Talking about race with white people

@Mr Maqoo (and anyone else interested) The subject about the concept of zero is very complex and mind boggling for me. So this is the way I look at it. In order to fully understand something you must use it in a practical manner or. Since the Mayans actually applied their mathematics to good use, they devised an ingenious calendar. For me since it's not clear how Indian mathematicians used the concept of zero for practical purposes, I do not believe that they fully understand the concept of zero. Either way, the European Roman numeral system was scraped long time ago And just as another side note, the Gregorian calendar didn't take shape until almost 100 yrs after the start of the colonization of the new word. This supports theories of plagiarism.

Thanks for finding that Smith. There's still no longer video but CBC indicates Mrs Wabano-Iahtail became upset about the reporter seeminging suggesting the prime minister is not directly responsible for a youths death in Northern Ontario. She is saying you can't speak to us like that. Does she mean the reporter can't suggest the prime minister is not directly guilty of the youths death? 

One of Trudeaus platforms was indigenous people and the issues surrounding them. Would you say asking for a comparason to Harper would be a fair question to put forward?  If the reporter was being a Trudeau fangirl I can see how that would have upset the people on stage.

Paladin1 wrote:

http://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/video?clipId=1157283&playlistId=1.3481577&b...

 

Awkward exchange at a press conference. I watched this and I couldn't tell if the white woman was being disrespectful to the FN women or not.  Personally it seems like the FN women are ramping themselves up on purpose and looking for a fight. Am I incorrect in my observation?

Yes you are totally off the wall with that suggestion. That asshole reporter asked a question and when the Elder was answering she didn't like the answer so she shouted, "how is that his fault?"  It was followed by a leading question designed to get the answer that in some small way Trudeau was better than Harper. Sort of like asking a slave whether his new Master is "better" because he beats his slaves less often than the last Master. After all he can't be "faulted" for the system can he?

This was a press converence dealing with what is seen as systemic multi-generational genocide by the people who are enduring it. Instead of talking about that the state media's reporter wanted to compare relative merits of PM's and in a snarky tone implied Trudeau was above reproach.

A perfect example of how hard it is for Indigenous people to get their message out in the face of unrelenting colonialism.  

City of Saskatoon bus ad:

@kropotkin 1951 Looks like all that other stuff I was posting about colonialism has come back full circle and is relevant hey? White corporate liberal media reporter tries to use the desperate hopelessness of a people's to promote their corporate masters. Lot of feelings to express after seeing that clip. But not surprise. 500 and some extra years and basically little to no change. Perhaps communist revolution would work some wonders! What's the worst that can happen?

WWWTT wrote:

Perhaps communist revolution would work some wonders! What's the worst that can happen?

Now if I was a bad boy I would post this one over at the hall of fame.

I don't know. I wouldn't call inviting people to consider that they have racist attitudes a vague exercise at all.

I've found the reaction tends to be anything but.

6079_Smith_W wrote:

I don't know. I wouldn't call inviting people to consider that they have racist attitudes a vague exercise at all.

I've found the reaction tends to be anything but.

Well, "That's a load of crap, I'm not racist at all" certainly isn't a vague reaction. I'm not sure it's a really constructive one to be eliciting, though. 

But if you've heard people say stuff like "You know, that's right, I do get a lot of privilege because of my skin colour", I will sincerely take your word on that. My own best prediction, though, would be that such a campaign works best when it includes concrete examples of white privilege. 

@ VOTD

I do get what you are saying. On the other hand, it is a bus ad, not an editorial. And honestly I think anyone who needs to be taken by the hand and walked through it might not want to see it, especially in a place like this with a legacy of someone being driven out of town by the cops and left to freeze to death.

And someone else being killed last fall, and the response being a newspaper article all about farmers afraid of having to deal with thieves.

Besides, there's a website link on that ad for those who honestly do need to be told:

https://www.saskatoon.ca/community-culture-heritage/cultural-diversity/a...

Recognizing that systemic discrimination has an effect on all of us might seem vague, until you get that it is in itself a very important realization.

Mr. Magoo wrote:

Who's that guy???

If he's responsible for racism, let's go kick his ass.

We should charge him with racisim and let the human-rights tribunal come up with a punishment.

6079_Smith_W wrote:

WWWTT wrote:

Perhaps communist revolution would work some wonders! What's the worst that can happen?

Now if I was a bad boy I would post this one over at the hall of fame.

(digression follows below)

The purge trials, the Pact, the Gulag and the Cultural Revolution.

That's what can happen(and probably will happen) in a "large-C" Communist revolution.  Anytime you have a rigid conspiratorial-vanguardist model that obsesses on silencing all dissent, that not only can happen but probably will.  Those methods are never needed, but there is no way of stopping them under a large-C Communist state in which the party can never be held accountable and the state never "withers away".

A "small-c" communist revolution(of the sort that Rosa Luxemburg called for, of the sort the Port Huron Statement suggested, of the sort the Krondstadt rebels fought and died to defend, of the sort the students and workers in France were on the verge of achieving before the PCF betrayed them and saved DeGaulle, of the sort that Allende and Popular Unity lived and died for in Chile, ot the sort the people and the army achieved together in Portugal, of the sort the Sandinistas were in the process of achieving when the U.S. backed terrorist armies and the economic blockade forced the Nicaraguan people to choose between voting to lose their dignity or voting to die-would most likely not have anything close to that happen.

