The Race Relations/Diversity/Equality Thread

[Luet]

Casting policies aside, I think it's strongly implied any time they mention the "swarthy" or "dark" Southrons.

Is that what "swarthy" means? Holy crap!

*one Google later*

It is! Well I'll be. I always assumed it meant "rugged" or "swashbuckling." It even looks like swashbuckling!

I was mistaken as to the definition as well.

[Rei]

I think it's because Kipling (or whoever it is who writes our pirate stories) assumes we all know that Moors make the coolest pirates.



(If this is offensive, I really am sorry and will remove it.)

[Janus%TheDoorman]

Guess who's getting her show back!

Or, rather, who's getting a new show on Sirius XM's "Sirius Patriot" right wing politics channel, having apparently been recruited but Sirius execs the same day she announced she'd be ending her show. The sum gap of time Dr. Laura will be off the air is... three days.

At her new home, she will join Mike Church, who brought us such memorable hits as Emanuel Went Down to Georgia and "We're f****** Up America", and Andrew Wilcow, proponent of the theory that Chris Dodd's prostate cancer was the result of sex with Barney Frank.

Reportedly Dr. Laura's first show will be about race.

[Dr. Mobius]

I think it's because Kipling (or whoever it is who writes our pirate stories) assumes we all know that Moors make the coolest pirates.



(If this is offensive, I really am sorry and will remove it.)

What if I'm offended that you seem to think someone might be offended by that?

[Rei]

Then I will merely laugh at you.

[neo-dragon]

More controversy over racial casting

Racists Demand Boycott of Thor

[Dr. Mobius]

The black dude got half a second of screen time in the trailer and as far as I can tell everyone else in the movie is white. I don't know if the 2010 data is available yet, but using the 2000 census figures that seems fairly accurate, if not a tad conservative compared to the rest of Hollywood these days.

[Mich]

Wow. How have I not seen a Thor trailer yet? That movie looks really kickass! Man, now I'm all excited.

The explanation the article says Marvel is giving, though, that the Asgardians are actually aliens that influenced Norse mythology, instead of, you know, actual gods doesn't sit right with me. Like, it's a very logical explanation, and I probably would have loved it years ago, before I really knew anything about Thor and stuff, because the fact that they really were the gods didn't sit right at first. But now that I'm accustomed to it and kind of like it, it feels like a tacky explanation to appeal to, well, to newbies, like I used to be.

If that makes sense.

But anyway, I feel that anyone is annoyed about Heimdall should be pretty pacified by the whole aliens explanation. So, as usual, people are stupid.

[neo-dragon]

I think they're going with aliens rather than gods because mysticism doesn't seem to fit into the universe that they've established with Ironman and Hulk. All these films are building to the big Avengers crossover after all.

But to be fair, I can sort of see the detractors' point. I can imagine how people would react if a character who in at least some portrayals was supposed to be an African god was cast as a blue-eyed blonde.

[Wil]

I first read about this HERE. I think that multiculturalism for the sake of multiculturalism is silly... but the people that write articles like that should be shanked.

Besides, if they really are going with an alien explanation, then what does it matter either way? I saw the trailer with Tr2n last night, and it looks like a fun movie.

[Dr. Mobius]

A black Norse god or a blonde African god can't be any worse than an old fat guy displacing baby Jesus.

[Rei]

Seriously, his feast day is a month away from the gift giving part of Christmas anyway!

[Dr. Mobius]

Now that think about it, that was self-inflicted by the early Church anyway when they started pairing their holidays up with pre-existing pagan rituals as a way to gain converts.

I'm curious, does the duality of Easter share a similar origin or are rabbits and Easter eggs a more recent development?

[neo-dragon]

Huck Finn Gets Some Changes

[Syphon the Sun]

One of the twitter responses to that news, Jason:

In the new version of To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom is tried by a jury of men & women of different races and is found innocent.

[neo-dragon]

School sorry for making black student slave

The teacher probably should have anticipated that this would cause problems.

[Rei]

Wooow... Yeah, that could probably have been anticipated with the slightest amount of forethought. I'd be uncomfortable doing something like that even in a class with only white children. It's the kind of exercise/experiment that seems like it should fail an ethics board every time.

