My siblings and I piled into the car yesterday for one more package of dinner rolls and a smoke break when the craziest thing happened. My stepbrother slowed to let an older black gentleman cross the parking lot and I heard him murmur something under his breath. Something that sounded like nigger. My little sister giggled and said, “I was thinking the same thing in my head!” to him as I stared at both of them in shock.
“Did you really just use the N word?!!” I screeched. “What is wrong with you two, this is the 21st century! People don’t use that anymore!”
“I don’t say it, I just think it. And I say nigga which is different.” my sister explained.
“WHAT? What is wrong with you? It’s still wrong. You shouldn’t even think that. That is horrible! You guys are fucking racist! ”
They just laughed and my stepbrother said, “You’d use it too, if you worked in Southwest D.C.”
I doubt that. I grew up in a predominantly black neighborhood and I’ve known since I was a little girl that it was a hateful word and you didn’t use it unless you wanted trouble. When rappers started using it in songs in the 90’s, you heard it in a different way. When Dave Chappelle used it on his show, it was funny. But if you’re white and have common sense, you know you shouldn’t use it.
I don’t understand it at all. Right before we got in the car we had been talking about a cousin who didn’t come to Thanksgiving dinner because she’s dating a black boy and thought we would judge her and we were trying to tell her we were totally cool with it. My stepbrother may be semi-retarded so I understand him being ignorant enough to use the word. But my little sister? WTF? My sister has black friends. She loves hip hop. She voted for Obama and trumpets the fact that it is so great that we elected an African-American president. So why is she walking around with this nasty word on her mind? Why does she think it’s okay to use it, even just in her head?
As we walked into the store, I shook my head in disbelief and told them, “You use that word at the wrong time in the wrong place and you’re gonna get hurt.” They shrugged it off and proceeded to go get the whitest freaking dinner rolls the store had.
[pic by takomabibelot on Flickr]
Tagged as: my family sucks, thanksgiving, the n word
75% of people are racists. the other 25% are lying.
Shen, I have heard that your entire family is racist. And Black, too. That is what makes it so weird.
I don’t think they’re racist. I think they’re stupid.
Obama is as black as Cosby.
Carry on.
Shen, the fist scene in that movie is fabulous.
…and this is gossip how?
Can I start posting stories of how my family is stupid to the internets too?
Totally if you have some culturally relevant experience
I, too, come from a culturally “diverse” family. It really hits home at the holidays. It’s painful, embarrassing, and depressing. Thank you, shen, for sharing. It doesn’t make it any more bearable, but it does let me know I’m not the only one. Happy Holidays, folks. Peace.
my black friends would seriously do a double take if i ever ever used that word … it is bizarre how it has so many different connotations when used in different cultural contexts. but the context of white using it towards black is one that i think will probably 95% of the time be perceived as racist or plain ignorance. so for me, i just avoid it. better to not have to explain your use of it or try to escape a beatdown or tongue-lashing from someone who takes your use of the word as a personal offense. maybe some day it won’t have as many negative connotations. i mean, whites are the majority purchasers of hip hop and rap music and that word proliferates in that genre. but i just don’t know. i think some things won’t quite ever change.
I used to think the N word was the worst word in the American English language. Then my mother was diagnosed with cancer and I started to really think about the word. I’ve heard many black people call each other the N word. Also heard many racist hilljacks use the word in anger as well. Both of those groups of people don’t feel that the N word is all that terrible. But if they got diagnosed with cancer they would not like that word so much… Now I think that Cancer is the worst word in our language…
sound like stupid racists to me
my unemployed-ex-who-totaled-my-car calls them “blue-gum coon n’s,” or “blues” for short. yeah, he’s a winner.
@10
hilljacks?
socio-economic insensitivity and slanderin g may not be the best rejoinder/objection to racial insensitivity?
presumably broad cultural factors and prejudices contribute to their being or being-thought ‘dumb-rednecks’ as much as such factors contribute to grotesque racist displays as described by Shen?
