Yes. There is.
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Anyone speaking French deserves the piss taken out of them, it just sounds snotty and a bit merde.
I’m guessing you’re basing that on long standing historical events?
If so, there’s a couple between the us and the French.
I’ve only spent about 18 months in France (so obviously no expert in having the piss taken out of my accent)
Happy to be corrected obviously. I’d add though that if India still had a real problem with us for past transgressions and the empire, the LAST game they’d be playing is cricket. I’m playing with a few Indian lads on Sunday, interested to hear their take on it.
Out of interest, how’s this? I bet people with really dark skin don’t buy shares in Ambre Solaire. Racist or a gag based on the blatantly obvious?
If any reference to a person’s race / gender / religion is off limits then pass the the cyanide pills as my mrs is currently a fucking dragon due to her “time of life” and she’d flay me naked over hot coals for saying that. Still true though.
The fat American comedian Ralphie May (he’d love that description as it’s true) does a great one about restaurant potatoes. “$17 for potatoes? I want the ones picked by Mexicans, not white dudes!”
Offensive? Racist? Funny?
Here again, who decides? Just referencing the differences between races / heritages and countries is not necessarily racist.
From Merriam-Webster
Definition of racism
1**:** a belief that race is a fundamental determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular raceLadino elites used racism to justify the displacement and enslavement of the indigenous population, and these beliefs, along with the resentment created by the continued exploitation of indigenous land and labor, culminated in the Guatemalan Civil War (1960-1996).— Mariana Calvo… how do we begin undoing the processes of internalized hatred and internalized racism?— bell hooksalso : behavior or attitudes that reflect and foster this belief : racial discrimination or prejudiceThe kind of trenchant racism to which black people have persistently been subjected can never be defeated by making its victims more respectable. The essence of American racism is disrespect. — Imani PerryFrom racist graffiti in schools to daily microaggressions and police profiling, rally testimonials highlighted that issues surrounding racism are still very much local issues. — Ryan J. DeganThe War on Drugs, cloaked in race-neutral language, offered whites opposed to racial reform a unique opportunity to express their hostility toward blacks and black progress, without being exposed to the charge of racism. — Michelle Alexander
2a**:** the systemic oppression of a racial group to the social, economic, and political advantage of anotherspecifically : WHITE SUPREMACYsense 2institutional racismOne of the many ruses racismachieves is the virtual erasure of historical contributions by people of color. — Angela Y. DavisDiscriminatory housing practices, redlining neighborhoods, underfunded education, lack of access to healthcare, racial profiling, police brutality and mass incarceration are just a few examples of cage wires that all together contribute to structural racism. — Sylvia LuetmerOur nation faces a fork in the road and a decision to either continue down the same path of systemic racism or to confront our past honestly. — Bree Newsome"People of color, low-income people, and Indigenous peoples have been made especially vulnerable through decades of environmental racism: policies that intentionally concentrate pollution and toxic hazards in our communities." — Michele Roberts
b**:** a political or social system founded on racism and designed to execute its principlesIn 1913 the Natives Land Act reserved 90% of the country for whites, who then made up 21% of the population. Under the formalised racism of apartheid 3.5m blacks were forcibly moved to isolated reservations called “homelands.”— The Economist
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Why wouldn’t they buy shares in it? Should you only invest in something you personally use?
The issue here is that they were mocking the way some people express themselves in what is a foreign language to them. It’s racist, just as pulling the corners of your eye lids and pretending to do a chinese/japanese accent whilst speaking English is.
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It’s a joke. Like me not buying shares in Eisberg. So is mocking my French racist? I say no, not at all. You can’t deny that a white guy looks more Asian if he pulls the corners of his eyes to use your example. Nobody’s being discriminated against or adversely affected. A Chinese guy pretending to be English and manipulating his eyes affects me not one jot. Thankfully in this example, there is no long standing history of us abusing the Chinese.
Have you ever seen those all you can eat Chinese buffets.
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Well, there’s that. Oh and me twatting a quickfire 2 joystick playing Daley Thompson’s Decathlon and Hypersports on the C64 many moons ago.
There was also that lovely lady I met in a hotel on a business trip who was very keen on negotiation but the booze sort of fuzzies that memeory….
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If ribbing and laughing at another nation’s accent and speech when speaking a different language is racist, then we need another term for the systematic and horrific treatment of people of different ethnicity based on nothing more than the country and parents of their birth.
Apartheid and It Ain’t Half Hot Mum cannot be conflated unless you believe that smiling at a lady on the street is rape.
What Buttler, Morgan and others did basically amounts to digital blackface. That’s racist.
Systemically disadvantaging particular ethnic groups is also racist, among other descriptors.
Smiling at a lady in the street, depending on the context and other gestures could be unwelcome and construed as/constitute harassment. It’s not equivalent to rape and the reductio ad absurdum does your argument no credit.
I’d very much hope that you wouldn’t actually engage in the sort of behaviour you claim to consider inoffensive. Try pulling your eye lids and mocking a Chinese accent next time you go out to eat at an Oriental restaurant and see how that goes down with everyone.
