Is this racism or simply people with valid concerns?

C

Clak

CAGiversary!
Alright, I think most of us know how this is going to end up, but I haven't made a thread in while so here we go...

Here is a story about oil spill clean up workers in a small town named Grand Isle. Now it seems that their main argument is that these people are strangers and that is scaring them, however, they also say that the town relies heavily on tourists, which by definition would be strangers.

So my question is, why are these strangers, there to work on the oil clean up, any different than strangers who have come there on vacation?
 
It is racist, but it is okay in this case.

According to the first part of the article - which is all I read - the workers are not being treated poorly. The residents are concerned, and they are adjusting their own lifestyles. They aren't making life difficult for the newcomers.

Their beliefs are racist, but they don't allow their racist beliefs to harm others.
 
[quote name='vince220']Their beliefs are racist, but they don't allow their racist beliefs to harm others.[/QUOTE]

At least until Ms. Vicki McVey gets jumpy and shoots some poor n.i.gger guy after 9PM because he knocked on the door and she swore he had rape in his eyes.
 
So if the population of your small town just more than doubled overnight you wouldnt be nervous? Its a town of 1500 people for gods sake.

[quote name='Sporadic']
At least until Ms. Vicki McVey gets jumpy and shoots some poor n.i.gger guy after 9PM because he knocked on the door and she swore he had rape in his eyes.
[/QUOTE]

Isn't it some sort of sexist or racist form to assume a white woman will do this? We can assume a white woman will overreact and shoot an innocent black man, but a white woman can't be scared of a black man? hmmm
 
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[quote name='Knoell']Isn't it some sort of sexist or racist form to assume a white woman will do this? We can assume a white woman will overreact and shoot an innocent black man, but a white woman can't be scared of a black man? hmmm[/QUOTE]

First off, good job taking the strikethrough code off of n.i.gger removing any humor I intended with it's use and trying to make me look like a dick.

Second, did you read the article?

Vicki McVey, a 44-year-old who pours beers at Artie's Sports Bar, says she's not taking any chances.

"Never had a gun. Never had a weapon. Now I got a weapon right next to my bed," says McVey, who stopped taking her grandson to the park when cleanup workers moved into a trailer nearby.

"You go to the park and they come and they touch you and want to talk to you and they harass you," she complains.
Click to expand...

"Never had a gun. Never had a weapon. But ever since those blacks invaded and won't stop talking to me and wanting to rape all the white women, like me, I got a weapon right next to my bed."
 
[quote name='Sporadic']First off, good job taking the strikethrough code off of n.i.gger removing any humor I intended with it's use.

Second, did you read the article?[/QUOTE]

That gives you the right to say just because shes white and has a gun, shes going to shoot an innocent black person?


And I didn't take off the strike through, it came off automatically when I copy pasted it, I didnt use the quote button. Ill put it back on though.

Lets also clear something else up, its 1800 extra men (mostly), not just blacks. 1800 extra men come into a town of 1500 people to clean up oil, is it sexist for those women to be nervous as well?
 
[quote name='Knoell']That gives you the right to say just because shes white and has a gun, shes going to shoot an innocent black person?[/QUOTE]

No, what gives me the right to say it is the fact she bought a gun because black people moved in next door and talked to her at the local park.

That is exactly the type of scared, racist nutball who would accidentally shoot somebody (let's be honest, a person of color) because she got spooked.

[quote name='Knoell']Lets also clear something else up, its 1800 extra men (mostly), not just blacks. 1800 extra men come into a town of 1500 people to clean up oil, is it sexist for those women to be nervous as well?[/QUOTE]

Considering that the majority of them are black and the majority of the people in the town are white (and put up such awesome signs as "No pants on the ground allowed"), I am going to say yes it is race based...not the fact that the new people in town are men.

[quote name='Clak']Apparently black men don't like country music either, or she thinks so anyway.[/QUOTE]

hahahahaha I missed that.
 
With all those strange tourists around you'd think she'd have bought a gun a long time ago, these guys must be...different somehow.