From The Departed:
“Twenty years after the Irish couldn’t get a fucking JOB in America, we had the Presidency…”
it’s not uncommon to be superficially racist to the entire group, but not racist at all when it comes to individuals.
they can say the Nword about a stranger, but still be totally cool and not prejudiced toward the black person they actually KNOW.
It’s definitely something they should reflect on, and remedy.
i have been places where ‘african-american’, reputed to have been introduced, nay declaimed, by Rev. Jesse Jackson Esq. to be the definitive culturally sensitive mot juste, was considered to be a slur:
“yo snowflake, i never even SEEN africa.”
could we get a firm reading from someone who knows? i always considered ‘black’ offensive and bridle when i hear it or see it in print… for the same reason i would never say or write ‘colored’. generally I avoid any mention of race at all, sensitive as being myself Irish thus a member of one of America’s most historically abused minority groups (as above).
@15 At what point did to become politically incorrect to describe a person as “colored” yet at the same time acceptable for one to call another a “person of color.”
@14: I think you’re right.
@15 i as editing an article on this last year, so i asked my token black acquaintance for her take on it:
the word “Black” and “african american” are interchangeable for many people. however, those who distinguish argue that “african american” is more limited in scope, while “Black” encompasses more people such as African, West Indian, and Black Americans.
As for minority, the term is more encompassing. some people prefer to use racial minority, while other use people of color to be more specific.
@16 you can’t call a black colored but person of color encompasses all minorities.
Blacks and whites dont realize they’re really pink and brown.
@19 pink and brown- that’s a shocker!
Obama is as black as Cosby
Don’t understand. Are you saying Cosby’s mom was white, or that neither of them are “black” because they’re intelligent and articulate?
@19: Ain’t that the truth.
@20: You are a perv.
@21: Bill Cosby articulate? To that I quote him, “Zip zippity bop, dippity doo!”
@22 Whatever do you mean? I was shock because I’m not pink but white. Shen, you know that.
I’m not pink but white
Zinc or titanium?
/know the difference?
sweet is as black as cosby.
/sweatervests.
On the periodic chart sure,and titanium watches are cooler than ones made of zinc.
My friend Jason is pretty light-skinned so we dubbed him Taupe.
In painting, zinc white has a trasparent quality, where as titanium has a more opaque tendency (or was it the other way round?, its been so long).
So. Are you transparent or opaque?
/my friend jason has ganggreen, so we dubbed him pthalocyanine.
how about not quite albino? - and is probably the reason I have aversion to being called pink.
You look like an albino, dude. Dieter is White.
omg, albinos are scary!
@ 29 Albinette? Albinesque? Albinot?
@32 i hate albinette. i prefer albinot noir.
anyone want to say something nice about the ‘blue-people’: the Melungeons?
a quasi-local phenom.
What’s the answer to the root question: why the hell were your siblings calling the man a nigger? And why was your sister giggling about calling an old dude such an insult?
And why does your brother think he can use that word simply because he is surrounded by black people in southwest DC?
Do they think that because they’re young, white and cute that they’re no less stupid sounding than this Kentucky teacher:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQDSk43tlFQ
This debate is old. Any white youth who doesn’t get it is intentionally ignoring the issues and giving in to mental laziness. If I used the epithet “semi-retarded” which you ironically do, I would aim it at both your siblings. What they are is hard-headed.
Thank you, though, Shen, for stating your disagreement with their insults. Black people don’t get to see what white people do without minorities around. You do.
Didn’t know they were called “blue.” How about the “indigo children”? Eh?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigo_(film)
Ack, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigo_children
Dude, I know all about the Melungeons! The finest people in SW Va. Little people with weird teeth and ears!
has anyone seen Spike Lee speak? I saw him once and I think he’s one of the most racist persons I’ve ever heard talk.
