Racist slurs

[Biker Biggles]

I feel there is a generation gap here.Young people havent got much memory of how we used to be able to express opinions openly,however contraversial.
Similarly in the workplace everyone found their own level,with the "characters" and leaders emerging and the bosses very much at arms length.Yes there were problems,and there was bullying,but anything is better than the amorphous Stepford wives one size fits all environment of today.
We have an expression for many of our younger people at work.Bland.They are ever so nice,and ever so efficient,but you wouldnt ask their opinion on anything or rely on them to watch your back when the going got iffy,cos they wouldnt understand.And Tim is right.You need dispute,controversy and conflict of ideas to progress,and totalitarian societies have usually failed for the lack of it.We risk going that way.

we are all equalyy worhtless untill we prove otherwise LOL

[Richie]

Originally Posted by neio79

we are all equally worhtless untill we prove otherwise LOL

That reminds me of a book I read at school...
misquoted..
"we are all equally worhtless, but some are more equally worhtless than others."

some book about a farm some where.

Originally Posted by CoolGirl

Boo to those who've just used it to air some rather ignorant - and, frankly, somewhat offensive - opinions.

name and shame

The whole bit of an Indian being banned for a racist remark against an Austrailian makes me laugh in the first place.
Andrew Symonds was called a monkey during a sledging incident playing cricket.
The Austrailians invented sledging and are far worse offenders than anybody else in the insult department.

Originally Posted by Biker Biggles

I doubt if I could work in that kind of environment.Yes we all have to mind our ps and qs and think about what we say but the kind of overbearing management you describe would drive me mad.I know its become like this for legal reasons,but its also given management unheard of power over their employees,which they seem to relish.I find it all very Orwellian and being old enough to remember the bad old days when there was freedom of speech I know what I prefere.And its not the shutdown compliant society we have today.

Originally Posted by timwilky

+1 BB.

The Nazis, Stalin etc. were everything we abhor. They too told their people what and how to think. Yet in modern Britain there appears to be an element of government (National, local, quangos, etc.) who think that they must impose their political thinking on others.

I guess you can still think what you like at the end of the day, it's just that the vocalisation of racist, etc sentiments aren't welcome in my workplace. And it may suprise you to know that it doesn't actually feel like an oppressive regime - most people buy into the concept and culture, at least to a fair extent.

You could call it brainwashing, or you could call it recognising that the composition of 'British' society has changed and that certain ways of thinking/behaving aren't really compatible with that.

Originally Posted by 21QUEST

Spidey, I have to disagree(mostly) with your post.

Why should they feel right to be offended?

Now, I don't know the reason for Ol Boc posting(and I haven't read anything about said incident) but it does seem like, quite a few people(of all races etc), are now so sensitive, it's almost becoming a joke.

I'm sure , someone , somewhere has probably thought of me, as being too sensitive haha



Ben

Yeah hows the shandy drinking going Ben

Originally Posted by Fizzy Fish

Also, worth noting that few people intend to be racist and offend someone else, but a huge amount of stuff is said that unintentionally puts the same kind of message across. Hence the fact that there's a perception that it isn't actually that common an occurance.

As I mentioned earlier in this thread, I'm of Maltese descent. Throughout school, no matter where in the world we lived, my sisters I were subjected to racist bullying from other schoolkids. Most of it was motivated purely by the darker colour of our skin as most of the postings our soldier dad got were in hot places like Cyprus and Singapore. Whenever we were back in the UK we really got it bad because we went to normal schools, not Army ones.

Looking back on it now, it wasn't the kid's fault, they were just echoing what they saw and heard at home, and despite our parents being foreign, we were brought up pretty much the same. We were told that Asian people were lazy, Black people were thieves, Chinese people would kill you and not think twice about it and that Arabs were dirty and would buy and sell English children. All of it we later found out was complete and utter rubbish, but that's what we were brainwashed with as kids, and to an extent some of it stuck. As our tans wore off when we moved back to the UK the taunting stopped, but living in a small predominantly white Bedfordshire village it was difficult to lose the stereotyped image we held of other races. It was many years before I met and became friends with Asian, Black and Chinese people and to then make my own judgements on people as individuals and not judge them by the colour of their skin. We never meant to be racists ourselves as kids, we were brought up to be that way.

My dad freaked when he found out my sister was seeing a West Indian guy, and he threatened to never talk to me again when he discovered I was seeing a black girl when I was in my late twenties. It took him a year after my sister split with her ex before dad would let her into their house, she was with him for 6 years. That's sad.

I feel sorry for today's racists in some ways, it just shows to me that they have lived very blinkered and sheltered lives, without experiencing some of the wonders that there are to be seen in other cultures. The older generation have an excuse of sorts, most of them were brought up to believe that anyone from a different country was a potential slave. Today's racists have no excuse at all.

That said....I still don't like gin-gers cos they smell of cabbage...or so I'm told

I have never really understood what monkeys have to do with black people and why calling a black person a monkey is deemed offensive? Can anyone shed any light on the link? I was always getting called a monkey of somesorts by my dad (as several other people have pointed out) and it never really bothered me...

Originally Posted by tactcom7

I have never really understood what monkeys have to do with black people and why calling a black person a monkey is deemed offensive? Can anyone shed any light on the link? I was always getting called a monkey of somesorts by my dad (as several other people have pointed out) and it never really bothered me...

This takes a little intellectual rigour and some judgement to work out.

I can't believe that no-one's yet made reference to the racism experienced by some black footballers, where they have been showered with insults, bananas and had mionkey noises made at them.

But then when my (black) son's making good progress up the climbing wall, I call him 'monkey boy'.

What's he difference? One is a term of endearment and praise, saying "you're doing a skilled thing that monkeys are particulalry good at and humans generally aren't". The other is an ignorant racist insult based on the lowest common denominator and trying to associate the individual with what is perceived as an inferior species and whihc happens to be the same colour as them.

Go figure.