[News] The Trayvon Martin Discussion Thread

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Soliloquy

Well, things are certainly going on a downward spiral...

Director Spike Lee decided it's be a good idea to retweet Zimmerman's street address... only it ended up being the completely wrong address.

Now we've got an elderly couple who had absolutely nothing to do with the shooting fearing for their lives thanks to mob mentality.

God Bless America!
 
S

SeraRelm

I think it's racist to assume racism because of the races of those involved.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Charlie Don't Surf said:
man you are fixated on that illegal gambling thing aren't you
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It wouldn't be funny except for your high horse. Not sure how you balance a poker table on that thing's back.

Really though, it's more that for all the bitching about important issues, you choose to use your spare time playing poker and watching movies.
 
Charlie Don't Surf

Charlie Don't Surf

Quotemander Prime said:
It wouldn't be funny except for your high horse. Not sure how you balance a poker table on that thing's back.

Really though, it's more that for all the bitching about important issues, you choose to use your spare time playing poker and watching movies.
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I haven't played online poker in 3 or 4 years
and I'm not sure how having leisure time no matter what the fuck I do with it matters at all
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Charlie Don't Surf said:
I haven't played online poker in 3 or 4 years
and I'm not sure how having leisure time no matter what the fuck I do with it matters at all
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Women's rights.
Equality for same sex relationships.
Race issues.
Anti-war movement.
Growing disparity of income levels.
Police state.

You bitch about these things on here day after day.

What do you do about them?

You remind me of all the schmucks who say "I wish I could do art". They can; they just don't. They think some magical notion will come to their heads someday and it will change their lives. Is that what you're waiting for? Some idea to pop into your head about how to revolutionize the world? Unlikely. You're just another do-nothing. This is how you feel big--pretending to do something by bitching about it. You're as useless to the issues you pretend to care about as the people to their loved ones who, when confronted with a loved one's problem, say "I'm praying for you."
 
S

SeraRelm

We don't know what he does with his free time.

Besides post on here, I mean.
 
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SeraRelm

And douche it up while he does so. Be fair, only call him out on the bullshit we know of, not on that which we speculate.
 
Jay

Jay

So wait, the same people I've argued with in the past DON'T understand the point of that fantastic commercial?

My approach in the future..... will be different then.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

SeraRelm said:
And douche it up while he does so. Be fair, only call him out on the bullshit we know of, not on that which we speculate.
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While this is true, he's watching somewhere around 20 different TV shows from what it sounds like in the Media thread, plus a lot of movies in theaters and at home. Unless his TV and movie watching goes on in a hyperbolic time chamber from Dragonball Z, that's a lot of week's leisure time spent watching stuff.

Unless he just reads synopses and pretends to be watching all that stuff. And for all I know, that's what it is, since most of his responses to people arguing with him about movies is "I haven't seen that one." So you're right, I have no idea what he does with his free time besides scouring this forum for when to harass our law enforcement or pretend women are helpless fragile unicorns.
 
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Staff member
I question whether they were intentionally showing bias in that video. If it was intentional, the message is only doomed to get lost.
 
ElJuski

ElJuski

Staff member
A few things:

1. It's not really a skittles commercial. I was being sarcastic.
2. It takes a really thoughtful dissection of race to understand the intricacies of racism. Racism isn't a light switch; it's not just ON or OFF. In most cases these days there are plenty of inherent prejudices we carry around every day. It's important to make an autopsy of your own beliefs as well as of others to really understand the underlying principles. I think some of the worst racial prejudices are the ones we can't quickly identify, but are rather strange--and honestly, fascinating--throughlines we see, hear, and for the most part, ignore. Things like double-consciousness don't exist only in academic papers, and it's things like this Geraldo hoodie debacle that really bring it forward.

I wear hoodies all the time; I'm a husky white dude. Not suspicious. I live a couple blocks away from Howard University, and see people like those guys in the video all the time, and have seen, and yeah, no doubt, been a part of, that very same awful reaction. And, if anything, the murder of this unfortunate young black kid should be a gauge of just where race relations in this country have come, and most definitely ideas that need to be changed, or buried for good.
 
