Comments on: Wake Up And Smell The Racism http://firedoglake.com/2007/07/14/wake-up-and-smell-the-racism/ Firedoglake weblog Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:14:14 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: liz http://firedoglake.com/2007/07/14/wake-up-and-smell-the-racism/#comment-823034 liz Sun, 15 Jul 2007 12:10:14 +0000 http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/07/14/wake-up-and-smell-the-racism/#comment-823034 <p>While all of it is blatant racism on it’s face, these same people are basically just prejudiced. I mean it is not exclusive to race. They just as easily can slur an overweight person, disabled person, elderly person, muslim or jew ( because they are easier to pick out). They probably harass neighbors. They teach and allow their kids to learn hatred. So it’s a bigger problem than most consider when first reading this story. The big picture is very very ugly and people of other ” distinctions” are feeling it , very much.</p> While all of it is blatant racism on it’s face, these same people are basically just prejudiced. I mean it is not exclusive to race. They just as easily can slur an overweight person, disabled person, elderly person, muslim or jew ( because they are easier to pick out). They probably harass neighbors. They teach and allow their kids to learn hatred. So it’s a bigger problem than most consider when first reading this story. The big picture is very very ugly and people of other ” distinctions” are feeling it , very much.

]]> By: maxcat06 http://firedoglake.com/2007/07/14/wake-up-and-smell-the-racism/#comment-823014 maxcat06 Sun, 15 Jul 2007 09:57:30 +0000 http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/07/14/wake-up-and-smell-the-racism/#comment-823014 <p>What interested me was the illiteracy in many of the comments directed at the couple. Funny that those who were trying to pretend to be classier than the ones they were posting about couldn’t even manage a coherent sentence.</p> What interested me was the illiteracy in many of the comments directed at the couple. Funny that those who were trying to pretend to be classier than the ones they were posting about couldn’t even manage a coherent sentence.

]]> By: numfar http://firedoglake.com/2007/07/14/wake-up-and-smell-the-racism/#comment-822220 numfar Sun, 15 Jul 2007 02:40:34 +0000 http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/07/14/wake-up-and-smell-the-racism/#comment-822220 <p>Let the racists rant away in public, at least we know where they are.</p> <p>Someone said earlier our kids don’t pay as much attention to race…I agree…and for the same reasons. The more you see folks that are “different”, the less threatening they are, and the more accepting you are. </p> <p>If it weren’t skin pigmentation, it would be something else these folks choose to say is inferior, sub-human, dirty, or just plain wrong.</p> <p>The best thing we can do is teach our kids:<br /> 1) They aren’t any better than anyone else<br /> 2) Differences make us better<br /> 3) Keep an open mind</p> Let the racists rant away in public, at least we know where they are.

Someone said earlier our kids don’t pay as much attention to race…I agree…and for the same reasons. The more you see folks that are “different”, the less threatening they are, and the more accepting you are.

If it weren’t skin pigmentation, it would be something else these folks choose to say is inferior, sub-human, dirty, or just plain wrong.

The best thing we can do is teach our kids:
1) They aren’t any better than anyone else
2) Differences make us better
3) Keep an open mind

]]> By: Shell http://firedoglake.com/2007/07/14/wake-up-and-smell-the-racism/#comment-821969 Shell Sun, 15 Jul 2007 01:00:35 +0000 http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/07/14/wake-up-and-smell-the-racism/#comment-821969 <p>AOL has had tons of racists as long as I have been a member — since 1994. At least, back when you had to PAY ($3.00 an hour after the standard 20 hours a month), there weren’t as many — just those whose mommies paid the AOL bill, or hackers who could get on for free. When the flat rate come along (unlimited hours for $29.95 a month), surprise! The number of racists grew to unbelievable numbers! (Who says stupid racists are also dirt poor?) </p> <p>Yes, I am still a member of AOL, and yes, it is still as racist as it has been since the flat rate. But also, AOL management itself, encourages it, by never kicking blatant racists off AOL. Yes, those members are all SO valuable! Well, not so much. Those who fight the racists get kicked off all the time.</p> <p>AOL is both racist AND money-hungry. A hideous corporation.</p> AOL has had tons of racists as long as I have been a member — since 1994. At least, back when you had to PAY ($3.00 an hour after the standard 20 hours a month), there weren’t as many — just those whose mommies paid the AOL bill, or hackers who could get on for free. When the flat rate come along (unlimited hours for $29.95 a month), surprise! The number of racists grew to unbelievable numbers! (Who says stupid racists are also dirt poor?)