Why? Does he say, “White devil”? That doesn’t bother me.
@40 There are differing ideas about what racism is, depending on how you evaluate the socio-political power structures in this country.
To me, its never the words themselves, but the context in which they are said. Always.
Of course dealing with nuance and subtlety requires thought, and often yeilds complex results that dont fit on a bumpersticker, that cant be chanted at rallies nor spewed as a talking point. Of course the majority of the populace would like their ideas pre-chewed into binary morsels in their team colors so…
..hey, that shiny thing’s on sale!
Finally! 26 is here! I was turning blue.
Shen that is racist… the Melungeons are going to come and kick your ass.
@44 So was I.
aw hell, maybe the melungeons are someone else. anybody have google?
here are some real-world appalachian blue folks to consider: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Fugates
There are differing ideas about what racism is, depending on how you evaluate the socio-political power structures in this country.
yah - “you can’t be racist if you’re in the minority”, which is a horseshit theory that allows “minorities” to be comfortable with their racism …
Racism is just another form of malignant “us vs. them” - exact same thing as vitriolic nationalism and much fundamental theology.
It’s all basic laziness - there are usually much better reasons to dislike someone than their color, country or religion…
here are some real-world appalachian blue folks to consider…
Santa! No!
/searching for blue people lead me to real life smurf prOn. is it possible to be both scarred and arroused?
Or scared and aroused?
oy, that’s not what 26 said. Both ideas put forth by you both ring true. Yes, there are differing ideas about what racism is. Yes, everyone minority or not has racist thoughts and feelings.
But then again…:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIVgMvuCM_k
@48 I’ve found that it’s often horseshit to people who aren’t part of a racial minority. But like I said, there are different viewpoints depending on how you define the word. I certainly think that all people can be prejudiced.
These are fun/disturbing/revealing, for example:
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
@52 those tests are freaking cool. the clockwork orange part of the test made me afraid the internet was going to reach up and grab me by the eyeballs for a minute, but in the end everything was ok. turns out i don’t really like white people.
I tried to do the gay one and freaked out because it asked me if i could easily tell when my mouth was dry. wtf?
It’s got my zip code… do you think a battalion of dry mouthed raspy tongued lesbos are going to hunt me down because of some of my answers? I thought it was a total mindfuck.
I tried to do the gay one and freaked out
That’s no way to discover your sexual preference. Feelings could get hurt.
Hahaha… go on, you try it and see how mindfucky it is. Click on the demonstration option, agree to all their shit, sell your soul etc and it is the Sexuality IAT.
Report back forthwith.
My first year in college I dated a [white] guy from the Eastern Shore. He said that there was a difference between “N’s” and black people. He claimed he wasn’t racist though because he had no problem with black people, he was friends with them. But he hated “N’s” because they were pieces of shit and didn’t deserve his respect. HE was the piece of shit and it disappoints me that I dated him for so long. It’s people like that that give us all a bad name. It saddens me that people like him still exist in today’s society.
I decided long ago that the color of one’s skin didn’t matter, it was all about the attitude and demeanor of that person. IMHO, there are people out there who act like “n-words”, just like there are “yuppies”, “emos”, “assholes”, and “rednecks”… I could go on and on. I know people of all creeds who fit each description, and their skin tone doesn’t have anything to do with it.
I’ll always be jealous of the myth that “brothers” always have big dicks, though. Can’t a li’l cracker get some street cred about HIS junks?
They said I could have slight preference, no preference, or moderate preference for straight people more than gay. Or there could have been an error on the test.
Now I’m confused about my orientation. I could slight preference, no preference, or moderate preference screwing the opposite sex, or there could be an error.
They told me that I hate fat people, but then again.. my ADD kicked in after the first minute and then I was just racing through to finish the test.
Ugh. I AM gay and it tells me I’m a closet breeder. Damnit.
“Your data suggest a strong automatic preference for Straight People compared to Gay People.”
