That story is hilarious! But wait, every Cinco de Mayo in High School we were served enchiladas and flan?! Every Cinco de Mayo, Fiesta has a HUGE sale on Fajitas and Bud Light and advertise in their flyers about it with huge letters readin' CINCO DE MAYO ESPECIALES!?!
Okay, everyone has good pooints. As far as SNL and MadTV not being real life, they are. I mean, they're comedy skits, but it's real TV. It's real jokes. It's real stereotypes. I don't understand why that is not seen as more offensive while the fried chicken commercial is. The Irish don't put up a huge fuss over drunk jokes. And like people said about serving enchiladas on Cinco de Mayo. How is that really different? And the fact that some of us didn't even know the connection between fried chicken and poor black people should mean that the stereotype is losing it's power and it's negativity and it's just a stereotype. I didn't think of it any differently (until now) than the blondes are stupid stereotype (and sorry if I offend any blondes). In fact, I think the blacks are illertate stereotype is way worse than this fried chicken one! Oh well, I guess I'll hear more later.
I totally go with Princess on this one. Big freaking deal. What was the supermarket supposed to put on sale for Black History Month? Soul Glow? If the fried chicken thing is so wrong, then why are there so many chicken places in the 5th ward. I work in the fifth ward and there are chicken places everywhere. I could name three right off of the top of my head. Frenchy's, KFC, and Churches. What else is around here to eat. Not much. There is a McDonalds and a Burger King. We complain everyday about how there isnt anywhere to eat around here but we are not lacking in fried chicken. I forget who said it but stop freaking complaining and buy the crap at the discounted price. I dont see anyone complaining about the fajitas on sale at Fiesta during Cinco de Mayo. If a soul food restaurant put their collard greens on sale in honor of black history month would everyone b**** about that too?
Yeah you figured out. Maybe because people dont want to get their place robbed. There arent any gas stations here either. Here is an idea, perhaps its because the majority of the people who occupy this area dont know how to act like normal human beings and feel that crime and trash are an acceptable standards of living. Maybe the reason that there arent any decent places to eat here is because they dont accept food stamps. Its probably pretty difficult to maintain a business when most of the people you would want to frequent your establishment prefer to have the government give them everything and that means you arent going to make any money. I would bet a lot of money that the residents of "The Historic Fifth Ward" like to complain about the situation that they are in but dont do a damn thing to help themselves get out of that predicament.
This thread has just taken a turn for the stupid. MB: You are skating on extrordinarily thin ice at this point. It is one thing to disagree. It is another to take ridiculous shots at a group of people in an impovershed area of the city, some of whom happen to be friends of mine. I would STRONGLY suggest you back off on this one.
I'm going to use your quote doctor, but the thread itself is full of this type of mis-understanding. I think too often educated people in the know have a knee jerk reaction to racial issues, and tend to sidestep the heart of the matter. They are quick to add that people need to learn more about the whomever it was in question, but fail to realise the issue is deeper than simple understanding. In your post, for example, you urge us to learn about multiple cultures, yet your example of cultures doesn't include white culture. In fact, you seem to be saying white people don't have a vaild culture to learn. Indeed, if you really believe that people should learn about different cultures, shouldn't you also be advocating black people learn about why this store would do something so obviously insensitive. You see, doctor, it is all a game of chicken and egg who should learn about whom? I, however, take a different stance. The issue to me is one of the steroetype itself. The question is why is the stereotype negative? Who deems it so? The answer is the white elite. Both black people and white have bought into that farm. No one seems to care that a piece of chicken has no negative conotation whatsoever. It's all about the history of what it convied to white people when in the mouth of a black person. It seems to me if a piece of chicken can cause someone to look at another as inferior then that person will never see the other on an equal level. I do, however, understand why black people are offended. Yet, I don't think learning someone's culture will help. This issue is in the relationship of the black man and the white man - in their minds -and that is where the understanding needs to begin.
kbm: I actually agree that chicken is just chicken. It is the context that is the problem. That's a very Zen way of looking at it anyway. Unfortunately, the stereotypes exist for real reasons. Good points, though.
RM95, That is exactly right. I talked to everyone in the Fifth Ward. You dont have to talk to everyone, all you have to do is drive around for more than 5 minutes and you will see everybody sitting out on the porch not doing a damn thing. You cant tell me that everyone of these people work the night shift. It is easier to sit on your ass and draw unemployment and food stamps and wellfare. You make just as much if not more than a minimum wage job. We see this everyday. And we don just see these people in the morning or at lunch or when we leave. It is all day. The same people.
You are so smart. I say we lynch them all, or choke them on their fried chicken bones the lazy bastards.
Did I take a shot at anyone personally? Did I call anyone stupid? If I have an opinion that is the opposite of what you and RM95 and Hayes thinks then I am taking ridiculous shots at a group of people? You cannot tell me that people do not take advantage of government programs that are available. You cannot tell me that the Fifth Ward is not developed because of crime and the economic situation of the area. I make a statement that in the Fifth Ward there are an abundance of chicken places and not much else to eat. I get called stupid but thats fine because you agree with what that poster says. I am not saying that any particular group of people are bad. I am not making things up that I havent seen with my own eyes. In 30 minutes, I will drive by every thing that I previously described and have to probably go over by Compaq Center to find something to eat. I feel sorry for people that have had a bad lot in life. I do not feel sorry for people that think they are owed something and are content to complain without putting any effort into making their life better. No ones life is happy happy all the time. Lots and lots of people struggle.
