No Snickers in Gay Bars - another example of hysteria

play the cow bell and STFU.

 

this reminds me...

i really think there are people in this world that do nothing but look for ways to be offended. Looking for the small nuance or uttering and turning it on its head.

Last night, before the start of a middle school basketball game (I was keeping the scorebook, not covering, dammit), I was in the stands talking to a young lady that I had taught in a class I substituted for previously. As the opposing team was entering the gym, she was relating to me what happened during the two teams' game last season (of which she was a part). In the course of her description, she called the actions by the other team "ghetto". I knew she didn't mean anything pejorative by the comment, just using the slang that an 8th grader uses.

About that time, a mother from the opposing team was walking into the gym and overheard the comment. Immediately, she berated the girl, telling her that she wouldn't tolerate her speaking that way to her team. I was so stunned by her reaction that I didn't have time to react. Meanwhile, this woman sought out the head basketball coach to "report" the incident. Keep in mind, these teams have a rivalry that extends to the high schools they feed into, so things are on edge anyway. When she reapproached the young lady sitting with me, I told her that I didn't think she meant anything offensive by her comment. The girl also apologized. But that wasn't enough, as the woman told me I wasn't sensitive enough to the situation, and since I was white, I wouldn't completely understand what being called ghetto felt like.

Stunned, I was speechless, which for those who know me, is not something that happens often.

I told the girl to not worry about the situation and walked away before I reacted unfavorably. This is the second time this year a black woman has called my race into question when I have been in a position to discipline a student. Both times, since I was a white man, I couldn't possibly handle the situation well, according to the two women. I know there was little that I could do, since if I reacted to either situation, I would be deemed racist (which is NOT true) and therefore blacklisted in the county.

But all of this is a product of our society that overreacts (or just plan reacts) to everything. I didn't like the commercial. But I thought it made light of two heterosexual men insecure with the situation, not bashing gays by any means. But I knew after seeing the commercial that the gay community would be up in arms about it.

Maybe I'm wrong. I don't know. I do know that if we truly want acceptance between races, genders and sexualities, there's going to have to be more tolerance from all sides involved. Nothing is going to eliminate all misunderstandings and feelings about situation. But learning to dismiss these misgivings will certainly benefit us more than reacting in these overdraught ways.

 

Guess what? You don't understand it.
Guess what? At least part of that is because you're white.
Please read about the rest of the Snickers campaign. The encouraged homophobia from the NFL players. The "alternate ending" in which one of the guys gets bashed. And realize that people have reasons for being sensitive about these things and that "get over it" is easy when you don't have that much to get over.

 

So basically, you're telling me to get over it? Does that seem fair when my sensibilities are offended by the overreacting but it's ok for others to go off the deep end.

my race shouldn't factor into this. that's what race relations is about, is to see each other not as black and white but as humans, correct? but when this sort of things happens, "oh you couldn't possibly understand because you're white." isn't that as backwards as the whole calling some ghetto?

I don't understand why some people are allowed to have feelings about things but not others. Is that really equal. Or are we just looking for equal for me, not for you, in this world?

 

Only a white person could say, "my race shouldn't factor into this"

On the other side of the fence, race, if not always a factor, is always in the background.

 

I'm not going to argue in two threads.

But my race shouldn't be a factor. Neither should anyone elses.

 

You're allowed to have "feelings."
It's just that your attempt to equate yours with the ones that so bother you is so ahistorical that it's hard to take seriously.

 

One thing:

White people can certainly understand the implications of the word ghetto.

Since, y'know, it was white people who actually lived in them.

 

It was a Jewish term, right? Or it was applied to the place they were forced to live back then.

 

Yup.

From the Italian Gettare, an island near Venice where Italian Jews were forced to live.

Later came to mean usually walled-off areas where Jews were forced to live in European cities.

bydesign should have asked the mom if she had a clue what the word meant.

 

Zeke, that would assume that I knew the entomology of the word, which I didn't.

In any sense, the young lady (who is black) meant it as poor and not up to standards, which, if you look at the neighborhood the school is in, is not too far from accurate.

 

Oh, and that's the common usage today.

I just always find it amusing when people get up in arms thinking it's a racial slur.

It is, but not directed at who they think it is.