Justice for Zimmerman

Arbitrary_sl said:

There are no great conversations about the word "American Inventor."

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Sure there are. Etymology is a fascinating field. There's a lot we can learn about the origins of the word, how its usage has evolved with changing social circumstances, how it has taken on a symbolic representation of the concept of racism itself, how it has been (controversially) "re-claimed" by black culture, how its meaning changes dramatically based on who's saying it to whom under what circumstances... There are a ton of great conversation that could be had about the word "American Inventor". In fact, didn't CNN just do a whole program about just that?

Ummm... you guys do understand that the context in which words are used carries more meaning than the words themselves, right? I mean, you get this, right?

fanaskin_sl said:

are you sure about that?

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Yes. Yes I am. Those examples illustrate this perfectly.
I can use the word "citizen" however I want. A government employee in Seattle can't. What's the difference? Context. A Seattle government employee has to worry about how the word "citizen" might be interpreted by someone who lives in Seattle but is not a US citizen. I don't have to worry about that. See, even a simple noun like "citizen" can have different meanings depending on who the speaker is and who the listener is. This is how language works.

When I accuse someone of saying a racist remark, I'm not saying "You spoke one of the forbidden words, therefore you are a racist!" This is what you're trying to say I'm doing (it helps you to more easily classify me as a white guilt-peddling liberal) but it's simply not the case. Rather, I'm looking at what was said under what circumstances, directed at what audience and for what purpose. When someone says "American Inventors gonna Kang", it's extremely difficult to classify that as anything other than an overtly racist comment. Besides using the term "American Inventor" in a derogatory sense (and yes, there are ways in can be used in a non-derogatory sense), it casually applies the actions of some individuals as being representative of an entire race. It also implies that such actions are to be expected, presumably due to the "lower level" these humans operate on. In addition, it is spoken with confidence, directed at an audience that is expected to agree, either explicitly through a similarly-worded comment or implicitly through silence. The message is clear: Blacks are inferior, and we should all take that as a given. This attitude doesn't help to fix anything, and (as I've said repeatedly) objectively makes the problem of racism worse by presenting it as casually acceptable and encouraging similar behavior.

You could go off on a hundred tangents if you like, but unless you actually disagree with anything I said in the preceding paragraph you're just defending racism for the sake of saying "I'm not a brainwashed liberal 'useful idiot', so there!" Yeah, I get it, liberals do stupid things. If you want to talk politics we can totally do that, but don't talk to me like I'm some flaky know-nothing mouthpiece for the liberal agenda. Fuck liberals. Fuck conservatives. Fuck politics. Let my words speak for themselves instead of forcing them into some arbitrary category so they can be more easily dismissed. That's a lazy way to debate (as popular as it is on Rerolled), and you should be better than that.

AladainAF_sl said:

For your rabid cause, you sure are a dumb. You are absolutely incorrect. This has nothing to do with racism. Bigotry, sure. Racism no.

But... people like you have thrown around the racism word so much, that you're basically made the word racism in and of itself practically meaningless. It's like giving a first place ribbon to every contestant. Congratulations. Well done.

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*Sigh*
I don't know what Bizarro-world definition of "racism" you choose to believe, but here's what thedictionarysays:

rac?ism
[rey-siz-uhm]
noun
1. a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others.
2. a policy, system of government, etc., based upon or fostering such a doctrine; discrimination.
3. hatred or intolerance of another race or other races.

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"American Inventors gonna Kang" fits very nicely into definitions 1 and 3, thank you very much. Oh, and I don't have a "rabid cause". I just enjoy presenting unpopular but perfectly reasonable points of view to people who just can't handle them (See: Zimmerman's gun likely didn't save his life) to see if they can logically counter them (Protip: They can't). And you're right, the word "racism" gets thrown around so much it has absolutely lost much of its impact. I don't think people who you choose to group me with should take all the blame for that, though. This new, "No no,you'rethe racist!" trend is exacerbating that particular problem.

Sebudai_sl said:

I'm pretty sure the frequency of people calling other people "fags" hit its apex with my generation, yet my generation and those that followed it are, by far, the most tolerant and accepting of the gay community in recent history (maybe ever).

This is the internet, and they're just words. Unless you're a baby boomer, you should know this.

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Sure, this is the internet and they're "just words". People say shit online that they wouldn't necessarily say IRL, but that doesn't imply they don't mean the shit that they say. Everything I said "American Inventors gonna Kang" implies in my last post still stands, even if it's coming from some chest-pounding internet jock.