Subtle racism in threads
 

I might be the only one put off by this, but it has disturbed me in a couple threads lately. There has been some subtle, or maybe not so subtle, racist overtones of posts that is then preceded to be laughed off as a joke. The thread about Forrest Whitaker's martial arts style included one of those and then today in the thread about Gallagher there was a comment about how a black person wouldn't waste a good watermelon.

Is this the kind of posting that has become accepted and laughed off as harmless jokes on DVDTalk? If it is, I'm not sure I like it. It's easy to say it was just a joke, but especially the watermelon comment was unacceptable and inappropriate. Again, maybe I am overreacting to all this, but that's just how I feel. I felt strongly about it that I felt it should be called attention to.

:lol:

I have been noticing this for a very, very long time. I'd prefer it even if subtle joking (say, Godzirra references to Asians) was lessened, as many people don't understand where to draw the line.

There's been many hip-hop discussions where the thread goes something like this:

Questionb about rap >> rap sucks >> 50 Cent sucks* >> 50 Cent is stupid and wastes money on rims >> Blacks are stupid and waste money on rims >> All Black people are stupid no wonder they are poor, etc.

Now, it doesn't actually get to the last step (or worse), but it doesn't need to.

I've always liked that there's always such a strong backlash against homophobia on these boards (there's a good amount of policing done and it helps that many peole here publicly declare their sexual preference). However, I don't see this as much with racism. If anything, more people get made fun of for yelling "Racism!" when there isn't any. (And this mostly refers to outside events discussed here --- not comments people here make).

Being Hispanic myself, and having seen (and received) a large amount of racism and xenophobia in my day, it bothers me. I'd rather have it not be an issue. Unfortunately, the amount of privacy and anonimity the internet provides means that a LOT of people get to "hide" behind an online persona when making these kinds of comments. I very much doubt someone would say this in front of a mixed group, or in public.

I have more thoughts on this, but I need to finish power-washing my deck before it gets too late. :)

There's a difference between actual racism and friendly tongue-in-cheek jokes where no malice is intended. You'll notice that the forum also has no problem writing jokes about, say, people from West Virginia, although they can't read so it's probably okay.

Real racists aren't clever enough to be subtle.

Hey now! I read just fine! ;)

I can think of one forum member who's been around for years, and is always making thinly-veiled slurs against certain groups (not jokes, serious comments). I've called them out before, but sadly this person never takes the bait, and to my knowledge has never even been suspended. They're very good at what they do. But one day, I hope this person will cross the line, and I'll be there to watch them go down in flames.

Great, now I have to sift through all of your 27,000+ posts to find out who it is :(

there's the narrow-minded and insensitive Bell65, who referred to all South Asians as "terrorists." since i hail from South East Asia, i was grossly offended by his comment.

They're not? :confused:

You shouldn't let obviously stupid posts bother you. Unless you're Malaysian, then you're definitely a terrorist.

I'm sorry, but watermelon comments don't fall into the "friendly tongue-in-cheek jokes." I guess it's all fun and games to reinforce negative stereotypes around here. Why not make some fried chicken jokes along with the watermelon ones then.

I guess you can excuse anything around here as "just joking" when you use one of these ;)

Giantrobo makes those jokes all the time. Fucking racist. :grunt:

Bando will never go down in flames. He is however a flamer.

don't forget about the orange drink.... and white people with their mayonnaise.

I need to watch Undercover Brother again. it's been too long.

Wow my state didn't even make the map :banana:

badger1997,

Just because you make fun of person, WHO HAPPENS TO NOT BE WHITE, does not mean you're a racist. If you only associate racism with color & a joke, then you're just as racist as the people you are referring to.

That's not the case in the "jokes" he's talking about. Those were jokes making fun or racial stereotypes. Thus they were racial based jokes, not just jokes making fun of people who happen not to be white.

badger1997,

Did you report those posts to the moderator? It would bother me if you have and they were not dealt with. If not, you should have. Mods rarely catch anything on their own unless it's an entire bad thread as they don't have time to read every post.