@61, does that mean you don’t prefer yourself? You should seek help.
@58 i agree. i hate “refugees” (”refs” for short) but cubans can be fine.
@60 i don’t need a test to tell me i hate fat people.
um hello…can anyone see my posts?
I posted a kickass link to a 20/20 segment showing the real root of American racism: not that black people commit more crimes, but that white people let white people get away with more crimes.
Sorry David, we were busy being self-absorbed.
@64 they probably went into moderation for a bit
No it was there. I read it because I thought the 20/20 reference was MD20/20, and then I had to run outside because my car alarm was going off. As usual it was just white people trying to steal it so I gave them a good talking to and sent them on their merry way.
is that how we welcome people now? what happened to the old fashioned velvet closet and cheez-its?
Hey… I gave all the party stuff to that Zugunruhe dude that came snarling into the Cafe Calvino thread like a rabid pitbull with it’s balls in a mousetrap. You’re white… go and steal some more party stuff from Reids.
@9: Do you know that when a song containing the “N-word” is playing, all of the black people are watching to see if the white people are going to say it.
@42: Pretty much. All people are racists in some fashion. The question is how will their biases affect the way they treat people when in positions of power. It’s one thing when the guy at the corner store calls me a racist name. It’s another when a doctor, a policeman, or a hiring manager uses that bias in a way that causes me harm.
All people are racists in some fashion.
Totally. I won’t wear white formal attire.
Wait, what?
Everyone’s a little bit racist?
@70 Chris Rock’s latest comedy hour has a great bit about that phenomenon, about what happens when Dr. Dre comes on the radio when he’s in the car with white friends.
“It’s a sad sight, white people trying to sing a n*****-less rendition of a Dr. Dre song.”
Whats brown and rhymes with “snoop”?
.
.
.
.
.
.
Dr. Dre!
@75 I admit I say nigga when rapping along to the chronic and my busta rhymes cds.
“Never hesitate to put a successful and attractive african american on his back”… just dont gots the same flow, yo.
@77 you forgot clean and articulate.
Where is Uvalagrape to set you motherfuckers straight?
Why does Uva La Grape have a lock on setting mfers straight?
You didn’t meet her. She was sassy. And called herself Mulatto I think.
She was fierce 26 world… brilliant and fierce.
@77: Now I see…the whole problem with the word is that you’ve immediately associated Dr. Dre’s lyrics with a black man being put on his back after being shot several times (seven times, I think, rhythmically). In this situation, why couldn’t the word refer to a man of any color that was due for a rat-ta-tat-tat? I realize that goes against all social conventions of gang violence, but I’m just saying…
I’ve had associates that used the word to refer to all kinds of people, but one thing was pretty clear, when that happened it was 99% derogatory.
@83 it was actually Calvin Broadus’ lyrics, and yes - that is his muthafuckin’ name.
Now I see…the whole problem with the word is that you’ve immediately associated Dr. Dre’s lyrics
Immediately associated? Try quoted. But you may be being sarcastic…
No, If I wanted to test associations, I would have posted this image, which is completely race neutral. Right?
B Yo.. it may very well be… and I think I saw it last time I was in Florence, AL.
I figured it belonged to a chainsmoking chinese engineering student myself, but that’s because I am so PC.
/i always wondered about your nick, Donk. Bubbles or boxes?
Ohh… yeah.. that has turned out to be an unfortunate association that was long preceded by the name. It’s all family stuff, and has only been made adorable by the Shrek movies and my nieces. A four year old calling you Uncle Donkey will melt a motherfucker.
@ 88 So what you are saying is that the name has many layers… like an onion…
@89
I’m afraid of where this is going… so I’m just going to agree.
/Calgon
Well if you decide on a life of porn stardom, I think “Uncle Donkey” would be a good name.
Anyway. Enjoy your bath.
Well.. like an onion, that is creepy on many levels.
