[RearNaked]

So, I was talking to someone about people who complain that 'the poles' are stealing all of 'our' jobs. I asked him if he'd heard that people say Polish factory workers have hygiene issues. He seemed really quite offended by this question, then went on to say "Ah, these racial stereotypes are funny, aren't they?". He also added "And I've heard that they are very hard workers".

[Adept]

I think that there are good and bad things about most groups of people and individuals. By concentrating on the negative things we tend to isolate ourselves from learning about others by avoiding them. Cultivating a genuinely positive attitude towards all people is the best route to take. It is.

[RearNaked]

Doesn't the whole 'socially acceptable' thing annoy you?

I've noticed it a lot more as I've gotten older. I'm finding that young people are generally much more 'real'. I showed a picture of a black guy holding watermelons with a funny caption on it to a middle aged guy yesterday, and his reaction was "Isn't that racist?". I thought for a second about my answer, and eventually decided on "Who cares?"

It annoys me. A lot of people, intelligent people, seem to live there life the way other people tell them. It's crazy.

Some guy asked me ,at a bus stop today, "Are you a rapist?" Several people looked at me, waiting for my answer, and I just laughed uncontrollably. It was great. I suppose the socially acceptable thing to do, despite finding it amusing, would have been to ignore or answer "No" to this question, and not laugh.

We even have socially acceptable killers, AKA as soldiers. People who do it as a job, and the people who want to fight for a country that they were born into by pure chance. Why isn't it acceptable for me or you to paint some old guy (Muammar Gaddafi) as the bag guy, kill him and take his sh*t. Might as well kill his children too - just in case.

Recreational drugs like crack, heroin, cannabis and DMT are demonized and outlawed. It's a crazy world we live in.

[Adept]

QUOTE (RearNaked @ Wednesday, Jul 18 2012, 23:48)

It's a crazy world we live in.

It sounds like you are just figuring this out. Socially acceptable is...unavoidable. Doesn't mean that a hateful attitude is the reasonable response. If someone says something to you that is weird just look them in the eye with a comfortable face and don't respond. See how much they will say without you reacting. When they walk away you will have gained strength in knowing you didn't let someone else take your dignity away from you.

[Tyler]

Informally, I think it's great to be able to find humour in the world. That becomes harder when the people you are talking about don't find your jokes funny, but if we could all just breathe and realize informal jokes and comedic acts are almost always playing off both parties best interests, then we'd be better off.

Formally, you should respect that most won't like hearing jokes about their entire race just because you're nervous or were raised to think that's funny. Speaking to larger crowds will always leave you at an impersonal level, to be scrutinized for your action. By this extension, you should not veer into racial exploitation. With all that said, I don't believe in identifying black people in America as anything other than black. The truth of our society is that there is no one heritage, like 'African' that we can use to push all the black population into. Especially since most black people I know come from the Caribbean, who have developed their own culture separate from Africa, and who I know to find being called 'African' quite offensive.

Anyway, being honest about yourself should be the important thing in these cases, but personal information shouldn't be something to be worried about in formal occasion (which is most always where 'political correctness' is played).

[El_Diablo]

I don't understand your question... if you even asked one.

what is the premise here for us to debate?
that political correctness is bad?

[sivispacem]

Not worthy of a D&D thread.