Woman fired for reporting racist t-shirt

[kentonio]

I'm pretty sure Paiktis wasn't trying to mock racism. He had a whole rant about how Capitalism required racism to support it. Therefore any capitalist was racist and should be able to take racism directed at them.

It's in the Lost and Found thread somewhere if you want to look it up.

Like I said, I wasn't really following the thread closely which is why I didn't say anything at the time.

[Imran Siddiqui]

While I found this offensive, and agree that we need to keep it in the foreground so people see it, I have to agree that I don't consider it national news.
It's like the nightly shooting in Chicago. It needs to be stamped out, and while I have to listen to it on the local news, it's just too common to be considered national news.

I found out something interesting today (and it's kind of news). While there is all this highlight on Chicago's murders, it is no were near the "murder capital" of the US or whathaveyou:

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/07/14/despite-recent-shootings-chicago-nowhere-near-u-s-murder-capital/

According to the FBI figures, Flint, Mich., had the highest murder rate of any sizeable U.S. city in 2012, the most recent year available. There were 62 murders per 100,000 population (which, coincidentally, was just about Flint’s estimated population that year). Trailing Flint were Detroit (54.6 murders per 100,000), New Orleans (53.2 per 100,000) and Jackson, Miss., (35.8 per 100,000). Chicago, whose population is several times bigger than any of those cities, came in 21st, with 18.5 murders per 100,000 — nearly quadruple the national average, true, but still nowhere near the highest in the country. (It’s worth noting that New Orleans didn’t report data in 2005, the year Hurricane Katrina struck.)

In fact, what’s striking is that from 1985 through 2012 only six cities have held the anti-honor of having the nation’s highest murder rate: New Orleans (12 times, most recently in 2011); Washington, D.C. (eight times, most recently in 1999); Detroit (four times, most recently 2006), Flint, Mich. (twice, also in 2010); Richmond, Va. (once, in 1997) and Birmingham, Ala. (once, in 2005).

And the murder rate was almost double what it is now back in the late 1990s.

[rah]

Of course it depends on how you define murder capital. Per 100,000 or just raw totals. For raw totals it's hard to beat Chicago.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I don't think it makes much sense to compare raw totals. It gives a false sense of what is actually going on. Based on the hyperbolic reporting, it sounds like everyone in the city of Chicago is in danger of getting killed ever second they step out of their home.

[rah]

If you live on the south side you are. So maybe they should be hyping it even more.

[dannubis]

Pity. I like the city...

[NICE MOBIUS]

And yet, when our most recent poster (Paiktis) was suspended for making racist comments, neither Ken nor Mobius had anything to say about it............

Our most recent poster!?

Paiktis has been around since the dawn of time!

Hmm, let's see, I'm vaguely aware he was banned but I didn't see why - I must have left forever at the time.

So what am I supposed to do? He got punished already. Wait for him to come back and gang up on him? Sounds a bit harsh.

FWIW, I've clashed with paiktis and his racism numerous times on CG, so it's not like I have the sort of double standards you're alluding to anyway. His racism is a funny one, it all comes out when he's pissed usually, which is still unacceptable even if he's usually OK sober.

FWIW#2: Funny how everyone trolls me for being nasty or whatever when it is me that is the one fielding unprovoked attacks from all and sundry, including this unbased 'observation' of yours.

I can quite happily be civil, some of the rest of you should try it.

[NICE MOBIUS]

And the murder rate was almost double what it is now back in the late 1990s.

Maybe Chicago's gun laws are working after all...

[grumbler]

You guys sure do have a low bar for "blatantly racist." No wonder the forum spends 500 times as much energy on being outRAGEd than on any kind of intellectual discussion.

[kentonio]

You guys sure do have a low bar for "blatantly racist."

That's because in the rest of the western world this wouldn't be counted as a 'low bar'.

[Bereta_Eder]

The best thing I've done was stop drinking.
I am a bit bewildered at how easy that was.

[Elok]

Wait, why is "racist lady acts badly on subway" national news? Or news at all? Did anyone believe that there were no racists in the UK, or that all the racists had self-control/discretion, or that they did not ride the subway? Like you said, Ken, there's millions of you, and some of you are bound to be obnoxious. The person in question was (I assume) not famous, and no significant harm was done; a person dying of a heart attack on a subway would not be national news, in spite of that having far more serious long-term effects. So, why does the country need or want to know about it?

[Imran Siddiqui]

subway?

edit: Ah, post #33. Ok.

[kentonio]

Wait, why is "racist lady acts badly on subway" national news? Or news at all? Did anyone believe that there were no racists in the UK, or that all the racists had self-control/discretion, or that they did not ride the subway? Like you said, Ken, there's millions of you, and some of you are bound to be obnoxious. The person in question was (I assume) not famous, and no significant harm was done; a person dying of a heart attack on a subway would not be national news, in spite of that having far more serious long-term effects. So, why does the country need or want to know about it?

Over here public displays of racism are completely unacceptable, and she was stupid enough to do it in a busy place where someone filmed her on a mobile phone. In reference to your point though, it absolutely does not matter whether you know there are plenty of racists around or not, no-one should have to tolerate racist abuse, and if people do that here they get a visit from the police.

[Bereta_Eder]

I'm pretty sure Paiktis wasn't trying to mock racism. He had a whole rant about how Capitalism required racism to support it.

It does need it.
It is an extension of the "white man's burden" which was code word for "stealing them blind".

That doesn't mean that humankind is "instictively" racist just as it isn't instictively capitalist.