OT: Wal-mart's Politically Incorrect

[Sariah]

Yes, and I'm proud of it.

http://money.cnn.com/2006/11/09/news/co ... /index.htm

Apparently, after having lost so many Christian shoppers last year due to using the term "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas," Walmart has learned its lesson.

We had a very nice discussion today in Jounalism about political correctness. I was reading Ralph's blog at the same time, so I was feeling particularly conservative and brave and I said that political correctness has gone way too far. I understand that we shouldn't offend people for the sake of offending people, but it shouldn't be a law or anything. If I say something offensive, I apologize and everyone moves on.

The rest of the class made me look like a liberal. Most students said that it had no value whatsoever, that ethnic jokes are fine, the like.

I sat there in wonder. I'm in college. In MASSACHUSETTS.

The only person who stood up for it was our teacher, who is a journalist and, if she offends anyone, could get fired. All of her arguments were quickly shot down by the class.

I'm still in shock.

[The JAM]

Nice to see SOMEONE is doing at least one thing right....
Maybe they should greet "Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Happy Kwanzaa", and then the order of those would be random?

[Rokas]

The rest of the class made me look like a liberal. Most students said that it had no value whatsoever, that ethnic jokes are fine, the like.

I sat there in wonder. I'm in college. In MASSACHUSETTS.

Ever look at Affirmative Action? It's basically racism, saying that certain people of specific races "need" help and get special rights above and beyond that of others who are not minorities.

It's racist because it insinuates that minorities cannot succeed as well without special help. It's racist because it discriminates against people based upon skin color.

Yankee Liberals seem to love Affirmative Action.

Draw your own conclusions. For myself, I am not surprised at any such behavior.

[Sariah]

I think someone mentioned affirmative action as well. (But extremely briefly.) It didn't sound like they were in favor of it.

[Aurrin]

I love the sig. =^.^=

Long live MacGyver!

[Deckard Canine]

I have taken both sides on affirmative action at different times, but there is one argument (if that's the word) for it that I can't stand -- when someone contends that one's race will not be the determining factor in whether one gets a job, scholarship, etc. If it's never a determining factor, then what does it accomplish?! It would be redundant at best.

My mom favors some degree of AA on the grounds that institutions benefit from diversity. I say it's up to the institution to choose the most beneficial members.

[Sapphire]

Oh. I thought you were going to talk about This.

I can't help but wonder how O'Reilly would react.

[Jwrebholz]

Bottom line on Affirmative Action

A company has to hire the best people for the job they can reasonably get hold of. Race, gender, sexual orientation, preference of pizza toppings, none of that matters. There are only two things that really matter in a work environment.

1: Does this person work and play well with others?
2: Can they do the job?

Once you have a group of potential employees that you can say yes to both questions, the second question becomes "Is this person the best at what we're looking for, out of these people?" If the answer to that question is not yes, that person does not get the job.


Also, this whole PC nonsense really ticks me off. In my job there are a lot of "underprivlieged minorities". It's low-level unskilled labor. They're all nice guys. In fact just about everyone I work with regardless of race, gender or creed is nice. But I'll tell you what--those guys tell some of the most off-color jokes I've ever heard in my life--stuff that if I repeated it here I'd get banned for TOS violations until I was like 400 years old. Racial jokes (including jokes about their own race), sex jokes (well actually everyone tells those, even the girls!), nothing in that place is off-limits. And you know what? We laugh our asses off at each other. There is no PC in my workplace, and we all get along just fine. In fact I could probably get away with saying N***** in that place and nobody'd bat an eye--but I don't use that kind of language. (Except for Butch, but we all think he was born a grouch) In my opinion people need to lighten up and drop this "politically-correct" BS. All it is is a way for guilt-ridden rich white people to feel better about themselves, and to possibly hide their latent bigotry.

[The JAM]

[...unWARP!!!]

Good evening.


Speaking of racist jokes....


I don't know if you heard this one, and I actually think it's funny. Yes, I will tell it here, and not with the intention of dissing anyone's race (I don't know what other races are represented here except for maybe 4 of you, and there are even a few of you that I don't know if you're male or female unless I see a pronoun) but rather, this is meant to make fun at racism itself by showing how absurd it is.

For the record, I'm Latin American.

God REALLY messed up when he made the Black people.
Why?
Well, just LOOK at them! All dark and toasted and with very curly hair and...
Well, they came out just too well-done.

AND

God REALLY messed up when he made the White people.
Why?
Well, just LOOK at them! All white and blonde and pale and pasty tall and skinny and...
Well, they came out just too medium-rare.

BUT

When God made us Brown people, He got us juuuuuuuuuust right!!

[rimshot]

And by the way, I heard it from my dad, who's twice more brown than I am.

And no, he's not racist. My sister-in-law is a blue-eyed blonde from Washington, and we all love her.


You know, I wonder what kind of jokes the Chinese and Japanese say about Caucasians, Africans, and Latin Americans...