Yes, I am still a member of AOL, and yes, it is still as racist as it has been since the flat rate. But also, AOL management itself, encourages it, by never kicking blatant racists off AOL. Yes, those members are all SO valuable! Well, not so much. Those who fight the racists get kicked off all the time.

AOL is both racist AND money-hungry. A hideous corporation.

]]> By: JT http://firedoglake.com/2007/07/14/wake-up-and-smell-the-racism/#comment-821906 JT Sun, 15 Jul 2007 00:30:12 +0000 http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/07/14/wake-up-and-smell-the-racism/#comment-821906 <p>You know, there was no need to insult the intelligence of <b>hineddh</b>. It’s just that kind of uncivil discourse that places the vicious bloggers of the left so far out the American mainstream.</p> <p>/sarcasm off</p> <p>I have to say that in the last couple of years I’ve grown very distressed about the volume of racism online like this. Not the intensity, that’s always been there, but rather the pervasive volume of blatant racism. Just watch for the number of commenters who, inappropriately and needlessly, bring up Sharpton’s name in every possible context, as if his mere existence justifies their outright racism.</p> <p>My family is bi-racial, which is so normal to me that even to use such a word feels stilted and old-fashioned, like referring to someone as a “homosexual”. I’m at ease being in a room where the only white face is mine. And yet, living in a white, white place, I rarely if ever detect any specific racism.</p> <p>I can really only assume that the racists are so backed into a corner, so aware that they are losing the battle, and so afraid to speak out loud the evil in their hearts, that they are going online to spew and vent. </p> <p>And when you look at the attitudes of the under-30s, it should be a cause for hope, and a sign of why the racists are getting desparate.</p> You know, there was no need to insult the intelligence of hineddh. It’s just that kind of uncivil discourse that places the vicious bloggers of the left so far out the American mainstream.

/sarcasm off

I have to say that in the last couple of years I’ve grown very distressed about the volume of racism online like this. Not the intensity, that’s always been there, but rather the pervasive volume of blatant racism. Just watch for the number of commenters who, inappropriately and needlessly, bring up Sharpton’s name in every possible context, as if his mere existence justifies their outright racism.

My family is bi-racial, which is so normal to me that even to use such a word feels stilted and old-fashioned, like referring to someone as a “homosexual”. I’m at ease being in a room where the only white face is mine. And yet, living in a white, white place, I rarely if ever detect any specific racism.

I can really only assume that the racists are so backed into a corner, so aware that they are losing the battle, and so afraid to speak out loud the evil in their hearts, that they are going online to spew and vent.

And when you look at the attitudes of the under-30s, it should be a cause for hope, and a sign of why the racists are getting desparate.

]]> By: RockPaperScizzors http://firedoglake.com/2007/07/14/wake-up-and-smell-the-racism/#comment-821878 RockPaperScizzors Sun, 15 Jul 2007 00:18:03 +0000 http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/07/14/wake-up-and-smell-the-racism/#comment-821878 <p>The point of racism is to keep the peasants fighting amongst themselves as the political wealthy steal from the taxpayers trough.</p> The point of racism is to keep the peasants fighting amongst themselves as the political wealthy steal from the taxpayers trough.

