Today in Cultural Appropriation

This seems like quite a catch-22 then. Because there’s not a lot of workaround that “Long Dong” who has a gong sound when he shows up is probably on the racist side of things. That movie also has that rapey part near the end. They were accepted then, less so now.

Of course, the challenge comes in nuanced discussion. Just accepting something with a shrug and moving on. Accepting that something can be in one breath racist and kind of gross and also be a type of funny (moreso when social standards were different). Our modern discourse tends toward bloodsport. You pick a side, don’t give an inch. And damn is that a hard way to live. Good way to consolidate a base, though.

 

@Alma musta hit a nerve for you to play the ignore me card.

 

Nope, just trying to save the board a little tedium. And myself. Not much point talking to someone who lies about what you said and somehow believes it’s your fault they did.

 

Who in the world is telling you that you shouldn’t watch “Friday”?

 

“Just shut up and listen” is a position that feels woke, but is suboptimal, as the kids say, in practice. Most people, I think, process abstract concepts like this one by dialogue, by talking it through. By asking questions. Even questions that might seem silly at first.

“Shut up and listen” is patronizing, and often, I would guess, has less to do with the advocate’s desire for societal change than it does for the advocate’s desire to pat him or herself on the back.

It can also operate as a kind of cop-out.

 

As the Chinese saying goes, are we allowed to "embrace the Tiger" as a way to face and conquer our fears and demons?

Or is this filmmaker just CA'ing by using that term?

 

I have a Chinese colleague I despise. I have another Chinese colleague I like very much. The latter doesn’t like the former very much, either. The other day I asked the latter, “What’s the Cantonese word for ‘jackass?’” I know I was in the wrong — blue-eyed devil and all that — but how wrong was my friend when he laughed?

 

Interesting what a perfect microcosm of the national argument over race and culture this thread is.

 

“Let’s have an honest conversation about race.”

“OK”

“Now the only way we can have an ‘honest conversation’ is if you accept all my premises without reservation.”

“Wait ...”

“Sheesh, white people. You can’t have an honest conversation without them getting triggered.”

 

This largely illustrates my point. Literally no one is telling you you're an insensitive jerk for ever finding it funny. Times change. Sixteen Candles is wildly racist, and as someone pointed out, rape is also treated as a punchline.

I thought the movie was really funny then. I think it's really racist now. There's no need to be defensive about that.

 

You can turn that right around, you know.

“Sheesh, brown people. You can’t have an honest conversation without them getting uppity.”