Running racism in America thread

He apologized, this is not him. Blah, blah blah blah.

How stupid do you have to be post something like this these days? Of course it’s who you are.

 

As a minority I do womder why is there racism? Why differentiate each other? It’s not that hard.
Of course I’m just being naive in light of you know, the history of mankind.

 

I didn’t think Nick Francona was part of the woke crowd. Figured he’d be part of the “shut up and play ball” group.

 

Why is “woke” a negative? Isn’t it really just being informed about something?

 

Much like "politically correct" and "critical race theory", it started out meaning one thing but got redefined to something quite different once the conservative media machine got its fangs into it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke

 

I appreciate your post more than "like". I had absolutely no idea the words or sentiment "stay woke" went as far back as the 1930's. I am aware of AAVE. My daughter not only allows it as acceptable English in her class, but teaches some of the grammar rules associated with it in speech. Unfortunate that Michael Brown's death brought back "woke" as a a meme for BLM. Thanks for the education.

 

I should’ve said, I thought Nick Francona would lean more into the caveman, macho athlete stereotype. I was wrong.

 

I decided to give Big Purple the benefit of the doubt. It acknowledged her, walked to her and knocked her over. At the very least, I would get some kind of apology from Mister Peanut when he followed me all over The Arcade until I shouted at him to leave me alone. (Jaysus. as much as I adore the people who make T-Rac and Gnash live and breathe, I generally get weird about costumed mascots.)

It's been weaponized by certain groups. You've read Alma's references to "The Cools?" These are usually upper middle-class White transplants who use it to create a divide between themselves and the natives. They would be terrified if an actual BIPOC walked up them. Yes, I have seen this happen. However, they would find the movers and shakers for a better world from previous generations just don't pass muster. I had to walk out of a meeting and breathe when someone looked at a picture of Joseph D. Campbell and said he looked like an old South bigot.

#AskMeAboutMyNativeSouthernChauvinism

 

I have a perspective on this that it is unlikely the rest of you do. I actually worked as a costumed character at Six Flags Over Georgia for two years when I was 16-18. We wore the Sid and Marty Krofft characters from H. R. Pufnstuf.

First thing, stated loudly: I have no way to know if one or more of the people in the suits are prejudiced and were intentionally skipping over little black kids. This is certainly possible, and if so it sucks. Little kids are little kids, and they are mostly fascinated by the characters and want to interact. To ignore a small child over their skin color is reprehensible.

That said, we don't know what else might be at play here. Characters literally can not stop and interact with everyone along the parade route, there are too many people. Vision can be very limited, depending on the design. Some of the suits are very large and have blind spots that lead to your bumping into/running over little kids that you can't see. The parade may have been getting too far ahead and the suit was skipping some people in order to move back up. When you stop to interact, say to take a picture or to coax a frightened child into shaking hands, you fall behind. He may have been moving up to allow him to stop again further along.

You also become a little callous to the kids yelling and waving at you, since you walk past hundreds of them every time you go out in the park, especially when you are doing a parade. If just the characters go out, generally you are not going anywhere in particular, so you can take your time. Parades are different - there's usually a band in front and the parade snakes along behind, and you have to some degree a place in it. Generally you try to cover as many people as possible by at least waving as you move along, so that people feel acknowledged.

Bottom line - it could be prejudice, or it could be simple law of averages. I would bet that given the way that this has blown up, that Park Security has called in the entire character crew and done solo interviews with all of them, asking about any racist statements that they might have heard from other members of the crew. I would not be surprised if the entire crew gets transferred to different jobs and a completely new group is put into suits. That's not going to be as easy as it sounds, as dancing around while wearing a fuzzy bear suit with a big fiberglass head isn't a job that everyone is willing to do. We lived on ice water and salt pills. We also got breaks for as long as we were out in the park (to prevent heat stroke) in addition to the regular breaks everyone got on their shift.

We also got the hell beat out of us by packs of roving teenagers, but that's a different story.

 

Nashville Scene just had its annual contest where readers submit their best responses to the prompt “You are so Nashville if …” This was one of my favorites.