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How has anybody been disadvantaged in this case?
As for the last bit, I wouldn’t walk into a Turkish place and smash their plates not a Greek place and claim the bank had stopped my account. But are these things racist?
I stand by the fact that fractional infringements of racist waters are a whole different matter from legal oppression based on race. They shouldn’t carry the same term. To me that’s obvious.
And I love a little reductio ad absurdum and amazingly I was using it way before I discovered the logical origins.
The Top Gear defence.
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Valid in this instance.
Who would have thought that one of the bastions of Conservatism, the ultra-traditional English Cricket Board, would be at the spearhead of anti-racism? Whatever next - women allowed into the Long Room at Lords? My mistake this ultra-progressive organisation allowed that to happen in 1999
Perhaps the English Cricket Board could negotiate new shirt sponsors - Woke Coke is pretty catchy.
Why does every perceived indiscretion have to be played out in the media spotlight? What happened to privately dealing with issues within organisations?
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One of things I find interesting amongst all of these back and forths is question brought up by BigJon
“Why does every perceived indiscretion have to be played out in the media spotlight?”
I’ve asked myself, is it fair to to put politicians, police, media celebs (of various grade - I include sports figures in this) through the litmus test of what passes as the spatiotemporal (usually moving) definition of enlightenment? Should they be subject to scrutiny above and beyond what an average person would get?
Ultimately, I find myself answering it as a “YES”.
It is fair because they have a greater responsibility. If you cant stand the heat stay out of the kitchen.
It is fair because they have greater exposure than the average person and many people will look to them to as a guide as to what passes as acceptable. It is fair because they did something wrong - unfortunately for them they were caught. It is fair because they represent a component of society, which must be exposed to scrutiny and for then hopefully for the “greater” society to understand why manifests and what it means.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, should we just accept that we are too human to be anything else. That we (I used to believe deep down) are just beneath the surface a suspicious, vengeful and spiteful strain that will never escape our genetic shackles. Should we just accept the decent into slobish ladish behaviour and pass it off as “ah well”…
I despair at Boris, Putin Trump and the like as their bravado fuels these sorts of societal weakness and weakpoints.
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I will try to be more obvious :-
The very institutions that were once admonished for being ultra conservative - are now being held up as torch bearers for all things woke. Disney, The ECB, Chevron, Nike, Coca Cola to name but a few. A bit of woke-washing here and some green-washing there and suddenly you better believe it, the “evil capitalists” are the first line of defence against racism and sexism etc.
The incredibly sexist ECB, who as I said, only allowed women into the Lords pavilion in 1999, are now baring their chest as some exemplar of women’s and minority rights. Seriously? Do you seriously believe the Board of the ECB (one of the most Conservative institutions in the country) gives two hoots about women or minorities except by paying lip service? This is just yet another example of virtue signaling. They must have thanked their lucky stars when they had a victim to throw to the lions. Private admonishment, internal disciplinary action? Not on your life mate, this is not the 20th Century! Parade the evil doer before the baying mob - perhaps a walk of shame is in order? This is how justice (vengeance) is meted out today.
I do not care particularly about cricket - I do care though about people being disproportionately punished for minor historical indiscretions in the name of furthering a pseudo cultural movement. Most people are opposed to racism and sexism. There is no earth shattering virtue in saying “I am anti racist” You may as well say the “grass is green” or “fire is hot” - its a given. We do not need corporations waving their “anti racism” flags in our faces.
If you do not spend but a moment questioning the motivations of these companies and institutions, then sadly you are one of their cheerleaders. How do you believe that you are a warrior for a cultural revolution, when it is being sponsored by Nike and Disney Corp?
i know your angle
Isreal Folau said some pretty damning things about homosexuals and being damned to hell for eternity (hes extermly religious), what he said was bang out of order…unacceptable.
the flip side/irony is Qantas dropping him within a few hours because he didnt represent thier core values as a corporation…
all good… but…
Qantas…members of the star alliance…with etihad…
the other ones that dropped him like a hot potato were his club, Union and the ARL…LOL…check out that rabbles track record of indescretions, actual indescretions, the way the boys club treats women, the cover ups, violence, the substance abuse, not statements of opinion which is what Ireal did…
its just a minefield.
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So, you’ve never heard of the opium wars? Check them out next time you’re feeling jingoistic about the jolly old empire. It may be a long time ago, but the Chinese have not forgotten. Nor should they.
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Nope, although the word rings a bell. Off for a mooch.
Ah Jingo, one of my fav books.
The Opium Wars were two wars waged between the Qing dynasty and Western powers in the mid-19th century. The First Opium War, fought in 1839–1842 between the Qing and Great Britain, was triggered by the dynasty’s campaign against the British merchants who sold opium to Chinese merchants. The Second Opium War was fought between the Qing and Britain and France, 1856–1860. In each war, the European force’s modern military technology led to easy victory over the Qing forces, with the consequence that the government was compelled to grant favorable tariffs, trade concessions, and territory to the Europeans.