Some Racism is ‘Racist,’ Some Not So Much
by Tim SlagleIt’s all over the news how Miley Cyrus and her friends had their pictures taken doing something a lot of teenagers do: making funny faces for the camera. Some claim they were trying to look Asian and making fun of the boy in the photo who actually is Asian. Miley apologized more than once, but that hasn’t stopped the litigation.
Margaret Cho, a comic who became famous by exaggerating the Asian accent of her mother (and has never been one to shy away from publicity) expressed great outrage. She actually penned a song about Miley in protest.
Strangely enough, it turns out that perhaps Margaret tossed the first volley across the racial divide. According to Wikipedia and other sources, Margaret was once a member of the band called ”White Trash Debutantes.” So it’s okay for Margaret to call herself a “White Trash Debutante” but wrong for an actual White Trash Debutant to make an Asian face?
A line in Margaret’s song asks: “Why isn’t racism against Asians taboo? ” Here’s a better question: “Why isn’t racism against Southern Whites taboo?”
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121 Comments
Well, if racism against Southern Whites was taboo, we'd have no one left to insult.
Margaret Cho is still around? Holy shit, I figured she was working at a P.F. Chang's somewhere.
Tim,
When that question is answered, all hell is gonna break loose.
That's why no one will answer it.
How have Southern Whites ever been victims of the culture at large again?
So, a group has to be victimized before racism applies? Gotcha.
Margaret who?
Any -ism is sterotyping and generalizing about a specific group. What do you think of when you think "Southern White".
1. Whites are Oppressors and nonwhites are Oppressees.
2. Oppressees have carte blanche to stereotype, mock or denigrate Oppressors.
3. Oppressers cannot stereotype, mock or denigrate Oppressees, or criticize them in any way. For anything. Ever. Those who try are assumed racists. Or worse, Republicans.
This whole, "people of color" can't be racist thing is an example of a Marxist tenet that has infected our society. Shouldn't we be able to make fun of Asians since they own so much of our national debt? I don't like typing that last line, but if the racial group's power dynamic is all that counts, isn't that true? Is Margaret Cho okay to make fun of Cyrus because Cho has no power in the industry and Cyrus is a gazillionaire at 17. By the way Margaret, people who are well adjusted make fun of each others' race (like in the picture) it's our way of saying it doesn't matter.
Here’s a better question: “Why isn’t racism against Southern Whites taboo?”
Well, it's because… um… well.. y'know… they're, like, white. Being biased against white people doesn't seem to fit into the conventional definition of racism.
Underling-
You, Sir, are stirring the pot.
God Bless You.
Most of my Southern White friends are fun, intelligant and hospitable. That's what I think of when I think of Southern White. They only Southern Whites that I know who have been discriminated against are the ones who are gay.
Yes, because the South is the only place that could possibly descriminate against gays, right?
If you want to really infuriate a liberal, tell them that the reason racisim is allowed against whites and not others is because whites are better at taking jokes and aren't as insecure. You'll actually be able to feel the hate radiating from their bodies toward you.
But if you want their heads to explode, try this one: "I'm glad Obama's funding overseas abortion again. . . we need to do something about all these foreignors."
or..maybe we just need to do something about all these bad spellers.
So well put! It couldn't be better quoted. Thanks
I guess the answer is that racism against southern whites is not taboo because when people express racism against them, they don't go batty and whine about being oppressed or slandered or whatever.
Some people are just completely incapable of dealing with adversity. Margaret Cho is one of them.
That would be NASCAR and deep fried foods, but that's just me. When I think of Northern Whites I think of hockey and fried foods. It's really all about fried foods to me. Only Oregon escapes my grasp. . . I have nightmares about Oregon. . . wicca and tofu.
Margaret Cho (angry lesbian) said nothing when Rosie O'Donnel (angry lesbian) made fun of Asian people. How come?
Isn't it a bit presumptuous to think that every time someone pulls at the corners of their eyes they're thinking about Asians? I mean, how many ways can you make a face with your eyes? You can pull at the bottom or pull at the sides. I think there's a lot of projection going on here. I'd give Miley and her friends the benefit of the doubt; people are way to sensitized after the pictures that came out during the Olympics. And since when does taking offense have to equal litigation. The world has gone mad.
