Hey refugee/racist people, get your own thread September 11, 2005 7:20 AM   Subscribe

Hey refugee/racist people, get your own thread. Eight comments into it, the troll succeeds and we're no longer talking about the camps. Good work.
posted by tomharpel to Etiquette/Policy at 7:20 AM (80 comments total)

...how bad the evacuee (or 'refugee' for you racist bastards)... didn't exactly help.
posted by jikel_morten at 7:27 AM on September 11, 2005


Come on, if the poster brings it up it isn't a derail.
posted by Mitheral at 7:31 AM on September 11, 2005


I don't quite understand how "refugee" is racist either. My mother was a refugee after the Second World War, and as a Prussian, she's about as "white" as it gets.
posted by Slothrup at 7:32 AM on September 11, 2005


I hate it when antagonistic phrasing interferes with a good point. Michael Moore, for instance.
posted by nthdegx at 7:34 AM on September 11, 2005


Smedleyman ruined his own post, but the treatment in the camps is still an interesting issue.
posted by caddis at 7:34 AM on September 11, 2005


I don't think that word means what you think it means.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:43 AM on September 11, 2005


What Mitheral said.
posted by spacewaitress at 7:54 AM on September 11, 2005


If a word is used to describe a group of people, from many different races, can the word technically be described as a racist word?
posted by DrDoberman at 8:07 AM on September 11, 2005


Taking 'refugee' to be a racist term is in itself racist, surely? And, racist of not, it's being incorrectly applied - under international law, a refugee is by definition someone outside their country. Let's all call them 'displaced persons' from now on.
posted by jack_mo at 8:07 AM on September 11, 2005


Oops - or not of, obviously. Must start using proper Preview again.
posted by jack_mo at 8:09 AM on September 11, 2005


Refugees are NOT a race. So how could that word be racist? If said those "Whitey Refugees" maybe, just maybe I could see that as having a racist basic (other than the fact that I myself am a whitey).
posted by blue_beetle at 8:17 AM on September 11, 2005


The FPP itself was a troll and this callout is a troll. Shame on you both.
posted by Joeforking at 8:20 AM on September 11, 2005


Besides... the term racist is amongst the most overused phrases at MeFi. It's up there with pony, "username wins!" and "nthdegx is wrong".
posted by nthdegx at 8:24 AM on September 11, 2005


Smedlyman: " /btw I'm on sick and on codine so..." ......forgive me for trolling, perhaps? ......try to regard my poor editorializing as a momentary lapse of judgment ??

Calling them refugees isn't racism. It just invites a semantics discussion. And what nthdegx/Mitheral/Caddis/stavrosthewonderchicken et al said.
posted by peacay at 8:35 AM on September 11, 2005


The FPP bemused me, this callout baffles me - since when has "refugee" been a racial slur?
This is exactly the sinister, backward-thinking process which leads "asylum-seeker" to equal "illegal immigrant" in the UK. The ignorant and those wishing to perpetuate the ignorance are so ready to confuse the meanings.

Far more than the stagnant Louisiana waters has turned toxic in the aftermath.
posted by NinjaPirate at 8:40 AM on September 11, 2005


The FPP was an indigestable mix of legitimate articles about Katrina refugees and previously posted (and refuted) tinfoil hat nonsense. We need a tinfoil hat flag. The post deserves a call-out, but this isn't it.
posted by LarryC at 8:44 AM on September 11, 2005


(the use of the word "trifecta" also baffled me, but obviously fleener wasn't trolling, otherwise tomharpel would have brought that up too. Right?)
posted by NinjaPirate at 8:49 AM on September 11, 2005


the troll succeeds and we're no longer talking about the camps. Good work.

For christ's sake, stop misusing the word 'troll'.
posted by Stauf at 10:01 AM on September 11, 2005


To say "refugee" is a racist term is absolutely absurd Orwellian bullshit of the filthiest order.

Accuracy of the word seems secondary to the emotion evoked within the group, described by the word

See, that sort of idea gives me the shivers. No mate, accuracy is never secondary. Accuracy is crucial, especially in these devious, dubious times. Unless you like manipulating meaning to suit your political agenda like a good little propagandist, of course.
posted by Decani at 10:04 AM on September 11, 2005


And also, yes, it's silly to call the person who numbered this "refugee = racist term" nonsense a troll. A troll is someone who knowingly seeks to wind people up for no good reason. If anything, the person responsible for the FPP was closer to a troll than the person who very reasonably questioned him.
posted by Decani at 10:06 AM on September 11, 2005


Okay, the reason that people have objected to "refugee" is that officially it means people displaced from another country. A person displaced within their country is an "internally displaced person".

