Uncomfortable topics: Let's talk about race

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Mulatto doesn't sound racist to me. Sounds like a coffee or dessert

It does sound delicious! And an Octoroon sounds like a crunchy cookie.

I would punch a fucking girl scout for another one of them bitches...oh wait, that's a Samoa...oh wait, no it's not. They renamed the Samoas to "Caramel Delights" because they sounded racist.

Ho hum.



Even more fucked up: "colored folk" being racist against other same-colored folk:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrimination_based_on_skin_color#Brown_paper_bag_test

Just like the skirt test in the 60s where they would make us bitches kneel on the floor n shit to make sure our skirts touched the floor! Except more demeaning!  !!!

It is fucked up. And, weirdly, I've experienced it plenty. In addition, there's this complicating factor, which is that my school is over 50% black, AND AND AND... the other light-skinned black girls seek me out, because there's this kinship recognition thing going on, AND

it's actually oddly comforting to be surrounded by people who are a similar racial blend as me.

And then I find myself wondering if that's racist.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I hear white kids around here describing their friends as "redbones" and "yellowbones". They don't seem to mean it in a racist way, but isn't that kind of fucked up?

It's one of those things that might or might not be. Like, recognizing and verbalizing a fucked-up something that already exists in society and turning it into a "claiming" can be empowering rather than denigrating (ie. the queer community reclaiming "queer) or it can be a perpetuation.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

That's funny, cause I was forced to buy Caramel dLites here in 'Bama...maybe cuzza all them NeoCons around here, protectin my free speech n shit.

http://www.chacha.com/question/why-did-girl-scout-cookies-rename-samoas-to-caramel-delight

I can see both sides, really. On one hand, it's hard to argue that the box of cookies is actually denigrating to Samoans, because it seems like such an innocuous thing. I mean, calling a type of cookies "Jews" would be pretty odd, but what if they were called "Israels" because of a coincidence of ingredients with something traditionally associated with Israel?

However, when people complain and say "we find this denigrating", the thing to remember is that they may have historical reasons to find it denigrating that you and I completely lack the context to even have any idea about. A really great example of this is the Australian KFC ad with Australian black people enjoying the shit out of fried chicken, and spreading goodwill at a football game by sharing it. In Australia, to Australians, the message was simply "This wonderful recipe of fried chicken is so delicious that everyone will lay down their territorial differences and feast in brotherhood". But in the U.S., there is a specific and deeply reinforced racial mockery associated with black people eating fried chicken that is so intense that the commercial appeared profoundly racist here, and generated intense outrage, even though everyone else in the entire world was all "WTF? How is that racist? We don't get it."

So, my takeaway message is basically that you don't know what you don't know, and I may never actually understand why calling a delicious cookie "Samoas" is offensive to Samoans, but they say it is, and since I have other things to do besides research their cultural heritage (interesting as it may be) I will just assume that they have good reasons for it and leave it at that.

[East Coast Hustle]

They should have renamed them "Tongas" and watched the Samoans REALLY lose their shit.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

They should have renamed them "Tongas" and watched the Samoans REALLY lose their shit.

OSHIT

[Don Coyote]

I think I'll ask some Samoans I know about this.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I think I'll ask some Samoans I know about this.

DO IT

[AnnaMaeBollocks]

I hear white kids around here describing their friends as "redbones" and "yellowbones". They don't seem to mean it in a racist way, but isn't that kind of fucked up?

It's one of those things that might or might not be. Like, recognizing and verbalizing a fucked-up something that already exists in society and turning it into a "claiming" can be empowering rather than denigrating (ie. the queer community reclaiming "queer) or it can be a perpetuation.

Every time I've heard it, it's been complimentary, like "He's fine, kinda tall, he's  yellowbone..."
It just seems kind of dicey hearing white kids do it, maybe everybody is alright with it here but it might not go over so well in another region.

[East Coast Hustle]

I'd never heard the term "redbone" until I started hanging out in VA but everyone here uses it and it doesn't seem to have any negative connotations or racial baggage attached to it.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I hear white kids around here describing their friends as "redbones" and "yellowbones". They don't seem to mean it in a racist way, but isn't that kind of fucked up?

It's one of those things that might or might not be. Like, recognizing and verbalizing a fucked-up something that already exists in society and turning it into a "claiming" can be empowering rather than denigrating (ie. the queer community reclaiming "queer) or it can be a perpetuation.

Every time I've heard it, it's been complimentary, like "He's fine, kinda tall, he's  yellowbone..."
It just seems kind of dicey hearing white kids do it, maybe everybody is alright with it here but it might not go over so well in another region.

I've never heard those terms before in my life, to tell the truth. I don't know what to make of them at all.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

I hear white kids around here describing their friends as "redbones" and "yellowbones". They don't seem to mean it in a racist way, but isn't that kind of fucked up?

It's one of those things that might or might not be. Like, recognizing and verbalizing a fucked-up something that already exists in society and turning it into a "claiming" can be empowering rather than denigrating (ie. the queer community reclaiming "queer) or it can be a perpetuation.

Every time I've heard it, it's been complimentary, like "He's fine, kinda tall, he's  yellowbone..."
It just seems kind of dicey hearing white kids do it, maybe everybody is alright with it here but it might not go over so well in another region.

I've never heard those terms before in my life, to tell the truth. I don't know what to make of them at all.

Same here... redbone and yellowbone... I have no idea what the heck it would even begin to mean.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I looked them up, and they're Southern terms that basically mean the same thing as high yellow, usually applied to females, with connotations of sexual attractiveness.

I find that uncomfortable on several levels, personally.

[Doktor Howl]

I looked them up, and they're Southern terms that basically mean the same thing as high yellow, usually applied to females, with connotations of sexual attractiveness.

I find that uncomfortable on several levels, personally.

Well, yeah.  It kind of makes you an object - or a flavor - to that sort of person.

[Don Coyote]

I've only heard the term redbone used once, to describe a black woman, by a few black friends of mine. To be honest I don't even recall what the woman looked like. I think she might have had reddish hair.
A quick search later and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redbone_%28ethnicity%29

It had various meanings according to locality, most implying race mixture or miscegenation[1]. The racial mix is usually referred to as Tri-racial and may be any combination of the following: Native American, European Caucasian (i.e. English, French, Irish, Welsh, Portuguese, Spanish), Asians, or Moor, Turk, and any of the various African sub-groups[2].

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I looked them up, and they're Southern terms that basically mean the same thing as high yellow, usually applied to females, with connotations of sexual attractiveness.

I find that uncomfortable on several levels, personally.

Well, yeah.  It kind of makes you an object - or a flavor - to that sort of person.

Yeah, that's what bothers me.