So you say racism is dead, huh?

[gaspee]

Check out the Yahoo boards on Heidi Klum's new child. Kinda makes me real proud to be an American. not.

That's about all you need to know about race relations, isn't it. The internet is really helpful if you want to know what people really think, behind the anonymity of their keyboard.

clickity click

[kentuck]

1. A fish rots from the head first...

the leaders set the tone for national discussions and attitudes...

[LARED]

2. Wow, pretty foul stuff

But I would not assume these are all American idiots.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

3. Oh my God.

Makes me embarrassed to be white.
Duckie

[marmar]

4. That seems to be typical on a lot of those Yahoo discussion boards...

The anonymity allows the bigots to let their hate flow freely.

[EdwardM]

5. Yahoo message boards have been full of trolls for years now.

[acmejack]

6. I don't do those boards.

They are those with stronger stomachs than I. For the record, I have never been naive enough to be heard to say that racism is dead! I have been heard to say many, many stupid things, however comma...

[Azathoth]

7. Yahoo boards are usually infested with trolls and Stormfront nutjobs

They do not represent a valid cross-section of society :)

[Boojatta]

15. You're probably right.

Ironically, the results of online polls are probably no more representative than posted comments, even if the poll questions and poll answer options are designed to not be biased or confusing. So it would not necessarily do any good to increase the number of participants to the point where it would be impractical to read all of their individual comments.

[AIJ Alom]

8. That is terrible. But then again those who do not understand love

or are shackled to beliefs that are against their true nature and are products of a vile environment will never understand a love as beautiful as that of Heidi and Seal.

[originalpckelly]

9. How much do you want to bet that those people are over 40?

Yeah, there's still racism in this country, and it comes from the mouths of the older people in our country. You didn't leave that bullshit in the past. People of my generation should know better than to believe the crap about "seeing the light." (Maybe they just meant seeing "light skinned people".)

I bet if you do a survey about bigotry in America, you'll find very few people under 40 who feel any bigotry whatsoever.

[Boojatta]

17. Doesn't Yahoo's privacy policy mean that there's no risk to you of

finding out that you lost the bet?

My guess is that racism is like astrology in at least one respect. It's old and passed from the older to the younger, but most of the young who pay any attention to it probably decide, as they get older, that it's not worthy of their attention.

Of course, racism is in many respects different from astrology. Racism sometimes has a role in crime, so people tend to respect racists (in one sense of the word "respect") at least a bit more than the late Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin respected the creatures that he got too close to.

[marmar]

18. Definitely less so, but there's still plenty in that age group too.

I discovered that just listening to teens and twentysomethings talk in a mall near Durham, N.C., a couple of years ago. We've still got a long way to go.

[Selteri]

19. There is still racism in the under 40s.

I've seen plenty of racism in those under 40, but it isn't as strong, it's not such an overriding hatred when it appears but moe often a distrust. Compared to the over 40 and then over 60 and over 80 crowd the numbers do cotinue to reduce in successive generations.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

24. Racists under 40? You bet!

If you think there's no racism in the under-40 crowd, then you've never worked on a college campus or in a program for street youth whose clientele included skinheads.

I occasionally see racist grafitti here in Minneapolis, and I find it hard to imagine a bunch of 40-year-olds going around with spray paint in the middle of the night.

Younger people may have been socialized to hide their racism, but it comes out in places like Yahoo message boards.

[Sparkly]

28. Yup, seen it on AOL, too.

They didn't strike me as adults (but who knows)...

Sickening.

[mcscajun]

20. Ageism rears its ugly head?

There are plenty of under-40 racists. I've got one in my own extended family.

[fishwax]

27. I think you'd lose that bet

There is still a lot of racism in the under 40 crowd. Not as overt as in previous generations, perhaps, but it's there.

[Yukari Yakumo]

33. $0

Most of the comments are probably coming from 14-year-olds who think its cool to troll like this.

[mark414]

35. the survey would probably be what you say it would be

because nobody would admit to it

and sure there's a lot of kids my age who wouldn't be an out and out racist like in "the old days" but i can assure you that there are a shitload of people under 40 who are racist as hell (i am 21)

[etherealtruth]

39. I actually think racism is getting worse ...

Yes, I am over 40.

