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Originally Posted by Cannon Shell
Dude all I am saying is that you guys jumped on a guy for posting a stupid picture. In calling it racist you actually are part of the problem of blurring the line between actual racism and psuedo-racism. I am well aware of the evils of racism but the tendency to see things that may be in poor taste as racist just fuels the flames.
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Needless to say, I completely disagree with you here. Racism comes in all shapes and sizes. The Klan engages in one form of racist activity. People who use a person's race to influence a decision about who gets a promotion engages in another. One of the biggest misconceptions, however, that a lot of people seem to have, is that these obvious acts are all that falls under the category of racism. This is not the case. The world is not neatly divided between "racists" and angels. A lot of racism is born of ignorance rather than malicious intent. Things like caricatures can - and have - strenthened negative racial stereotypes for centuries. When something that is in "poor taste" is also racially insensitive, I firmly believe that the person responsible for it should be called on it. TheSpyder was called on it, and he handled himself appropriately.
Is making an offensive post on a horse racing message board the same as more blatant forms of racism? Of course not. Can such images and comments strengthen negative stereotypes? Yes. That is racism. Pure and simple. For what it is worth I can tell you that the vast majority of the academic community would almost unanimously call the post in question a "racist post." Now does that mean we are absolutely right? No, and I suspect that there will be a lot of anti-academic types here who will suggest that we are wrong quite often. But I believe we are right more often than we are wrong, and I think we're right here.
Now, personally I really want to be done with this topic, although I suspect it will continue on without my participation. As a historian, I actually study, read, and write on the history of U.S. racism (or to put it more accurately, the history of the social construction of "race" in the U.S) for a living. I work on this crap 7 days a week, for about 10 hours a day, so when I come on DT, I would much rather discuss the ponies.