Why are we automatically assuming that the people making the thinly veiled racist jokes are white, and therefore obviously being racist? If we're going by the unwritten law that its not okay for Fuzzy Zoeller to make a fried chicken joke, but perfectly ok for Dave Chappelle to do it, then if the poster making the comment is of that race, what's the problem?

for racist posts, I think the usual standard is to punish members who sometimes with malice or not (we're not mind-readers) use racist slurs like the n-word and so on. But stereotypes, while sometimes frowned on, are generally allowed. I think those are fair standards.

If a member thinks he sees a racist stereotype, the worst thing he can do is get in a big huff and post a response that needlessly escalates the issue or get in a race to gang up on the member. The best thing to do is to report the post, let the mods decide what to do. If you think a member constantly makes racist jokes, email an admin and make a case.

I reported the Forest Whittaker thread but got no response.

I believe that the person who posted it was black but my feeling is that that is beside the point. Those kind of jokes really don't belong in our forum and can reaffirm stereotypes and racist ideology. There are a lot of young people on this forum and they may not be able to tell that it is "just a joke".

Exactly. There's a fine line between the funny "racist" jokes in The Onion, the "funny" racist jokes on bash.org, and the mean-spirited hate of true racism.

Posts are reported all the time. The mods aren't going to personally respond to every one but be patient.
I believe you're overreacting.

Some of my best friends are white and they point this out too. You're right (of course) that censorship is a slippery slope but there needs to be a balance between the joking vs. the overly sensitive & the overtly racist messages (both extremes are lame) that appear. For the most part, I think the moderators and Admins here do an exceptional job at keeping that balance (far better than other websites). Yay them! (and I don't need to kiss up to anyone :rimshot:

For better or worse, this is about how I handle these posts. So, a one-time post that makes a poor attempt at humor involving the watermelon stereotype probably isn't going to get much action. If it were a regular thing by a particular member, that would probably be looked at more closely.

FWIW, I can't seem to find the thread on Forest Whittaker so I can't comment on it.

I wasn't expecting a personal response. Just saying that I reported it so the mods/admins are aware of it.

Actually, I'm not overreacting at all. I thought it was inappropriate. I reported it. I would have dropped it at that had this thread not been started. Here, I simply gave my $.02.

This isn't my forum and I don't make the rules. I just live here. :)

Well, we all have different thresholds for taking offense. I'm pretty happy with the threshold for DVD Talk as it is.

I can see where some might find the Gallagher joke offensive but the Ghost dog comment was pretty tame. Everyone here is a wannabe comedian. There are things that offensive said every day in the otter. Just because its not funny to you doesn't make it racist.

I think the jokes are too subtle, we need more blatant racism.

Asian people eat a shitload of rice. Cubans are black beaners. How the hell is a racial group's preferred diet a negative stereotype?

It has been brought to my attention that all black rappers have gold teeth.

and are "pointless ghetto thugs who will be dead in three years". ;)

Racial stereotypes are not made up. There is a certain degree of truth to all of them, which is what makes them funny to point out. I do not find this to be racist, by any means.

For example, I am Asian, and a very bad driver. I also eats lots of rice and have slanted eyes and bad teeth. I have no problem with said stereotypes, since for me, all are true. Maybe I just have thicker skin then most. More then likely, though, it's because I just don't give a crap. I love Don Rickles comedy routine. 'nuff said.

so because it doesn't bother you, it shouldn't bother anyone else. that makes a lot of sense. -ohbfrank-

You mean there are people out there that are actually sensitive to this stuff? I never knew. I thought I was speaking for everyone. -ohbfrank-

Nowhere in my post did I imply I was speaking for anyone other then myself. I thought the second paragraph made that clear. Apparantly not.

When people are using it negatively to imply inferiority/make fun of other racial groups.

I'm not that sensitive to those kind of "diet" jokes, but some are.

:drool: Rice + black beans :drool:

Ok dammit now Im just plain hungry and not going to be able to have any of these :mad:

I thought you did imply it in your post. I guess not. Me so sorry! :D

Let's keep DVDTalk as PC-free as we can please. :)

Would love nothing more, but unfortunately, people's sensitivities aren't what they used to be.