Racist costumes being banned

I don't know if some or all or a few or none of the 9/11/1 bombers were Arabs.
I 'm pretty sure that thay were all MOSLEMS.

Arabia is not on a rampage to conquer the world,
but thay were mad at us because we r not Moslems. Thay call us: "Infidels".

The idea is the same as the commies (world conquest, slavery to their philosophy)
that we become Moslems, not that we become Arabs.


As of 9/1O/1, I had no interest in Moslems whatsoever.
I saw them in airports, kneeling toward the East. I did not care,
until thay started blowing things up. I care about self defense and retribution.

( Call me a HYPOCRIT: when I have met them face-to-face,
I have treated them politely with good fellowship, the same as anyone else
and I don 't actually want them to be unhappy,
but history is what it has been and we shoud call a spade a spade.)





David

Never mind the Moslems! Only a very few kooks among them bother the West, and their leading light was killed off recently. Can we get back to Halloween costumes - or even regular fashion, it's so very interesting and not at all "PC" - there's actually something called a "voodoo shoe". Love this outfit, btw!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204644504576653492163256216.html?mod=lifestyle_newsreel

If they’re going to ban anything it should be nasty drag queens.

Well, I happen to think that maybe most lesbians can laugh at themselves, just like I can laugh at myself if it's true.

I was telling a friend a story the other day and he said, 'You know Rebecca, most people would have just said, 'When your aunt or uncle, or any elder for that matter, walk in a room, it's rude if you don't stand up and offer them a seat,' but instead of that you went on and on and acted the whole thing out, like, you know, 'I walked in the room and D. was laying on the couch and M. was sitting there and I'd just gotten off the plane and I'd been up for 24 hours and did D. or M. even get up so I could sit down? No - they just laid there and all I wanted was a cup of tea and to sit down and that was just ******* tough because they didn't give a ****, etc. etc.'

And I IMMEDIATELY recognized myself and that what he was saying was SO TRUE and I laughed and laughed.

I don't know - I just love a really sharp and accurate observation and re-enactment- even if it's taking the micky out of me.

I heard this lady at the table next to me at Sunday dinner and I wrote down what she was saying just because it reminded me of me as I'll be when I'm 90. Same storytelling, descriptive, analysing bullshit...if you can't laugh at yourself - who can you laught at?

Well, yeah - I see the healthiness of being able to laugh at myself. When I was an instructor at the Army Medical Academy, we used to have a little cookout for the students at the end of their Field Training Exercise out in the woods. At one of the last ones I was in, the students staged a little skit wherein all of the instructors got imitated and roasted. The guy that "did" me really got my stick-up-the-butt formalness and constant mopping of flop sweats at the start of each class. I cracked up.

Someone making fun of someone else's idiosyncrasies or personality is the essence of a lot of comedy. Political humor wouldn't last a day without it.

So yeah, I get the value of being able to look at myself and laugh.

Now, what that's got to do with a costume that depict an Arab wearing dynamite or a white person wearing blackface for laughs - I don't know.

I have changed my mind on some things in my years at a2k. (One of them being whole wheat breads, but never mind. I had a thread about changing after coming to a2k, but didn't get around to mentioning serious changes myself, though I had intended to.)

Slappy used to make fun of midgets and other small people and I once read him one of my riot acts - I had a guy friend (of sorts, in that we used to say hi and talk) who was not only very small but thalidomide affected, sans limbs of much length. Used to 'ride' a skateboard on Venice's Ocean Front Walk. So, I was all irate at Slappy. Gradually I've decided that one can make fun of anything. Not that I do, but I've taken off my blindfold that that is always, always, wrong. Obviously it can matter, taste wise, who is doing the joke/irony/satire.

This all reminds me of two occasions - once, when someone in front of me fell down some stairs and I laughed, and spooked myself by doing that. I might have been thirteen when that happened. I found out later that this is a common human response, sort of a nervous reaction. And, when I fell down stairs myself, more stairs than that first person, and felt embarrassed and relieved that I didn't break my neck, and .. smiled. I think there is something very human about laughing at even real horror.

No, I don't laugh about the holocaust. But I've read Primo Levi's Reawakening, and found joy in his humor on his long very trying trek upon release from Auschwitz. I need to read some of his other books, re his time in Auschwitz/adjacent camp, just to read a good writer about such a thing, but also to see if there was even a lick of humor.

That's interesting that you used the example of someone falling down stairs. I think a lot of people have that nervous reaction that you pointed out.

I guess about some things I'm not the norm. Me and my wife have talked about this several times. Once our cat got caught in an extension cord, and was choking herself trying to get free. Cheryl almost couldn't help her, because she was laughing too hard. I was horrified, and scrambled to get her free before she got injured. I don't say she was wrong, just that we are wired differently.
It's the same thing when someone takes a bad fall on the ice. I've found that most people bust out laughing immediately. I actually wonder first about how bad the injury might be. I may laugh about how funny it looked in retrospect, but i promise you - it just ain't my first reaction.

Being able to laugh at yourself is certainly a good thing.

Being able to laugh at other people is not so impressive.

**** them if they cant take a joke.....

Um, does that imply a sexual embargo against comedians ?

Nope, just simple derision directed toward those who sniff " you cant laugh at me or my people because I say so" to which my response is "**** you, I am the boss of me, so let's get that straight right now".....

