Saw this today

[albin35]

[Raven]

that was just perfect

[*davack*]

Racist bs

[JohnR]

Originally Posted by *davack*

Racist bs

DAVACK - Welcome to S-B -

Satire, yes. In poor taste, somewhat. Racist? I don't think so.

When I first saw the image that represents the youtube video like the one above, I thought it was racist too. I did run through the video since and I don't think it is racist, it is a witch doctor, and just one of many Obama "Doctors" in that clip.

It is easy to call it racist, it is harder b ut more just in context to look at it for the satire that it is.

[Nebe]

Sorry boss. That's racist and if you think it isn't you might be a little racist too.

Any time you make fun of someone's ethnicity at their expense, it's racism on some scale. There's hateful racism and then there is innocent harmless racism.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[detbuch]

Originally Posted by Nebe

Sorry boss. That's racist and if you think it isn't you might be a little racist too.

That's the problem with knee jerk reactions such as immediately attributing "racism". The first reaction in a racially polarized environment is to interpret a picture of a black man in the guise of a witch doctor as "racism." If, during the Iraq invasion, George Bush had been pictured in the guise of a marauding Viking, would that have been racism? Would that have implied that the white race was a plundering rapacious ethnicity? Some, no doubt, especially various non-whites, may have thought so, or would have liked to think so. Knee jerk reactions often say more about those who have them than what the object to which they react intends. Do you think, if you reflect more thoroughly about the matter as JohnR did, that the picture was MEANT to be racist rather than satirical? Is the video racist? Isn't the witch doctor depiction more a satirical comment on the regressive nature of Obamacare than a disparaging view of black people? And isn't it a bit racist to view a culture which ascribes to which doctors as inferior? So if you view the picture as a statement about ethnicity rather than medical satire, aren't you subscribing to another cultural ethnicity being inferior? Does that indicate that you might be a "little racist too"? Or, if you don't think that such a culture and its belief in witch doctors is inferior, then the picture, for you, would not be a racial insult.

Any time you make fun of someone's ethnicity at their expense, it's racism on some scale. There's hateful racism and then there is innocent harmless racism.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

"Innocent harmless racism"--I like that. Can't we all just get along?

[Swimmer]

Not in the least racist. I love the bill of rights, treasure it actually. If someone thinks this is racist then so isn't one or more skits on SNL questionable on a weekly basis.
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[detbuch]

Originally Posted by Swimmer

Not in the least racist. I love the bill of rights, treasure it actually. If someone thinks this is racist then so isn't one or more skits on SNL questionable on a weekly basis.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

I think Nebe would classify those SNL skits as "innocent harmless racism."

[Nebe]

Originally Posted by detbuch

I think Nebe would classify those SNL skits as "innocent harmless racism."

Yes sir.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[scottw]

when did "witch doctor" become an "ethnicity" ? ting...tang...walla...walla...bing....bang.....

funny aside.....and... "innocent harmless racist" ...perhaps ... when I was in high school, our mascot was the "Islanders"....some of my classmates decided to support the varsity basketball team at a home game one night by showing up in loin cloths only with their faces and chests painted brown holding spears and with bones in their noses and on their heads... "Islanders" , so they thought.....didn't go so well for them in the Dean's office the next day ...

[JohnR]

Originally Posted by Nebe

Sorry boss. That's racist and if you think it isn't you might be a little racist too.

Any time you make fun of someone's ethnicity at their expense, it's racism on some scale. There's hateful racism and then there is innocent harmless racism.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

I disagree. I do think it is in poor taste and I do see how it can misconstrued as racist. I think it is a very slippery slope to go down to think what is racist and what is not and where the line gets drawn. In that context, in the context of multiple doctor parodies in that video, it is satire.

I do think there are fifty other images I can find online in 5 minutes that are racist, but I do not think that image is racist - more so SPECIFICALLY in that context.

[spence]

The problem with meme's is that they're usually lacking in context. It's funny, easy to swallow, doesn't require much thinking...

Stringing a lot of them together doesn't really fix that problem.

Not sure this is racist. A good test would be if you put a white guy there as a witch doctor would the point still ring true? In this case it likely would, even if it may be wrong...

-spence

[detbuch]

Originally Posted by spence

The problem with meme's is that they're usually lacking in context. It's funny, easy to swallow, doesn't require much thinking...

Stringing a lot of them together doesn't really fix that problem.

Not sure this is racist. A good test would be if you put a white guy there as a witch doctor would the point still ring true? In this case it likely would, even if it may be wrong...

-spence

Spence makes a good test and proof. And when even Spence says "Not sure this is racist" (which I believe is Spencist for "I don't think it's racism"), that should be the end of the discussion. One minor problem about the test of putting a white guy as a witch doctor--it's called OBAMAcare. I suppose if you used a white guy who rammed the act through or made it possible, such as Harry Reid, or even Nancy Pelosi (sort of like a guy), it would work.

[Redsoxticket]

The clips of Nancy Pelosi's at 30 sec. and 36 sec depicted her as looking like a ape features in the mouth area.
I call this clip as having racist tendencies.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Nebe]

You guys blow my mind sometimes.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[scottw]

Originally Posted by spence

A good test would be if you put a white guy there as a witch doctor would the point still ring true? In this case it likely would, even if it may be wrong...

-spence

there were white witch doctors..I think Northern Europe is where the term originated


1841 "In the north of England, the superstition lingers to an almost inconceivable extent. Lancashire abounds with witch-doctors, a set of quacks, who pretend to cure diseases inflicted by the devil."

