Why Is It "Racist" And Awful?
...To pretend to be a person who's a Rastafarian or an Indian in a video (intended to be funny), where few people would likely have complaints if you pretended to be French (save for the fact that these particular people did the pretending during working hours)? From the Telegraph:
'Both men were wearing mops on their heads. They looked like they were smoking illegal substances, otherwise known as spliffs, and drinking cans of beer. They were talking in Jamaican accents.'In another called 'Shaky' she said Faulconbridge was caught imitating the laugh of an Indian doctor called Fateh Shakewat.
Ms Ryan said that other videos filmed by Holland included a doctor pretending to be a character from The Simpsons and staff eating at a buffet.
She said: 'All the videos were made during working hours. While there isn't any suggestion that filming was during an operation, nevertheless both men were at work and meant to be working.'
In the 80s, people would have thought they were skits from "In Living Color".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jpu5_3qk4KM&feature=related
Flynne at March 9, 2010 8:24 AM
The quick answer is that we've gone over the top on "political correctness". Waaaaay over the top.
But a longer answer is that this isn't anything new, and that someone pretending to be French and thus making fun of the French is also considered offensive. It's just that there are fewer people who bother themselves to take offense, and they generally don't complain.
But there have been complaints over the years from Italian-American groups (about the "Mamma mia, that's-a some-a spicy meatball" Alka Seltzer ad, and about the depictions of Italians in things like The Sopranos), from German-American groups (about depictions of Germans as Nazi-like), from Jewish groups, and so on.
We're just most sensitive right now to issues about blacks and Muslims, and complaints from those groups. It ebbs and flows.
Barry Leiba at March 9, 2010 8:26 AM
It ebbs and flows.
Posted by: Barry Leiba
It ebbs and flows? Are you seriouly making a comparison about people with the tide?
How dae you, why do you hate the oceans so much hydrocist?
lujlp at March 9, 2010 10:08 AM
As a member of AFAAAL I am deeply offended of the mockery of The Simpon's characters! This discrimmnation against animated actors has to stop!
AFAAAL = Americans For the Acceptance of Animated Actors League
The Former Banker at March 9, 2010 7:55 PM
As long as we're talking about over-the-top PCness, how about those students who spread cotton balls in front of a Black Cultural Center?
First, it is a hell of a stretch to call this racist. The students have (wisely) not said what their motiviation was, but is this really racist?
Far more important: Do I not have a right to hold - and express - opinions that others may find offensive? Are we such milque-toast people that we cannot survive someone expressing opinions that we may disagree with?
For a real shocker, read the local comments after the various local articles (that's only one link above - there are lots). Frighteningly, most people apparently think dumping out a couple of bags of cotton is worth a felony charge. I suppose the next step it to make felons out of anyone caught TPing a tree at halloween?
bradley13 at March 10, 2010 12:13 AM
No, it's not racist, and I think putting on a fake nose and doing a video of a Jewish banker screwing people out their life savings would be hilarious and go a long way towards stopping anti-Semitism.
It's just a good way to defuse tensions, like hanging a noose in a black man's tree or a bloodied dummy of Jonbenet Ramsey in front of a little girl's beauty pageant, or holding up huge graphic posters of aborted fetuses in front of an abortion clinic while distraught pregnant teen girls try to get inside.
All in good fun. People should just get over their PC silliness and accept that they're hated for their skin color, religion, beliefs, and whatever else the normal people decide is worth mocking!
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at March 10, 2010 8:48 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2010/03/09/why_is_it_racis.html#comment-1700841">comment from Gog_Magog_Carpet_ReclaimersThere's hating people for their skin color and I think that's something different. An New York Jewish friend of mine, who looks rather like Gandhi, plus 100 lbs, does an Indian accent to make me laugh. Not because he hates Indians, but because they have this musical way of talking.
Amy Alkon at March 10, 2010 9:03 AM
"does an Indian accent to make me laugh"
But that's part of the issue, isn't it? You're having a private conversation with a friend and playing on stereotypes, not creating videos or throwing symbols of murder and slavery all over someone's front lawn.
I think all of us have been made fun of by someone we know at some point, and hopefully we've had to nod our heads and laugh and say 'yeah, I know, I've got an accent/big nose/boatload of cornball one-liners'. But if they had made a video of it or published it in the paper and risked making us outcasts in our own communities that would be an entirely different situation.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at March 10, 2010 9:10 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2010/03/09/why_is_it_racis.html#comment-1700844">comment from Gog_Magog_Carpet_ReclaimersThe guys seemed to be playing dress-up and accent-up. The mere imitation of somebody's pattern of speech isn't -- to me -- racism.
Amy Alkon at March 10, 2010 9:12 AM
All in good fun. People should just get over their PC silliness and accept that they're hated for their skin color, religion, beliefs, and whatever else the normal people decide is worth mocking!
I wouldn't call what they did 'right' or 'good' but was the content of the videos worthy of ruining someone's career? I'm more upset that they were being paid a salary while screwing (a cost that is passed on to the patients) than the content of some stupid videos.
-Julie
JulieW at March 10, 2010 10:19 AM
That should have read,
"...being paid a salary while screwing around."
-Julie
JulieW at March 10, 2010 10:20 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbud8rLejLM&feature=related
Everyones a little bit racist.
Ginny at March 10, 2010 4:25 PM
I love this comment:
"We should've been using our work time more effectively"
As if to say, well yeah we *were* using our work time effectively by dressing as Rastafarians smoking spliffs and making a video, just not *as* effectively as we *should've* been, that's all.
Lobster at March 10, 2010 5:38 PM
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