IS that racist ?

[wheelchairman]

Except its been going on a lot longer than your friend thinks. Its called Soft Power and has been a thing since Europe realized that while they don't like Americans, Americans are waaaaay better at making enjoyable cultural products.

For real. You guys suck at culture soooooo hard sometimes. And there are a handful of exceptions, but still, This continents film industry blows so hard.

[T-6005]

My friend has this theory that he calls "Cyber-colonialism" and that has to do with the fact that US companies, with american values, are the leader of the internet. And because of that, American notions, that are mainly cultural, become the values of the whole world. I'll try and get him here to explain it better than I do but I think this is quite true...

Except its been going on a lot longer than your friend thinks. Its called Soft Power and has been a thing since Europe realized that while they don't like Americans, Americans are waaaaay better at making enjoyable cultural products.

For real. You guys suck at culture soooooo hard sometimes. And there are a handful of exceptions, but still, This continents film industry blows so hard.

I hate it when Per beats me to things like this. I was about to go nuts on some hegemonic cultural imperialisms up in here. Just fucking crazy, dropping normative discursive formations like it wasn't even a thing.

[holland25]

No one noticed the irony in Richard's nickname? NO ONE?

[wheelchairman]

I didn't want to like your comment, Holland25, but it was pretty funny.

[Llamas]

More and more, I find annoying the lack of diversity in words regarding this topic. I feel like "racism" should be reserved for those who actually hate/mock/insult/judge people for their race. At worst, this could be considered insensitive. In no way is something like this comparable to what a skinhead does, and thus I take issue with using the same word for both. Equality has no chance of progressing how we want it to as long as we put both in the same category. You call someone who's a bit insensitive racist, and they're going to shut off and ignore you. True racists will also ignore you in that situation, but they're beyond hope. If we hope people like this woman will realize their errors, it has to be approached differently.

As for black face itself, I don't like it, but I think it can be done "tastefully." I don't like the concept of saying, "Sometimes this is bad, so it's ALWAYS bad." I would never use black face, and I definitely find it a bit insensitive to do so in the US, but there are huge differences between this and mocking/racist uses.

It applies also to "nigger" where I live. People here do not feel the weight of that word. I had a guy tell a story to me about "seeing a nigger on a Rog (Slovene brand) bike in NYC" and how crazy it was to see someone who's clearly not Slovene in the US riding a Slovene bike. He didn't understand what was wrong with using that word and obviously didn't use it in a negative context. But if you're a black person living here and someone calls you a nigger in a friendly way, it's going to sting probably the same as when coming from a racist pig. So while I never have and never will refer to someone with that word, I do not jump to "RACIST!!" the moment I hear it uttered. Naive, ignorant, quite possibly insensitive... but 90% of the time, it doesn't come from racism.

[Baldwin]

It's not even racially insensitive. What is insensitive is people blindly assuming that something their culture finds offensive is equally offensive to everybody, everywhere in the world, and expecting everybody everywhere to refrain from doing it.