Poll: Not again, please have mercy ?

[Altorin]

^are we talking about games?

 

[Rankao]

I find it odd that people whom racism does not affect in any way feel the need to discuss it over and over. If you are a white anglosaxon in what way does the plight of the black person play in your everyday life?

Answer? none at all!.

Unless you have walked a mile in my shoes you do not know of my plight!

Not sure which post you are replying to but I guess it's mine as you quoted it.

I do not understand why people who rascism does not affect feel so offended by it!

I'm assuming you are white for this next bit but if someone called you a ****** would you feel degraded or would you think it was funny (given you are white)

So yes racism is bad but you can't feel it.

Fighting for the cause of people you "feel sorry for" is the worst kind of condescension!

You want to fight racism, but you don't want the support of the majority?
Forgive me, but your logic is hard to follow.

Not sure which post you are replying to but I guess it's mine as you quoted it.

I do not understand why people who rascism does not affect feel so offended by it!

I'm assuming you are white for this next bit but if someone called you a ****** would you feel degraded or would you think it was funny (given you are white)

So yes racism is bad but only if it is pointed at you personally

Yes I would have to agree with falcontwin here. Its good to support them a minority when the issue comes up, but why does a non-minority have to instigate a issue?

Are minority not smart enough to speak for themselves? Does the big white man have to protect them from... well ... the big white man?

I think not, they are just as smart as we are... wait! that's right they are people just like you and me.

In response to the thing in bold, I would likely beat the shit out of a person who called me '******' given that I am white.

 

[FuzziBunni]

Well, yes and no. I am using games (since this is a gaming site) to show that life is a ***** and its unfair. Yes it sucks that racism always has to come up every day and I see and experience it, even though I am a white female. Just because the minority is not being shown in a game, does not mean that anyone having to do with that game, supporting the game, playing the game, etc is racist in real life.

Also, just because you are a minority doesn't mean the majority is not punished either. Do you know how many times I have had to go in extra days to work because all of a certain religion is celebrating their holiday but when something like Christmas pops up, I can't go see my family. I have to stay because "they don't work Tuesdays" or something stupid like that. Racism is pointless and yeah it's going to be in everything: work, on the bus, in greeting cards, and hey guess what games.

It's only there because someone mentions it. Would this thread have started if the creater ddin't post something? What about if the article is never written. I'm not saying don't say anything, but if you are going to say something about racism, only say something if it is offensive. Don't say something for the sake of saying something. Or to get a badge or a website.

 

[JMeganSnow]

I find it odd that people whom racism does not affect in any way feel the need to discuss it over and over. If you are a white anglosaxon in what way does the plight of the black person play in your everyday life?

I'm not even sure I *believe* in the black person's "plight"--the only evidence I've seen of *any* social differences between the many blacks and whites I know was that a large percentage (more than half, but probably not that much more than half) of black women were unpleasantly loud, abrasive, demanding and condescending. The black men I know generally have few obvious personality traits aside from being quiet, although Terence the Marine Recruiter (my housemate for a while) was incredibly friendly, outgoing, articulate and HOT.

Being an aesthete of sorts, I personally would find it annoying in games that allow character customization if it was not possible to make a character that actually looked Caucasian, which I believe was Ms. Brathwaite's point. I'm a fan of games where you make up your own character. (You have to understand, I've dumped and re-created characters in Mass Effect like twelve times because I found that my facial adjustments meant that her eyelashes kept clipping during cutscenes when her facial expression would change. The spider-leg-like eyelashes in Mass Effect made me want to cry.)

I have to be utterly *enthralled* by the concept of a game before I'm willing to play one where you can't choose to play a female character. It's certainly a curious blind spot in a game where they've gone to extensive effort to let you play 37 different varieties of "elf chick" that the closest you can get to a black human is someone who has overdosed on spray-on tan.

 

[Hawgh]

Not sure which post you are replying to but I guess it's mine as you quoted it.

I do not understand why people who rascism does not affect feel so offended by it!

I'm assuming you are white for this next bit but if someone called you a ****** would you feel degraded or would you think it was funny (given you are white)

So yes racism is bad but only if it is pointed at you personally

well, first of all, I believe myself to possess a certain something called "empathy", as such, I think myself capable of imagining what it's like to be discriminated, and it can't be nice.
I wouldn't just shrug & pass if I saw someone being beaten to death in the street.

lastly, for the "it's not a problem as long as it isn't happening to me" statement, let me reply with a quote by Martin Niemöller:

"In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn?t speak up because I wasn?t a Communist;
And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn?t speak up because I wasn?t a trade unionist;
And then they came for the Jews, And I didn?t speak up because I wasn?t a Jew;
And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up."

