"White People Caused The Crisis But It Wasn't Me"

[VetLegion]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7967546.stm

President Lula said white, blue-eyed people - not Indians, nor black, nor poor people - had created and spread the crisis throughout the world.

We can only imagine his thought process:

"It is white people's fault --- (wait, I'm white) --- white people with blue eyes, that is"

[BeBMan]

[Impaler[WrG]]

Couldn't he have just said Americans and have been done with it??

[Japher]

Only about 30% of Americans fit that description (made that number up)

The real problem is the jews

[Theben]

President "Lula"?!?

[Cartimandua]

I think I've just been discriminated against. Darn blue eyes...

[Docfeelgood]

Only about 30% of Americans fit that description (made that number up)

The real problem is the jews

[VetLegion]

Couldn't he have just said Americans and have been done with it??

They do that all the time in Latin America (thinking of course of USA) so it doesn't make news. It's the blue-eyes bit that is Lula's original contribution

[The Mad Monk]

Louis Farrahkan is suing for copyright violation...

[chequita guevara]

In many countries, white is a socially constructed concept, not related to the color of one's skin. In much of Latin America and the Caribbean, whiteness is based on your class. The ruling class of Haiti, for example, considers itself white, even though they would be Black in the United States.

Even in the United States, race is socially defined. In the most extreme case, in the 19th Century, California declared that Chinese people were legally Black and that Mexicans were legally Indians.

So while this sounds weird to Western ears*, for the most part, it's perfectly normal in many parts of the world.

* anecdotally, a friend of mine was in Britain in the 80s and heard someone screaming, "You Black bastard!" She looked around to see what was going on, the the person being called Black was a Greek. So even among Europeans, there can be a racial divide.

[Imran Siddiqui]

*whoosh*

Way to miss the point, che . The funny part was that he amended 'blue eyes' to exclude himself .

[Sprayber]

Well ****, I was always told my blue eyes would be a good thing. Looks like I caused the world economic crisis and I didn't even know it. I'm still waiting for my cut of the blood money me and my blue eyed kind have extracted from the poor non blue eyed population of the world.

[tinyp3nis]

And I can imagine that is not the reason he qualified them blue. Sad thing that imagination, ruins jokes that would otherwise give me a feeling of superiority.

[onodera]

Whew, good thing mine are grey.

[David Floyd]

In many countries, white is a socially constructed concept, not related to the color of one's skin. In much of Latin America and the Caribbean, whiteness is based on your class. The ruling class of Haiti, for example, considers itself white, even though they would be Black in the United States.

So it's cool with you if, in the interests of simplicity, I just refer to criminals, drug addicts, and lazy people as "black"?