The Inquisitr » racism

Taos hotel manager invites scorn with “Anglicization” policy

Kim LaCapria — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:55:14 +0000

Larry Whitten was brought in to reverse the fortunes of a hotel in Taos, New Mexico.

So he did what any smart businessman would do- he started by pissing off and alienating the heavily-Hispanic staff. Whitten has been successful at turning around other run-down, money bleeding hotels before, but it’s unclear whether obliterating cultural identity among staff has been a winning strategy in the past.

First order of business- staff were forbidden to speak Spanish in his presence. As Whitten doesn’t speak Spanish, he insisted that he was unable to tell if staff were speaking ill of him in their native tongue. Okay, minorly offensive. While not having sufficient English is certainly a difficulty for some people, and Whitten could be painted merely by that as insensitive, it wasn’t the most offensive thing he did.

Next up- your Spanish name is unacceptable. Whitten actually insisted that hotel staff, many of whom had long careers successfully serving guests- “change” their names to suit his idea of a better, whiter staff. Marcos, not a difficult name to pronounce for anyone, would have to be called “Mark” at work. And Martin (pronounced mar-TEEN), would have to defer to plain old Martin during work hours.

Surprisingly, the strict zero-tolerance Latino policy didn’t go over very well. The uber-sensitive staff didn’t like having to hide their country of birth like a prosthetic limb in an Abercrombie & Fitch store. Some employees were fired for- well, it looks like perhaps they were fired for being Hispanic, and Whitten doesn’t get the controversy. He feels he just was plopped down into a “landmine of Anglos versus Spanish versus Mexicans versus Indians versus everybody” and is “doing what he’s always done.”

But fired employee Martin Gutierrez told press that he doesn’t need to “change (his) name and language or heritage,” adding that he’s “professional the way I am.” But as Whitten seems to wonder, is it possible to be both of Hispanic heritage and professional? The mind boggles.

[Source: Star Tribune]

Jimmy Carter says attacks on Obama partially based on race

Kim LaCapria — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:44:07 +0000

Joe Wilson’s outburst during Barack Obama’s address to the nation over the healthcare debate is the partisan gift that keeps on giving, as Jimmy Carter’s gone stirring the pot again.

Carter, in an interview with NBC, drew on his decades of experience as a southerner and said while the south and the country in general have made great strides regarding race relations, that a lot of the criticism lobbed at President Obama is based in the inability to accept a black man as Commander in Chief. Carter said:

“That racism inclination still exists, and I think it’s bubbled up to the surface because of belief among many white people — not just in the South but around the country — that African-Americans are not qualified to lead this great country. It’s an abominable circumstance, and it grieves me and concerns me very deeply.”

Not everyone agrees, though- Michael Steele, first black chair of the RNC, expressed his displeasure at Carter’s POV in a statement:

“President Carter is flat out wrong. This isn’t about race. It is about policy. This is a pathetic distraction by Democrats to shift attention away from the president’s wildly unpopular government-run health care plan that the American people simply oppose. Injecting race into the debate over critical issues facing American families doesn’t create jobs, reform our health care system or reduce the growing deficit. It only divides Americans rather than uniting us to find solutions to challenges facing our nation.”

Unfortunately for Carter, the remarks seemed to polarize people even further. While the left nodded in agreement about what they perceive as an ongoing effort to delegitimize our first black president, the right bristled at what they see as attempts to silence their opinions with accusations of racism. What do you think? Below is a video of Carter discussing his view of the controversy surrounding President Obama and the healthcare debate.

Your racism is showing: Rep. Lynn Jenkins calls for “great white hope”

Kim LaCapria — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:42:33 +0000

As far as embarrassing racial gaffes go, this one was pretty bad.

On August 19th, Rep. Lynn Jenkins spoke about the future of the GOP in Hiawatha, Kansas. Jenkins’ choice of words, however, has caused a firestorm of controversy due to their undoubtedly racist roots. Jenkins said:

“Republicans are struggling right now to find the great white hope. I suggest to any of you who are concerned about that, who are Republican, there are some great young Republican minds in Washington.”

For those who are unaware of the history regarding the phrase “great white hope,” it was coined around 1910 in reference to a racially charged boxing controversy. Jack Johnson, who was black, defeated Canadian world champion Tommy Burns, sparking a race based controversy:

After Johnson’s victory over Burns, racial animosity among whites ran so deep that even a socialist like Jack London called out for a “Great White Hope” to take the title away from Johnson — who was crudely caricatured as a subhuman “ape” — and return it to where it supposedly belonged, with the “superior” white race.