[neo-dragon]

I can see what the teacher was going for, but she really should have used some common sense.

[Rei]

Oh yeah, I can see what she was going for, it's just not exactly prudent.

[Janus%TheDoorman]

I have kinda mixed feelings about this. If I'm guessing at these people's thinking correctly, they think that having a child participate in the slave auction would reinforce a sense of inferiority, making it inappropriate. However, although Rei touched on it, no one seems to have had a problem with the white kids doing it.

After all, there's no way white kids could be made to feel inferior, but well a black kid might have to worry about that, right? >_>

So here we have a kid who has some abstract sense of possible inferiority based on his race, and everyone in the situation tells him he was right to feel that way. What? I have to say if it was my kid I would have told him to stand up proud on the auction block and make everyone in the class think long and hard about the millions of other people with just as much pride and dignity broken, bought, and sold. Which was rather the idea, I think.

But then I know very little about child psychology all that might be a horrible idea.

[neo-dragon]

Because this thread isn't only about race...

[Rei]

That was a very well done video. It's a very good point which was implied although I don't think they said it (I had a hard time hearing some of the voice) that until men are able to dress as women or in feminine clothes, women and men will not be equal. Women will just be perceived as aspiring to be as good as men in order to raise their status.

[Jayelle]

Good call on this thread not being just about race.

Covering up: It's a feminist issue

[Eaquae Legit]

Out of curiosity, what kind of wackiness do you mums who breastfeed encounter?

[Jayelle]

Out of curiosity, what kind of wackiness do you mums who breastfeed encounter?

Everything from glares to congrats. Newfoundland has a really low rate of Breastfeeding, so it's not as common to see in public. I haven't experienced it, but I know people who've gotten "Ew!"


I think people who aren't parents (or don't know many new parents) don't realize the controversy, and how stressful that can be to a new mom.

[steph]

The only issues I've ever run into with BF are the Dr. and Nurses trying to convince me to supplement since my supply is so low. I have to fight hard to successfully BF. This is the first baby that I've made it to a year with. It's worth the fight, for me.

People in the community have never given me grief at all. I'm always prepared to say that BF is legal to do where ever I'm legally allowed to be, but the issue has never, not once, come up with any 3 of my kids. I have become more relaxed about feeding in public over the years. With my first, I had to cover up, it just wasn't decent. Now that I'm on #3 and I've discovered that NONE of my kids like to eat under a blanket, I just find somewhere without a lot of pedestrian flow and feed. I'm pretty discrete about it, even without a blanket, so no one really sees anything "offensive" unless they are looking for it. I figure if they do see something "offensive," that's their problem, not mine.

[Syphon the Sun]

Court (rightfully) reverses $60,000 racial discrimination award for a claim based on a movie theater attendant's announcement before a movie to turn off cell phones, remain seated, and stay quiet to a predominantly black audience. The original award was made despite the fact that the same announcement was made before all movies to all audiences.

[Jayelle]

I do not say this very often: WTF.

[Mich]

Court (rightfully) reverses $60,000 racial discrimination award for a claim based on a movie theater attendant's announcement before a movie to turn off cell phones, remain seated, and stay quiet to a predominantly black audience. The original award was made despite the fact that the same announcement was made before all movies to all audiences.

I had never, ever heard of this stereotype until my recent decision to watch all of Scrubs. The first time they brought it up I was like "Really? People think that?"

[Jayelle]

I learned it from the same place!

[Syphon the Sun]

I learned it from the same place!

Me, too!

[Rei]

I learned it here!

Also, I'm used to every film in a theatre having some little blurb like that on the screen. It would never occur to me to connect it with race. I can't recall for live theatre because I can't quite afford to go often enough. Even in some churches I've been to!

[Yebra]

I learned it from you Scrubs! I learned it by watching you!

[neo-dragon]

The attendant is lucky he didn't get shot.

[GS]

The attendant is lucky he didn't get shot.

I find this comment racially charged, I can't wait to get my lawsuit together.