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If Everything is Racist . . .
The cries of the Left against racism in this country are filled with sadness and frustration. They feel that this country has let them 
down; the land of the free and the home of the brave is drowning in hatred, division and racism. All of us must rally to answer their call to truth and equality. I’ve identified an ideal way to do just that: let’s identify every racist term that exists in our times and create unbiased alternatives.
The numbers of words and phrases that are racist are mind-boggling, as we begin to realize that racism exists in every part of society: education, law enforcement, corporations—the list is endless. But I think we can start small.
I’ve started a list of terms that look perfectly harmless but are actually insidious examples of racism. I’m providing a partial list here of the words that are supposedly meant to be innocuous, but when we dive deeply, their ugliness and betrayal of the American dream are obvious:
Black Russian: this has been called a cocktail of vodka and a coffee liqueur. When we look more closely, we discover that the word “black” has been defiled by linking it with Russians; even worse, the coffee liqueur emphasizes a drink of color. The White Russian insults blackness even more, due to corrupting the darkness with milk or cream (white).
Black Sunday, the story of a terrorist group attempting to blow up a Goodyear blimp flying over the Super Bowl Stadium with 80,000 people and the president attending. The Sunday was clearly referred to as “black” to associate terrorism with the black population of our country.
Blackjack is a law enforcement tool used to disable a perpetrator. That’s what we assume from the name. But everyone knows that “blackjack” is a way of associating violence and crime with the black community.
Black Friday is always on the Friday after Thanksgiving, a big shoppers day. Obviously this term is meant to demean black Americans as being allied with corporate retail America.
Lest you think that racism is only linked to the use of the word “black,” let me educate you about the use of the word, “white.”
White symbolism is associated with purity, virginity, innocence, goodness and other words. It’s clear that the word “white” is used as a way of excluding black people who may be as much, if not more virtuous, as any white person.
Snow White and her story tell us that to be beautiful, charming and kind, you must be white. In society, a black person could never be Snow White.
* * * *
Going through this exercise has been enlightening and educational for me. When I started to fully explore the racism that permeates our society, I was alarmed and humbled. As I deal with my disappointment in myself, I’d like to turn this pursuit over to you, my readers. I have many more terms you may want to define for yourselves, that can reveal the perniciousness of racism in our society:
Black out, white out, blackmail, white lie, blacklist.
And I’m sure that’s just the beginning.
Consider this process as one way to free yourself of the racism that dominates your life.
Published in Culture
What about magnet schools?
Could you share your thoughts, Stina?
The Seuss books are “racist” because some of them have what we would now consider to be racist depictions of African blacks. I don’t have any of the books at hand right now to offer examples, but I remember porters moving caged animals in “if I ran the zoo”.
It seems there was a huge uproar at one time against Seuss. Before he wrote children’s books, he was a cartoonist for newspapers and magazines. Here’s one picture I found from 1915:
I’m not sure. I guess I’m thinking they are a halfway between charter and district public.
If you can get into the magnet program, out of district can attend.
The real problem comes after you arrive at a complete set of acceptable terms and the next day you are a thought criminal for not knowing several of them were replaced overnight. Remember when feminists were cutting edge and not a retrograde element standing in the way of trans rights? I once got in minor trouble for not accepting “womyn” and offering “Gyno-American” in its place.
You can’t win because you are not supposed to. No one is bigger than the revolution. No one is entitled to remain in an offensive status quo and the status quo is always offensive.
The college freshperson orientation should consist of reading Darkness at Noon and 1984 so as to know what to expect.
How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?
Oh gosh, @oldbathos, you’re such a neanderthal. ;-)
“Neanderthal” is racist or speciesist and reflects the inherently genocidal Cro-Magnon patriarchal cultural heritage celebrated in the design of power tools, Southern European cuisine and the sexist philosophy of both Schopenhauer and Aristotle [PRACTICE TIP: when issuing a broad PC cultural condemnation it is usually effective to bring together totally unrelated random stuff that make you sound smart but is actually an utterly vacuous and even asinine gesture.]
I’m impressed! Who knew?? Given the simplicity of my comment, at least you can’t say I’m vacuous and asinine!
The first I heard of this nonsense was probably twenty-five years ago when that punk Spike Lee said in an interview that blacks can’t be racist because they don’t have the power to be. In his sick view, only whites had the power to be racists. My dictionary then defined racism as the belief that one race, usually one’s own, was superior to other races. You don’t need power of any kind to be a racist if the original definition of racism is observed. But that allows black, yellow, red, and polka-dot people to be racists as well, and we just can’t have that.
It’s about time we told the Spike Lees of the world to go fornicate themselves.
I figured it was not entirely serious or ideologically authentic because there was no use of “intersectional” or “heteronormative”. You obviously cling to the archaic notion that writing should make sense, have a point and be consonant with reason and reality, a prejudice you will need to shake if you ever want to write for Vox or the social media outlets of the New York Times.
If you work in “intersectional” or “heteronormative” into that mess, you can write for the Atlantic.
Work in both, and you can be editor.
Darn. I guess I’m doomed to wander the dark halls of Ricochet forever. Sob.
Susan. wherever did you find that cartoon? It’s a wonder it hasn’t been expunged from the Net! I’d love to use it on my personal blog, since I like to be incendiary sometimes.
Google “critics of Dr. Seuss”–it’s everywhere, @rushbabe49, since they love to hate him. You probably know how to just copy it from here, too.
I copied the Seuss cartoon and did a little incendiary post over at RushBabe49.com.
Yes! Good job!
It’s a pretty awful cartoon, and I’m glad that Geisel cleaned up his act before he hit the big time. You surely won’t find anything like this in any of his celebrated children’s books. But as we know, the left doesn’t really allow for redemption.
Except for their own. Think, Hillary, Comey, Biden . . . .
Right, right . . .
How can racism be fun or funny to others? So, I propose off to rice paddies with you for a year. Hopefully you can be re-educated and then progress with the rest of us woke people.
I don’t know, @joeboyle. I think I’m beyond redemption, but who knows?? ;-)