I understand both reactions. I was thirteen at that first laugh, the high school stairs, and the same stairs for my first illuminating fall. No witnesses, probably a good thing. Older now, but I see the laugh in the face of the unknown or terror as human.

As it happens, I tend to fall in real life, so far so good (woman has good bones to this date). Fell into the road at the memorial at the bridge for Dys not long ago. Yet another fuckup by me, should have stayed close to the rail, but it turned out ok. I don't usually smile at falling anymore, good enough if I get up.

To extrapolate, surely some halloween humor is railing against the night.



(now knowing a lot more about design, I'd question the stairs and maybe the waxing)

These days, not being a goddam pussy is impressive.

Well, I don't know - those two examples are questionable to me - yeah - they are. Just like I admitted my black husband pretending to be a welfare mom was/is questionable to me. I don't have a hard and fast rule/opinion.
Sometimes I just don't know.

I do know however that whenever Chris Rock puts on his uptight white person voice, I laugh and laugh.
Is that sort of the same thing do you think? He's stereotyping white people, innit? Is that any better than white people stereotyping black or middle eastern people?
Because no - I don't enjoy seeing people be hurt.
But that guy last night made a pretty cute lesbian. If I'd been a hetero/lesbian I'd have gone for him.
I guess I think lesbians might be flattered to be depicted as being so attractive as this male lesbian was.

But bottom line, if it hurts someone I guess it's not good.

I think you got that backwards Thack. The pussies here are the people who don't want to be called racist when they wear offensive costumes.

It seems like people on this thread only want free speech one way. They say people in the majority can use whatever offensive speech they want, but minorities need to just shut up and take it.

What's wrong with letting everyone have free speech? You have the right wear whatever racist or offensive costume you want. I have the right to point out how racist and offensive it is.

If you are a white person you have the right to run around in black face. But when you do, you shouldn't whine when someone calls you a racist.

You would think living in Florida and this being a red state, 30 years behind the times, they would have banned these drag queen costumes and made them a felony to wear, this one is licking my Pal Jim’s face off.

Osso, I knew you'd come around on midgets! They're fun little bastards, eh?

I can see where just being a blackface character would be offensive because the possible connotations, but not if you were painting yourself to be a specific black character. A friend of mine few years back was Randy Watson from Coming to America, we went out to a very busy club, nobody seemed offended. To avoid any potential ass-kickings, I wouldn't go so far to dress up as "Sambo the blackface" though.

I've been an Asian Driver for Halloween(all home made), my girlfriend last night went as a butch lesbian(including self-made tags like "Home Depot Rocks" and "I hate my vagina"), the only time someone told me they were offended by a costume was when I was a Special Olympics Bronze Medalist...it's all in good fun, I think everyone's line that can be crossed is different..but the PC crowd in this country has gotten severely out of hand.

Free Speech includes whining doesn't it?

Or maybe the response to being called a racist won't be whining, it will be something to the effect of " Bite me ****-wad! Or a pop in the nose.

Clearly no can stop someone from being offended.

Once they express their feelings, you have a choice to respect them or judge them inappropriate over-reaction. Chances are your response will be influenced by how the other person expresses his or her feelings. I doubt I will feel very sympathetic towards someone who screams in my face that I am a racist.

I do think that anyone wearing blackface should be prepared for a negative reaction, and given all the other costumes to choose from, I don't know why someone might think it worth the possibility of a confrontation, unless that's what they are actually looking for.

But if you feel certain that offense is an unjustified response, there's no reason you should be intimidated into regret or apology, and there's absolutely no reason to meekly tolerate an aggressive expression.

Of course Finn. My main objection to this ridiculous thread was the use of the word "banning" when there was nothing in the story that had anything to do with banning.

I am generally pretty easy going but there are a few things that I find so offensive that I don't tolerate.

I only ran into this a few times in my personal life. Once at work a co-worker used a politically charged word that I find offensive. I respectfully explained my distaste and my co-worker was open to my complaint. We remain on good terms. Of course the rules for civility at work are stricter and the consequences are greater. But this is a good guy and two people of reasonably good will can work these things out with respect.

The second time was at a poker room and I got into a heated argument with a guy I consider a racist idiot. We are not very friendly now and he probably cares as little as I do.

But it is in my nature to stand up to things I feel are racist particularly when they are in public settings. I figure that when people are willing to stand up for what they believe is right rather than just sitting back and letting things happen it makes the society better.

The first thing I'd like to say max is that I could've made that comment to any number of posts in this thread. I wasn't meaning to single out you or your reply...

I can't speak for others, but if I put brown makeup on my face or put a towel on my head, that wouldn't make me a racist. If I think that I'm better than blacks or moslems because they're blacks or moslems — then I'd be a racist.

I think you've confused yourself in coming to this conclusion. Clearly everyone is free to say whatever they like, as you and I and others have all freely done. You seem to have taken peoples' disagreements in opinion as denying the right to others "free speech", which is not at all the case. We're all still free to speak. It looks like dissenting views are your problem.

Aside from the fact that - again - what people say doesn't negate one's free speech, I've not seen this to be the case. I've seen White Men Can't Jump. And I remember a movie about a couple of black dudes wearing white makeup called White Chicks. Then there's the couple of decades where some black comedians point out all of the silly things white people do. Is this the majority you're referring to?
Indeed.
So then the person you're calling a racist is no longer entitled to speak freely?