P. S. Cho is a publicity whore. This was pretty much a guaranteed score for her.
Tim
Some great points, being a BFH myself, ( big freakin hillbily) please don't forget those BFH's who have made a fortune off of perpetuating the sterotype.
As to Ms. Cho , she is above all else, a business woman and she knows her audience I am not against anybody making a buck off hypocracy or else I would have to bad mouth Al Gore who lived a life of ease provided by his racist Democrat father. Wait I do bad mouth Al Gore. Nevermind
but it does the supreme cts definition
actually college whites have been known to be mean to asians in newsprint….
they are kicking butt in grades and are now at the top of the $$$/year salary category
“Why isn’t racism against Southern Whites taboo?”
Because "Southern White" isn't a race, genius.
Never trust a man who can spell a word only one way.
-Mark Twain
It is an ethnic group. Discimination against an ethnic group is againt the law last time I checked.
Asian immigrants often started out in poorer minority neighbor hoods where the racist belief that "whites are the evil of the worlds" is still a common form of racism.
but racism is "the discrimination of someone because of their color" any color, and no one was excluded from the pic, it was however, maybe silly or dumb but did t look mean or bigoted
Being white(father was scottish/irish, mother was croation)and southern, you can say any damn thing you want to say to me, about me or behind my back. Now, I have the same privilege. Don't whine about it or ask for the "guvment" to help your ass when the words come back to you in spades.
I hate whiners and people who claim to be offended by words(free speech).
BFH's will take any amount of joking and stereotyping about their culture, as long as the person doing it is another BFH.
Anyone looking for racionality in how the left deals with issues of race is wasting their time. The only decent thing to do is make fun of everyone from trailer trash to beta male liberal pussies to dorky Asians who can't drive cars to save their lives. The only reasonable way to "celebrate" diversity is by having fun with it.
That should be "rationality."
Take a look on any liberal site, or youtube for that matter and see how many insulting comments and videos are directed at "rednecks", you'll find quite a lot. And there was a post on Big Hollywood not too long ago about Hollywood always portraying "rednecks" as bad people.
Correcting "Wikipediabias" link above: http://wikipediabias.com/valerie-jarrett-obama-ad... .
This thread won't take my comments! It's making me crazy!
Cho did it for the publicity– that's all I'm trying to say. Sheesh.
On the other hand, O! can scratch his face with his middle finger whilst talking of his rival?
Civility NOW!!!
Me too. Even the comment about my comments not appearing vanished — after it posted.
I agree she did it for the publicity. I find it unbelievable that someone who made a career of making "racist" jokes against her own race would then be upset by something as truly minor as this.
Agreed…Ms. Cho(ke) is vulgar and mean, and she does produce publicity. I see a competition materializing in the future. Margaret on one side of the stage, and Larry, The Cable Guy on the other. Scoring can begin with income generated by each in the last year, and from there, genuine comedy from each as they spar in front of a live audience. Pay-per-view at its best.
Is that a pic of Cho? If so, who photoshopped it to actually make her look f**kable? Racism against everyone but whites is wrong, you all should know that.
Hmm, why isn't racism against Southern Whites taboo? I know. Southern Whites do not constitute a race. But hey, other than that…
Ahh, don't mess with Portland. One of the last rock and roll cities in America. And I mean that in a good way. And you're as likely to enjoy absinthe as tofu.
But wait until the government runs this country out of money and food…a country boy can survive and when the hollyweirds come trying to buy food from us, all I'll have is my Mossburg to show them.
too busy munching on each other
Who is tired of the Racism card?
Whites can't say anything about anyone. To do so would be racist. That's okay, because at the end of the day, it's the White race that has wiped out disease, stopped Naziism and Communism in their tracks and generally created a better place for everyone to live in. Africa? Self-imposed hellhole with no hope for prosperity ever, populated by a majority of blacks. Asia? Overpopulated, too polluted (and getting worse), populated by a majority of Yellows. South America? Collection of socialist hellholes in the jungles and mountains of places no one else wants to visit, populated by a majority of Browns. Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand? Stable governments, comfortable, clean… and populated by a majority of WHITES! Coincidence? I think not.
haha Glad you said that, not me.
