General

[drg]

nevermind

[heinous]

Originally Posted by xkpxfatassxx

I think the only thread where I was offended by was this thread: Korean astronaunt said she was "really scared," so what?
That was where my respect to mcb dropped a bit. I say only because I missed the other one (guitarist).

It wasn't something I said, was it?

I only posted that because I was upset with the way the media made her sound weak.

[HurtCow]

Originally Posted by agentSmith

Hmm, RobertSr, I think perfect pitch would help in recognizing a good musician... but not in being a good musician necessarily. I have very near perfect pitch, but haven't been able to coax anything out of a musical instrument that could be even remotely be considered music. I can tell YOU when you do it wrong though.

Agreed. I can tune a guitar/bass by ear alone and it's absolutely dead-on. However I've given up on ever being any good at playing.

[gunangel]

As an intro, I'm 100% south korean, but I was born and raised in the good ol' US. I was amazingly offended at the title and barged into the original thread (virtually kicking the door open) to find it was harmless and I thoroughly enjoyed the video (good find). I have to say it was admirable of you to apologize.

However, I was offended by the first two posts of the "korean astronaut said she was really scared" discussion. People really need to lay off the kimchi and accent crap. It's essentially pickled cabbage similar to I don't know pickles or sauerkraut? And in a language where there is only one "R" type sound it is a given a lot of koreans suffer with pronunciation./anger

But I agree, either make fun of everybody or nobody. But if you choose to make fun of everybody you must make fun of everybody equally.

[HurtCow]

I'm sure I'm one of the 'offensive posters' in the astronaut thread. I think of it this way:

People imitate/make fun of the speech of, for example, French, Southerners, Germans, Mexicans, etc and it's a non-issue. It's not thought of being 'hateful' or 'racist'. People do it in moves and on tv. It's all in good fun. Shawn 'spawnsharks' can do a spot-on Austrian accent and it's hilarious. But is it different for Asians?

The Sac Pump Day regulars include a group of Korean guys. They make jokes like 'Pete better hide his dogs when we get here'. They think it's funny to act 'stereotypical asian'.

People imitate me all the time. I don't care, in fact I'm rather amused.

Why choose to waste energy getting offended by something an anonymous person says on an internet forum? It's not going to affect your personal life or anything that happens to you. Maybe I'm thick-skinned or ignorant but I just don't get it.

I'm sure this'll get me thrown under the bus but that's ok. I'm just expressing my opinion.

[Party of A-5]

Well said.
HurtCow, your awesome.

[Rayodder]

I don't care if you think I am racist or not, but I H8 AZN...

[gunangel]

Understandable. I've worked a lot in customer service so I know for some people it's just talk/venting/humor (actually had a guy make comments about me because we didn't have any pineapple juice in stock). If I acted upon every thing I found offensive there'd be a lot of people knocking at my door. And I didn't mean to single you out HC, my sincere apologies.

Even amongst my non-asian friends when they make fun of something like how squinty my eyes are etc I chuckle. But once they find you are open they keep pushing the envelope, eventually leading up to hurtful things like "how'd I score better than you your asian" or "they should put a sign on exotic cars saying you're penis should be this long and your eyes this big" or "I've got some tooth floss let's go blindfold him" (last one's kind of funny, but they actually tried...). No matter how chummy you are if you aren't african american you know not to call an individual n*****, but that only stands because people make it known that it is inappropriate.

I'm a fun loving guy and I'd love to sit down, buy you a meal, and chat with you, but I feel as this is pulling out the angry, easily offended side in me so I don't think I'll comment any more , but I just have to warn you the "we make fun of everyone defense" has already been used and not received warmly:

"We never single out any one group to poke fun at," Carney said. "We poke fun at everybody, from women to flight attendants to baggage handlers, to football coaches, to Irish Americans to snow skiers. There's really no group we haven't teased."

kudos goes to anyone who knows who said that regarding what.

[HurtCow]

Well I find that left-handed lesbian eskimo midget albinos tend to get a little grumpy when you make clam jokes, regardless of how well you know them. But they're usually kinda touchy anyway.

[drg]

Originally Posted by HurtCow

I'm sure I'm one of the 'offensive posters' in the astronaut thread. I think of it this way:

People imitate/make fun of the speech of, for example, French, Southerners, Germans, Mexicans, etc and it's a non-issue. It's not thought of being 'hateful' or 'racist'. People do it in moves and on tv. It's all in good fun. Shawn 'spawnsharks' can do a spot-on Austrian accent and it's hilarious. But is it different for Asians?

The Sac Pump Day regulars include a group of Korean guys. They make jokes like 'Pete better hide his dogs when we get here'. They think it's funny to act 'stereotypical asian'.

People imitate me all the time. I don't care, in fact I'm rather amused.

Why choose to waste energy getting offended by something an anonymous person says on an internet forum? It's not going to affect your personal life or anything that happens to you. Maybe I'm thick-skinned or ignorant but I just don't get it.

I'm sure this'll get me thrown under the bus but that's ok. I'm just expressing my opinion.

Allow me to throw you under the bus. You're being ignorant.

Sociolinguistics is the key here. Accented or especially dialectic English spoken by various caucasian groups is NOT the same thing as accented English spoken by various minority groups, in this case Asian groups, whose accents are sourced from their native languages, which are tied strongly to their ethnic groups. Ethno-linguistic homogeneity makes a difference in these cases and renders the various caucasian examples less offensive, whether it seems fair or not.

As for your stereotyping reference above, it's the same situation as people of other races calling other members of the same race by racial epithets, as a form of empowerment -- and it's not okay for you to use the same epithet when talking to them if you are not part of the same ethnic group. You know what I am talking about, or you should, if you want to intelligently discuss sociolinguistics (gunangel touched on it above).

But on a more practical level, there are critical social considerations when determining just how much racial mockery or humor is tolerable in any given situation. In plain terms, you don't mock a race when members of that race are around. It's just not a polite thing to do and is liable to cause trouble.

What your personal beliefs are and the fact that you are entitled to them has no bearing on whether expressing them is wise. The KKK member in south central is entitled to his opinions as well, but the wise move is not to express them just then and there.

Assume that forums are read by people of all ethnicities (which is almost assuredly the case) and act accordingly.