Some of the survivors have objected to refugee because it implies that they are not American.

I personally always associated the word with "persona in need of refuge", but I will accept that for other people it implies foreign, so will stop using it.
posted by jb at 10:21 AM on September 11, 2005


"internally displaced person" -- what a load of horseshit.
posted by mischief at 11:10 AM on September 11, 2005


tomharpel, the phenomenon we're witnessing with the derail in question is called "agent provocateur", though probably an "unconscious" one.

In this case the "job" is to derail the thread before anybody sorts out and posts anything about any of these places they're putting the refugees that is both accurate and likely to make people upset at the government and the socioeconomic structures it supports with its armed might.

(I feel within my rights to post this comment both in the Blue and the Grey as it applies to both.)
posted by davy at 11:10 AM on September 11, 2005


Oh come on. If circumstances forced people to flee America for some other shore, you can bet that they still wouldn't want to be called "refugees" because to them it still evokes visions of mud-packed huts in some far off land.

Sometimes those who have experienced a great deal of racism have a very difficult time seeing it in themselves.
posted by dreamsign at 11:34 AM on September 11, 2005


Accuracy of the word seems secondary to the emotion evoked within the group, described by the word

See, that sort of idea gives me the shivers. No mate, accuracy is never secondary. Accuracy is crucial, especially in these devious, dubious times. Unless you like manipulating meaning to suit your political agenda like a good little propagandist, of course.


I am buying you a drink, sir, if you happen by my neck of the woods.
posted by dreamsign at 11:38 AM on September 11, 2005


Are the "displaced persons" whom are staying on Cherokee Nation (or any other "xtribe Nation") land refugees?

/troll
posted by weretable and the undead chairs at 11:39 AM on September 11, 2005


Hey weretable, that really does raise a few complex issues.
posted by davy at 11:51 AM on September 11, 2005


So a friend of yours was born and raised by a single mother. This friend's circumstances were such that he grew up keenly aware of missing a parent. In fact his childhood took a toll on his mother, and actually there was a tragic decline and death that's often too tragic to think about. The guy is trying to recover but sometimes you just wish he'd get over it fully and stop being such a self-pitying downer (and to be sure, sometimes he does this to excess). You're sick of worrying about it all the time. It's been a rocky friendship.

So he's having a particularly bad day, and you're playing chess with him. He blunders and you manage to make a good play to come back from a certain loss. You laugh and say "take that you bastard."
posted by fleacircus at 12:03 PM on September 11, 2005


Stop calling everyone and everything a troll! SharQ may have derailed a bit but he hardly was trolling. PeePee is a troll, he says things just to get a rise out of people and make himself the center of attention. This guy was just asking a tangent question.

Stupid callout.
posted by sic at 12:07 PM on September 11, 2005


fleacircus: politically correct = polite. I find that a good rule of thumb.

Calling someone a bastard is never polite. And indeed, the word seems to be starting to drop out of use these days, as one might expect. It sounds mediaeval, slightly. "Mutha" is more modern, though admittedly, in the situation you describe, it might be a little inappropriate.

There are better casual insults we can use, and I think it's worth getting into the habit of using these consciously, so that when that moment of emotion arrives, an acceptably polite casual insult automatically emerges from one's mouth. "Dwarf", for example.
posted by cleardawn at 12:13 PM on September 11, 2005


Inconceivable.
posted by dazed_one at 12:35 PM on September 11, 2005


Wait, "dwarf" is OK? Nobody tells me anything.
posted by fixedgear at 12:41 PM on September 11, 2005


Doesn't 'evacuee' imply that an actual evacuation occurred? And hasn't the whole problem been the sheer lack of anything resembling an evacuation effort and plan? If I had saved my own skin by force of will I don't think I'd want to confuse the issue by implying someone had rescued me. From the moment I began hearing that 'refugee' had somehow become part of the uninformed closet racist lexicon I've been scratching my head. Unless someone can explain why this is so, without incorporating the rhetoric of the chronically oppressed, please go back to the PC lab and try again.
posted by docpops at 1:01 PM on September 11, 2005


Jesse Jackson loses.


AGAIN.
posted by dhoyt at 1:23 PM on September 11, 2005


For the record, I think politically correct terminology, like politically correct thinking, is a stupid counterproductive straightjacket.
posted by davy at 1:33 PM on September 11, 2005


Dhoyt loses.