Jenkins is claiming ignorance as to the history of the offensive phrasing. Spokeswoman Mary Geiger explained Jenkins’ innocent intent:

“There may be some misunderstanding there when she talked about the great white hope. What she meant by it is they have a bright future. They’re bright lights within the party.”

While I’m willing to bet Rep. Jenkins wasn’t fully aware of the implications of her comment, it seems like an insensitive choice of words at best. Considering that we all know our president is black and hopey, and the comment was clearly a thinly veiled dig at the POTUS, what could Jenkins have innocently meant by such a statement?

[Source: Topeka Capital-Journal]

A Black Day for the English Language as U.K. Officially Bans common Phrases

Paul Short — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 20:31:20 +0000

Dozens of public organizations in the U.K. have imposed bans on common words and phrases used by their workers and in their correspondence in an effort to be more politically correct.

Rather than write a scathing opinion piece on how appallingly stupid we think it is to ban such phrases, and how overly sensitive governments and people have become, we’ll just list a few of those banned phrases with the reasoning behind why they were banned and let you decide for yourselves.

Whiter than white – A phrase used to describe someone who would never do something bad, has been banned because it is believed to be racial and infer that black is bad or criminal.

Black Day – Used to describe a time of disappointment or shame in a situation, has been dropped from publically funded agency language because it is believed to have racial undertones.

Ethnic Minority – Because in that context the word minority implies that ethnicity may be looked upon as small, unimportand or insignificant.

Gentleman’s Agreement – Because it can be construed as sexist and exclusive of women.

Black sheep of the family – Since it implies an outcast or an unappreciated person, and uses the word black in a negative way.

And here’s my all time favourite…

Master Bedroom – Because it implies subservience of women and dominance of males in relationships!

You be the judge, dear readers.

The article with more information is at the Times Online site here.

The word “Cracker,” or the term “Typical Male,” do not seem to be on the list, despite their obvious stereotypical meanings.

Young Republicans vice chairperson caught LOLing at racism

Kim LaCapria — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:11:53 +0000

Today’s tale of people who don’t really get how the internet works comes to us from Audra Shay, vice chairman of the Young Republicans.

Shay, 38, (which doesn’t seem that young, amirite?) is slowly coming under fire for what was seemingly a lighthearted, giggly reaction supporting racist comments made on her Facebook page by an illiterate Facebook friend. I wonder what her Indian buddy Bobby Jindal thinks of that?

In the discussion of a status update wherein Shay referred to how “WalMart just signed a death warrant in (her) eyes” as they’re “endorsing Obama’s healthcare plan,” the comments start out predictably. Here, I’ll paraphrase: OMG socialism communism everybody panic, yall!- but it doesn’t take too long for the discussion to descend into outright ignorance. With Shay’s approval.

Shay’s friend Eric S Pike (or Piker) pipes in with these two well-reasoned bon mots. I shall leave the spelling, grammatical and ideological errors intact:

“It’s the government making us commies… can’t even smoke in my damn car… whats next they going to issue toilet paper once a month… tell us how to wipe our asses…”

“Obama Bin Lauden is the new terrorist… Muslim is on there side… need to take this country back from all of these mad coons… and illegals.”

Shay responds:

“You tell em Eric! lol.”

According to The Daily Beast, Shay is backpedalling fast now, claiming that she was only responding to comment one- despite the fact that eight minutes elapsed between her pal Eric’s two insights. And indeed, other Young Republicans immediately responded expressing their outrage at the idiocy ignorance existing in their party today.

Cassie Wallender, a national committeewoman from the Washington Young Republican Federation, then wrote: “Someone please help a naïve Seattle girl out, is Eric’s comment a racist slur?” She answered her own question one minute later: “Okay, why is this okay? I just looked it up. ‘It comes from a term baracoons (a cage) where they used to place Africans who were waiting to be sent to America to be slaves.’ THIS IS NOT OKAY AND IT’S NOT FUNNY.”

This was followed soon after by the chairman of the D.C. Young Republicans, Sean L. Conner, who wrote “I’m really saddened that you would support this type of racial language. ..wow! Thanks Cassie for standing up…”

Naturally, some called for de-friending went down next. Oh wait- she de-friended the critics of the comment. Way to not be racist, Audra. And, if her description of events is not a big fat lie, then why would she defriend the people who gently pointed out calling black people “coons” was “not okay” and not the dude who started the whole thing? Because, homeboy had to be around to wrap it all up with incoherent, vague and violent threats against any and all black people in possession of asses at sundown in the South.

