Zizek on racism

[Delenda Carthago]

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Yusualy, o mai Got,Zizek is clerley stiupit.Bat I find this one rieally clever, yu kno? I had a disagreement de oder day in here about the yuse of the word "faggot", if it is rasscist if yiou yuse it for a non-homosexual. And Zizek is on the same road, no?

[Stork]

exactly, posters with words like "celebrate diversity" do nothing to stop bigotry. Laughter is the best medicine and understandings come between ethnic/cultural groups naturally, and if they don't it's easy to take hard-core homophobes, racists or others down to earth with reasoned arguments. As for the use of the word Faggot, it's all about personal preference, no heavy-handed statist "don't say the F-word" campaign will stop it because Taboos are always broken.

[blackandyellow]

Young people do this all the time. "Ethnic banter" i guess you could call it. For example in schools in the UK, theres always jokes between people from West African backgrounds and Jamaican. Or Indian and Pakistani. Between all sorts of nationalities really. To an outsider a lot of it probably sounds quite bad though.

[Burn A Flag]

Where I am, all the East Asian kids joke on each other about being Asian. It's all good as long as no one is seriously attacking each other for race.

[Blake's Baby]

And do the white kids call each other 'Cracker' and 'Honkey' and 'Redneck' and 'White Trash' too?

If not, why not?

[The Jay]

Down south they call each other redneck, but in the north east it's rare to call people cracker. I think that it just doesn't enter our minds.

[Iron Felix]

But, what happens when a circle meets a triangle?

[Dumb]

I don't know about the west coast of the U.S.A. in general, but "cracker" and "redneck" are both fairly common in the Central Valley of California, where I'm from, as a humorous or even affectionate term. "White trash"? Not so much.

[RadioRaheem84]

I have never seen one instance where a white person was actually deeply offended of being called a "honkie", "white trash" or a "cracker". White trash, a little, because it denotes class, but the rest no.

No white person thinks being called those names for being white is an insult. Most of the times, the white person thinks the non-white person is jealous.

In American society, a poor white person can use racism as a way to mend his insecure position in society. For instance, he can look at a rich black person and think that it means nothing because that man is still black, where as being white to him means something much more.

So there is no need for white people in their communities to call each other racially charged slurs in order to defuse any sense of racism against them or amongst each other.

The whole reason racial slurs have a deep impact on non-white people, is because they know white people usually dominate high positions and the eurocentric culture surrounding them amplifies that position. Non-white people also know that retaliating back with racial slurs against white people is useless.

I highly doubt using racial slurs in humorous light amongst different racial communities will do much to solve racism, especially if racial slurs and stereotypes usually come from perceptions of the dominant class (which are usually whites).

For instance, the slur about blacks liking watermelon. Who the hell doesn't like watermelon? Watermelon is fucking delicious. But racist white people have conjured up a depiction of blacks overjoyed at the sight of watermelon and have since attributed a general desire for a fruit as something unique to black people.

Same with Mexicans and beans. Asians with rice.

So for blacks, mexicans and Asians to associate themselves with these racial stereotypes and slurs as a form of humor to minimize their social impact is spurious. It's caving in to eurocentric views of other races.

White people aren't running around laughing at each other at how much they love meat and potatoes. Or calling each other stupid crackers.

that's my take on it. And I hope I made sense, I watched about half of Zizeks video and read the rest of the comments and I really hope I am on topic and did not just go into a whole other direction. :blushing:

[MustCrushCapitalism]

There is a difference between friendly jokes and outright racism, ZZ has a point there. Of course I'm a gigantic fan of everything from Slavoj Zizek, so...

[RadioRaheem84]

There is a difference between friendly jokes and outright racism, ZZ has a point there. Of course I'm a gigantic fan of everything from Slavoj Zizek, so...

It seems though that friendly jokes originate with some perception by the dominate class. Whether the person telling them is working class, does not matter, what matters is that 9 times out of ten it's a perception shared by the dominant class/race/ethnicity. Not always, though.

I mean can someone at least tell me a friendly racial joke or slur that doesn't originate from the perception of someone who is in a dominant position?

I mean I am really not trying to say the world should be humorless, but racial/ethnic jokes to me, whenever I hear about it from American comedians at least, just rub me the wrong way. They seem like cheap shots. Maybe it's because I am just a class focused person that race to me is so secondary that if it doesn't follow a class analysis then it's false to me.

[Blake's Baby]

I have never seen one instance where a white person was actually deeply offended of being called a "honkie", "white trash" or a "cracker". White trash, a little, because it denotes class, but the rest no.

No white person thinks being called those names for being white is an insult. Most of the times, the white person thinks the non-white person is jealous. ...

No you've totally missed my point I'm fraid.

Do white people call each other honkey, cracker and redneck, as the Asian dudes who use anti-Asian racial insults do to other Asians, which is what Burn A Flag was talking about? I'm not askling about inter-ethnic insults, but intra-ethnic insults.

[blackandyellow]

No you've totally missed my point I'm fraid.

Do white people call each other honkey, cracker and redneck, as the Asian dudes who use anti-Asian racial insults do to other Asians, which is what Burn A Flag was talking about? I'm not askling about inter-ethnic insults, but intra-ethnic insults.

From my experience it seems that jokes between races, many find it more comfortable to make jokes towards whites. For example i just got a text from a friend saying "oi white devil, what are you doing later". Its a joke, and i dont care obviously. However, i definatly wouldnt start a text to him with "oi slave", or something like that. Not that i think he would care, but i'd feel pretty uncofortable doing it. Having said that, people from majority white places e.g. small villages in England, do find it acceptable to say some fucked up stuff.

It's a balance. If a group of white people are making jokes about someone who is Asian or black, it pretty bad. But then when its a multi-ethnic group of friends and a bit of ethnic banter is going around, I dont see the problem.

[Blake's Baby]

I don't mean to be rude, but did you quote my post because you think you're answering my question? If you do, I have yet again failed to formulate it clearly.

I'm trying to compare: 1 - the reports of black youths using 'racist' language about other black people, and Asian youths using 'racist' language about other Asian people, with 2 - white people using 'racist' language about white people - NOT black people using 'racist' language about white, NOT white people using 'racist' language about black or Asian people.

Does anyone have anything to say about white people using 'racist' language (particularly in Virginia, the topic of the original question) TO OTHER WHITE PEOPLE?

[Killforpeace]

The stupidity of racism generally makes me laugh, its just the hatred/violent racism I worry about. Seeing all these racist 17 year old european kids posting white pride videos on youtube scares me. The stupidity of discrimination altogether makes me laugh and I'm glad people are becoming more tolerant over this issue, because really at the end of the day its completely pointless and not worth taking serious unless its extremely abusive/violent.
I don't know of white people who joke about other white's ethnicity really, but we just seem to discriminate on other things more (ranging from class to hair colour).

[Delenda Carthago]

I don't know of white people who joke about other white's ethnicity really
I bet my ass you dont live in the Balkans.