Is Racism and Bigotry Alive and Well right here on Steemit ? You Bet It is ..... but You Guys Tell me :(
I was a little bit taken back on a Post recently by a highly reputable Steemian with Memes that were racial charged Epithets/Slurs.
Okay , first of all maybe some might not consider it racially charged . But I can tell you where I come from if you're over the age of 30 you know EXACTLY what this stuff means and the Connotations behind it . I wasn't going to do this Post . I was back and forth on it. I am not a "pot stirrer" by any means. Really I'm not !! But I started thinking more and more about it .... and decided to go ahead.
The Story...
Maybe this isn't fair but I have to confess part of the shock of this came from not just the actual memes in question but also the author of the blog post they were on. He's a very well respected Steemian and one of the first people I started Following and learning from. He is smart as a whip and has advanced degrees. And he is highly regarded as a true 'Champion' of Steem.
So What Do You Think..
Here's the Memes in question 
Original Post in Question... https://steemit.com/vietmeme/@aggroed/meme-the-news-2-28-18-not-for-the-faint-of-heart#@robertandrew/
So As Steemains What's our Responsibility....
Of course our platform is decentralized and non-censorible. And I think most of us would agree that this is not only a good thing, but it is something most of us highly embrace, cherish, and value !!
But where do you draw a line ?? And if there is a line drawn what penalties do you enforce ?? Of course downvoting is an option but then you start getting into Flag wars. And it's a real slippery slope when you try to implement some kind of moral standard for Content ( unless it's child porn or snuff films of course).
Personally, I think just voicing your concerns ( and being respectful but firm and unapologetic with your tone) via Comments to the person producing offensive content may be the best option. At least for now. That's my opinion.
Conclusion
Anyway, like I said it was a little disconcerting to see someone who I had really respected might indeed have Racist views. So you ask "Rob, could you be reading into this all wrong and blowing it out of proportion" ?? Uhmm... Maybe (and if by some chance I am totally off the mark I do give a deep, genuine apology, no question)
But listen I know being grown and raised in East Tennessee my whole Life that if you put this crap in front of people where I'm from ...well it's equivalent to saying the N - word ( the first one in particular) . It really is. And that is not exaggerating. I just find it hard to believe this Steemian is that freaking naive !!
What's really sad is many of our Nigerian and African American Steemians do look up to this guy and...well I hope they didn't happen to come upon this Post. Even if he did not make the Memes , he did put it up on his blog and didn't make any reference to it whatsoever to say how wrong it is. He thought it was humorous ( he did this last month ,and I just bit my tongue)
Any thoughts from my fellow Steemians out there concerning this ???
Sincerely,
Robert
P.S. I'm 50 years old. And in the last 30 years I have become more in tune with the plight of different Groups and the systematic inequality and oppression targeted at some of these Groups. And one thing I have learned is as a Society we need to just flat out CALL OUT Racism or implied RACISM when we see it, no matter what. Just CALL IT OUT for what it is. Whether it is subtle or blatant. And whether it is someone with great power or not. I owe it, well we all owe it, to our Children to strive to live a Life where oppressing others who may not look like us or believe like us with harsh rhetoric and harsh action...is flat out unacceptable. It's just toxic to our society in such a pervasive way !! Thnx
I'm not one for highlighting ignorant generalised racism, but I think you are right to bring this up. The first image is taking it too far. and the term it is referring to is indeed very offensive. Seems obvious and it takes a lot of tolerance to say that this was posted without thinking. I'm a white and if someone calls me a honkey or white-boy it doesn't, and shouldn't, offend. Same goes for mild racial slurs made the other way around. Calling a welshman a 'taff' of an Irishman a 'Mick' or a Scotsman a "tight-arse-git", are all harmless observations of customary quirks. Calling a black guy for having a big cock or dancing well is classed as OK to some. The lines are so blurred with liberalism that one extreme is as bad as the other. IMO your damned if you do and your damned if you don't. Sad that people haven't got the bottle to say what they think and hide behind childish memes. I would rather they post something extremely racist and then it would cause argument/debate that would conclude in facts being heard by ignorant ears
Highly re-steemed
The problem is not that you shouldn't get offended by being called white or that you should, the problem is that when a person of privilege hurls that insult it brings with it generational trauma which still has to be healed while obviously suffering the discrimination that comes with that, whereas you being called white couldn't matter less and in fact history is written by white men for white men, the real ridicule comes from someone kicking you in you fabricated history of whiteness, all the way to jesus, nothing more shameful and deluded than making an Arab man into a White man.
Very true words there. And it should be that way because the scourge of the earth have predominantly been "white"(ish). I should be ashamed to be "white". But that is not me. There was a great phrase by a guy talking about the dangers of the EU and he said: "I am a citizen of Earth and a member of the Human-race". Our perception of what we are is all messed up and although we have colloquial differences, we are the same and that could be the normal way of thinking. Only trouble is, we spend all our lives preparing to be against one another. Through sports teams that divide us to the Olympics. I watched £ young lads celebrating the Snow-boarding event this year and there was a young guy from new-Zealand, who had managed to get bronze. When it was announced the gold and silver guys, who were both from the US, celebrated separately from the young guy from New-Zealand. He honestly didn't know where to go and stood there looking awkward. It said a lot a bout society today. Maybe the next olympic's, we just have atheletes representing humans physical abilities as a species and not use it a s a flag-waving social-conditioning program. Fuck, I am cynical...
