So there is another racist thread in GD.

[Cleita]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1890126

I believe it is racist because the OP has put up an ancedotal story and I believe the purpose is to stir up hatred for the immigrants again.

If there is a problem in that neighborhood shouldn't the residents complain to the authorities so they can investigate what is going on? Why does that poster have to bring it to an internet bulletin board? If it was a story in the news, then it's a legitimate item for discussion but I think just putting up stuff like this is to stir the pot.

Should we petition DU to put a stop on this somehow? What ideas can we petition Skinner with so that we don't appear to be a bunch of whiners?

[Cleita]

1. Another thought about this.

What if a DUer from say Alabama where it's illegal to be gay (I think)put up a post about an apartment full of gays on their street, living in crowded conditions and peeing on the street. I think the Mods would have that thread pulled pretty quickly. Why don't we Hispanics get the same consideration. The big excuse is that it's because they aren't here legally. Well, how about gays in states with sodomy laws? They aren't legal either. Yet, no one would dare do this on DU, because they shouldn't. I hate double standards.

[Lost-in-FL]

6. Thanks for pointing out the thread

I think we should allow this conversations to happen so we can educate bigots by pointing out their ignorance. Nada mejor que enseñarle a personas sobre su propia ignorancia, AL FRENTE DE TODO EL MUNDO Para que se averguenzen.

If the neighborhood is having this situation and it worsen it is because of their own making. They are not taking responsibility as citizens and that is not helping anyone (not even the immigrants). It just creates the perfect environment for hatred and intolerance.

What the heck? They complaint that there are illegals (if indeed they are) but they don't call the landlords and threaten him with calling immigration on his ass so he can do something about it? Overcrowding can endanger people lives and something needs to be done before someone gets killed due to a fire, shooting (if things are indeed that bad! :sarcasm: ) etc.

[Cleita]

7. What you said...

They complaint that there are illegals (if indeed they are) but they don't call the landlords and threaten him with calling immigration on his ass so he can do something about it?

This is why I think this is BS and the poster who regularly does this is race baiting. I have noticed that only these threads against hispanics are allowed to remain up. I don't think anything similar about Blacks or gays, or Asians would be tolerated this way.

[Popol Vuh]

2. Thank you Cleita

for pointing out that thread. I posted a couple of posts in it.

As far as allowing that person to post something like that. I say DU should allow someone to out themselves like that. I would like to see who and how many are like that.

All we need to do is drop history and truth on their heads when we see them post something like that.

Well.....that's my opinion anyway..

[Cleita]

4. We already tried that.

They aren't interested. Maestro posted many masterfullyinformative threads about this and the perpetrators of these threads don't participate when we speak the truth. The threads they do participate in are nothing more than race baiting and stirring the pot of hatred. I think we need to get them banned somehow without banning honest discourse.

I was going to write Skinner about this and realized I don't have my thoughts well organized for this. I think it will take some brainstorming from our group before we approach Skinner.

[RagingInMiami]

3. I agree it's race-baiting because it's always the same poster

But I don't think we need to petition Skinner. If anything, we should post on the thread why we believe it's race-baiting.

But I honestly so get so tired of it that I just end up ignoring it because frankly, I have work to do while I'm on the computer.

[Cleita]

5. Me too and beware of calling the threads racist in origin

on the thread in question. Then you will see the mods in action because all the trigger happy alert fingers go into overdrive. You will not come out ahead.

I believe we need Skinner to come up with some rules on this so that we can alert. I have alerted on some of the most vile accusations against the immigrants and had my post removed not theirs. It's really a problem.

[Lost-in-FL]

8. Just post a warning here in the Latino thread

when you see a thread like that and we come to the rescue by sending alerts too!!

We have to stick together.

[Cleita]

9. For the record.

That thread really bounced my ignore list up. It seems like our only defense right now.

[Lost-in-FL]

10. I have an idea

Inmigration is not a MEXICAN only problem. There's lots of people from other countries trying to reach the US. What we really need here is an IMMIGRATION ISSUES Forum so we can move those posts from the GD to that new forum.

Ademas de eso, uno de nosotros debe convertirse en moderador para asi tener la autoridad de señalar los mensages abiertamente racistas. Esta es la unica forma de tener una voz en esta comunidad. I don't think I'll be able to do that since I lack the political knowledge to do such job. What do you guys think?

[Cleita]

11. That's a brilliant idea.

Let's do it.

It's true. I met all kinds of illegal immigrants when I lived in Los Angeles from all over the world and I think I met more European illegals than I did hispanic and yet it seems that the hispanic illegals are the only ones targeted.

[EFerrari]

12. I just scanned this thread. And, I have been thinking about putting

up a poll in GD -- to poll people's experience with discrimination. Because there is a substantial number of posters at DU who seem totally unaware that bigotry is again on the rise in every form. There were comments on the Cynthia McKinney threads last week that made me nauseaus.

As to ignore lists, before I cleared mine the last time, there were over 150 people on it and I'd put these folks there because I couldn't take the bigotry any more. :(

What do you think about using a poll to raise awareness (where that is even possible)?

