?

Post Reply New Topic

Not to mention dealing the race card deck and playing racecard poker!I was gonna say racecard blackjack but an overly sensative person would call racist on that one and drop the racecard ace of spades!

Last edited by AspieOtaku on 06 Dec 2012, 4:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Thinking & speaking of the color of someone's skin as though it where an important feature is fundamentally racist... but I have no idea what context you where using.

Keniichi, do you describe your white friends as white? i.e. do you say something like, "oh, you should meet my friend. she's tall, white, has green eyes."? i sincerely doubt it. that's what makes it racist in some people's eyes.

white is the default skintone and everything else requires a descriptor (as evidenced by the fact that people are not described as white in our culture - white people are just "people"; black people are "black people"). this makes white appear to be "normal" and everything else appear to be "different". pointing it out in conversation when it isn't necessary (and it is rarely necessary) can be perceived as racist.

The irony of which is that every race, no matter what their skin tone, all possess the same pigment, only in differing amounts, which would mean that in reality the darker one's skin, the closer to "default" one really is.

yeah exactly! i reread what i wrote, and it doesn't look right. i mean that we seem to be saying that white is the default skintone when we don't use it as a descriptor. but the way i wrote it makes it look like i'm saying it IS the default skintone. nonononono

A significant part of this issue is the degree to which we can be offensive even if we don't mean to be.

I am in the midst of a bit of a knock-down-drag-out with another member on this forum. He has made posts that I find extremely offensive (and I am not quick to take offence, I assure you). He believes that he is simply setting out matters of fact.

But the reality is that we must all live by the "thin-jawed-plaintiff" rule. In law, if you commit a battery, and someone suffers greater injury than you intended because of some factor of which you were unaware (i.e.a "thin jaw") you are still liable for the greater injury that resulted by went beyond your intention.

Similarly, even if we mean simply to state objective facts, if our words have the effect of causing offence in others, we bear responsibility for that. It is incumbent upon all of us to understand how we have caused offence, and to learn from that. AS may make that burden harder upon us than it is upon others--but that does not excuse us from those consequences.

I thought of that, but I knew what you meant. That as whites ourselves, we tend to think of white as "default." But then, so do people of other races (tend to think of their own skin shade as default).

Here's a funny story. Not "ha ha" funny though.

I befriended a Chinese kid in school who became my best friend for years afterward. In fourth grade I asked him (I really did!), "How do you guys tell the difference between each other?" (implying, of course, that orientals all look alike to me, which was frankly true at the time).

HIs answer was awesome. He just shrugged and asked, "Easy! How do you tell the difference between each other?"

So much of how we all see the world is locked up in perspectives. Wouldn't it be just as likely that in a mostly black community that one might point out that someone they just met was white, if they were, as it is for whites to point out someone is black?

I think a lot of what's perceived as racist, isn't so much racism, but oversensitivity of those who aren't even the object of discussion.

Another story to demonstrate:

I had a very black friend whom I lost in a dark parking lot one night he was so dark. He could see me, but I couldn't see him, and both of us were joking around about it. I finally yelled at him to "Smile dammit so I can see your teeth!" No offense was taken at all. He almost feel down laughing.

Last edited by MrXxx on 06 Dec 2012, 4:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Why do you think I'm fat?

No, I'm not serious! This is just the kind of response I've received to simple statements like "Hello", "Nice haircut", or "Well done on that presentation". For reasons that I can not fathom, some people will imagine an insult when none was spoken, and insist that the insult was at least implied.

This seems to happen mostly with homeless people, alcoholics, and drug addicts. Maybe there's some kind of schizotypical delusion going on, but it scares me every time it happens.

That's got to be the understatement of the century.

It would be racist however if you shouted hey black man! Just like when an African American shouts at me hey white boy! I feel offended whenever someone does that to me I don't know if I should feel offended though so I say nothing.

Last edited by AspieOtaku on 06 Dec 2012, 5:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Especially in the Philosophical, Political and Religious context.
I have AS myself but I learned through life experience, that what people say, they don't mean it personally. It's their natural behavior.
People do what they think is natural to them, so I try not to be offended when someone calls me out.

Best Regards,

Jake

Yes. I describe white people as white. If someone is pale, theyre pale to me. Doesnt mean I hate them or have anything against them, thats just what they look like to me. Regardless its what their personality is like anyways.

I think what Hyperlexian was really asking is, not whether you think of them as white, but whether you make a point to say it verbally in conversation, or just leave it to them to assume they are white.

A few years ago, my friend (who was black) was telling me about his childhood and how his dad used to say the n- word like it was a bad thing (he actually said the word). An older white guy then told him not to use that word because he found it offensive. Some people really are too sensitive.

because they are apparently "highly strung". i have ascertained that people who are "highly strung" are tuned delicately to a very high frequency of social protocol, and as a result, their "heart strings" are set into motion by the slightest vibration (if that vibration is lower than the resonant frequency of the highly strung person). bridges can be destroyed by light winds (tacoma narrows incident (galloping girty)) due to the plethora of divisors that can be frequentially imposed upon a rigid structure (highly strung) that can perpetuate a destructive resonance amplification that disintegrates the integrity of the structure.

highly strung people's strings are easily broken by the fat fingers of ignoramuses who strum them.

What I want to know is why people choose to take offense at things/comments by other people that they know were meant to be offensive. It's like eagerly throwing your face into the fist of the guy trying to punch you.