Get that out of my mind……NOW!!!!!!
This reminds me of Ashley Judd bashing Sarah Palin. Another "has been" desperate to some how get their name and face out there. Margaret Cho needs rent money?
That's not what I was saying.
One could say that General Sherman did a rather good job of victimizing Southern Whites and there is, of course, the victimization of Southern whites by perpetuating the stereotype of the Southern White racist gay-basher.
BTW, your statement about your Southern White friends kind of reminds me of Joe Biden's statement about Obama. – "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean… "
This new comment feature just plain sucks. I've got a comment supposedly out here somewhere too… And this IntenseDebate thing has got to be the worst programmed feature since MySpace.
Proud-
Having served in the U.S military, the most successfully diverse organization in the world, I have to take exception to much of what you write.
Nazism, Communism, and currently, Islamic Jihad, have been fought and defeated by men and women of all colors, creeds, and countries of origin.
The "best" men and women I have known share one trait – INTEGRITY.
Everything else falls into place if you have that.
Respectfully
Absolutely!
Why do people act as though "Southern Whites" somehow 'deserve' bigotry?
See above
Me? It's not racial, it's CULTURAL. I've got the same exact issue with "rednecks" as I do with Islamofascists: They tend to be cruel, backward, hyper-religious and working to bring about by force a world that will be rather unwelcoming to me.
You asked me what did I think of when I think of "Southern White." I answered your question based on what I know about Southern Whites. All I know about Southern Whites is what I've experienced first-hand. How it reminds you of Joe Biden's words is beyond me, but thanks for sharing.
Let me know when the Christians start hacking people's heads off.
White people aren't exceptional by virtue of being white. No race is exceptional by mere virtue of ethnicity.
Fucking slopes.
Neither is "Asian" a race.
You a skier?
Neither is "Asian" a race. The term for the race is Oriental. Indians are Asian they are not Oriental. Slavics are Asian they are not Oriental. If we are going to nit pic about terms simply to be obtuse as least we can apply the correct terms now can't we……
I have been posting on this site off and on since the beginning. I like the new thread feature so we can tell who is replying to whom. But I have to add my complaint to those of other frustrated posters. I have had multiple posts disappear into a black hole. This may be one of them, since I notice my screen writing display is lagging behind my actual typing. I assume these are glitches on a new site which will ultimately be fixed. I'm also among those who are mystified about IntenseDebate. I'm still trying to figure out how to reply to someone who did figure it out and wrote a nice note to me on a different website.
America, Australia and Canada benefit from being English colonies. The system of common law and the organization of the British Empire while having much to disparage such as their inherent ethnocentricity did in fact set up a culture that promoted freedom and fair markets that allowed companies to survive.
I have been to South America and I can tell you that while it is a h@((hole the problems they have stem from the corrupt and autocratic culture set up by the spanish. While in Brazil we went through a police stop where we were extorted for 10 Real or our car would be impounded. The agent who was driving me was in tears that the cops did this and wanted to know if Amercan cops did this same crap. It was a very sobering moment. The Spanish had the idea that you should bribe government officials.
I'm with you. And I mean from both directions. An intelligent discussion which includes the abstraction of "race" is OK in its place. And it would be hard to avoid it when posting to this particular article. What I'm concerned with is that the discussion seems to be getting nastier and nastier. I've had many conversations over the years about race and ethnicity without ever having to resort to crude epithets or racial generalities. I will admit, however, to a certain unease at being one of the few socially acceptable targets of race-speak. I'm a white, Christian, male heterosexual. I'm fairly thick-skinned, but it's getting awfully tiresome being the easy bullseye that bad comedians aim their unfunny comedy at.
