should always dress babes up as animals) and I noticed this url. Why is 'hiphip' a tag here?

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Infant-Halloween-Costumes-Baby-Romper-Jumpsuit-Animal-Cosplay-Onesie-Suit-Hiphop-Monkey-Guenon-Animal-Style0-3/2031844800.html

For the same reason I told everyone not to get my kids monkey stuff

I would back slowly away from that website. There may some cultural confusion with some of the Chinese retailers creating their own English translations, but

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/High-quality-cool-black-Monkey-boy-Mascot-Costume-Character-Halloween-Costumes-Fancy-Dress-Suit-Free-Shipping/32222574868.html