Rhode Island: obviously racist because of old colonial history.

[LMNO]

[Sir Squid Diddimus]

An Asian lady at a shoe shop racially stereotyped me by telling me "no big size" when I held up a shoe and asked how much.

That really hurt my feelings cause those shoes were fucking BAD ASS.

betch.

[Iason Ouabache]

Illinois has a Polish American Heritage Month. 

[Suu]

My friend called me a Wop, so I retaliated and called him a Gee. Then he punched me. 

[Honey]

(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 = 

There seems to be something Freudian about the geographically smallest state insisting on the longest ass name.

This, however, is a horse of a different color:
"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."

White Lies:  A leading Civil War historian debunks many of the myths of the old South being circulated by neo-Confederate ideologues  Summer 2000

...  There is a strange paradox here. These people deride what they call political correctness, and yet one of their first missions is to whitewash the Confederacy of any connection with slavery. They actually seem sensitive to any possibility that the Confederacy is linked with race, and want to absolve the Confederacy of any charges of racism at all. ...

The Confederates of 1861-65 were much more honest about the importance of slavery than are the neo-Confederates of today. ...

White Southerners had no problem using the federal government's powers when it came to protecting and promoting the interests of slavery. They only invoked states' rights rhetoric in trying to restrict federal power against slavery. ...

Racism against African-Americans was a national problem, not a regional problem. The white South could never have gotten away with as much as it did in terms of white supremacy had there not been a large number of white Northerners who supported racist policies. ...

But again, the war is fought not over racial equality — at least among American whites — but over slavery, the political advantages that white Southerners had because of slavery. The war is about slavery and its political and economic impact on American society, not just Southern society. ...

In fact, most mainstream academics embrace the idea that racism was an American problem, and that Union soldiers went to war in 1861 primarily to save the Union, not to destroy slavery. In other words, the historical stereotype that the neo-Confederates war against basically doesn't exist. ...

In the case of Forrest, neo-Confederates virtually never mention the fact that after the war, he became the first imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. The LOS, in fact, recently helped to erect a statue of Forrest, who is seen as a great hero. ...

This is an active attempt to reshape historical memory, an effort by white Southerners to find historical justifications for present-day actions. The neo-Confederate movement's ideologues have grasped that if they control how people remember the past, they'll control how people approach the present and the future.

Ultimately, this is a very conscious war for memory and heritage. It's a quest for legitimacy, the eternal quest for justification. 

http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?pid=463
http://civilwarcauses.org/  (not sure about this one but it's just gotta be better than neo-Confederate ideology)

C'mon get over it already, The South is NOT gonna do it again. 

Oh & that reminds me,  "What is the longest ass river in Africa?" 




DUH Nile.

[Adios]

I'm not even going there.

[hooplala]

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

We do?

[East Coast Hustle]

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

I know this is totally off-topic, but I have been wondering for YEARS what "IUPUI" stands for.

[Suu]

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

I know this is totally off-topic, but I have been wondering for YEARS what "IUPUI" stands for.

I believe its Indiana University-Purdue University of Indianapolis

[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

We do?

http://www.iexplore.com/dmap/British+Columbia/Event/17032 Sorry, looks like it's only a Vancouver thing.

[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

I know this is totally off-topic, but I have been wondering for YEARS what "IUPUI" stands for.

I believe its Indiana University-Purdue University of Indianapolis

Yep.  IU and Purdue share a campus here in Indy. IU has their medical, law, art and dentistry schools here. Purdue just has an extension office.

[Honey]

I now propose - Every day is Sour Grapes Day!   

Or 15 minutes of fame day?  (thanks Andy, I just knew that would come in handy one day)   

You too can have your 15 minutes of fame every friggin' day!  sheeeeesh.

[Honey]

 

You gotta be kidding me?  Thanks for clarifying your position, I just never in a million years would've guessed.  Good Point! 

How unusual. 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

My great-great-great grandparents were wealthy plantation owners in North Carolina, and they were black.

[Honey]

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.

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

My great-great-great grandparents were wealthy plantation owners in North Carolina, and they were black.

Thanks for your response Nigel. 

Perhaps I didn't make myself clear? 

The thing that really tickled my fancy & set off my bullshit detector was this notion:

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.

What, pray tell, is this more accurate version of history?  Is it a secret? 

Or is it a cheap new whine distilled from sour grapes? 

I find it rather interesting that no one questions this "more accurate history".  I am curious & I would like to know just what that means.  Maybe it is meant to be a mystery for only the enlightened ones?

Apparently I am not one of them.

"Inquiry thereby becomes a political act."