Twenty Items of Interest (v.46)…
1. 2009 Ten Best & Worst States on abortion, bioethics and end-of-life concerns. (HT: Reasoned Audacity)
2. New name for the Stimulus Porkulus plan coined by Mike Huckabee this weekend on his show on Fox News. If I find vid…
Check out channels such as MTV and FUSE and you'll see many off hand insults to HAnna Montana, Jonas Brothers and any other such group from the VJs. It is also why they hound Britiny Spears so and revel in her downfall. They think they bring down the Mickey Mouse club in the process. Their afraid that the kids might not break from the new Disney stars which are hip as well as clean cut. This cuts into market share.
Not to mention that Nazism and Communism were started by people who were…gulp…white.
BTW, thanks for your service, SgtRock.
Apparently you've never been stopped by a cop in Chicago.
It's not just from the Spanish. My parents live in Ukraine, and the police there are the same way. Of course, the cops are very understanding too. The court system is overworked, so if you just pay the policeman 50% of the fine, he'll make sure all the proper paperwork is taken care of for you, and you don't have to worry about wasting time in front of a judge or anything….
Margaret Cho? Does she still have a carrer in entertainment?
Lets try this again…
Speaking as a bonafide Northern White: It is hockey and hotdish (that is 'casserole' to all of you not from Minnesota…).
Without Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup, life itself would be impossible…
Again… me 2. Some dozen or so of my comments have disappeared into the ether today.
And the minute they do something which goes against their clean-cut image, the Press-at-large takes it and blazes it across the headlines.
It's not just that posts are disappearing; others, such as the one from 'Individualist' just below this individual thread are being deleted by the admins for no apparent reason.
Once again, admins: this is a Request for Clarification; none of my comments have violated any normal posting guidelines (so far…), and none of the other posters whose comments have been deleted have come across to me as the kind of people whose comments normally need deleting either…
[...] Somebody: Please Face-Kick Margaret Cho [...]
For about the third time at this site let me point out that linking to Wikipedia is a very bad idea, since it ever-so-slightly gives them search engine juice. That helps them maintain their top search position for most terms. For just one of the very many examples of why helping Wikipedia is a bad idea, see this: <a href=”http://wikipediabias.com/valerie-jarrett-obama-ad…” target=”_blank”>http://wikipediabias.com/valerie-jarrett-obama-ad…
Miley Cyrus may be famous, but she's 16. She's just a girl, leave her alone.
As for Cho. Well, Cho's a Ho. I truley believe that when they started doing jokes about her on the Simpsons, it started to destroy the show form within. She's an insult to Asian Crack-taking prostitutes everywhere. I spit on that!
Exactly. Just like making fun of Christians is okay because they don't all go around burning flags and chopping heads when somebody makes a Jesus joke.
PeterP-
Sharp observation on them Nazzi's and Commies.
You're Welcome, I was honored to serve. Thanks for all you do.
Like your posting here.
Europe is in north western Asia, so Europeans are Asians too, occidental Asians as opposed to oriental Asians.
Why is it that whenever someone says something positive about white people, it has to be "neutralized" with a reminder of Nazism? Not to diminish the horrors that the Nazis perpetrated, BUT…compared to the constant butchery that has been going on Africa for millenia, and throughout Asia, Nazism was merely "blip" in Western history.
Why isn't racism against Southern Whites taboo?
Why did you assume "White Trash" meant 'Southern'? Have you ever been to Vermont? 50% of the state's on welfare.
Margaret Cho hasn't been funny or relavent in 15 years. She's looking to get her name in the paper. Have you noticed how black people kind of ruin everything.
Or, we can do something about people who start sentences without using capital letters.
On a similar note, I once got into an argument with some relatives from Maryland over making English the official language of the USA back in the mid-90's.
When I said I agreed with that sentiment they turned and looked at me like I had suddenly walked into the room wearing wearing a brownshirt, jackboots, and a swastika armband….
(Needless to say, after I made a cogent argument as to why we should make English the official language the subject was quickly dropped…)
Where's Cho's screed against David Bowie?
Where's her screed against Rosie "Ching Chong" O'Donnell? Or is Rosie exempt because she's also a fellow lesbian?