Some really solid points.
Btw, I get a chuckle when my White counterparts try to argue that white people are so discriminated against and called crackers,honkys etc..etc.. the only problem is that a white person has not been physically, mentally, and spiritually " oppressed" in a historical context like other groups have in this World. So their claim of discrimination ( my white counterparts) is very, very weak. I just sit and laugh at them and tell them sarcastically , "you poor things have had it so rough in this World" LOL
As a pasty white man I think terms like Honky, Cracker etc. are laughable (also only used in America) they are however still used in a discriminatory fashion, even if they don't have the same connotations as slurs directed at other ethnicities, and while white people haven't been oppressed by other ethnicities, we're pretty good at oppressing ourselves. European history is full of countries/empires invading, conquering one another and then forcing their new subjects to adhere to their believes. In Britain the Normans, Romans, and Vikings have all done this successfully, and the Nazis gave it a bloody good go. Even when our own monarchy has changed hands, the country's official religious stance has changed from Catholic to Protestant and back again, with penalty of death facing those who did not adhere. So while we are not discriminated against like other ethnicities, historically we have been oppressed physically and spiritually, if not necessarily mentally. Don't get me wrong we Brits have done more than our fair share of oppression too.
I hear what you say and if it's about name-calling then we should all take stock of what others have suffered and think ourselves thankful that people from all nations have pushed for equality. I don't really agree with this "All white-folk have had it easy" theme going on. I've just spent the last couple of days giving clothes and food to the homeless and they were all white guys and girls from UK and Europe. The Irish have a history that makes Black slavery look like a doddle(They were classed below black slaves) White slavery is a hidden business and to say that "white-people" don't understand is very ignorant. Wealthy people do no discriminate, they just trample on anybody in there way. I hear foreign people refer to "white-people" as if we are one entity. If you want equality in society, it has to come after we all accept that this is not about colour. It is about money, power and control. They hate all of us "Useless-Eaters". I'm not sticking up for my white counterparts, I am just trying to expose the loop we are caught in. Do we have to reverse reality and have an era of "black-rule" accompanied with open-white hate? Is that what it will take to put things right, because I am not sure what it is that people want from this kind narrative. Very emotional subject and there are those of mixed race that some people in this chat-room seem to be very unaware of. Lots of emotional responses, void of deeper thought. Very counter-productive
In this post I specifically point out our hidden unity and it breaks my heart to hear people cast negative view on me because of my colour..... Here is my post about homeless
I've been rather surprised that racist content isn't immediately flagged into oblivion on steemit, but it seems like there's been a shift in the last few years where before, people might admit to racist beliefs behind closed doors, but were ashamed to state them in public. Lately, people seem to take a certain pride in kicking sand in the face of basic decency and spout racist and bigoted views unabashedly.
I think that context matters a lot in determining which racial epithets are considered lightly offensive versus patently offensive. I'm Irish by descent, and I certainly wouldn't bat an eye or take offense if someone called me a 'Mick.' However, If you value your health, I would strongly advise you to not call anyone a 'Mick' in certain parts of Boston (or order a 'Black and Tan' or 'Irish Car Bomb' in a bar). It's no joke there.
LOL yes I have been told the Irish in New-york take huge offense to that term. Same with the aboriginal folk of Australia, they despise the term "Abbo" and until I visited last year, I never knew. I have since looked into their history and have written about it in detail.
I used to enjoy a good English, Irish, Scotsman joke. Same as I enjoy watching Spitting image, Black adder, The Young-ones, Steve Hughes. Brits know how to laugh at adversity and maybe defuse it with humour. That humour, like many other institution/traditions, has been hi-jacked and used for darker purposes. Your can't think that people didn't take the piss out of each others differences, before we intermingled. "Ug, look at that big-nose-goon with his stone wheel. Ugly prick. Ug Ug! I want a stone wheel! Hey guys, that ugly prick fucks dinosaurs. Must be something to do with his big-ugly-nose. Lets kick his caveman-ass and steal his stone-wheel. Ug!"
Until the modern era as it is today, Racism remains an issue to spread hatred. Are those who spread hatred not realize that we are created on earth is the same, only faith that distinguishes. I think in this platform that we can not let it, ity is a disease that we must eliminate. There is no black and white or me and you, there is only WE.
Let's build this community healthy and successful together.
Thank you for information @robertandrew
Thank you @irwansyah270889. I totally agree with everything you said :)
Blacks are always victims of racism, I wonder when people will start respecting the black man, to me it's a perception thing and it's hard to change individuals' perception, if the fact that a black man ruled America did not make them see that blacks have value, I wonder what will.
