Does a single person here find this racist? My rant on my sociology class

[Ben Kenobi]

Cool, what do you call 10,000 Republicans on the bottom of the ocean? A good start!

I don't know what is sadder, the joke, or the fact you bothered to post it.

[Wernazuma III]

I will not engage into a discussion about cannibalism and human sacrifice, which surely could be a topic of its own.
However, I want to deposit my opinion that the joke in post #1 is racist.

The joke plays with common stereotypes of a "superior" culture on "backwards" cultures on very simple patterns based on a European Christian background.
"Primitive" cultures are most of the time considered to be a) cannibalistic and b) sodomitic as the two major factors of "barbarianism". It's btw. two attributes the bible mentions in the case of the Canaanites, who, because of this misbehaviour, could be expelled by the Jews from the Holy Land. This so called "Exodus-motive" has been used by European colonizers for centuries to justify their conquests and missions. Does it say anything about the historicity of the existance of sodomy and cannibalism in those cultures? Hardly. This argument, in turn, doesn't rule out the existance of cannibalism in an unspecified number of cultures. I just felt it necesary to point out that the identification chain "primitive-bougabouga-sodomite-cannibal" is a racist concept that stems from white-christian supremacy claims.

[Agathon]

But there are superior cultures.

Classical Greek culture is, apart from its lassez-faire attitude towards paedophilia and slavery, superior to our own in almost every aspect. The quality of politicians and debate was superior, public architecture was superior, their literature and philosophy was superior, and their public entertainments make ours look like Britney Spears.

I suppose the last point is moot since our public entertainment is actually Britney Spears.

[Dr Strangelove]

This entire thread is racist! You should not discriminate among respondants to your question according to marital preference. On behalf of married and all other non-single people I protest the very existance of this thread.

[Fake Boris]

Originally posted by Agathon
But there are superior cultures.

Classical Greek culture is, apart from its lassez-faire attitude towards paedophilia and slavery, superior to our own in almost every aspect. The quality of politicians and debate was superior, public architecture was superior, their literature and philosophy was superior, and their public entertainments make ours look like Britney Spears.

I suppose the last point is moot since our public entertainment is actually Britney Spears.

True, but the sad side of things is that it was made possible by the slaves, to the point most citizens didn't have to work.

[Agathon]

My main point is that people seem to think it is impossible to compare cultures. I mean, why not?

You make a list of desirable and undesirable traits and then measure them up.

Of course if you think that this is culturally relative then what you mean is that nothing is really better than anything else, which is a patently ridiculous view.

[Fake Boris]

Originally posted by Agathon
My main point is that people seem to think it is impossible to compare cultures. I mean, why not?

You make a list of desirable and undesirable traits and then measure them up.

Of course if you think that this is culturally relative then what you mean is that nothing is really better than anything else, which is a patently ridiculous view.

Yup, I definitely agree with you.

When the worse book you can get at the library is Gorgias' Non-Being (yeah, I know it is intended to be humorous, but at least it's quality humor) or Plato's Parmenides, it tells a lot about the quality of a culture.

[Agathon]

Man, have you been reading Gorgias? I was looking at that recently.

[Ben Kenobi]

primitive-bougabouga-sodomite-cannibal

I don't make the connection between cannibal and sodomite, Wernazuma. Why would you?

[Fake Boris]

Originally posted by Agathon
Man, have you been reading Gorgias? I was looking at that recently.

No, it was my teacher (who knows I like funny stuff) who suggested it to me. Is it worth it?

edit: funny within its philosophical context, to be more precise.

[Ben Kenobi]

or Plato's Parmenides, it tells a lot about the quality of a culture.

I agree with you that our culture needs work, and that in many ways we are worse off than the Greeks.

However,

apart from its lassez-faire attitude towards paedophilia and slavery,

Seem to me reasons to favour even today over the culture then.

[The Mad Viking]

Henry Wellington Wack, 1905
The Story of the Congo Free State

A very detailed and balanced book, as free of bias as one can expect from a western source a century ago.

He describes over 100 tribes in his book, but alleges cannabilistic habits to only "a few".

