General discussion about world racism

[David]

[roar]

My kids were raised on Warner Brothers cartoons (as was I) so I'm not sure where that puts me.

[David]

I guess so long as they saw this first, it's all okay.

[David]

In all seriousness, I think there's a lot to be said for parents taking a proactive exposure role with this stuff (i.e. using older texts as an opportunity for discussion and critical thinking rather than trying to protect them from them). It was through reading Ingmar The Famous Five, for instance, that we had an opportunity to discuss why it is that George hates being a girl and what it meant back then to be a girl as opposed to a boy (in terms of what clothes you could wear, what games you could play and a lot of the things you could do). Likewise, sometimes Blyton books have a bit of a mean streak and, rather than skipping over bits where characters get their "comeuppance", it's an opportunity to read and discuss whether what happened to them was really fair. Obviously one can only take this so far and there does come a time where entertainment might be reinforcing stereotypes rather than helping to question them and think about them critically, but I think we need to give children a bit of credit for intelligence, and space to work these things out on their own.

[5 from the wing on debut]

I didn't believe in sheltering my boys from history when they were growing up but it would have been pointless in the internet age anyway. They could find whatever they wanted to. When my youngest, who is doing VCE this year, was in grade 5 at a local primary school we received a call from the school to say that he had accessed lesbian porn in the classroom. He did it on someone else's computer so it would be playing on their computer when they returned to their desk, but he was seen doing it by someone else. They supposedly had software that should have prevented that. At the same time my eldest son was in year 7 at a private school and I wanted to show him a basketball clip on a website. He tried to access it but the school's software blocked that site on his school issued laptop. I said I will show you on my iPad but he said don't worry, and in a few seconds he had bypassed the school's software. He told me that everyone knew how to do that.

It makes no sense censoring history. far better to be in the open and to talk about it.

[Woods Of Ypres]

re blackface, I remember Steve Vizard used to imitate Indian people and do the head bobble etc. Not exactly blackface but there is no way it would fly these days. Anyway I went looking for it on YouTube and came across something else

https://youtu.be/Ls75U0FyWGE

check around the 11 min mark. my jaw hit the floor.

[roar]

Just watching "The Face of Fu Man Chu" with Christopher Lee playing the lead role, and I must admit feeling a little sad that this isn't allowed anymore.

[5 from the wing on debut]

I liked Peter Sellers in The Party. Birdy num nums.

I suppose that he couldn’t play Inspector Clouseau (probably incorrect spelling there) now,if he were still alive, as he is culturally appropriating the French.

The Craw and Harry Hoo from Get Smart are probably on thin ice too, as are Siegfried and Stager.

[David]

^ I think making fun of Europeans is still fair game, and, in fact, mandatory.

[think positive]

[David]

I was joking, but yeah, I basically agree with you – of course kindness and consideration should be universal. It is important to acknowledge though that some targets are far more harmful than others, because they play into an existing context of disadvantage and exclusion. I think it’s fair to say that no Australians were harmed as a result of "Bart vs. Australia", but most of us understand why what Leon Davis’s teammates did to him (see GD thread) was wrong.

[5 from the wing on debut]

I thought that it was quite clear that David was joking.

It seems to me that it depends upon the nature of the relationship. One of my best mates is a Kiwi. Over the years he has copped more varieties of sheep and related jokes than I have had hot dinners. Whilst it is racist, he really doesn’t care. He’s one of the group and he generally gives better than he gets.

Because Europeans and European descended people haven’t been oppressed as much as some other groups, they aren’t as sensitive and they are confident in themselves. The English were invaded in 1066 by William and his Normans, who were themselves Viking descendants from France, but they’ve let it go! I’ve been called a white cnut a few times and it hasn’t concerned me at all.

I see the inter European descendant racism issue being similar to the relationship between my two sons when they were younger. Eighteen months age difference, big brother gave little brother a very hard time, physically and mentally. He treated it as his duty. But, if anyone else picked on little brother, big brother was by his side in no time and the perpetrator then had a problem. That’s the way that I see the relationship between countries such as USA, Canada, NZ, Australia and GB. If we are talking about the Balkans though, ignore everything that I have just said.

[stui magpie]

[ronrat]

I live in a city where there a about 80000 expats. From UK, Australia, USA,, europeans etc.

A bloke called OB which is short for OBrien is from Dublin and takes the piss out of just about everyone. Usually about their nationality. There is an expat store near us that sell stuff like baked beans, smallgoods, pies, etc . OB was down there a few weeks ago with a English neighbour and in the freezer were a variety of snags, English. aussie beef, cumberland etc.

OB spies some Irish sausages and turns to the pommy and says Derek, why do they call them Irish. Derek says "Because they are thick".

OB stormed out and hasn't spoken to his neighbour for weeks and can't comprehend that he was actually the victim of his own crimes. He is garnering zero sympathy.

[think positive]