I am Nigerian
I am black
I am proud
Thank you @scantyhairedsamm. It sure is hard to change Perceptions of people.. Especially when it is a generational cycle that keeps breeding over and over again Racist views. I have seen it my whole Life where I grew up and it's something that has always bothered me. I just try to teach my kids that it is very wrong to judge people based on their Race, Religion, and Ethnicity
I just read the entire post, and I honestly don't think there was any racial connotation to it. I 100% see the reference you are talking about but 1. Most antifa are white liberals correct? (maybe I'm not up to date on the demographics of that 'group'?) 2. The entire post had zero to do with race except one meme which causally stood up against police violence and might have had a Eric Garner reference about unlicensed fruit (I know he was selling cigs, I just took that as a nod to the stupidity of his death and the defense of the cops). I honestly think it was using raccoons as a pest reference, not a racial one .... I'm sure @aggroed will respond, but at the end of his post he said he had a death in the family so it may not be for a few days/week
Well, it's centered around the anti Fascism movement especially at it relates to White Supremacist and being against that. I know they do dress from head to toe in black and black masks. Both white liberals and other liberal minorities especially blacks from what I understand.
You know I am open minded enough to look at something and realize I may have taking it the wrong way. Maybe I did, now that you mentioned this.
But I tell you what growing up the haters at my high school would make reference to this ( animal) all the time when they were being derogatory and making terribly Racist slurs towards the minorities in our Class. It was really sad and really bothered me. A number of them got suspended for doing this and it made local news.
Could I have had a knee-jerk reaction when I saw these memes ?? Maybe I could have, and I will sincerely apologize if I did take it the wrong way.
Really , reading that post, that meme was the only one that didn't really seem to fit , so I couldn't really garner what it meant in context...
I am glad that you bought this out sir. It may not really be a racialy motivated slur but many people may take it that way. Talking about it like this is maybe a way for things to get better. I worked all my life and I worked in some very racist places. It is a very subtle thing these days. Back in the 60’s one knew very quickly where one stood. I will say that it affected me all my life. Always some kind of undertone or just noticing who gets the good jobs and the raises in certain places. This is the first time I have ever wrote anything about this. Maybe this platform will be a place where it will be shown to be wrong. I haven’t seen anything yet to be sensitive to really. Getting it out like this is the best way to show what’s on people minds. Great post sir. No one likes being insulted.
Yes , it can be very subtle but sometimes that can be the most damaging. Because this "subtlety" allows it to stay below the surface where it is safe and where is can continue to do its damage and spread its toxicity unabated ( Racism that is ).
The more I look at it ( the memes) I honestly wonder how that it could not be offensive to certain groups. I talked about the first one. But the second meme is something that you see in Movies like Madea. And something that other people describe as some black people as talking in that manner. The thing is it's derogatory. The people who made the meme know it's derogatory and meant to make fun of black people.
Let's just be honest !! And call it what it is.
And it's not a benign, innocent meme. It's identifying that people with black skin talk like this way ; and it's a very unflattering characterization .
You may say . "Well Rob if it is true then how can it be Racist" ?? Simply because there are many ,many blacks who do not talk like this but putting this stereotype out there perpetuates this Myth that all black people talk like this. And then you see people just automatically assuming this whole Group talks like that.
And like I said it can cause this stereotyping which in turn can result in Oppression
( Racism) where you are judging ALL black people based on this unflattering and very unsophisticated kind of talk. i.e. "well we won't hire him because we 'assume' he talks and acts like this "
It's just ugly and brings out the Bigots who feed on it.
So true sir. Many of us on the receiving end get numb to it after a while. Difficult to talk about it with people because it is so common. In my personal story I have lost many friends to it. I suppose they weren’t really friends any way. How sad.
@ivantorres , that is so so sad. Here's the thing : me, you , the people at Steemit who thinks this stuff is funny etc..etc.. should not become "numb" to it.
Really...just call it out when you see it no matter what. Even if it is subtle. Even if the person on the other end says it was NOT "flagrant" racism . Even when they say you're being too PC. Or you are being "oversensitive". (How many times have you heard that one, @ivantorres ?? )
Of course it's no big deal to them. It NEVER is . But this sh@t even in its most subtle forms is pervasive and toxic to our Society. They know it too !!
You are right sir. Thanks. Absolutely right!
You still in East TN?
No. My parents are still there in knoxville and have been since 69' (where I moved to when I was 2) but after I met my wife ( in nashville) I moved in 2007 to LA and eventually to San Antonio in 2010 where she is originally from.
As for the memes, the news one cracked me up though it was a bit stereotypical.
I thought I did too but couldn't remember where I asked you :P I looked, but couldn't find it so just thought I'd ask again. And I know I should know so apologies for misplacing my mental files lol
Yeah, no problems at all . Btw, I went back and took out that 2nd half of my Comment to you before I saw where you Commented on it lol
I just thought I was probably reading into something wrong so I deleted it ( in case you were wondering where that part went to)