AGAIN.

Or, to be more specific: The word "refugee" is accurate. However, the American corporate media has invested a great deal of time and money ensuring that Americans regard "Refugees" as worthless, foreign, black, and to blame. After all, it wouldn't do if Americans started regarding African refugees as human beings just like themselves. The whole imperialist-capitalist-neocolonial structure would be threatened by such a perception.

It follows that the NO refugees, who have been subjected to the same media images along with the rest of the viewers, will object to being called "refugees," since they know that they are not worthless, nor foreign, nor to blame - though they are, mostly, black. And Jesse is standing up for their right not to be called these things. This will increase his popularity.

Jesse wins.

To the rest of the US population, especially those watching Fox, however, the NO folks are perceived as worthless, foreign, black, and to blame. "Refugees", for them, will seem the appropriate term - or 'looters', perhaps - and camps with armed guards and forced work schedules will likely seem perfectly appropriate.

God bless America.
posted by cleardawn at 1:41 PM on September 11, 2005


Davy: What do you think of politically incorrect thinking and politically incorrect terminology? Give examples, please.
posted by cleardawn at 1:42 PM on September 11, 2005


So he's having a particularly bad day, and you're playing chess with him. He blunders and you manage to make a good play to come back from a certain loss. You laugh and say "take that you bastard."

However, "bastard" has specifically come into the lexicon as a pejorative. And I agree-- to use what's normally regarded as a light pejorative, usually used in frustration or in a joking sense, towards someone who came from a single parent home is extremely insulting.

However, my objection to complaints about the word "refugee" is that banning its use implies that Americans are "above" being mere refugees. They're not. We now see with out own eyes that Americans can just as easily become refugees as anyone else. In my mind, it's like being reluctant to use the term "destitute" to describe the very poor. No, it's not pleasant to think that people in our own backyards are "destitute," but it's true and we have to deal with that fact.
posted by deanc at 1:55 PM on September 11, 2005


Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee
Refugee

Won't someone please think of the refugees?
while you ponder these oh so weighty questions they sit and suffer, get a life and get to work on something that matters
posted by caddis at 2:12 PM on September 11, 2005


cleardawn, deanc: never come to Australia. You won't like it. Silly bastard, clever bastard, lucky bastard...
posted by Pinback at 2:16 PM on September 11, 2005


MetaFilter: while you ponder these oh so weighty questions they sit and suffer

MetaFilter: get a life and get to work on something that matters

Pinback: I'm from northern England. Fucking bastard, stupid fucking bastard, bloody stupid fucking bastard, cunt.

(I feel better now).
posted by cleardawn at 2:23 PM on September 11, 2005


the American corporate media has invested a great deal of time and money ensuring that Americans regard "Refugees" as worthless, foreign, black, and to blame. After all, it wouldn't do if Americans started regarding African refugees as human beings just like themselves.

I just remembered why this conversation is worthwhile.
posted by dreamsign at 2:24 PM on September 11, 2005


Perhaps what this discussion is really about is Americans beginning to wake up to the new definition of racism.

It used to be Black versus White, and now, it's American versus Foreign. Not that the traditional variety has died - far from it, you can't kill a true classic - but the new form is increasingly popular and fashionable.

All previous discussions on "Black v White" racism apply equally to "American v Foreign" racism, with the convenient exception that there is now a large fence with all the whites - sorry, Americans - on one side of it, and all the foreigners on the other.

Discuss.
posted by cleardawn at 3:21 PM on September 11, 2005


Meh.
posted by Kwantsar at 3:50 PM on September 11, 2005


Wow, what a waste of time this post is.
posted by wakko at 4:03 PM on September 11, 2005


Yeah, this is a lame call-out. You can't derail a post by bringing something up that was broguht up by the original poster.
posted by Snyder at 4:11 PM on September 11, 2005


And Jesse is standing up for their right not to be called these things. This will increase his popularity.

Exactly. It will INCREASE his popularity. I can't believe anyone is naive enough to think of Jackson as anything but an opportunist. Jesse does what's good for jesse. He's lost much of his influence in the black community. I guess that hasn't filtered down to everyone.

And debating the word refugee should be left to those who like to hear themselves talk. Which on metafilter, is at least a couple of people.

Also, we need to disallow use of the word troll. It's become worthless on metafilter.
posted by justgary at 4:37 PM on September 11, 2005


Stupid callout. Not only was the comment not a troll, it wasn't even a derail. I wish people would grow up and stop deciding that things they don't like violate some sort of rule that should mean they are disallowed.

cleardawn-what are you on (about)?
posted by OmieWise at 5:00 PM on September 11, 2005


It used to be Black versus White, and now, it's American versus Foreign.