As a child growing up in the 1970's it seemed to us that racism was a serious problem; a problem that could be addressed and eventually overcome. It was something that we realized needed to be actively addressed. I don't see that now. (No I am not denying that there are racists among my cohorts; I don't see any less of it among yours)

I think that there was an upsurge in racist behavior and attitudes during the Reagan years and an other resurgence under the Chimp and his cabal. The language and actions of the racists have changed ... but they're there and just as dangerous to society.

[H2O Man]

42. Wrong.

Perhaps you should take a few minutes and read some of the information that is provided by the Southern Poverty Law Center on the topic.

[lapfog_1]

10. Refuse to read the messages, just the titles made me sick.

But you shouldn't read that much into this. Even if only a few thousand people hate the way these people hate, you would still see the same amount of idiotic postings. And a few thousand would be a great improvement from when I was a kid. I know, it's probably more than that.. but I can hope we are headed in the right direction. Takes generations to get there, and that's with effort (which has been slacking off recently). Object lesson for NOT getting there... look at the middle east.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

11. I never go to the Yahoo boards

after a couple of forays years ago, when my very name brought out vileness and hatred. Funny thing is that those using invectives very likely would not have the nerve to say them to a person's face.

[Buzz Clik]

12. There are everyday posters at DU who, if allowed, would say similar things.

Don't believe it? Check out the Kramer/Richards threads for some real eyepopping, intolerant comments.

Oh, and just wait -- as soon as the animals wake up, they'll be posting here, too.

[Bassic]

13. Yes, Egyptians were white and Jesus clearly had blonde hair

and blue eyes.

Edit: That discussion is revolting.

[RaleighNCDUer]

14. I don't know or care who the child's father is, but with Heidi Klum

as the mother I guarantee the kid will be gorgeous.

And, there, I slip into the even more prevelant prejudice -- the making of snap decisions based on attractiveness.

[Selteri]

16. If only Racism were truly dead.

I don't even need to look at the comments to know how alive racism is. My mother is trapped in an efeet type of racism where she follows background judgementalistic prejudice where they have to prove themselves in her eyes before she considers them worth being considered a (Insert racial epitaph here) though her racism for arabic people runs so deep it boarders on comedic to me.

[NavyDavy]

21. I am totally against racism...but some people on here

try to make it out that its only white people that are racist, when the truth is all peoples have some sort of bigotry in them.....

[Ms. Clio]

25. this is a common error, so let me try to explain

It is quite accurate that people of many different races and ethnicities often express prejudiced and bigoted statements about each other.

The point is POWER -- which race or ethnicity has the economic,political, and social power to act on those prejudices and terrorize, oppress, or otherwise harm vast numbers of people of other races, ethnicities, etc. Historically, of course, in this country it has been whites/Anglos with that power.

[nini]

30. Discrimination is what you are describing

Anyone can be racist regardless of money or power. Being able to discriminate'' is about power as you describe.

[mondo joe]

48. I agree. Power can make racism more impactful.

But anyone can be racist.

[Ms. Clio]

49. I was thinking about institutionalized racism

which I was discussing with someone here a couple of days ago.

And that's the type of racism that does gives one race the power to discriminate against people of another race, or adversely impact the lives of others on a broad scale throughout the entire society.

[nini]

31. not all people have bigotry in them

Do we see race in people? yes, it's impossible to look at a person and not see if they're black, white, asian -whatever.

Treating someone differently because of the race you see is where the bigot stuff comes into play. Beleive it or not there are some people who are capable of treating EVERYONE like a human being and not mistreat others because they are different than they are.

But it is true there are bigots in all colors and cultures - which shouldn't surprise anyone since all these people are human with all the weaknesses, fears and ignorance that can go with being so.

[zanne]

22. I'd have to put 90% of them on "ignore".

I may be naive, but I think the Yahoo message boards are a haven for some bad-boy, racist, homophobic, misosgynistic "club" who post messages like these for shock value. On an internet message board like Yahoo, a small group can take over a board and make it whatever they want it to be. I hope I'm right about this. If I'm wrong...well, I just don't want to think about it.