 

[rossatdi]

I do not understand why people who rascism does not affect feel so offended by it!

I'm assuming you are white for this next bit but if someone called you a ****** would you feel degraded or would you think it was funny (given you are white)

So yes racism is bad but only if it is pointed at you personally

Well someone let the tards out of the bag on this one. Racism is an injustice. People don't like injustice. The inability to sympathise with other human beings is not something to boast about.

The words aren't particularly important. It's the fact that you are directly attacking someone for something they were born with.

Back to the topic, swap everything around. If I was playing an RPG and I wanted to play a white character but the only options for white characters are have black facial features but pale skin, and the only a blonde side parting for hair options. I think I'd be a little put out. And I think if my kid was playing it I would find it a difficult conversation to explain that the majority of this country's culture will discriminate purely because of your ethnicity.

 

[Brett Alex]

I find it odd that people whom racism does not affect in any way feel the need to discuss it over and over. If you are a white anglosaxon in what way does the plight of the black person play in your everyday life?

I'm not even sure I *believe* in the black person's "plight"--the only evidence I've seen of *any* social differences between the many blacks and whites I know was that a large percentage (more than half, but probably not that much more than half) of black women were unpleasantly loud, abrasive, demanding and condescending.

In Australia, the Aboriginal population has an average life expectancy +20 years shorter than their white counterparts. I'd call that a plight.
EDIT: The sad thing is, theres evidence to suggest that before colonization it was actually the other way around.

I do not understand why people who rascism does not affect feel so offended by it!

I'm assuming you are white for this next bit but if someone called you a ****** would you feel degraded or would you think it was funny (given you are white)

So yes racism is bad but only if it is pointed at you personally

Well someone let the tards out of the bag on this one. Racism is an injustice. People don't like injustice. The inability to sympathise with other human beings is not something to boast about.

The words aren't particularly important. It's the fact that you are directly attacking someone for something they were born with.

Back to the topic, swap everything around. If I was playing an RPG and I wanted to play a white character but the only options for white characters are have black facial features but pale skin, and the only a blonde side parting for hair options. I think I'd be a little put out. And I think if my kid was playing it I would find it a difficult conversation to explain that the majority of this country's culture will discriminate purely because of your ethnicity.

Pretty much summarised anything else I was thinking of saying.

 

[JMeganSnow]

In Australia, the Aboriginal population has an average life expectancy +20 years shorter than their white counterparts. I'd call that a plight.

EVERYONE of aboriginal descent has this decreased life expectancy or only the ones who insist on living in the Outback far away from modern conveniences like medical care? That sort of thing is self-inflicted, not imposed from outside. White people who do the same thing exhibit similar reductions in life expectancy--usually caused by grizzly bears.

If you want the life expectancy of white people, you have to do what white people have been doing for generations: move to the city, get a job, work hard for 40 years and put your kids through college.

I don't live like a Celtic tribesman and I'm a lot better off because of it.

 

[Brett Alex]

In Australia, the Aboriginal population has an average life expectancy +20 years shorter than their white counterparts. I'd call that a plight.

EVERYONE of aboriginal descent has this decreased life expectancy or only the ones who insist on living in the Outback far away from modern conveniences like medical care? That sort of thing is self-inflicted, not imposed from outside. White people who do the same thing exhibit similar reductions in life expectancy--usually caused by grizzly bears.

If you want the life expectancy of white people, you have to do what white people have been doing for generations: move to the city, get a job, work hard for 40 years and put your kids through college.

I don't live like a Celtic tribesman and I'm a lot better off because of it.

You missed the edit, they used to have higher life expectancy. Socio-economic status most likely has an effect on it, but its also health problems: less resistance to everyday disease, the inability (the physical inability) to handle alcohol well and other related things.

 

[Mr. Moose]

You know.. I saw that thread title and expected something involving a domina and severe sadism. I have this growing sense of disappointment now.

I have to agree.
I was expecting a nice little story about how the OP's father once tied him to a tree and whipped him with a fishing pole

 

[JMeganSnow]

You missed the edit, they used to have higher life expectancy. Socio-economic status most likely has an effect on it, but its also health problems: less resistance to everyday disease, the inability (the physical inability) to handle alcohol well and other related things.

Yeah, my ancestors as of 100 years ago had the same problems, which only fade after a couple of generations living in modern civilization. (The life expectancy for white people in America at the turn of the century was like 47.)

I read an interesting article not long ago about how early childhood nutrition and disease exposure pretty much determines how robust your health is for the rest of your life.

I also read an article about the fact that the life expectancy in Zimbabwe is going *down* since Mugabe kicked all the white oppressors out. If the black man has a real plight nowadays, that plight is other black men.