]]> By: dclawyer06 http://firedoglake.com/2007/07/14/wake-up-and-smell-the-racism/#comment-821797 dclawyer06 Sat, 14 Jul 2007 23:46:29 +0000 http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/07/14/wake-up-and-smell-the-racism/#comment-821797 <p>So many of the posters PW highlighted in her wonderful post expressed concern about any future kids from Parker/Longoria’s marriage. Funny how the lizard-brains project.<br /> Anyone who can look at a couple of newly-weds and unleash such angry bile, racist or otherwise, should do the world a favor and not have children. How can they possibly be entrusted with the safety and well-being of a child?</p> So many of the posters PW highlighted in her wonderful post expressed concern about any future kids from Parker/Longoria’s marriage. Funny how the lizard-brains project.
Anyone who can look at a couple of newly-weds and unleash such angry bile, racist or otherwise, should do the world a favor and not have children. How can they possibly be entrusted with the safety and well-being of a child?

]]> By: Mrs. K8 http://firedoglake.com/2007/07/14/wake-up-and-smell-the-racism/#comment-821766 Mrs. K8 Sat, 14 Jul 2007 23:28:38 +0000 http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/07/14/wake-up-and-smell-the-racism/#comment-821766 <p>Uh, “speakering” in my last comment is not a neologism. Should be “speaking” — was editing the first choice, “German speakers” to “German-speaking commenters” and got sloppy by going too fast.</p> <p>Sorry. Although “speakering” sounds like a word the Deciderer would use, no?</p> Uh, “speakering” in my last comment is not a neologism. Should be “speaking” — was editing the first choice, “German speakers” to “German-speaking commenters” and got sloppy by going too fast.

Sorry. Although “speakering” sounds like a word the Deciderer would use, no?

]]> By: Mrs. K8 http://firedoglake.com/2007/07/14/wake-up-and-smell-the-racism/#comment-821758 Mrs. K8 Sat, 14 Jul 2007 23:24:20 +0000 http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/07/14/wake-up-and-smell-the-racism/#comment-821758 <p>To be fair, I should add that there are also a couple of native German-speakering commenters who take these Nazis sharply to task in the Casablanca thread as well.</p> <p>Not all the German posters over there are Hitler-lovers.</p> To be fair, I should add that there are also a couple of native German-speakering commenters who take these Nazis sharply to task in the Casablanca thread as well.

Not all the German posters over there are Hitler-lovers.

]]> By: Mrs. K8 http://firedoglake.com/2007/07/14/wake-up-and-smell-the-racism/#comment-821754 Mrs. K8 Sat, 14 Jul 2007 23:22:00 +0000 http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/07/14/wake-up-and-smell-the-racism/#comment-821754 <p>Am jumping in here (late as usual) to add a little detail courtesy of Marie Roget’s fine link to the Casablanca scene on YouTube.</p> <p>I played the clip, then happened to begin reading the comments.</p> <p>There are quite a few comments written in German — native-speaker-type German (not the kind of mangled stuff uttered by American neo-Nazis who throw German phrases around so they can feel close to their hero Adolf) –</p> <p>German native-speaker comments supporting the Nazi “ideals” — neo-Nazi crap spouted freely in the YouTube comments. As a former German instructor I was able to read the detail of these remarks with ease — and with horror. Many of the English-speaking commenters have apparently no idea just what ideology is being saluted in the YouTube thread.</p> <p>Disgusting.</p> <p>In the same way that American bigots feel free to spew their hatred in public Internet forums, German neo-Nazis feel free to litter the Internet with their hideous hatred and devotion to fascism.</p> <p>This is truly an international problem.</p> Am jumping in here (late as usual) to add a little detail courtesy of Marie Roget’s fine link to the Casablanca scene on YouTube.

I played the clip, then happened to begin reading the comments.

There are quite a few comments written in German — native-speaker-type German (not the kind of mangled stuff uttered by American neo-Nazis who throw German phrases around so they can feel close to their hero Adolf) –

German native-speaker comments supporting the Nazi “ideals” — neo-Nazi crap spouted freely in the YouTube comments. As a former German instructor I was able to read the detail of these remarks with ease — and with horror. Many of the English-speaking commenters have apparently no idea just what ideology is being saluted in the YouTube thread.

Disgusting.

In the same way that American bigots feel free to spew their hatred in public Internet forums, German neo-Nazis feel free to litter the Internet with their hideous hatred and devotion to fascism.

This is truly an international problem.

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