Quote:
Originally Posted by Coys1882
I think I'd go with stupid - I honestly don't believe this makes him racist. Insensitive maybe, stupid yes but racist is a pretty goddamn strong word that means he's intolerant of other races and I doubt that's really the case.
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I tend to agree, although people are probably much more sensitive in Vancouver with such a high chinese population.
Diverging from the subject a bit, I sense that some young people today tend to consider older people a bunch of bigots because of their past use of language, and I believe this is somewhat unfair. Growing up in Toronto in the 40's and 50's, the overall culture and times were much different. Society was much less mixed racially. Wars were being fought with Asian and some European nations, etc. Children of the day were subjected to the language and usages passed down by their parents, grandparents, peers, etc., part of which, by today's standards, would be considered racist.
For example, when we used the method of choosing things by saying, "eeny meeny miny mo.....", or went down to the store to ask for "nxxxer babies", we weren't aware we were offending Blacks. There were very few Blacks around to offend at the time.
I moved to a small town in my teens, where we all knew the band leader was gay, because he kept winking at us. I believe most of us accepted him for what he was, and were disgusted when some local woman who caught wind of it and wrote a scathing letter in the town newspaper, which got him fired and stripped of his pension.
I think in the old days, most Canadians lived by the Golden rule, "Do unto others..." regardless of a person's skin colour. I remember getting on a bus to go downtown in Vegas during the late 60's. I went right to the back of the bus and noticed everyone was looking at me, including the Blacks who were all around me. Little did I know that only Blacks sat at the back of the bus. The people probably thought, "He's just another one of those dumb Canadians who don't know any better".
Society was changing so fast during the 70's, with regard to being politically correct, that the Archie Bunker series came along to lighten up the issue. We were laughing at him, not with him. He reminded us of some of the older, unenlightened folks at the time.
On a lighter note:
"a little nip in the air" is a Japanese pilot
An Italian airplane crashing goes nnnnnnnnnnnnnnn WOP
Sorry for being so long winded, but I thought it would be a good opportunity to create a little more understanding and tolerance between the young and the old.