[JohnR]

Eben - I don't think so. And it is not how I interpret it. I saw Witch Doctor. Perhaps you see what you want to see (and no, I do not want to see a Witch Doctor )

Detbutch - didn't you get the memo? It is now (again back to) The Affordable Care Act

[detbuch]

Originally Posted by Redsoxticket

The clips of Nancy Pelosi's at 30 sec. and 36 sec depicted her as looking like a ape features in the mouth area.
I call this clip as having racist tendencies.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

The one at 36 seconds looks like Jack Nicholson as the Joker. Wow!! First time I've heard of racism against jokers. The one at 30 seconds just looks like an old white woman getting ready to tell a lie. But wait . . . by racism do you mean what is usually meant in the good old USA, prejudice against black people? Are you equating black people and apes? That's good old boy, confederacy, white supremacy variety of racism your letting slip there. Or are you just defending the ape race against human discrimination?

[Nebe]

How about one of you guys encourage your kids to draw a sketch of one of their black classmates just as Obama was portrayed and hang it on the Classroom wall. See what happens.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[detbuch]

Originally Posted by JohnR

Detbutch - didn't you get the memo? It is now (again back to) The Affordable Care Act

Oh yeah . . . I forgot. hard to keep up with the shifting labels to suit the moment . . . like global warming to climate change. Maybe, when the higher premiums fully kick in it can be changed to just the Care Act, and then, eventually, to the I Don't Care, Just Suck It Up Act. And Quantitative Easing can just be referred to as Quantity releasing. or the Big Release of Political Gas. Political rhetoric is fun stuff . . . if it didn't so successfully hide the pain.

[detbuch]

Originally Posted by Nebe

How about one of you guys encourage your kids to draw a sketch of one of their black classmates just as Obama was portrayed and hang it on the Classroom wall. See what happens.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

In order for their to be some parallel to this video, there would have to be some point being made and an accompanying context provided to demonstrate the point. Just having your kid post a pointless picture of someone in your class is stupid and putting your kid in the jeopardy of some hothead's thoughtless reaction. Wouldn't a rational response be to ask why you put up that picture of me? Because my mother told me to do it. That doesn't make the kid a racist. It just makes the parents out to be mindless idiots. And the teacher would certainly have the kid give the parents a harsh letter of reprimand from the teacher. Or, nowadays, probably something much worse would happen to the parents and their kid.

You really seem to be straining to make this video racist.

[tysdad115]

I can't believe this turned into a racist thread....the PC pussification in this country has made its way to SB. Unreal.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[detbuch]

Originally Posted by tysdad115

I can't believe this turned into a racist thread....the PC pussification in this country has made its way to SB. Unreal.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

It's partly PC, but even more so in regards to race. It has become nearly a taboo (if taboo is a PC acceptable word re the picture in dispute) against criticism of blacks and used especially to fend off attacks on Obama's policies. The automatic response to any criticism of those policies or any questioning of his intentions is first to label them as racism. And if upon analysis there is no actual evidence of racism, still, it just must be so in the eyes of his defenders because he is black, and, apparently, whites are inherently racists and they simply cannot only not suppress their racism even in policies which transcend race, they don't even realize they're acting racist, don't realize down deep that they are racists.

At least, that is what we are made to believe. Which very conveniently allows Obama to escape far more "media" criticism than he gets. It seems to allow him to be, at most, innocently ignorant of bad stuff happening throughout his administration. Other, less competent underlings are responsible. He rises above it all, even fighting against the bad stuff, and comes out to be a hero.

[The Dad Fisherman]

Nothing funnier than a bunch of "Cracker-ass Crackers" arguing what's racist
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Redsoxticket]

It is all in good fun with exception of a few cracker jacks.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[scottw]

Originally Posted by Nebe

You guys blow my mind sometimes.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

this should not be at all surprising to you Eben, as you've indicated previously...your left leaning tendencies naturally elevate you to the status of... probably more highly edumacated, better intellectually equipped to make good decisions and in command of better judgment and depth of understanding, maybe even better looking than those that you deem to have opinions(differing opinions) that are little more than anal suppositories, why would those lacking all of the above qualities that you clearly posess ever come to the same evolved and enlightened conclusions on such(any) matters? it's normal

[Duke41]

So if it's not racism it's unimaginative at best. Haven't seen a white which doctor since Gilligans Island lol
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Nebe]

Originally Posted by scottw

this should not be at all surprising to you Eben, as you've indicated previously...your left leaning tendencies naturally elevate you to the status of... probably more highly edumacated, better intellectually equipped to make good decisions and in command of better judgment and depth of understanding, maybe even better looking than those that you deem to have opinions(differing opinions) that are little more than anal suppositories, why would those lacking all of the above qualities that you clearly posess ever come to the same evolved and enlightened conclusions on such(any) matters? it's normal

You crack me up
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by scottw

this should not be at all surprising to you Eben, as you've indicated previously...your left leaning tendencies naturally elevate you to the status of... probably more highly edumacated, better intellectually equipped to make good decisions and in command of better judgment and depth of understanding, maybe even better looking than those that you deem to have opinions(differing opinions) that are little more than anal suppositories, why would those lacking all of the above qualities that you clearly posess ever come to the same evolved and enlightened conclusions on such(any) matters? it's normal

Hysterical post. You can't go wrong with edumacation, that cannot fail to be funny.

To the original post, we all need to lighten up and be able to laugh at ourselves. I'm not saying we ignore actual, legitimate racism. But we need to lighten up.

[scottw]

Originally Posted by Nebe

You crack me up
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

you know I love you