That is exactly what I said. Boy, I'm glad that you are here to translate everything I say because I am just too stupid (as HayesStreet thinks) to say it the right way the first time.
Why not, then you'd probably save around $0.70 a paycheck that all those lazy black bums are taking from you.
The welfare issue does not just pertain to Fifth Ward. I know plenty of families who are white and every other race who are lazy and poor and feel that it's the government's responsibility to bail them out. I am all for welfare, but I am not for people who cheat the system, no matter what race they belong to. And I agree with kbm again. No one seems to think that whites can have a culture. Since we're the majority, we're the bad guys. We have it easy. We're out to get everyone else. It's simply not true. Y'all want whites to understand everyone else, but nobody wants to understand us. Nobody, not even white people, understood why I didn't understand the fried chicken ad. And I asked for explanation and I gave reasons why I didn't know and I got laughed at. "How naive you are little white girl." No one cared that I didn't know. But instead of telling me, you felt it was better to make fun of me and call me ignorant and stupid. RM95's comments bring up some good points. The people on this thread who are agruing against black people (although we're really not, but it has turned that way, I guess) are not saying anything to try to be mean or hurtful. We're not comdemning black people. We're not calling them all stupid. We don't hate any of them. Hell, some of us are trying to understand, but RM95 and others keep turing it into a race battle. RM95 suggested the lynchings and deaths of black people. Is that all you see in our words? Here I am trying to understand and you turn it into something it's not. It's like everything some of us say HAS to be turned into a racist comment. In my Modren Middle East class Tuesday, we were talking about stereotypes and generalizations. And the consensus was that they are not always accurate and they're not always fair. But they are there for a reason. There's no way everyone can possibly know everything about everyone, which is why generalizations are made. They do server some good. It's when they're used negatively to hurt someone or to justify wrong doings that it becomes a problem. My prof for the class is Muslim. And the first day I asked her if she had felt threatened by Americans since 9/11. And she said she was a little worried at first, but she knows she's not like them. And the people she's knows know she is not like them. When white people say that Muslims are bad, she knows why we say it. She thinks those particular Muslims are bad too. She understands white people. I think white people do need to be understood just as much as minorities do and maybe more so, since there are more of us. This is where most of the racist blacks I know come it. The ones that I know personally don't understand white people. They take everything we do or say and turn it to mean that we hate them when it's simply not true. I think whites understand blacks a lot better than you think we do.
I love it when a bunch of pissant college students presume to lecture people on what they should and should not be offended by even as they give you a laundry list of all of the "obstacles" they had to face with race. This usually consists of having to deal with black history month and a black person hurting their feelings at the mall. Cry me a river, kiddies. I know this may be hard for you to believe, or accept, but black people have gotten screwed over in this country more than any other people except native americans. It is indisputible. Just because you are ignorant of history - black, white, or any kind - doesn't mean the reality of racism, or bigoted symbolism, or stereotypes doesn't exist. You can play word games and semantics all you want, but the cartoon at A&M was bigoted. Celebrating black history month with a fried chicken ad is *not* harmless. If you think the sensibilities and feelings of black people towards these kinds of issues are meaningless than you simply don't know what you are talking about. There is a long history of American (i.e. white) pop culture (this includes advertisments) dehumanizing black people. And if you think that dehumanizing and ridiculing a people doesn't have a connection to political and everyday reality then watch "Jude Sus" with German Jew sometime..if you can find one. James Byrd didn't have his head pulled off in 1998 in East Texas because of semantics. Thousands of black people weren't lynched in the South from 1870's until the 1950's because of a dispute about advertisment sensibilities. Black Americans have only been allowed to vote in the all "land of the free" for the last 35 years, so if you think they may be a little sensitive to these kinds of things put yourself in their position for half of a second.
Elvis- Actually, blacks had the right to vote before women did. And women got the vote in the 1920, so it's been a little more than 35 years. But I guess you knew that since you're a history expert and the rest of us don't know squat! And do you have the actual numbers on these "thousands" of lynching in the South (and it might be wise to include the North as well). According to history, there was more racism in the North after the Civil War than in the South. The Emancipation Proclamtion didn't free slaves. It freed slaves in the South, but it didn't affect anything because the South declared itself independant. And there is a HUGE difference between racism, biogtry and stereotypes. If everyone got mad over every stereotype, no one would be happy. No one has said their feelings are meaningless. I think they are very real and meaningful. But I want to know why. I want to know why many other people of other races can laugh at themselves and stereotypes (that were even hurtful at one time) and black people can't. I want to say something that pertains to anyone of any race, sex, ethnicity or whatnot. Without the ability to laugh at yourself, your life will be miserable. Instead of complaining about how bad life is and how other people try to put you do, do something about it. And I don't mean this about race. I mean this about life. I know I don't know everything, but I know being miserable sucks. It's hard to do, and I don't do it well, but I do think everyone has the strength to be happy and do well in life. And I think everyone should try to find that strength.
Princess, I'd agree with you that most Irish-Americans (i.e. me) would find the "drunk" stereotype mostly harmless (though insulting). However, if you were a British landowner who made the same claim in Ireland . . . . . Like Jeff said, context can completely change the meaning of something.
Boy, you sure do read into a lot. All that effort to respond, based upon suppositions. Firstly, do you want me to include every culture on the planet in my "for example" catalog? Secondly, I never said that white people don't have a valid culture to learn. After that who cares. You'll have to pardon me if I don't read the rest of what you type since you seem to make up opinions, attribute them to me, and then argue against/criticize them. I'm somewhat wary of people who simply suppose and attack rather than ask and discuss. [/B][/QUOTE]