It is not necessary in this place to give the names of all the tribes of which the native population of the vast Congo region is composed. They are numerous, and for the most part not easily pronouncable. Of the tribes not already referred to, the Basundis, Bakuendas, Batekas, Bayanzis, Batetelas, Mongos, Bantu, and Mombettus are most prominent. While differing in personal appearance, prowess, habits, and customs, clearly denoting that they are not descended from a common stock, there are not wanting certain traits which distinguish them all. All are polygamous, nearly all are cannibal, and the morals of the most advanced among them such as shock the average civilised man upon his first contact with them. Strangely inconsistent with the low moral sense which prevails among most of the tribes, some of them punish the crime of adultery with death, others by horribly mutilating the male offender. Cannibalism has long been suppressed by the Congo Government just as murder is suppressed among civilised communities; but the horrid practice is still indulged here and there, as opportunity occurs for evading the vigilance of the authorities. So recently as 1898, and possible to the present day, it was necessary to maintain a constant guard at the cemetery in Leopoldville, the chief station on the Upper Congo, to prevent the Bangalas unearthing the dead and carrying them off to feast upon. Several such cases were proved against them, and capital punishment had to be resorted to in order to stamp it out. This horrid subject is sickening to contemplate; but no description, however brief or superficial, of the Congo people, can ignore a fact which has occasioned, and still presents, such a tremendous difficulty for civilisation to surmount. This is but one of many difficulties with which the Congo Free State has had to contend, and those who sit in judgment upon that State should bear in mind that the Central African black is not by nature predisposed to civilisation. Not all the cannibal tribes are so repulsive and cruel as the Bangalas. Most of them eat no other human flesh but that of their enemies slain in battle. That source of supply will not suffice for the Bangalas, who make up it's deficiency with prisoners or slaves. Having broken their victim's limbs, they place him in a pool of water, with his head supported just above it's surface so that he may not drown. After having left him in that position for three days (if he survives that long), he is killed and eaten. Another method is to behead a victim, singe all the hair from the body over an ember fire, and then cut it into pieces for cooking. The portions not immediately eaten are smoke-dried and put aside for another occasion. The teeth are extracted and made into necklaces by the women. Sometimes the skin is used for drumheads.

This is one of scores of descriptions of congo basin cannabilism.

I fail to understand why racists trying to falsely paint a picture of savages would consistenly ascribe cannabilism to the Congo Basin tribes, and consistently NOT to scores of tribes in other parts of Africa; in dozens of documents written by English, French, German, Dutch, Belgian and American authors unfamiliar with each others works.

Instead, you choose to follow Arens crapology, who posits that canniblism is a myth and then seeks to prove it, and denies that it took place at all, even on Easter Island or New Guinea.

It is PC rubbish, and it is beneath you.

The PC are really just like conservatives. They don't think. They "know". Then they pick and choose facts, embrace supportive rumours, and string them together with rhetoric instead of logic to support what they "know."

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi


I agree with you that our culture needs work, and that in many ways we are worse off than the Greeks.

However,



Seem to me reasons to favour even today over the culture then.

Yes, wouldn't it be wonderful if a popular vote could force people with obnoxious opinions to commit suicide? I wonder who.......?

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by The Mad Viking
Henry Wellington Wack, 1905
The Story of the Congo Free State

A very detailed and balanced book, as free of bias as one can expect from a western source a century ago.

He describes over 100 tribes in his book, but alleges cannabilistic habits to only "a few".



This is one of scores of descriptions of congo basin cannabilism.

I fail to understand why racists trying to falsely paint a picture of savages would consistenly ascribe cannabilism to the Congo Basin tribes, and consistently NOT to scores of tribes in other parts of Africa; in dozens of documents written by English, French, German, Dutch, Belgian and American authors unfamiliar with each others works.

Instead, you choose to follow Arens crapology, who posits that canniblism is a myth and then seeks to prove it, and denies that it took place at all, even on Easter Island or New Guinea.

It is PC rubbish, and it is beneath you.

The PC are really just like conservatives. They don't think. They "know". Then they pick and choose facts, embrace supportive rumours, and string them together with rhetoric instead of logic to support what they "know."

It should be noted that the Belgian Congo gained a conspicous notoriety for its horrendously cruel treatment of its natives, so much so that the King of Belgium recieved letters of censures from virtually every goveernment of Europe. Belgian industrialists and plantation owners took natives as virtual slaves and forced them to work under conditions without the slightest regards for the native's health or lives. Tribes that resisted were brutally tortured and slaughtered. Families were taken hostage to ensure the enthusiasm of the workers. The mistreatment of Africans by the Belgians became the excuse for the gobbling up of the whole continent by the other colonial powers, as they scrambled to take the hapless natives under their "protection". I would deeply suspect the writings of a white man involved with colonial Africa during this period. People who abuse and persecute other people are well know to fabricate all sorts of rationalizations to excuse their treatment of their victims.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by GePap




Give me a freaking break: ANYONE here who says they imagined these "savages" as caucasians when reading the joke is a damned liar.

If I were to write:

So amos came and said "sure thing massa, i's going to get the food right now for ya'll" You certainly would assume Amos to be white, right? Cause these are all common white stereotypes, correct?

Give me a ****ing break: stereotypes are built on a common cultural heritage- a given set of assumptions that allow the stereotypes to work, and NO< they do not have to be spelled out for anyone who might not share that one common cultural knowledge. Now stop being dense.

I was actually thinking of feral English schoolboys like the ones in Lord of the Flies. It made the sodomy more credible.