Cho never had a career to speak of. She had a (mercifully) short-lived ABC sitcom, a few years of well-deserved oblivion after that, and has found a niche pandering to the prejudices of urban gay men.
Ace of Spades had a brilliant takedown of her "act" a few years ago.
M. Cho has an unusually large head, an angry demeanor and couldn't mouth a funny line if it was tattooed on an audience members …………… um groin. Three things that make a career in today's show business.
Yes Pat ..I'd like to solve the puzzle……..is it Tokyo Rosie McDonald?
JLP
Um..actually that's O'Donnel not McDonald.
If you buy tickets to Margret Cho's next show you get $20 in free tokens for the Pow-Wow room.
JLP
Please Tim, if you must bring Margaret Cho into the debate, please leave out her picture.
The reason we can't talk about race or make fun of anyone who isn't white is because we have lost free speech.
Used to be the culture took care of policing itself. There were words I could not say as a child and I got a whuppin'I said them (that's illegal now, too, I guess). By the way, I'm a WASSP – White, Anglo-Saxon, Southern, Protestant.
My religion (Christianity) is vilified and misrepresented by the "intelligentsia" (Christians are just as dangerous as Muslims – Tell THAT to Daniel Pearl). Being a Grit, I'm supposed to be an ign'runt redneck white cracker without any teeth who beats his wife (if a male) and secretly wants to make it with the boy next door (see "American Beauty").
But what really pisses off the Lefties, blacks, Asians, GD Yankees et al, is that I don't give a sh** . That's the Grit's true sin.
Should be "I don't give a sh** what they think or say".
Same here, all but one post I made yesterday has since vanished. and many posts I've made through out the whole time here have also gone into the great black hole of comments deleted for no reason.
All my comment on here stated was that the opinions of white male christians are deem irellevant because it is assumed that they benefited from the above majorities.
I don't see the trolls getting their posts delted, why should legitimate posts be deleted?
You must have seen a different "American Beauty" than I did. RE: "secretly wants to make it with the boy next door." Lester Burnham bought pot from the boy next door and wanted to make it with his daughter's girlfriend. The boy next door's father mistakenly thought Lester wanted to make it with his son.
Wow, there is a lot of anymosity towards Cho here. Why is that most of the people here can't say, "she's a publicity hound" and leave it at that? All this additional bile is a shocking and a bit unnecessary. I think some of her stand-up I've seen in the past is hilarious. Who really cares about this whole Cyrus thing? Why even bat an eye?
I suppose that's the question, isn't it? What is there to care about the Cyrus thing? Nothing at all.
Why the animosity? I think it has quite a bit to do with the fact that *because* Miley is white, she has to watch her every move and think about such things as whether or not making funny faces is going to be pounced on by the perpetually offended, and that she will be made to apologize no matter what the truth of the matter is, simply because she *is* white, and that's what white people have to do.
In 1994 when she had her own sit-com, because Cho was overweight, she had to watch every calorie she consumed and was put under intense scrutiny to keep herself skinny. She didn't and her show was canceled. Nevermind that it wasn't that good. There are lots of bad sit-coms that stay on the air (Big Bang Theory, Rules of Engagement). She was young woman with her own show and she couldn't stay thin, so ABC pulled the plug after less than half a season.
Is my point that Cho was victim? No. Am I trying to create sympathy for Cho? No. My point it that no one is immuned from the scrutiny of the media. If you live in the lime-light, that's the price that every celebrity has to pay, regardless if they're white or Asian.
If it had been "That's So Raven" Simone making the eyes with her friends, the same thing would have happened. Raven isn't white. Do I agree with it? Not really. I could care less. That you think Cho's remarks are a personal assault on a white's free speech to be in idiot … well we all choose out battles.
I wasn't speaking of Lester but rather the gun-toting repressed homosexual who I believe shot himself.
I don't remember much about the film. I thought it was pretty substandard for a movie.
The gun-toting repressed homosexual who shot himself didn't want to make it with the boy next door. The boy next door lived inside his house and was his son. I think it's interesting how you associated repressed homosexuality with pedophilia. I do believe the two aren't mutually exclusive of one another. In fact, I think they're related to each other.
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