Quote:
Originally Posted by GirlySports
If I (an asian girl) went to a Dallas Cowboys game dressed in full Western gear and painted my face a little whiter, isn't that just as bad as redfaced white people going to Indians games.
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Not really the same thing at all. The issue here is essentially, when does a joke (which is what a caricature basicly is) become a problem.
For white Texans in Texas, a joke about white Texans is just a joke. (Possibly an offending one, but it's still just a joke.) As the ruling ethnic group in the area/country, the lives of Texans/white people are not constrained by their caricatures, as they themselves have the power to define their status in the society they live in. In short, you can't make a joke that
actually hurts them.
This is really the same reason why a comedian can tell all the jokes about disabled people she wants of in front of a mostly disable audience, but those exact same jokes will get her in trouble in front of a more general audience. If the target of the joke is also the audience, they are essentially the group with the power in the situation. This makes the joke lose it's power, and it remains just a joke. If they are just the target of the joke, the joke becomes more than a joke, since it becomes potentially harmful.
It's really the same reason why friends can make terrible jokes about each other and laugh about it, but will get mad if an outsider makes the same joke about their friend.
Context is everything.
(Some textbook definitions of racism actually only include the views of the dominant ethnic group or groups, btw.)
Native Americans, who are a minority group with relatively little social pull, are not the audience of the "joke" or slur that is Redskins. They're just the target. To make things worse, that particular caricature props up the exact stereotype that is harmful to them. So naturally, some of them will care enough about this particular case to be upset about it. Not everyone will, because it's just one caricature among many. (Native Americans don't form a hivemind.)
Essentially, racism is not simply about race, it's about the power a group has over another group, and the ways they use it. The owners and supporters of the Redskins are using their power in the society to prop up a racist caricature, against a group of people that by themselves can't really do anything about it.
Which makes the USE of the name Redskins name racism in itself. (This is basicly why many newspapers have declined to use it. Journalists tend to get the power of words.)
I feel it's probably best to remind that most people would agree that some racism here or there is not a real problem in itself. Racism only becomes a problem when views against a certain group are held by people with so much combined influence over that group that it starts to significantly impact that groups life.
This is not what's going on with white Texans, but it is very much going on with native Americans. Which is why racism relating to them is more of a problem than racism relating to, for example, jews or the Irish, who are generally speaking doing fine in the US.
I think most would essentially agree, that yeah, the Redskins name is kind of racist. I believe the debate is really more about whether or not that particular bit of racism is a problem.
And I admit, there's no 100% sure way to say either way, unless you personally are offended by it.
If you don't suffer from racism yourself, it's hard to have any kind of an informed opinion on the topic. The really tricky part is, the people who suffer from racism pretty much by definition have very little power to do something about the racism. That's a dilemma.
The other people, us, are the ones with the power to actually influence things. But we can never be sure when is the right situation to do something. But we don't do anything, nothing happens to racism, and it's probably not going to go away by itself.
The way I see it, the only way to solve that dilemma is for people who don't suffer from racism to err on the side of doing things.
I know people love to bash political correctness, but sometimes it's actually a good idea.
