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Trigger warning for Language, Homophobia and Racism and violence in general.
This is by no means a scientific finding. This isn’t even a good sample, but lets background that for bit and look at what is going on in the video. How many times do you hear the word “Bitch” or “Fag” or even more inappropriate terms? These are examples of people at their worst, but what I find of sociological value is the idea that when we are at our most angry the blinders of everyday “polite” behaviour quickly fall to the wayside. What is left is the unvarnished raw core of feeling and emotion that can give some insight into the some of the uglier systemic features of our society.
U Mad?
The idea that being a “fag” or homosexual apparently is one of the worst insults you can direct at another male – why? Because being homosexual equates to un-masculine thus powerless, helpless; a second class citizen in our society (where men are the ideal) you know, like being a woman (the horror). The prevalence of the word “bitch” completes the circle because being a bitch is to be female and subservient; inferior in every way. (There is more to be said, but consider this a start.)
There are tonnes of vulgarity in the video, but unsurprisingly, most of it is gender or race based. One could hypothesize that video-games bring out the worst in us, but I’d rather look at the idea that video games, as a cultural artifact of our patriarchal culture, show exactly how far we still need to go to make our society a safe egalitarian place for everyone, and not just the menz.
Maybe we should update our preferred torture methods, hanging perhaps?
Our society is progressing ever so slowly (and will continue to do so if we don’t let the corporations win, restore the 25% tax rate please). I often look to the politics and citizenry of Quebec for cues on progressive society and the model we should be working toward. Progress does come in fits and starts, but the latest PQ notion of a Secular Charter is a retrograde notion at its very best.
The Parti Québécois wants to introduce a secular charter and ban all civil servants from wearing or exposing overt religious symbols.
This isn’t the first time the Parti Québécois has mentioned the introduction of a secular charter aimed at making sure public and parapublic institutions are free of religious bias and symbols.
This part is good. Government needs to be free of the stench of religion and all of the sectarian nonsense that comes with it. The wider the wall between church and state, the better off society will be. Spot the problem with this next bit from Pauline Marois:
“We will fight for what we need because we think this is essential for the public’s well-being by taking its values and writing them in a charter,” Marois said.Under such a charter, civil servants would not be allowed to wear conspicuous religious symbols.
The crucifix at Quebec’s national assembly, however, would remain untouched.
Marois also talked about the fact that many of Quebec’s institutions used to be based on religion.It’s part of our heritage, but taking a step to ensure the state’s secularity is not to deny what we are, but that we are at a new moment in our lives and believe the state’s neutrality and the fundamental values, equality between men and women must guide us toward a life together in Quebec,” Marois said.
*broken record sound* What phoque is going on with that?
We’ll keep our christian torture symbol prominently displayed in the national assembly, but the rest the religious stuff, you know you immigrants and your pagan practices…that shite has to go!
If you are going to adopt a secular charter then all of the religious bullshite has to go, you can’t keep the ones that you like and then say no to others citing “the secular nature of society” that is just discrimination of the racist sort and therefore has no place in progressive secular society.
Fits and starts I tell thee. Come on Quebec, get it right and turf all the religious ooga-booga, it will do Quebec and Canada proud.
I keep telling myself, “Arbourist, you need to post more stuff you write as opposed to other things gleaned from the net”. The problem is that the net has a lot of awesome on it that does it better than I. Consider Sociological Images. They present a concept, concisely explain said concept and then reinforce the learning with a spot-on video. SI, you do are doing it right. From SI:
“Microaggressions are “brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative… slights and insults” (source). These are often subtle. So the recipient feels badly, but it can be difficult to explain exactly why, especially to someone who isn’t sympathetic to issues of bias. The Microaggressions Project has hundreds, maybe thousands, of examples.
In this video, Franchesca Leigh poses as a “White girl” and says many of the things that she and other “Black girls” hear routinely. To Leigh, these are microaggressions. They variously trivialize and show insensitivity towards race and racism, remind the listener that she is considered different and strange, homogenize and stereotype Black people, and more…
To comprehend any issue it is important to have a understanding of key terms base principles at work. Two very different narratives of how racism works are identified by John Stoehr in this excerpt from his article on Al-Jazeera.