@ 92 Well then. My work is done here.
“Pin the Tail on Uncle Donkey” could be your magnum opus, though.
/heh. magnum.
http://letmegooglethatforyou.com/?q=donk+car
or “donk box and bubbles”
I’m going to use that for evil. Ahahahaaaaaa
http://letmegooglethatforyou.com/?q=bear+attack
Ha, the http://www.bearattack.com bear looks awful fameeliar.
“Never hesitate to put a successful and attractive african american on his back”
Why am I the only one with the dirty mind here?
Update: My stepbro also uses the word “faggot” even though we have a gay uncle. WTF?
To be fair.. you do keep a bundle of sticks on your coffee table.
Shaddup.
With a Joan of Arc action figure on the top?
#98 Shen… is your stepbro Catholic?
And church attendance is shrinking because…..
So having sex with altar boys is cool but same sex sex between adults will destroy the earth? Whatever, Catholic Church. You are trippin’.
I think Vatican Two made it a sacrament. Floozy’s DH might be able to speak to the prevalence of it in Welch prep-schools as a positive influence in the society of Empires, perhaps the Catholics are emulating the Brits much as the Baptists are emulating the Muslims (cf B. Hussein Obama and his america-hating pastor). A complicated world, to be sure.
Vatican II: Sodomy Bugaloo
@98: that’s one of the few words that offends me. it’s so distasteful and full of malice.
I miss gyrating with you, alcohol in hand. when will we meet up again?
i made it six months on here without calling anyone a slattern.
/not so restrained in meat-life.
@106: Next cVillain party?
Speaking of which, when is the next cvillain party? We need to hop on that
SRSLY
Yes. We need to get out, and certain persons need to be off-work when said cVillain party is held. Cuz otherwise gossip and scandal have to be said in hushed tones in between frantic drink orders.
*crickets*
Shen, you need to come out to your stepbrother as both part black and part gay. Harvey Milk and Sylvester James both died for you to be free.
I’m in the middle of divorce, so keep me posted as to when next said cvillain party happens, I’m am so there!
/For some reason, the title of “Cry Freedom” comes to mind… i don’t know why
can we talk to thor about getting an exterminator?
there seems to be an infestation of crickets
can we talk to thor about hiring an exterminator? there seems to be an infestation of crickets up in this joint.
dude, sorry about the repost- i just saw that my first comment is awaiting moderation.
/happy new year!
@113: I’m part black and part gay in my heart.
Shen you make RuPaul feel mighty real
I don’t think RuPaul is gay. Way to be cross-dressist.
oh that nigga faggoty as hell
*crosses fingers and prays that that was as funny as it sounded in my mind*
LMAO
Racism alert ‘09
I went to trivia last evening at Mello Mushroom. Yeah, I know - just keep reading, though. And I was blown away when, during the halftime ‘Reading of the Team Names’, about 6 team names were blatantly racist. For example, one team name was “A first year girl was dating a black guy, and on their way home, she asked him to show her if it’s true what they say about black guys. So he beat her up, raped her, and mugged her.” Are you fucking kidding me?! And the whole place broke into a roar of laughter. It was terrible. The remainder focused on some melange of Chris Brown beating up Rihanna and the chimpanzee that beat the lady up in Connecticut - draw the bigoted similarities there.
The laughter that followed each team name was equally disturbing. I heard a few people saying “well, you’re in Virginia”. So sad.
wow. can you record that on your cellphone and send it in next time?
So how do you like your humor Tuffy?
…. or does this tickle you?
Let’s get Anti Freeze out of bed for this one….
I was about to post the LLBean one. That one’s clever and hamlarious.
@124: I wish you were joking. Those assholes should be ashamed of themselves. Chris Brown didn’t beat up Rihanna cuz he’s black, he beat her up because he’s not a real man. The rape comment is fucking disgusting and sad.
