Senate "Race" Relations (was "U.S. Society and Black Men")

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-35685169

This is in the UK, not in the US, but similar stuff happens here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...n-scientists-sometimes-mistaken-for-janitors/

This has even happened to a former physics professor of mine who is Mexican born.

 

Unfortunately I think a lot of the good will that could have been generated by Rock was completely ruined by his incredibly racist Asian joke.

 

It's the fastest way to change your race's circumstances: deflect racism to other races.

 

Trump was claiming not to know who David Duke was after the latter endorsed him. It's disturbing how Trump courts the support of many neo-Nazi and KKK-types. He used to condemn Duke, at least shallowly, during 2000. Trump is all over the place as long as he feels that it will make him popular among some sick-minded people. People do the same kinds of awful things to become popular in high school, restaurants, and the like. The Hispanic and African American people on my Facebook friend list almost unanimously despise Trump. I'm certain that the Hispanic consensus in the population will unite to wrest the general election away from him. I can only hope that this election brings another nail in the coffin of racism. We've been nailing it too slowly, and we need to pick up speed.

 

I love how it was basically just highlighting how these stereotypes exist in Hollywood but Americans, who are stiff and joyless ****ers, decided to miss the point (to be fair, it employed irony which doesn't translate well there) and get offended.

The fact he followed up with the point about the phone underlines it; it's faux manufactured outraged by people wanting to be seen to hold the correct views.

Terrible people.

 

It's exhilarating to do this. I prefer to say, "Black Lives Matter. Trans Lives Matter." Either order will work. https://www.washingtonpost.com/post...-at-a-trump-rally-this-is-what-happened-next/

 

Where is the U.S. Society and White Men thread? Y'all are a bunch of reverse racists!

 

While I agree that people with fake outrage just wanting to complain about something are terrible, can't there be any level of real offense taken or questions asked about that joke? Look, I adore Ricky Gervais tearing everyone apart at the Golden Globes as much as the next person. But Chris Rock's joke about Asians wasn't funny.

Now I wouldn't say I was "outraged", either. I just thought it undercut his other jokes. It was bad comedy in many ways. It aimed for Ricky Gervais but landed on Dane Cook instead. Am I allowed to be annoyed that it just wasn't funny?

I have a little different perspective on that whole thing, though, because while I perfectly understood why the black community was upset about the all-white nominations (even though as discussed in the Oscar thread, it's more a problem of lack of roles for POC than anything)... I just kept wondering over and over, "Why does everyone keep talking about how no black actors were nominated? Why isn't this about how no actors of color were nominated?" The Black community certainly has a very special history of oppression in the United States considering that at least most Hispanic or Asian-Americans came here because they wanted to be here. The history of outright slavery creates a deep scar on the black psyche, and that's understandable.

Still, it really bothered me that I saw very, very few black actors or commentators pointing out that this was an injustice to Hispanic and Asian Americans as well. And where was the talk about how a film that actually featured several First Nation and Native American actors only had white nominees?

The whole ceremony was crafted to pander to the black community. To an insulting degree at times ("Fight the Power" over the end credits, really old white producers?"). But there are more Hispanic-Americans than Africa-Americans. Not to mention that in California, where most films are produced and where the vast majority of Academy voters live, there are more Hispanics than white people! If I had been a Hispanic actor in that room, I'm sure I would have felt pretty left out of the whole conversation.


I guess this just brings up a broader question I have, and maybe some of our Black posters can address this... how do we balance the similar but also unique challenges of different communities of color? There are still tensions between different groups of color for one thing. But also, do you feel a responsibility to be concerned with problems facing all non-white Americans? Or are you naturally disposed to look at things through the lens of your own culture simply because that's what your perspective is?

I just sometimes feel kind of confused and also sad about the fact that, for instance, every kid in America has heard of Martin Luther King Jr. (as well they should) but very few adults even know who Cesar Chavez was (more's the pity, considering the man ended a type of slavery in 20th century America). I'm not suggesting we hear too much about the issues facing the black community, but merely that I wonder why we don't hear as much about other communities of color. And wonder how African-Americans here feel about their race relations with groups other than white people?

 

That is such a great question. I wish I could answer it. I don't think that having an ancestor who survived the Trail of Tears makes me qualify, however. That probably wasn't the only thing she survived, I'm sad to say.

 

I read that one yesterday. It's kind of sad that I don't feel any sort of shocking reaction to this type of crap anymore. It's more like same ****, different day.

 

"The person is described as a black man..." ****ing Christ.

 

The Revenant was the first time I had seen Native American actors playing Native American characters on the big screen in . . . a really long time.

I still like to think that they thought that was an N.W.A. song.

One interesting thing about the POC question and the Oscars is that this was the third year in a row that a Mexican won (and, I might add richly deserved to win) the Best Director Oscar.

 

I guess any black man will do.

 

My favorite thing is that it's about any black man engaged in any "suspicious activity" anywhere in the entire county. What?!