“[…] Everyone agreed the shooting of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teenager killed by a neighbourhood watch volunteer, was tragic, but liberals and conservatives disagreed on what caused it. On the left, racism was ultimately to blame. Why else would the shooter, George Zimmerman (who was recently arrested), spot Martin walking around a gated community, call the police, follow him and then later shoot him? On the right, race had nothing to do with it. This was a case of horrible judgment, bad policy and a tragic wrong that should be righted.
These are two views of racism. In one, racism is a concrete social force that exerts power over individuals. In the other, racism is an abstract universal human failing like any other that can be overcome with the right attitude. While the liberal view is often exaggerated, the conservative view does not account for who is doing what to whom. In this case, a half-white man killing a black boy.
The conservative view of “racism” is ambivalent, unmoored from history and freed of its long association with white violence. This has given rise to laughable locutions like “reverse racism” of which conservatives regularly accuse blacks whenever they rage against the racist machine, as Al Sharpton and others did in the wake of Martin’s death and the fact that justice did not prevail.
Yet when conservatives say race doesn’t matter, what they are saying, hopefully without meaning to, is that white violence doesn’t matter – and obviously white violence matters. In US history, blacks did not lynch whites with the blessing of the establishment, but whites did lynch blacks in the name of white supremacy.
Conservatives rightly say blacks kill more blacks than whites kill blacks. But that’s another one of those false equivalencies that hides what’s really going on. Black violence, even on those very rare occasions when whites are its victims, is scary and unjust, but white violence, especially when the victims are black, echoes through the web of history and can terrorise African Americans into submission. That’s been the historical purpose of white violence. If explicit laws and pernicious social norms didn’t control you, then the threat of violence did. That’s why racism is not about race so much as power – who has it, who doesn’t, what’s done with it and why.
And power is often above the law. Zimmerman and the man who killed Jake England’s dad are equally protected under a similar law that allows you to “Stand Your Ground” when facing life-threatening situations. Neither man was changed, because both claimed they acted in self-defence. But that’s where the similarities end. Trayvon Martin’s family has appealed to public opinion for justice. Jake England appealed to his gun. The present is a product of the past. To take white supremacy out of racism is to willfully ignore that reality.”
I’ve seen some of the arguments that more conservative commentators put forth regarding racism, and it seems they miss the key point (as they often do)- as highlighted from Stoehr’s article – the imbalance of power in society and how power is used and misused by those in control. The discussion of racism needs to be framed around this idea of the misuse of power in society and how we can best redress the imbalance that is the cause of much racial violence.
A great Gumbo story oh, and an interesting lecture to boot.
Oh and epic quote of the day – “Responsibility is what you take because of who you are.”
Homemade Canadian Fail Incoming.
Some people who express racist sentiments just don’t know any better, their peer groups are racist and the sentiments are a shared group meme that is still wrong but at least understandable. The educated though, should just fucking know better. This half-wit brings the supernovae like stupidity with her critique of Handel’s Messiah. As this article was posted on Pharyngula, I’m going to screen shot her lovely quotes; I have a feeling this post may be disappearing fairly soon.
Racism and stupidity, now all in one place!
Wow.
“I don’t think this is simply a cultural phenomenon (as in misunderstanding the Messiah’s content, message, meaning, etc…). I think it is a physio/cerebral problem. I’ve seen it happen in art and design, and even in science – a friend of mine was a Korean PhD student.”
Oh, you’ve got a Korean friend, it must be totally true. Did you share the first little fun fact with your friend that you find them cerebrally challenged as well? Did you put it into small words so they could understand your sane rational discourse?
“So this is what multiculturalism is bringing us. I think it is a mixture of aggressive Asians pushing their way in everywhere, and a liberal white public that wants these multi-culti influences to dominate in its cities and institutions.”
Damn those aggressive Asians for being so darn talented and ruining Western Classical Music Forever!1!!.
No, Camera Lucida it is you who need to go away and stop ruining the world the rest of us.
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