Glad you understood the point I was trying to make. Re-reading, in the light of day, what I'd written while tired and not completely "with it"... Well, I wasn't sure I'd made my point. But, yes, your comparative scenario shows you got exactly what I was going for.
do you find such lines on a TV show like 30 Rock to also be part of the mindset that promotes racism, that white people who are from that line of privilege trying to be "ironic" with racism are still promoting it? Do you think that because people like me become sensitized towards hearing inequality discussed in such a flippant and privileged manner, we become accustomed to thinking of things in those terms and processing other information, like that tweet, with a warped way of viewing it?
I've had a television for exactly one month and one day. I haven't yet got round to watching any particular shows, so I don't know 30 Rock. Judging from what you've described, though, I'd say it does downplay the effects of racism - making it, in essence, not much more significant than supporting a perpetually losing sports team. And I think that sort of downplaying does promote racism. In the U.S., there seems to be a strong and widespread belief that racism doesn't really exist any more and that those of us who say it does are (to paraphrase Phil Robertson) suffering from a sense of entitlement.
Now there's irony for you! We're "entitled" for not wanting to be mistreated.
After all, you know, minorities aren't that mistreated in America - we've got a Black president, and gay folks can get married in D.C. and (almost) eighteen states! What the hell are them there gays and Blacks complaining about? What more do they want?!?!?!? Hey, I'll admit that some of them got a raw deal in the past and I'm all for supporting them if their "equality" doesn't mean I might have to give up feeling comfortably superior to them, but they've got that already. They should stop their boohooing. And get a sense of humour, already! /end sarcasm
do you find such lines on a TV show like 30 Rock to also be part of the mindset that promotes racism, that white people who are from that line of privilege trying to be "ironic" with racism are still promoting it? Do you think that because people like me become sensitized towards hearing inequality discussed in such a flippant and privileged manner, we become accustomed to thinking of things in those terms and processing other information, like that tweet, with a warped way of viewing it?
I've had a television for exactly one month and one day. I haven't yet got round to watching any particular shows, so I don't know 30 Rock. Judging from what you've described, though, I'd say it does downplay the effects of racism - making it, in essence, not much more significant than supporting a perpetually losing sports team. And I think that sort of downplaying does promote racism. In the U.S., there seems to be a strong and widespread belief that racism doesn't really exist any more and that those of us who say it does are (to paraphrase Phil Robertson) suffering from a sense of entitlement.
Now there's irony for you! We're "entitled" for not wanting to be mistreated.
After all, you know, minorities aren't that mistreated in America - we've got a Black president, and gay folks can get married in D.C. and (almost) eighteen states! What the hell are them there gays and Blacks complaining about? What more do they want?!?!?!? Hey, I'll admit that some of them got a raw deal in the past and I'm all for supporting them if their "equality" doesn't mean I might have to give up feeling comfortably superior to them, but they've got that already. They should stop their boohooing. And get a sense of humour, already!
/end sarcasm
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