“I agree with dale… this is still America… freedom of speech and thought is still allowed… for now any ways… and the last time i checked I was a good ole southern boy… and if yur ass is black don’t let the sun set on it in a southern town…”

Shay eventually issued a half-assed apology that was more a whiny rant about internet bullying she believes is directed at her. Shay states:

“It is a disgrace that these types of political attacks are taking place and once again, it proves that my opponents will stoop to the lowest levels to steal this election from the jaws of victory.”

Well, Audra, maybe not everything’s about you, honey. Could it be some of your fellow party members are horrified that friends of yours still hold and voice such ugly thoughts in this day and age? Let us not forget, this isn’t the first embarrassing nudge-nudge, wink-wink racist scandal to emerge in recent months via the GOP. Or the second, for that matter.

The Young Republicans are slated to convene this weekend at a conference in Indianapolis. It will be interesting to see how this influences Audra Shay’s chances to become the new vice chair of the group. Overall, it seems that Republicans in general need to decide if they’re going to keep condoning this type of commentary on the down low- remember, in the “Historical Keepsake Photo” debacle, Sherri Goforth didn’t apologize for sending that racist e-mail- just for sending it to “the wrong list.”

[Source: The Daily Beast via Gawker]

MySpace now a “digital ghetto”

Kim LaCapria — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:05:14 +0000

Abandon your MySpace account for Facebook? You might just be a racist.

At a keynote speech during New York’s Democracy forum at Lincoln Center, Danah Boyd spoke of the racial disparity and possible reasons for mass abandonment of MySpace for the “more cultured” and “less cheesy” social networking site Facebook. Boyd, a social media researcher for Microsoft and fellow of the Harvard University Berkman Center for Internet and Society, stated:

“We might as well face an uncomfortable reality … what happened was modern day ‘white flight’.”

Boyd also observed that:

“The fact that digital migration is revealing the same social patterns as urban white flight should send warning signals to all of us. It should scare the hell out of us.”

Referring to MySpace as the “ghetto of the digital landscape,” Boyd indicated that MySpace users are more likely to be “brown or black” and espouse a different set of ideals in conflict with those espoused by the teens she surveyed over four years. She said that patterns in migration across social networking sites echoed those of a white exodus from cities in the past. Boyd also said that teens who use Facebook are more likely to condescend their MySpace-favoring peers.

“Any high school student who has a Facebook page will tell you MySpace users are more likely to be barely educated and obnoxious… like Peet’s is more cultured than Starbucks and jazz is more cultured than bubblegum pop. And Macs are more cultured than PCs.”

Teens aren’t even the worst culprits when it comes to socio-economic social media judgment passing. The New York Observer cites a quote from Michael Wolff in an interview with BusinessWeek’s Jon Fine in December 2008:

“If you’re on MySpace now, you’re a [expletive] cretin. And you’re not only a [expletive] cretin, but you’re poor. Nobody who has beyond an 8th grade level of education is on MySpace. It is for backwards people.”

Boyd’s research indicated that the class divisions were likely to only worsen over time, as the media continues to portay MySpace as a seedy stomping ground for pedophiles and Facebook as a “utopian savior.” She contends:

“There’s a cultural wall between users. If there’s no way for people to communicate across the divide, you can never expect them to do so.”

[Image: Flickr]

Child pushed and called n* lover by other child

Steven Hodson — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:36:01 +0000

This is just too damn sad to be happening in this day and age especially coming from children. Where the hell is the parenting in this. I’m doing a straight cut and paste from Rob Fahrni blog. Rob is the father of the little girl that was accosted by another child today

My daughter just came home from school with a massive headache, she gets them on occasion. On the ride home she tells my wife “We had a mock vote and a kid behind me saw I voted Obama. Then when we were on the way to the bus the kid pushed me and called me ‘N* Lover’.” You know what N* means, and it’s not nice.

I just got off the phone with the Principal and he said this has been happening a lot over the past week. He assured me the situation will be dealt with.

You don’t have to like Obama, you don’t have to support the man, but for heavens sake, don’t get violent over someone else supporting him. In this country we’re allowed to make a choice but that sort of behavior is simply Un-American. Men, and women, have given their lives unselfishly to afford us this wonderful honor. Don’t disgrace their memories with violence against one of your own.