Um, FYI, there's a word for that, and it's not 'racism', it's 'xenophobia'. :) Not that it's all THAT different in practice, just pointing out that there's an established label for it.
posted by cyrusdogstar at 5:01 PM on September 11, 2005


cleardawn wrote:
. . . the American corporate media has invested a great deal of time and money ensuring that Americans regard "Refugees" as worthless, foreign, black, and to blame.

I'm afraid that the corporate media has wasted their time and money, at least that portion they spent on me. I make no such associations with the word. People who have somehow adopted those associations are, well, idiots. Why must we abandon a perfectly good and useful word because some idiots have redefined it to mean things it does not mean to the rest of us?
posted by Kirth Gerson at 5:07 PM on September 11, 2005


Kirth, respectfully, are you sure your opinion of refugees has not been influenced by media coverage over the years? When you think of the word 'refugee', what does one look like, the first one who pops into your mind? How valuable do you think a human life is in the Democratic Republic of the Congo?

cyrusdogstar, true enough - or even "nationalism" or "patriotism" is close, too. But this is the first time I've seen a debate conflating BvW with AvF in such an obvious way - this "Refugee is Racist" meme really exposes the link - and I think it'll make people think about it who weren't before.

OmieWise, beats me. Sometimes I just let my fingers do the talking.
posted by cleardawn at 6:34 PM on September 11, 2005


Here's one: why is it "poltically correct" to say "people of color" but "colored people" is racist? It's "six in one hand, half a dozen in the other" time, except saying "half a dozen" means you're an evil racist bastard who should be hounded till s/he rolls over and widdles.

Another one from my childhood is calling Jewish people "Hebrews" -- but just up the street was a Reform synagogue called the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation. "But rabbi, Elise Sternbaum just told Johnny yesterday that calling somebody a Hebrew made you a Nazi, so are you all Jewish Nazis or what?"

If none of this matters and one should feel compelled to call everybody exactly how they want, then I insist y'all call me Your Perfect Eminence (or His ... if talking of me amongst yourselves). It'd be "incorrect" to hurt my feelings by calling me anything else, after all.

And by the way, what difference does it make what color a refugee is? Remember the white refugees from Bosnia and then Kosovo? And the Southeast Asian refugees from Cambodia and Vietnam? And the dark-complected "Caucasoid" refugees from the civil war in Afghanistan (that got Osama started)? Whatever color I picture a "refugee" as has a lot to to do with whichever flavor of refugee the media is focusing on at the moment, but the words that come to mind are "people that had to run to save their lives and lost everything". (Of course if this makes me somehow "better" than most corporation-brainwashed Americans -- the same people who think "Braaaaiiins!" is just something zombies say -- then that fits right in with me being Perfect, don't it?)
posted by davy at 6:51 PM on September 11, 2005


"When you think of the word 'refugee', what does one look like, the first one who pops into your mind?"

Bosnian? Kosovan? Cuban? Chechnyan? Indonesian? Georgian? Salvadoran?

If you associate "refugee" with only black Africans, then you've not been paying attention and/or it's you who is racist.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 7:46 PM on September 11, 2005


And, of course, Ashkenazi Jews, Palestinians, and the Irish who, the last time I checked, are usually not black.

There are refugee populations all over the world. The reason the word has negative connotations is because native populations never like refugee populations. If people are uncomfortable calling Americans "refugees", then maybe that might get them to start thinking that they oughtn't be thinking less of "refugees" and thinking that refugees are people like themselves. Because they are.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 7:56 PM on September 11, 2005


"internally displaced person" -- what a load of horseshit.
posted by mischief at 11:10 AM PST on September 11 [!]


Actually, "internally displaced person" is a quite well accepted term of art in the human rights field.
posted by footnote at 8:38 PM on September 11, 2005


Figures.
posted by mischief at 9:13 PM on September 11, 2005


I don't want to be pedantic, but there's actually a good (ie, non-PC) reason for the term, mischief.
posted by footnote at 9:14 PM on September 11, 2005


Ethereal Bligh: I am racist, yes. We all are. I accept that, and I'm trying to understand it better, in the hope that I might become less racist, and thus play my small part in preventing future atrocities.

Incidentally, look up the thread, and see who first suggested that Kirth's imaginary refugee picture would be a black African. Not me, your honour! But in any case, you're missing the point. Nobody is running round pointing and saying "You're a racist!" - well, except you, actually.