Hmmmmm....
 
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[quote name='Sporadic']No, what gives me the right to say it is the fact she bought a gun because black people moved in next door and talked to her at the local park.

That is exactly the type of scared, racist nutball who would accidentally shoot somebody (let's be honest, a person of color) because she got spooked.



Considering that the majority of them are black and the majority of the people in the town are white (and put up such awesome signs as "No pants on the ground allowed"), I am going to say yes it is race based...not the fact that the new people in town are men.



hahahahaha I missed that.[/QUOTE]

Sigh, nothing will change your guys minds. All I can say is 1800>1500. And unless you can find me something that says their tourism equals close to 1800 people at once, that is abnormal for them, and they have a right to be nervous.
 
It says in the article "Artie's Sports Bar normally employs 16 bartenders who serve 2,000 people and pocket at least $250 in tips on a Saturday night."
 
Alright Knoell, how are you going to ignore that statement above?

Oh and even though I don't think anyone doubted it, I fucking called it.
 
THey know that the population didn't double without reason. The influx is because they're there to clean up the dark stuff.
 
because a bar used to serve 2000 people on a saturday night = tourism was greater then 1800 people every single day. Try harder.

One person was stabbed and killed, supposedly victim and perp were both workers. Theres your proof that these workers coming here changed something in the townspeoples lives. In a town that virtually doesn't see murder, that would scare some people. But it has to be racism so that couldn't be at least a partial reason for nervousness.
 
Well the next sentence is "Now, it takes just six of them to wait on a crowd of 100." And other parts saying how much less business they're doing than normal.

EDIT: I haven't really weighed in with my opinion yet, so here goes: there's an obvious racial component here. That's not to say that the people of the town might not be uneasy just at the fact that there are a bunch of new workers around, but it's a difference in what happens. If there are 1,800 workers (it seems they're not actually all there at once from the article, btw) you get uneasy. If they're black you get uneasy and buy a gun.
 
[quote name='SpazX']Well the next sentence is "Now, it takes just six of them to wait on a crowd of 100." And other parts saying how much less business they're doing than normal.

EDIT: I haven't really weighed in with my opinion yet, so here goes: there's an obvious racial component here. That's not to say that the people of the town might not be uneasy just at the fact that there are a bunch of new workers around, but it's a difference in what happens. If there are 1,800 workers (it seems they're not actually all there at once from the article, btw) you get uneasy. If they're black you get uneasy and buy a gun.[/QUOTE]

There are about 1800 workers there each day.
 
It says there was a stabbing, I can't find where it says anyone was killed. If local business owners were smart they'd be trying to make money off these people rather than treating them like undesirables.
 
[quote name='Knoell']There are about 1800 workers there each day.[/QUOTE]

Yeah it says "BP spokesman Jason French says some 1,800 workers from around the country report to Grand Isle at least once a day, including almost 300 who clean the town's beaches."

That's the number reporting at least once a day, it doesn't say they're there all at the same time. It seems to me that there are 1,800 people that go there, ~300 clean their beach and ~1,500 come and go, with a certain number that are there at any one time that I guess is somewhere between 300 and 1,800.
 
I'm sure there's a racial component.

But come on!

BP has ruined this town with their lax oil spill regulations. The big money is all scared away and the town is adjusting to servicing a clientele with little pocket change. The workers are going to have long-term health problems, and we all know that BP ain't going to pick up the tab for their emergency care.

I'm sure there's a race component, I'm sure there's a class component, I'm sure some of them are just salty because it's frustrating to see your fortunes drastically change while being able to do nothing to stop it. Who really cares. We can't lose sight of the real villain in this story.
 
[quote name='Clak']It says there was a stabbing, I can't find where it says anyone was killed. If local business owners were smart they'd be trying to make money off these people rather than treating them like undesirables.[/QUOTE]

there treating them like undesirables? where does it say this? and alot of the article says that all the workers do is work all the time, and such.
 
