Rhode Island: obviously racist because of old colonial history.

[Suu]

(I just saw this, even though it's 2 months old...)

http://www.abc6.com/news/rhodeisland/41164627.html

When you hear the word "plantations," what comes to mind? For some people, it's a word that brings up a whole lot of bad memories in Rhode Island's history, and one of the reasons many want the words "Providence Plantations" removed from the states official name.

All this is showing is the ignorance of people in this state and country.

"I'm black and I don't want it to be called a Plantation cause of slaves and stuff."

Providence Plantations was the original name of the mainland colony, and Rhode Island was a different colony, now where Newport/Middletown/Portsmouth is. Fuck, I'm not even a native of this state and I know this. Maybe if people were taught more accurate history instead of the typical American "Slavery and plantations are the really real cause of the Civil War" bullshit, people would have a different opinion.

Seriously, we have an unemployment rate of 11%, and our government is bankrupt, so let's spend money changing the NAME instead of doing something to help our failing State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

And people wonder why I want to get the fuck out of here. Rhody = 

[LMNO]

This same mentality is what got some dude in Washington fired for using the word "niggardly".

http://www.adversity.net/special/niggardly.htm

[Suu]

Plantation is just a word, much like the swastika is just a symbol, but in the end, it's only the negative connotations that stick in the mind.

Maybe it's not so much as education anymore, because any teacher could talk ad nauseam about the history of something. It's how most people actually THINK and absorb information is what needs to be changed.

[Richter]

The word "Plantation" represents the subjugation and exploitation of our photosynthesizing breatheren.  It should never be used for it's connotation of the days when plants were bred in captivity simply to have the leave and seeds harvested and allously consumed while their genetics were tempered with to swell them to obscene proportions before they were led off to the slaughter.

[Suu]

The cries of the carrots?

[LMNO]

[AFK]

Wouldn't "Silence of the Yams" work better? 

[LMNO]

OSNAP.

BRB.

[LMNO]

[Suu]

[Sir Squid Diddimus]

 

[Cramulus]

couldn't resist

[Richter]

 
The moustache NEEDS to wiggle every 15 seconds. 

[Iason Ouabache]

This same mentality is what got some dude in Washington fired for using the word "niggardly".

http://www.adversity.net/special/niggardly.htm

Or why an IUPUI janitor was accused of racial harassment for reading a book called "Notre Dame vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan" while on his break.

http://www.thefire.org/index.php/article/9255.html

[Suu]

We were having a discussion on Black History Month on the way home from New Jersey amidst the incredible traffic in Connecticut, and then questioned why Canada has a Portuguese History Month and we don't, and why there is no French History Month when there SHOULD be considering a good chunk of the US used to be French occupied (Canada doesn't have one either, but they have Portuguese?) But if I were to bring this up, say, on a more public scale, I'd be labeled a racist immediately, because I'm white, and I'm obviously speaking out against blacks because they have their own history month.

Don't get me wrong, there's some wicked cool black people in our history that people NEED to know about aside from MLK and Malcolm X, and I'm a strong advocate for history months of anything and history education in general. But why is it Hispanic Heritage Month and not Spanish History Month? Spain as the country definitely played a huge part in the United States as well, why focus on the world "Hispanic" when there's so much to cover aside from the people that originate from the island of Hispaniola and give their name to anyone of Spanish/Portuguese descent in North and South America?

And why is it "Latin" America when they don't speak Latin? Why aren't Italian-Americans or Romanian-Americans considered Latin Americans when their languages are even closer to Lingua Latina than Spanish and Portuguese dialects of the Americans? HUH? HUH?!?!?!?!

And then I brought up the whole hyphenation bullshit...and in the end we decided it's not worth the fuss, because it'll just get me in more trouble than it's worth.  It's a rant to nowhere, and we can't expect others to comprehend our level of thought, because plantations, swastikas, being niggardly, and books about a college fighting racism, are well, racist. Duh.