¡Zacatepóngolas!

Until next time, remember:

I

AM

THE

J.A.M. (a.k.a. Numbuh i. "Just because I'm imaginary doesn't mean I don't exist")

Good evening.

[WARP!!!]

[Deckard Canine]

I don't care for legally ordained PC, but neither do I want to do away with PC altogether. If I hear someone spouting racial epithets to everyone who walks by, I will not think it's okay. Emphasis belongs on "polite" more than "political."

[Wanderwolf]

Nice joke, J.A.M. Did you know it's actually from an old Coyote story?

Story runs that the Great Spirit called in Coyote to help him make people. Baking the clay was hard to get right, though; some came out too dark, so he sent them to another land. Some came out too light, so he sent them a light-colored land.

And then one batch came out coyotes. Great Spirit turned to Coyote and said, "Coyote? What is the meaning of this?"

"You're making all these people", answered Coyote, "and they'll all be your. Your people. Why can't I have my own people to care for and talk to?"

Great Spirit didn't answer; he just put the new coyotes into the world.

And finally, they got the color just right.

I sometimes feel sorry for Coyote. If you go back to the oldest stories, it's his job to remember the things nobody wants to remember; to know the things nobody wants to think about; to understand what nobody understands.

Yours truly,

The wolfish,

Wanderer

[The JAM]

Really? Hey, thanks for the heads up!

[StrangeWulf13]

I sometimes feel sorry for Coyote. If you go back to the oldest stories, it's his job to remember the things nobody wants to remember; to know the things nobody wants to think about; to understand what nobody understands.

Soooo... does this mean he knows what Cthulu looks like... and what the elder god does with his victims? Oy... the poor guy must have some massive San points in order to keep functioning...

[Tbolt]

Coming from a "pasty underdone" white, I find both stories amusing J.A.M., Wanderwolf ! =^^=

My favorite "racist" joke came from the "Ripping Friends" program.

The Ripping brothers are all white, except for one of obvious african descent.

The villain was fleeing in a "Flesh colored helicopter" The first three brothers agreed to the vehicle's description, but the fourth dissented:

"That's not flesh color! That's some pinkish, tan color!"

He produces a Hershey's bar and holds it up to his face for emphasis.

"Now this, this is flesh color!"


I love that joke, different perspectives can be fun!

Why do we have to use physical differences as an excuse to beat each other up?

[LoneWolf23k]

Coming from a "pasty underdone" white, I find both stories amusing J.A.M., Wanderwolf ! =^^=

My favorite "racist" joke came from the "Ripping Friends" program.

The Ripping brothers are all white, except for one of obvious african descent.

The villain was fleeing in a "Flesh colored helicopter" The first three brothers agreed to the vehicle's description, but the fourth dissented:

"That's not flesh color! That's some pinkish, tan color!"

He produces a Hershey's bar and holds it up to his face for emphasis.

"Now this, this is flesh color!"


I love that joke, different perspectives can be fun!

Why do we have to use physical differences as an excuse to beat each other up?

What was fun about those guys was that apparantly, they were completly clueless about their own differences.. In the episode where Slab fights the Ovulator, Craig compares him and Rip and says "Though they may seem completly identical on the outside, they possess minute genetic differences.."

[Tbolt]

Hee, hee too true! =^^=

There are certain differences that we like to hammer each other over the head with, but really should have no bearing on how we interact with one another!

This might be a bit rhetorical, but do you think that we will ever reach a point in civilization where skin tone will be just as irrelevant as eye color when we choose how to interact with each other?

"You can't talk to him / her can't you see? You have brown eyes, and they have blue eyes! It aint natural!"

[Deckard Canine]

Worldwide? No. In relatively advanced societies? Maybe. Or we might get the Apocalypse first, in which case skin tone really will lose all importance.

[Tom Mazanec]

If we uplift other species, perhaps speciesism will replace racism. That is not much of an improvement, though.

[Deckard Canine]

Speciesism is already rampant, so I think it would "replace" racism only by taking the spotlight in racism's absence. Then again, I'm not sure what you mean by "uplift." If it entails the start of a "Gene Catlow"-like world, then yes, I imagine that many humans would put aside racial differences due to more blatant differences in other regards. You might get would-be enemies united against other species.

[RHJunior]

whined about this before... but it always gripes me that furry/human fictional worlds always have a divide between humans----- and everyone else.

Hello?

suffice it to say that the differences between humanity and the next sentient mammalian species over would be far, far less than the differences between, say, mammals, reptiles and avians. Or tropical climate animals and polar ones. or hibernators vs. migrators. Aquatic versus dry land vs amphibian.

Architectural necessities alone would lead to balkanization.

Gene Catlow's world wouldn't be human vs. "furry", but instead an archipelago of micro-communities... with neighbors being determined by similarity or dissimilarity of environmental needs.