My question is, considering how most of us (here at least) feel about racism, especially egregious examples like the Tuffy recounted, do we stand up and speak our minds about it?
@130: They say, “This is the South you know” or “We are in Virginia!” like that’s an excuse.
there is this new wave of race humor that I label as “out of the mouths of dunces.” It’s like saying racist or sexist jokes is ok now if the character saying them is dumb or racist. Peter Griffin. Homer Simpson. Lisa Lampanelli’s onstage persona. Stan from American Dad. Quagmire. Stan’s boss from American Dad. Stewie Griffin. (Hey is it just me or is there a pattern there? Fuck you Seth MacFarlane.)
Now it’s like white people think, “we’re beyond racism, so it’s ok to re-use the old hackneyed racist and sexist jokes because we’re giving you a wink and a nod meaning we both know this shit is not true.” But I don’t like that. People are using the exact same jokes that old-timey racists and sexists used. It’s 2009 - take the time to make new jokes that reflect how you really feel. 70’s sitcoms made jokes about race, but the jokes were delivered with a tone that was anti-prejudice. And when a character like Archie Bunker said something prejudiced, the reaction around that character in-scene was negative toward him. When Peter Griffin says something prejudiced, there’s no Edith telling him to be ashamed of himself or a Lionel Jefferson calling him a jive turkey.
If you are not racist & sexist, then don’t make jokes that make Skinheads laugh out loud and think that you are one of them.
White folk just don’t seem to get that a minority telling a an anti-white joke is like David punching Goliath on the shoulder. A white person telling an anti-minority joke is like Goliath punching David on the shoulder.
@132: Wow, that’s exactly what it is.
I think it’s also that people my age didn’t deal with actual racism as much as our parents. And people 10 years younger than me, maybe even less so it’s a joke to them.
@130 Does it count as “the South” if the perps are a bunch of 19-year-olds from NoVa?
@136: According to my stepmom and stepbro who work near D.C., it’s just more accepted and common up there to throw around the N word and racist comments. I said, “Well that shit doesn’t fly in C-ville, excuse me while I go back to my bubble of tolerance.” Joke’s on me. Here it’s just privileged people making the comments.
If this really happened and a restaurant employee read out the jokes, or allowed it as a practice, then it may be actionable under public accommodations law.
http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/housing/documents/mountycomp.php
Even more so in Virginia & the South, with some of those federal laws!
colfer: can you repeat that in lay terms?
Can we sue Mellow Mushroom? Whoa.
I was just discussing whether this is in fact run by MMush employees, or if they hire a group to come in and run the trivia.
@135 I don’t think (white) people have had to deal with racism less, but *more*. Our world is more integrated (though not fully so). Our pop music is chock full of black artists singing about Blackness. Our world is more aware of its racism and there are more educational programs about it in schools and workplaces than ever before.
@142: I guess I meant the generation of college students right now have had different experiences than me or my parents with racism and thus act differently. Maybe growing up with more exposure to it makes them grow numb to it, enough so that they think jokes are funny?
I would like an explanation from the MM folks regardless. Anyone know who runs that joint?
Don’t know what this says, but when Chris Rock did his bit about loving black people and hating niggers, I no longer felt confused about the whole situation.
@131 And trust me, just because ‘this is Virginia’ or ‘guess it’s just the South’ isn’t an excuse. There are a lot of die-hard Ol’ Virginny purists in this state, so much so that it’s frightening, but it’s way past time to let it all go. Without change there is no progress.
Mellow Mushroom is owned by John Adamson and Andrew something I think. Tuffy, do you know who was reading the group names out loud?
Lay: Some of the basic civil rights laws of the 1960s were about public accommodations: restaurants, motels, trains, etc.
Just quoted the comment and sent the link to the MM comment section of the main website.
We shall see.
Nice going, guys.
@146 No, I really have no idea who those guys were. All I remember is a sea of khaki and polo shirts.