 

[Brett Alex]

You missed the edit, they used to have higher life expectancy. Socio-economic status most likely has an effect on it, but its also health problems: less resistance to everyday disease, the inability (the physical inability) to handle alcohol well and other related things.

Yeah, my ancestors as of 100 years ago had the same problems, which only fade after a couple of generations living in modern civilization. (The life expectancy for white people in America at the turn of the century was like 47.)

I read an interesting article not long ago about how early childhood nutrition and disease exposure pretty much determines how robust your health is for the rest of your life.

I also read an article about the fact that the life expectancy in Zimbabwe is going *down* since Mugabe kicked all the white oppressors out. If the black man has a real plight nowadays, that plight is other black men.

I would call that a simplified view. True in Zimbabwe perhaps, but remember that Zimbabwe is only in that position because Europeans put it there.

But the main problem with that is assuming that all black men have the same plight, and the same level of plight. For example Tasmanian Aborigines have no plight. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truganini]

 

[Avida]

If you dont want to discuss it every day. Dont. There are a million threads because a million different people want to talk about it their way with new people at new times.

 

[JMeganSnow]

[I would call that a simplified view. True in Zimbabwe perhaps, but remember that Zimbabwe is only in that position because Europeans put it there.

Yeah, how dare those idiots move in, forcibly civilize the place, then bail.

Prior methods of *inducing* civilization on other people have historically left a lot to be desired (not to mention the reasons for doing it in the first place, imperialism is probably the result of some sort of brain damage). That doesn't somehow mean that the civilizing element is the problem, however.

Primitive people are better off when they have the opportunity to ditch their primitivism and adopt civilization. They're just even MORE better off if they get to do that without getting a.) smallpox and b.) conquistadors. If they ditch civilization in the name of getting rid of no-longer-extant smallpox and conquistadors, however, that's NOT a good thing.

 

[L.B. Jeffries]

So...when is it okay to talk about racism then? It still exists, it's present in countless ways throughout the world. If not now, then when?

 

[s-l-u-g]

Eh Im going to give you points for this. I too get sick of [insert ethnic minority] whining about their lack of representation in games then when you give it to them they whine some more. "Oh boo hoo most of the blacks/african americans in saints row are violent criminals, all the zombies in (fucking!) africa are also black and its racist because you are a white person killing them all..." then you give them a latino chick and they then whine shes too oversexualized.
People are fuckwits and dont understand that the word "minority" means there are not that fucking many of them. -.-;;;

EXACTLY [word for word] What he said.

 

[chronobreak]

I'm surprised there hasn't been a "Why all the hate on racism?" thread.

 

[Logan Keller]

You know.. I saw that thread title and expected something involving a domina and severe sadism. I have this growing sense of disappointment now.

I have to agree.
I was expecting a nice little story about how the OP's father once tied him to a tree and whipped him with a fishing pole

I was disappointed too. I was hoping for a story about something like they had to kill every person in their close, personal family with a butter knife.

 

[Halo Fanboy]

And here I thought homophobia was the poison of the week.

 

[Rolling Thunder]

On the Zimbabwae example: Shanks, your an idiot. As someone who knows a lot about the history of Zimbabawae, knows a good number of people from there and so on (live a couple of hundred miles from the border) I'll explain.

The land now known as Zimbabwae was colonised by a bunch of English white men looking for gold and coal. They found it, kicked the natives a bit until they stopped moving, and set up shop. They also found that the land was incredibly fertile, and so set up farms.
Upon the discovery of a Sleeping Sickness preventative for both cattle and humans, they therefore colonised the unnoccupied (and it was unnoccupied, because you can't live where there's sleeping sickness, as you starve to death) north of the country.

Everything in Zim is built by the white man. Using black labour, but labour is hardly a scare resource. Intellect is, and that's what was provided. He also builds one of the most successful commercial farming ventures in the world, and begins exporting maize, stock, beef and all kinds of produce to the world over.

Then it is decieded to hand Rhodesia over to the black majority. However, the white government objects to this, and sets up an independant minority government under Ian Smith.


Fast forward through 30 years of civil war and sanctions, and eventually it is decieded to hand the government over to the ZANU-PF.

Fats forward another ten years, and Bob deciedes he's going to kick whitey out

Ooops.

Economy collapses (Zimbabwae's economy is based entirely on commerical farming, which is an exceptionally difficult thing to do- lots of know how and hard work required), people begin to starve, etc, etc.

Same thing happened in Zambia, which used to be amongst the most crippled nations in Africa, and is now improving simply because they said to all the white Zimbabwaen farmers: 'You want a job? Come manage one of out state farms on a profit-based salary'.

Now Zambia exports food, instead of importing it, the economy is growing and it's international debt is steadily shrinking.