[quote name='SpazX']
EDIT: I haven't really weighed in with my opinion yet, so here goes: there's an obvious racial component here. That's not to say that the people of the town might not be uneasy just at the fact that there are a bunch of new workers around, but it's a difference in what happens. If there are 1,800 workers (it seems they're not actually all there at once from the article, btw) you get uneasy. If they're black you get uneasy and buy a gun.[/QUOTE]

I failed to notice the bolded part somehow...Just kind of funny how 1 person in the article bought a gun, and suddenly the whole town is like that 1 person. So tell me SpazX, is there no racial component with the rest of them since they didn't buy a gun? Aren't you generalizing an entire town now? You townist!
 
"As someone who's been here for months, I get frustrated when workers are painted with a broad brush or the community is painted with a broad brush," French says. "It's not a community of racists any more than we have convicts working the beach. "These are hardworking people working the beaches," he says, "and there are people who are nervous because they're seeing something they haven't seen before."
Click to expand...
Why can't we just leave it at this? Why does it have to be a community of racists, or a group of convict workers? It clearly isn't the either, or situation you all are making it out to be. Stop zeroing in on people purely for your entertainment. This shouldn't even be on the news, nothing has even happened, it is a bunch of crap.

Are we really going to continue the racist witchhunt?
 
[quote name='Knoell']I failed to notice the bolded part somehow...Just kind of funny how 1 person in the article bought a gun, and suddenly the whole town is like that 1 person. So tell me SpazX, is there no racial component with the rest of them since they didn't buy a gun? Aren't you generalizing an entire town now? You townist![/QUOTE]

A little slow on that one Knoell, but in any case that's why we call it an example. Not everyone who is acting on racist fears has to buy a gun, they could do many things, the common thread would be that they're doing them because of people of a certain race. Also, the entire town doesn't have to be racist for there to be racism, it's not all or nothing. The article could be biased for some reason, but I'm just going with the general tone of it.
 
[quote name='SpazX']A little slow on that one Knoell, but in any case that's why we call it an example. Not everyone who is acting on racist fears has to buy a gun, they could do many things, the common thread would be that they're doing them because of people of a certain race. Also, the entire town doesn't have to be racist for there to be racism, it's not all or nothing. The article could be biased for some reason, but I'm just going with the general tone of it.[/QUOTE]

But you just said, "if a group of workers come down, people can be uneasy, but if a group of black workers come people will buy guns". So is the one person who bought a gun for protection a racist? What should we do with them? Did they harm anyone by buying a gun for protection? Oh nevermind, its a scared white woman, who is definately going to end up shooting an innocent black man. Those damn white women!
 
[quote name='Knoell']there treating them like undesirables? where does it say this? and alot of the article says that all the workers do is work all the time, and such.[/QUOTE]
......you astound me. Let me put this in a way you may be able to understand. You ever see First Blood? You know how Rambo was treated when he came into town? Well these folks are getting a similar treatment short of being escorted out of town by the sheriff. Of course Rambo at least didn't have race going against him too. It's obvious they don't desire for these people to be there, therefore they are being treated like undesirables.

Now if that isn't clear for you, it isn't due to a lack of explanation.
 
[quote name='Knoell']But you just said, "if a group of workers come down, people can be uneasy, but if a group of black workers come people will buy guns". So is the one person who bought a gun for protection a racist? What should we do with them? Did they harm anyone by buying a gun for protection? Oh nevermind, its a scared white woman, who is definately going to end up shooting an innocent black man. Those damn white women![/QUOTE]

That's a very interesting story.

It's a prototypical modern (aversive) racist behavior. Using any semi-plausible environmental factor to cloak a racially-motivated action (although it's not necessarily intentional).
 
One person was stabbed and killed, supposedly victim and perp were both workers. Theres your proof that these workers coming here changed something in the townspeoples lives. In a town that virtually doesn't see murder, that would scare some people. But it has to be racism so that couldn't be at least a partial reason for nervousness.
Click to expand...
Because I'm sure there was no crime before these people showed up.

Now, I wouldn't say this is necessarily racist but it might as well be. It's biased as all get-out, what with stores refusing to serve "them" for whatever reason. (Different?)
 