Chris Rock’s bit on
Black people vs. Niggas
tough stuff! this is the kinda stuff that makes me wince and think “aw man why you gotta tell white people our stuff?”
@148 et al., I hope that this doesn’t do away with the reading of team names thing during trivia. It is often fun, and occasionally clever. The filtering that is needed to keep out the racism is minimal.
As for clever, the best team name I’ve ever heard there was “The guy behind me has a trophy girlfriend. Too bad it’s a 3rd place trophy”.
Stay classy, Charlottesville.
“aw man why you gotta tell white people our stuff?”
Um. You’re kidding right?
@151: No way. The names are the funniest thing about Trivia Night. But people need to know that blatant racism isn’t cool.
@152 kidding about which aspect of my statement?
a nation of cowards?
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D96E53483&show_article=1
This was in the NY Post yesterday. Jesus. Am I just super sensitive about this now, or is this stuff getting out of control?
http://www.nypost.com/delonas/2009/02/02182009.jpg
Whoa
@colfer: there’s no law that says you can’t be racist. you just can’t discriminate or harass. maybe if black employees of MM thought the team names were such severe & pervasive harassment as to constitue a hostile work environment…but that’d be a superweak claim.
@140 you don’t have standing to sue MM. such as, you’re not black.
I’m awake!
I’m 26, I grew up with plenty of racism. Not a lot like generations past, but to say that it doesn’t exist is of course something a privileged idiot living in a bubble would say. I’ll be back I have a huge meeting. ULG let’s get some coffee someday and be privileged.
The first IT job I was “offered”, during he interview I was initially turned down. The owner of the small company didn’t think Virginian’s would appreciate a black field technician. “You’d understand” he said.
The thing about all these racial jokes etc…like ulg said is that they are extremely played out. They aren’t new. When someone thinks they are funny, why would they think it’s funny when it’s stale as fuck?
Orchid, it’s not (just) the employees whose rights are stake, it’s the patrons. That’s the whole point of public accommodations laws. But I admit, free speech would be the other side. A racist play in a theater would have to be different from racist gatherings sponsored by restaurants, etc. A hotel might have a racist convention in a ballroom, but what if it violently spilled out into the lobby and prevented the accommodations rights of the general public? Etc.
I can’t imagine a restaurant would be well advised to hold racist gatherings on a weekly basis, just to become the next Denny’s, Waffle House, Avis Car Rental, etc.
http://www.washlaw.org/projects/public_accomodations/default.htm
@162 i wasn’t talking about public accommodations but employment, bc i don’t think that this constitutes harassment or discrimination. if you look at the cases on that link, they involve the black patrons being denied something, i.e., taxi rides, cars, breakfast. if there were any black patrons, they really didn’t suffer a tangible harm.
Look at the Waffle House case. Now imagine some people come to a restaurant, and while waiting for a table hear a violent racist joke over the restaurant’s speakers. So they leave. Now they may have a prima facie case of denial of service and then the restaurant has the burden to defend.
“The 4th Circuit’s ruling is especially interesting, because only one member of the group had heard the employee make the comment in question. After he reported the waitress’ remark to the rest of the group, they decided to eat elsewhere.”
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1176455065889
just because i suck at conlaw, i concede.
You’re probably right. You’re talking about the case at hand, I’m saying they’re dumbshits to allow this stuff, as well as jerks.
There was this special on HBO, I think, that one of my coworkers TiVo’ed at work, and a big section of it was reactions of white people in rural locations about Obama being in the White House, and some footage of Republican rallies during the campaign where commenters were blatantly racist in their questions and statements to McCain. I was appalled. I was honestly ashamed to be considered part of the same ethnicity as these people! This one trucker was quoted as saying something like, “I vote for the white man. I don’t vote for some n*****.” When asked why, he would start walking away and muttering, “I just don’t like n*****s.”
It made me sick. People like that man need to be deported.