Indspire on Global tonight has been on point!!!

too bad more weren't watching it.

Reaction to that billboard:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/city-advocates-defend-anti-racis...

Quote:

One particular billboard shows a photo of a man who appears to be white

Welcome to 2017.  He "appears to be white".  LOL!  Someone, take a moment and ask him what he identifies as!  How do we know he's not Polynesian?

But why did they just assume "their" gender like that???  Get your shit together, CBC!

I think it is just good reporting. Lots of people appear to be white who are not.

The more important point is that everyone who did get jumpy about it did so on the assumption that he was white. For that reason too it makes good sense to point  that out.

Like I said, all the negative reactions I read came down to people thinking it was an unfair slur against white people.  Given that, it makes good sense to point out what might seem obvious.

Speaking of obvious, that one didn't even cross my mind. Like I said, what seemed more obvious to me is wondering why people were even questioning it in a province where an article about an Indigenous boy being shot dead winds up being all about about white people beign afraid of having their houses broken into.

Then again, that kind of explains the backlash and the distraction perfectly.

Could be Metis, Magoo, or a number of other things. That is why CBC was right to say "appeared to be". I mean I know you aren't being serious, but are you serious?

Because the editor of the article didn't know  for sure, and it was a significant part of the story. Hence the qualifier.

You can bet if they hadn't some  pedant would be taking us off on this tangent and arguing the case from the other side. At least this way they have correctly covered the bases. Can't argue with that.

Though I am sure some will try. Because it is what is really important about this campaign.

You might disagree, but it actually was important for them to phrase it the way they did. I explained why.

Media shouldn't identify him as white unless it has been verified.  But it doesn't matter whether he is, or identifies as something else, because the significant part of the story is that he appeared to be white; that is what people based their objection on. And it was relevant to the story for CBC to say so.

Except the story is about the city defending the ad against people assuming it is directed against white people. There are no comments on the story itself, but there are plenty on CBC Sask's Facebook page.

Why do some think that? Because the ad contains someone who appears to be a white person. The quotes in the story refer to white privilege and white racism. That is the story, and that is why they point it out explicitly, rather than just leaving us to guess at what the city is defending itself from.

Sorry, but it is a news story. And the idea is to explain what is going on.

Quote:

I guess this is one of the article about alt-right haircuts?

Here's an article in CBC about the "Proud Boys" -- proud (evidently), young (evidently) and white (not "appears white", but WHITE, evidently) men (evidently) -- who recently disrupted a group of indigenous activists (and it turns out, to everyone's shock, that a few of them chose the military for a career!).

Anyway, funny how two of the three pictured seem to go to the same barber as Macklemore.  Maybe there's something to this cut.

ed'd to add:  I guess the haircut is voluntary.  But check out the rest of this (and visit the original post if this seems absurd):

Quote:

How do you become a Proud Boy?

According to Sommer, who has sifted through Proud Boys social media pages, there are four steps, or "degrees," to becoming a Proud Boy. 

1. Declare yourself a Proud Boy. 
2. Take a beating from other Proud Boys while naming five breakfast cereals. "This seems bizarre, but the theory behind it sort of prepares you to think on your feet and think when your adrenalin is pumping," Sommer said.
3. Get a Proud Boys tattoo.
4. Get into a physical fight with a left-wing protester. 

They also take something of a vow of self-celibacy. 

"You have to subscribe to McInnis's philosophy of  #NoWanks, which means you can only masturbate once a month," Sommer said.

"He belives that too-frequent masturbation or pornography has sort of sapped the will of the modern man."

So... self identify, get beat up, get a tattoo, beat someone up, don't rub one out ("save it for the game").

Think of how hard life must be if you’re such a fucking snowflake that your existence is dependent on perpetual genuflection. That, despite ruling and running everything, you still need both the big piece of chicken and acknowledgement that tonight’s delicious chicken dinner was made possible by your generous Whiteness. That if the world doesn’t get on its knees every 57 seconds to thank you for being so amazingly White and male that you’ll dissolve like cotton candy on a Black-ass tongue.

http://verysmartbrothas.com/boston-globe-publishing-in-defense-of-the-wh...

All those things mentioned are shitty things that we should work to get rid of.

But I'm not convinced that promoting them all to "violence" in the hope that people will take them more seriously is a good idea.

On the one hand, calling "sighing" a form of violence only invites eye rolling -- evidently ANOTHER form of violence.

It also diminishes the word "violence".  When I read that someone was a victim of violence, I don't want to have to wonder "who sighed???"

Rev Pesky wrote:

6079_Smith_W wrote:

City of Saskatoon bus ad:

I have no problem with acknowledging my own racism, but what am I supposed to do about the 'privilege'? If someone treats me with more respect because they see me as 'white' am I suppposed to tell them not to do that? How am I even supposed to know whether my 'whiteness' has affected someone else's attitude towards me?

Start with the litle things like making sure that when that cashier goes to serve you that you point out the indigenous woman they ignored when they turned to you.