[Boojatta]

38. Hmmm

If I'm wrong...well, I just don't want to think about it.

Ironically, after making the occasional claim that is not vague (so that it can either be actually proven true or actually disproven), many racists have probably said exactly those words.

[zanne]

43. Huh?

[Boojatta]

47. There are various systems of dogma.

There is racist dogma; there is religious dogma; and so on. Now, consider the title "Defender of the Faith." Such a title has had positive connotations at various times, in various places. However, does it deserve to have positive connotations?

Consider this title: "Defender of Falsehood and Incoherent Babble." That has negative connotations. Evidently, it is very important for the defended faith to actually be coherent and true. However, until we have established that a given faith is the truth, we have to admit that it might be false.

The easiest way to deal with a warning alarm is to turn it off and do nothing. Of course, it might not be the best way to deal with it, but it's the easiest way.

One could expand the title

"Defender of the Faith"

into

"Defender of a Faith which is the truth, unless of course it happens to be false. If it's false, then -- well, I just don't want to think about that possibility."

[leftofthedial]

23. I loathe all races equally

am I a racist?

[gollygee]

26. Not only is racism not dead

I hear kids (teens, young 20s) talking in ways that we NEVER would have when we were that age. I think it's getting worse.

[nini]

29. racism is not dead and never will completely disappear

there will always be some that are insecure and hateful and turn to racist hate to give them some sense of superiority.


the yahoo boards are full of assholes who hide behind their keyboards and spew out hate that is meant to be shocking and hurtful. They have no lives to speak of and they get off by posting their hate. I can't stomach the yahoo boards.

[Cleita]

32. Hmmm! The have an alert function called a report function.

I reported the most awful comment there. I think all of you,who think these comments are over the line, could use the report function too.

[mark414]

34. i hate seal not because he's black

but because he's married to heidi klum

bastard :mad:

[k_jerome]

36. ha. this is about the funniest post I have read in a while. nt.

[gaspee]

37. Funny how?

If you've been reading any of the threads on here about the whole Richards thing, you'd know that a lot of DU'ers think Racism is a thing of the past, that ythe Republicans really have discarded their southern strategy and that affirmative action is not needed because -- OMG, amuricans aren't leki racists anymore!1!1!

So, how is this a funny post?

[k_jerome]

40. funny ha ha. nt.

[Jed Dilligan]

41. It is funny

how people who see the Richards outburst for what it was are labeled racism deniers.

Like your interpretation of the outburst is a litmus test for your beliefs about the existence of racism.

Racists: Dick Cheney. William Bratton. Rudy Giuliani. John McCain.

Crazy, bad comic not worth talking about: Michael Richards.

[gaspee]

45. You have some very interesting posts

And not in the, gee, he's making sense, kind of way, either. Just to be clear.

[Jed Dilligan]

50. Well, why not link to some

I'm sure anyone reading this is dying to know what you find "interesting."

[Generic Other]

44. That makes me ashamed to be part white

but not surprised.

[BlooInBloo]

51. There are plenty of reasons for both pride and shame in being anything....

... I personally don't see much reason to dwell on it - beyond the frank acknowledgment of facts - beyond that, it imo a more useful application of one's energies to consider what can be done to improve things.

Just my MO. ymmmv.

[mondo joe]

46. I missed anyone saying racism is dead.

Who would say such an obviously untrue thing?

That said, nothing good ever came of the Yahoo boards.

[BlooInBloo]

52. Much like with code phrases like "states rights", white folks have found a jillion and one ways...

... to say, with perfect clarity, that racism is gone - and yet still maintain something that passes for plausible deniability among, well, white folks. lol!

It's good to be king.


EDIT: The reason *why* white folks go through such an elaborate charade is pretty obvious: to attenuate the cognitive dissonance they experience, WITHOUT having to inhibit racism.


EDIT EDIT: The plausible deniability of which I spoke is well-exemplified by your post.