[quote name='dorino']Because I'm sure there was no crime before these people showed up.

Now, I wouldn't say this is necessarily racist but it might as well be. It's biased as all get-out, what with stores refusing to serve "them" for whatever reason. (Different?)[/QUOTE]

what stores are refusing to serve them? unless your talking about pants to the knees thing. Here's a little story, a friend of mine at work was a bit of a loud mouth decided to show her ass crack to joke around with a black co-worker who does the same thing that the store owner doesnt want. Next thing you know, other black girls tell on her and she is fired, and yet I still see this guys ass crack every friday at work. Was that girl racist? Am I racist? Or do I just not want to see someones ass crack.
 
[quote name='SpazX']That's a very interesting story.

It's a prototypical modern (aversive) racist behavior. Using any semi-plausible environmental factor to cloak a racially-motivated action (although it's not necessarily intentional).[/QUOTE]

So what do you think we should do with this terribly racist white woman? Should we round up all people we believe to be racist? I bet there are quite a few racist black people too if we wanted to look for them. Sitting here and discussing this ladies racist tendencies change nothing, prove nothing, the whole discussion is useless besides its entertainment value.
 
[quote name='Clak']......you astound me. Let me put this in a way you may be able to understand. You ever see First Blood? You know how Rambo was treated when he came into town? Well these folks are getting a similar treatment short of being escorted out of town by the sheriff. Of course Rambo at least didn't have race going against him too. It's obvious they don't desire for these people to be there, therefore they are being treated like undesirables.

Now if that isn't clear for you, it isn't due to a lack of explanation.[/QUOTE]

Really? You got that from this article?
 
[quote name='Knoell']So what do you think we should do with this terribly racist white woman? Should we round up all people we believe to be racist? I bet there are quite a few racist black people too if we wanted to look for them. Sitting here and discussing this ladies racist tendencies change nothing, prove nothing, the whole discussion is useless besides its entertainment value.[/QUOTE]

What should we do with her? Legally prevent her from discriminating in her business and continue to work to make sure we live in a society that doesn't tolerate racism and accepts people's differences?
 
[quote name='SpazX']What should we do with her? Legally prevent her from discriminating in her business and continue to work to make sure we live in a society that doesn't tolerate racism and accepts people's differences?[/QUOTE]
Heaven's NO!

And Knoell, anyone thinking would see that the policy is adapted because of the new workers. That's discriminating against the new workers specifically.
 
This is what I'm talking about when I mention willful ignorance, people don't want to see it, so they don't. As far as Knoell is concerned these are some good small town folk who are just scared of all these strange men coming into town.
 
[quote name='SpazX']What should we do with her? Legally prevent her from discriminating in her business and continue to work to make sure we live in a society that doesn't tolerate racism and accepts people's differences?[/QUOTE]

But tolerates racism and the generalization of the person suspected of being racist. Gotcha.

Whats the difference between a white lady thinking a black man will rape her, and you (or whoever said it) thinking a white lady will shoot a black man without a second thought.
 
[quote name='Clak']This is what I'm talking about when I mention willful ignorance, people don't want to see it, so they don't. As far as Knoell is concerned these are some good small town folk who are just scared of all these strange men coming into town.[/QUOTE]

As far as you are concerned they are a bunch of racists, who if given the chance would shoot a black man simple as that.

I do not deny racism exists, but I will not accept the generalization of an entire town because of one news story that says people are uneasy about having 1,800 extra people, mostly being 18-40 year old guys wandering around everywhere.
 
[quote name='Knoell']But tolerates racism and the generalization of the person suspected of being racist. Gotcha.[/quote]

lol, what? Yeah I guess it would be weird to have a society that doesn't tolerate racism that tolerates racism. Or something.

[quote name='Knoell']Whats the difference between a white lady thinking a black man will rape her, and you (or whoever said it) thinking a white lady will shoot a black man without a second thought.[/QUOTE]

I guess there wouldn't be? If somebody thought that? Without reason?
 