I'm talking about a more subtle thing, which is the presentation of ethnic groups in the media. Influenced by a whole raft of factors, and nothing to do with a moronic argument over whether person X is, or is not, "a racist".

It's like arguing over whether someone is, or is not, "selfish". Of course we all are, to some extent. Some of us are working on that, while others see nothing wrong in it, and deny it. It's all about nuance, and intent.
posted by cleardawn at 9:22 PM on September 11, 2005


I agree with the initial topic in this thread. It went completely off-topic. Why did I even bother posting what I had to say in the thread? These are important revelations, and not only did people get way off-topic in the initial thread, people are doing the same damn thing in this thread. I want an exception to the double post rule now!
posted by augustweed at 9:28 PM on September 11, 2005


The worst linguistic misuse here is the word "troll" in the post.

But seriously, aren't the people who say calling Americans refugees is racist racist themselves?

I mean, they're basically putting American Citizens above all the other people in the world. Everyone else in the world can become inhuman in times of calamity, but Americans cannot. Isn't that thinking in and of itself racist?

I strongly encourage throwing that back at anyone who claims calling the evacuees refugees is racist.
posted by delmoi at 9:50 PM on September 11, 2005


Few things are funnier than a bunch of middle-class (or "higher") white Americans sitting around calling each other racist. Except maybe white South Africans doing that. (And yes to what delmoi said, as well as augustweed and Bligh.)

Oh and by the way, since I'm all liberal and shit, "Your Eminent Perfection" would also be an okay thing to call me.
posted by davy at 9:56 PM on September 11, 2005


Bleh, the only thing the word "refugee" meant to me is someone fleeing something. I had no racial association, and I still don't.

As far as "crossing international lines" I think crossing state lines count. US states are somewhat sovereign.
posted by delmoi at 10:03 PM on September 11, 2005


Few things are funnier than a bunch of middle-class (or "higher") white Americans sitting around calling each other racist.

You think I'm white just because I post on mefi? RACIST!!!
posted by delmoi at 10:04 PM on September 11, 2005


Where is Tom Petty when we need him.
posted by darukaru at 10:25 PM on September 11, 2005


cleardawn : "When you think of the word 'refugee', what does one look like, the first one who pops into your mind?"

Vietnamese or Laotian kid, hard working student, fondness for comic books, plays tennis, has better hair than me.
posted by Bugbread at 11:01 PM on September 11, 2005


delmoi, I think I recall an earlier comment where you said you're bi-racial (whatever word you used, if that was you). I didn't mean you. But don't you assume most Mefites are white? It sounds pretty pale around here to me. You've seen the meetup pics, right?

And the last I heard there was this "digital divide" among Americans, whites having most Net access. I'm not saying it's true, I have really no way of checking that, but it's been reported on and sloganized about quite a bit.

Should I ask all the "non-white" Mefites to raise their hands or what?

(Or am I having my leg pulled again? I'm too tired to be sure; I keep thinking if I sit here long enough I'll get the energy to brush my teeth and pee.)
posted by davy at 11:17 PM on September 11, 2005


davy : "And the last I heard there was this 'digital divide' among Americans, whites having most Net access."

You think I'm American just because I post on mefi? XENOPHOBE!!!

I'm pulling your leg
posted by Bugbread at 11:28 PM on September 11, 2005


cleardawn, please leave off talking about "Kirth's imaginary refugee picture," OK? I do not have one. You made it up, and putting pictures in my head is no better than putting words in my mouth. "Refugee" is not a description of a thing with a specific visual aspect, the way "sunset" or "Blue Spruce" is. If I did have such a picture, it might well be a Polish Jew, or a Vietnamese Boat Person. Not all of us get our world view from the last two years of Network News.

Much as I hate to say it, because you do seem to be a thinking person, this insistence that "refugee" is racist looks to me like a projection of your own internal assumptions.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 1:40 AM on September 12, 2005


When I hear "refugee" I see "quonsar".
There, I've said it!
posted by Joeforking at 1:54 AM on September 12, 2005


Refugee is the new Niggardly.
posted by dhoyt at 7:56 AM on September 12, 2005


"there's actually a good (ie, non-PC) reason for the term"

I'll bet a lawyer made it up, or was it a sanitation engineer?
posted by mischief at 8:11 AM on September 12, 2005


Refugee is the new Niggardly.

