How do you know this? Blackface made me and most people I knew curl up with embarrassment in the 80s, as did gollywogs and all the rest of it. Maybe the establishment didn’t see it that way but a lot of young people did.
You’re the only person who’s picked up on how stupid my reference was to an object that became obsolete decades ago.
15 years in Yorkshire. Hearing genuinely nice, generous people reminisce about how entertaining the black & white minstrel show was. Idk you personally and I’m not accusing you of anything but picking a bad spot to shove but there is a pervasive ignorance w/r/t race over there. I’m not racist because Islam isn’t a race is still the level of discourse. Don’t even get me started about the openly racist Tory tabloids’ ubiquity.
Yorkshire?
My two oldest mates are from York. It’s far from the barometer of public opinion in the UK. One of them has always described Yorkshire people as ■■■■■ (said in an exaggerated York accent lol) and they couldn’t wait to move to London, where I met them.
I agree with most of your post. I never felt racism had been defeated in the hip 90s in the way that many did who bought into all the BS about cool Britannia and Brit pop nonsense - I was living in the East End then and heard racism against Bangladeshis every day I was out and about, which was often - and when the financial collapse of 2008 came we knew what that meant in terms of blame because it’s always been the same.
Lol. This thread took a turn.
You can both be right.
Words can be used differently in different contexts.
If your response to hearing something is considered racist isn’t to stop and reflect a little then you have a massive leak in your fixing your own racist attitudes game.
Even if that term was used one way, you are now using it in a different context, and language is defined at the ear not at the mouth.
I apologise for my part in the derail, Rugby.
2 should accurately read
If your response to hearing something is considered racist in a similar context isn’t to stop and reflect a little then you have a massive leak in your fixing your own racist attitudes game.
Never heard the term so had to look it up.
I think the phrase likely has racist connotations in the same way that hood, thug, and ghetto by itself do.
Also randomly found this while googling:
Looked it up on America-centric wikipedia.
OK.
It sounds like that’s where the term came from no?
I don’t know its origin. I do know that words frequently have connotations that vary according to country.
Did you find this while googling?
I’m not sure we are disagreeing. But I want to emphasise this more.
We are all absolutely full to the brim with racism. It’s in the air we’ve been breathing since we were children. On a pure probability perspective, when people tell you something is racist, it probably is, but your first reaction will say it isn’t.
That’s just the reality of subconscious racism.
Now im not saying that EVERY time it’s racist, but the best play is always to stop and reflect. This is part of doing the work.
I get this with Mrs rugby all the time. Most of the time she’s right and what i said was problematic. And I always stop and think about it and then normally agree, but because she knows I do this I’ve earned the credit to argue back on the other rare times.
Whatever next? Before we know it some posters will be insisting we drop the “u” in some words.
If people want examples in Unstuck of real racism look to the posts that talk negatively about the Chinese as though they are one homogeneous group.
No and clearly I didn’t make it far enough!
You’re assuming I didn’t stop and reflect. You’re wrong. I reflected long enough to remember where and when that term was used, and the people I was with at the time, who used the phrase with some pleasure and expected others to use it. That took some time because it was so fucking long ago lol.
The real problem with this derail has been cuse’s disingenuous attempt to draw a parallel with use of the n word (and failing, obviously). But I guess he has his own demons.
I see we’ve reached the part of the proceedings where the person using the racist word points out that the REAL PROBLEM is the person pointing it out.
Also the slippery slope part. Why, if jalfrezi can’t use “ghetto blasters” anymore, how long before we come for his precious “u” in some words?
Often seen in… Why, if we give in on these Confederate statues, how long before they want to tear down the Washington Monument?
If someone stops and reflects in the Forrest and there was no one there to see it, did it even happen?
cuserounder poll special: Which of these is more racist?
0 voters
There is no context in which “ghetto blaster” is not a racist term. And why the fuck should I have to take the stairs with my curry? If the smell bothers someone, THEY can take the stairs.
Yes there is, and it happens in other countries (yes, they do really exist) where there are no connotations of racism with that phrase.
Also, you don’t have to take the stairs in that situation, but it would be considerate if people did.
“Why should we do xyz which is no trouble to us, so as not to bother each other” is quite the deplorable, isn’t it?