Racism doesn't have to be blatant you know, more often than not it's subtle. Yes it's completely possible for one to not even realize that something they say or do is racist. Suddenly buying a gun because a bunch of black men have come to town, trying to make them uncomfortable enough to leave a place of business. Now you can argue it's that they're men and not because most of them are black, but then that brings up a whole host of other stupidity too.
 
[quote name='Knoell']But tolerates racism and the generalization of the person suspected of being racist. Gotcha.

Whats the difference between a white lady thinking a black man will rape her, and you (or whoever said it) thinking a white lady will shoot a black man without a second thought.[/QUOTE]
Because it's a long held stereotype among many white people that black men will come into town and rape the white women. This creates fear, fear makes people do stupid shit like shoot someone for no real reason other than misguided fear. in small towns like this I'd say it's even more likely.
 
[quote name='Clak']Racism doesn't have to be blatant you know, more often than not it's subtle. Yes it's completely possible for one to not even realize that something they say or do is racist. Suddenly buying a gun because a bunch of black men have come to town, trying to make them uncomfortable enough to leave a place of business. Now you can argue it's that they're men and not because most of them are black, but then that brings up a whole host of other stupidity too.[/QUOTE]

Look at the racial hysteria in the nation around us and you'll see, if you look for it, how the nation would respond to its first black President. Now, it's far better than I had anticipated, but it's fascinating to me that any attempt to expose covert white racism for what it is, and to bring Jeremiah Wright, Van Jones, ACORN, the NAACP, and Shirley Sherrod to the surface as examples of racism in the modern discourse is quite revealing.

Of course the dumbass Tea Partiers don't think they're racist. They don't understand that they are.
 
[quote name='Clak']Because it's a long held stereotype among many white people that black men will come into town and rape the white women. This creates fear, fear makes people do stupid shit like shoot someone for no real reason other than misguided fear. in small towns like this I'd say it's even more likely.[/QUOTE]

People seriously think that?
 
[quote name='perdition(troy']People seriously think that?[/QUOTE]

It is part of the Louisville Metro Police Department's training manual.

"...When encountering a white woman within a mile of a black man, please detain the black man after multiple tasings and offer the white woman a rape kit. ..."
 
[quote name='perdition(troy']People seriously think that?[/QUOTE]
I'm not making this shit up dude, I can't believe you've never heard of that.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']Look at the racial hysteria in the nation around us and you'll see, if you look for it, how the nation would respond to its first black President. Now, it's far better than I had anticipated, but it's fascinating to me that any attempt to expose covert white racism for what it is, and to bring Jeremiah Wright, Van Jones, ACORN, the NAACP, and Shirley Sherrod to the surface as examples of racism in the modern discourse is quite revealing.

Of course the dumbass Tea Partiers don't think they're racist. They don't understand that they are.[/QUOTE]

I'd love to know what it's like to live in a reality where the only racism that exists or counts, is white on black racism. Or where every poor decision can always be traced to racism. Is it warm there?
 
[quote name='thrustbucket']I'd love to know what it's like to live in a reality where the only racism that exists or counts, is white on black racism. Or where every poor decision can always be traced to racism. Is it warm there?[/QUOTE]

Apparently, if there's a hint of black on white racism, people get fired. If it's actual white on black racism, you get elected to Congress, the Senate, earn millions of dollars on radio and tv shows, and can start your own "political party."

So maybe I'd like to live in your willfully ignorant world instead.:roll:
 
[quote name='mykevermin']Look at the racial hysteria in the nation around us and you'll see, if you look for it, how the nation would respond to its first black President. Now, it's far better than I had anticipated, but it's fascinating to me that any attempt to expose covert white racism for what it is, and to bring Jeremiah Wright, Van Jones, ACORN, the NAACP, and Shirley Sherrod to the surface as examples of racism in the modern discourse is quite revealing.

Of course the dumbass Tea Partiers don't think they're racist. They don't understand that they are.[/QUOTE]

Can't disagree with a black man. Gotcha.

That kind of attitude isn't racist at all...
 
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