ElJuski

ElJuski

Staff member
I also think that, as a whole, white people really struggle with the fact that they still have inherent racist issues. I still struggle with that feeling sometime. "I'm not racist, this thing is bullshit for X reason." This happens to good, intelligent people all the time, people capable of having smart academic discussions. It's just such a weird nerve for certain people to touch, and it's bothersome, but it's really important.
 
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SeraRelm

I grew up in a family with racial prejudices and it bothers the shit out of me when people make serious comments along those lines, however, I think humor stands on a different level in some ways. Some of the most racist jokes I've heard come from people of those very races. This isn't a racism issue to me, this is a human stupidity led to tragedy issue. I don't care what color their skin was, I care that some dude got an over-exaggerated sense of authority and importance and some other dude decided to bump heads with him in retaliation. Result; someone died. Zimmerman should get his ass arrested and locked up, but this platforming is bullshit.
 
ElJuski

ElJuski

Staff member
So, just to be sure here, I hope that the idea that "racism is all over the place" isn't a new concept to anyone here on the boards. I hope you don't also assume that I think that way. And finally, I hope you guys aren't using "well everybody is racist" as an excuse for the many ways that we each, individually, are racist.

Oh, and for the record, I'm not blatantly saying anyone here is a racist pig or an awful human being. I'm saying that when something like this happens, taking a critical look, and being open and honest about it, even if it means saying something "incorrect" or "wrong", is what's going to be the most beneficial, not playing any sort of labyrinthine game full of blame and rationalizations.
 
ElJuski

ElJuski

Staff member
And yeah, the major case here is the fact some kid got killed. But I think it doesn't detract to have an open conversation about race relations. I think the fact that people are throwing race into it, and the whole hoodie scenario, and the way the media is otherwise is blowing up about it, is a whole separate beast, but really, something we should be stepping back and considering at the same time.

We still have major racial problems in this country, and we shouldn't be ignoring it. We should be having an open dialogue about it.
 
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fade

Staff member
ElJuski said:
We still have major racial problems in this country, and we shouldn't be ignoring it. We should be having an open dialogue about it.
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That is true. And it will be one uncomfortable dialogue. That will probably lead to a lot of 800 lb things in the room. Like the fact that you probably are more likely to be attacked by a black male in a hoodie in some places. The real racism is in a society (as I mentioned above) that perpetuates a vicious cycle by providing underfunded education and crappy housing projects on the basis of self-perpetuating biased reasoning.
 
ElJuski

ElJuski

Staff member
Right, and see, the problem should be that we're seeing beyond simply "Black man + hoodie". It should be "This guy looks like he's going to rob me".

EDIT: well, and to be more specific, if you happen to be in a bad neighborhood, it's not the fact that the guy's black, it means it's a bad neighborhood, and it just happens to be that poor people in bad neighborhoods might want to rob you. It just so happens that socioeconomics, which is piled under a ton of under prejudices, etc, would make it that poor urban areas also happen to be more black. I'm not worried about a black dude in a hoodie attacking me on my block; if I went to a more prominently crime-ridden, poor side of town *cough* across the river *cough*, I'd sure as hell have a different, more careful attitude.
 
ElJuski

ElJuski

Staff member
and, not to mention, things that we need to tell inner city kids every day, such as "don't be a stupid fuck" and "don't pretend like you're a thug, because you don't know when some asshole is going to shoot you in the fucking face"
 
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Staff member
I think it will always be "it looks like this [insert some kind of categorization here] man is going to rob me". I think it's almost physically impossible to stop categorization. The human brain is really good at it. It served excellent evolutionary purposes. But categorization doesn't have to become bias. There's always going to be gross generalizations, we just have to make sure they're not stupid ones.
 
ElJuski

ElJuski

Staff member
Right. A shady looking guy is always going to be a shady looking guy. But we still have this fuzzy line where we have latent categorizations for people of different races.

And that's not to say I don't think it's getting better. But we wouldn't be having this discussion if people like Geraldo don't say dumb shit that makes us realize how much of that shit still persists on a day to day basis.
 
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