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- Colby Rasmus
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- From: Pacific Northwest
- Registered: 9/07/2010
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'We Have Become The Mecca For Prejudice & Bigotry'
I just wanted to point this out because of the choice of the good sheriffs words. Notice he didn't use 'racists'. I don't know for sure if that is because he uses the words the same way I do, but I repeat that there is some utility in all that.
racist: supports governmental/social system of racial inequality (very rare in America these days)
bigot: intense emotional dislike/hatred of one thing or another (very common among people of all stripes)
prejudice: prejudging based upon past experience and stereotypes (universal)
Thus, we're all prejudiced, and behave prejudicially on a daily basis. We all are likely bigoted, but typically on only a few things. Very few of us are true, David Duke style, racists anymore.
Prejudice and bigotry can lead to racism, i.e. a system of inequality among races, even when no one in particular is actually a racist. The same is true for sexism, for example: very few people feel women are less worthy than men, and yet they still continue to earn about 70% of what men make for the same tasks, and that gap hasn't shrunk much lately.
I think that the social/political climate is such that people feel uncomfortable speaking publicly about their prejudices and bigotry, and that is too bad and might need to change before we can make much more progress in our society. Perhaps that is one reason why so much of the debate on race in the USA is conducted by euphemisms and coded language.
I am headed out of town. Nice discussing this all with you.
- forsberg_us
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Re: 'We Have Become The Mecca For Prejudice & Bigotry'
I think we've had this discussion before. As a society we've become hyper-sensitive. You could never air a television show like All in the Family now-a-days even though the whole purpose of the show was to parody bigots.
Probably the only thing I've seen in the last decade or so that was comparable was a Clint Eastwood movie titled "Gran Torino." If you haven't seen it, it's worth a couple hours. But I remember at the time the movie came out people questioning Eastwood's decision to create/portray such a character.
- APIAD
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Re: 'We Have Become The Mecca For Prejudice & Bigotry'
forsberg_us wrote:
I think we've had this discussion before. As a society we've become hyper-sensitive. You could never air a television show like All in the Family now-a-days even though the whole purpose of the show was to parody bigots.
Probably the only thing I've seen in the last decade or so that was comparable was a Clint Eastwood movie titled "Gran Torino." If you haven't seen it, it's worth a couple hours. But I remember at the time the movie came out people questioning Eastwood's decision to create/portray such a character.
Awesome movie. That will likely be that last time Eastwood play a believable badass. I can see why the "hyper-sensitive" cry alittle. Eastwood's say some bigotory things but it is all part of the plot. I hate to give away the plot for those who havent seen it but Eastwoon makes up for it in a very badass way.
- Max
- Colby Rasmus
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- From: Pacific Northwest
- Registered: 9/07/2010
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Re: 'We Have Become The Mecca For Prejudice & Bigotry'
Eastwood claims he has retired from acting.
I liked Eastwood's response to his critics concerning his films about Iwo Jima, and the relative lack of 'people of color' (in spite of the fact that one of the central characters was Native American). First of all, records show that of the umpteen thousand servicemen and women on the island, there are only a tiny number of African Americans or Hispanics. Second, go make your version of it if you don't like it.
He also has a good take on derogatory epithets. "We all used 'em", and he went on to talk about the bullying / teasing nature of growing up an American male. I wish I had a voice in the "N-word" debate, because I think the African American community is selling their political capital cheaply on that one and constitution loving whites will absolutely bristle at silliness of it all. Can you imagine John Lennon cleaning up his song and re-recording it as "Woman Is the N-Word of the World."???
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