[Cleita]

13. I dunno.

I put up a post in GD, oh a year or so ago titled, "You might be a racist if.."

I listed about ten signs of racism. It started such a flame war (not my intention) that it got locked eventually and pulled. I mean I was just pointing out some things that people don't even realize are racist until you present it to them.

I would tread very warily with that.

[EFerrari]

14. Okay, I just saw this. Yes, it could start a flame war. I'll try to

be careful. If nothing else, my upbringing taught me to take care of the concerns of others.

lol

[desi]

15. I believe the most important question was not answered by the OP

in that thread. How does her "relative" know for certain that the "lowlifes," as she has described them, are illegal immigrants much less Mexican illegals? We live in a three bedroom house and at any given time there may be six/seven cars here and over a dozen people in our home. We have six children (only two remain in the "nest") and they have many friends who visit. And Yes we have had problems with the Bushbot next door BUT we simply ignore the ignorant.

[Cleita]

16. That whole thread was deliberately written to inflame.

All my life I have heard complaints about this or that ethnicity. There is always some reference to dirty habits, whether it's about latrine habits, bugs in the food they offer you, how their kids always have dirty diapers, how they let garbage accumulate where they live and so on. I have heard the same horrid accusations said of African Americans, Asians, Persians and other ethnicities besides hispanics all my life and I am really fed up with it.

[EFerrari]

17. I agree. The OP was racist flamebait and I was shocked that

it stayed up.

[desi]

19. Agreed, and sad ain't it?

I contacted the mods about a racist post in the Lounge some time ago, we did not have the Alert feature then, and they did not remove the post but warned the poster. :shrug:

[EFerrari]

20. I can see where the mods probably want to err on the side

of free speech. But, those posts are hurtful and not community builders, that's for sure.

[Cleita]

22. If anyone put up something similar about blacks or gays

the thread would be pulled and the OP probably banned, which is one of the reasons I haven't done it just to prove a point.

[EFerrari]

24. I think you're right -- although those Cynthia McKinney threads

got really, really ugly.

[Cleita]

25. I didn't read any of those. I'm glad I didn't now.

I would have probably blown a gasket. I don't believe in criticizing any of our elected Dems except Leiberman and Feinstein.

[EFerrari]

28. LOL! I'm particularly nuts on Feinstein so I don't even post what I think

I'm glad you didn't read them,too.

McKinney is messy. She doesn't fit any mold and that enfuriates people. And aside from being Black, she's a she. That alone riles people.

I hope we can keep having a constructive conversation about bigotry in all its forms here on DU. Because I know for sure that it will be ramped up, it will get worse. If we can predict that, maybe we can be a little more ready to deal with it in a useful or kind way.

[desi]

18. There's no doubt that it was entirely racist.

I hope that you did not think that I was posting/asking that you should "ignore the ignorant."

Is it not sad that the wingnuts can not lay claim to all of Amerika's racists, bigots, homophobes, xenophobes, jingoists, etc, etc?

As "brown" Puerto Ricans living in NYC we learned about racism early in our lives. Our children from a "mixed marriage" (my wife is Slovenian-US born) were known as the "brown kids from the corner house" and to this day they still say "We once lived in KLANsas." Yes we have racists in our party and I don't believe that will change anytime soon...if ever. That poster, IMHO, is as racist today as she was on the day that she posted that nonsense in spite of the many posters who rightfully took her to task.

a little sidebar: My wife's grandmother made a comment one Summer day when she saw the tan line between my back and my "white ass." She said "Oh, he's white." My wife and I just looked at each other and smiled. We both knew she was wrong, an idiot and sadly she died an ignorant person, but we knew it was futile for us to attempt to educate her or change her evil ways.

[EFerrari]

21. My grandma and even some of my Salvadoran relatives

privilege "whiteness". I've never spent a lot of time in El Salvador but the racism everywhere visible there was really appalling. It felt really different than the time I visited Mexico. Maybe because it is so small. But, my grandma's favorite son was the fair one. And I suspect that in many families, that is still true. :(

[Cleita]

23. It's true.

Latinos are ashamed of their browness. My mother used to comb lemon juice through my hair and make me dry it in the sun to bleach my medium brown hair even lighter. She used to berate me for getting tanned and when my hair finally turned almost black when I grew up she accused me of deliberately dying it black. If there had been contacts back then to change the color of your eyes, she would have made me wear a blue pair, I'm certain. I believe this is why Eva Peron and her successor Juan Peron's next wife, (I forgot her name, Isabella I think) both bleached their hair blond because they felt it would make them more attractive to the people.

[EFerrari]

26. I wonder what you mom and my grandma would have made of

Rita Coolidge. I don't think I've ever seen a more beautiful woman. :)

[Cleita]

27. She is.

They had a documentary about her and her sisters a long time ago on LinkTV. She's native American but her family didn't encourage them in their own culture. She and her sisters had to learn about it on their own.

My mother would have admired her, like she did many brown people. She even enjoyed that a lot of people thought she looked like Lena Horne. However, there was still that idea "que rubia es mejor".