No, it is not. It is an entirely different matter. This is not about some college students misunderstanding of some professor's use of an obscure and rarely used word. It's not necessarily ha-ha look at the overly sensitive silly black people funny. It may seem like a silly splitting of hairs but the word has become semantically loaded--especially for many of the black people who were trapped at the Superdome and Convention Center. The most recent episode of This Amercan Life consisted of accounts of people who were trapped in post-Katrina New Orleans--it was one of the best episodes of that program I have ever heard. The stories were riveting and it was radio at its best. The first was by a black woman named Denise Green who was at the Convention Center, and, among other things, she said with great force, in regards to the controversy, We are not refugees, we are Americans. She was furious at the way the people at the Convention Center had been treated, saw it as racist and heard the word as implying that black people were worth less as human beings.

Later there was another NPR program featuring interviews with two black women who had been relocated to Utah and, if I recall correctly, Wisconsin. They were marveling at how well they were being treated. both planned on staying where they were, both said things like they never expected to have white people treat them so well. It was like a PSA for the color blind society meme. Then they were asked about how they were treated in New Orleans by the police and National Guard--whoa, did their tone change. They were bitter and angry and when asked, did not like the word refugee, either. Overnight, the word has become to mean entirely different things to many people, logically or not, according to their race. That is just something with we are all going to have to deal.
posted by y2karl at 8:53 AM on September 12, 2005


y2karl : "That is just something with we are all going to have to deal."

Does the whole English speaking world have to deal with it, or will that just be limited to Americans?
posted by Bugbread at 9:37 AM on September 12, 2005


Does the whole English speaking world have to deal with it, or will that just be limited to Americans?
Well, it ought to be just those people who have decided to redefine it as a slur, but it looks like we won't be so lucky.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 9:41 AM on September 12, 2005


Probably just Americans. Just like we still have black people up here but I've heard Americans have traded them all in on African-Americans.
posted by Mitheral at 9:46 AM on September 12, 2005


Well, it ought to be just those people who have decided to redefine it as a slur, but it looks like we won't be so lucky.

Just as it was in the case of the word nigger as opposed to the word Negro. To read American popular novels written before, and, at times even during the 20s and 30s, constantly you see nigger used casually to describe black people.

Words are redefined all the time:

When you're, with the Flintstones
Have a yabba, dabba, doo time
A dabba doo time
We'll have a gay, old time!


Who says what when to whom is a matter of contention in a polarized society. One thing we have in the United States, like it or not, is a racially polarized society. Hence this contention over what to some was formerly a semantically neutral word.
posted by y2karl at 10:35 AM on September 12, 2005


Refugee - A person seeking refuge. Can be black, white, America, Asian, or otherwise.

Politeness/Political Correctness does NOT depend on a list of "banned words". DOES depend on whether or not the INTENTION of the PERSON USING THE WORDS is POLITE.

My second-favorite quote on racism is this accidentally self-referential gem : "All whites are racists." - Robert Mugabe.

We are all racist. We all tend to forget that we all belong to the human race. Our treacherous minds are always finding excuses to attack and dehumanize those we think we are competing against. It's up to us to overcome that treachery and learn to co-operate instead. Why bother? Because, as an earlier African leader famously said:

"Until the philosophy which holds one race superior, and another inferior, is finally, and permanently, discredited and abandoned, everywhere will be at war. And until there are no longer first-class and second-class citizens of any nation, until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes, and until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race, there is war. And until that day, the dream of lasting peace, of world citizenship, the rule of international morality, will remain but a fleeting illusion, to be pursued, but never attained."
posted by cleardawn at 6:44 PM on September 12, 2005


So cleardawn, I think it's wonderful that you're one of those pomo commie faggot honkies that always stick up for the niggers and chinks and towelheads and what-not. I salute you, sir or ma'am: you should get an Order of Lenin for being so praisable. (See? My INTENTION in USING THOSE WORDS is certainly POLITE.)

And just for the record, even if all hell breaks loose wherever you are and you have to run away to some camp in Norway or someplace, I will never call you a "refugee" because I see that would be racist, whether you're an American or not.
posted by davy at 11:14 PM on September 12, 2005


Davy, do you love me? Shall we run away together, you and I, to a land where the punkweed grows? Shall we form a new polity, you and I, where the chinks and the towelheads shall dance, arm in arm, with the gollies and the dwarfs, while those suffering from suboptimal mental function lounge happily in deck-chairs, sipping Kool-Aid and watching Fox News?
posted by cleardawn at 10:45 AM on September 13, 2005


You guys are weird.
posted by Stauf at 12:49 PM on September 14, 2005


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