Topic: can American's STILL be that racist

[oldfordguy]

As Ted Nugent said: "Stupid people should be encouraged to say/do stupid things, that way we know who the stupid people are!"

[ekim98]

As Ted Nugent said: "Stupid people should be encouraged to say/do stupid things, that way we know who the stupid people are!"

It's usually not to hard to identify stupid people, it's what do you do with them after you know whom they are. And what really constitutes a stupid person.

[BobbyR]

Today I was teaching a class at the NY Transit Authority. During a break two NYPD cops walked over to me. Someone painted a Swastika on the locker room wall and hung a noose from a pipe in the locker room. All vendors with all access passes were questioned. Since the shops have a large Black, Hispanic and Russian Jewish population working there the  atmosphere was a bit tense all day. If they find the guy before the Cops, he will wind up in a tunnel somewhere.  Are there sick racists out there? I would say so. And stupid to.

[333]

As Ted Nugent said: "Stupid people should be encouraged to say/do stupid things, that way we know who the stupid people are!"

And unfortunatly there's no shortage of them around here.l

And Terry, while I agree with you on all points, there is a bit of difference between "dickheads" and that other word.

[Terry in Australia]

As Ted Nugent said: "Stupid people should be encouraged to say/do stupid things, that way we know who the stupid people are!"

And unfortunatly there's no shortage of them around here.l

And Terry, while I agree with you on all points, there is a bit of difference between "dickheads" and that other word.

No argument here mate. 

[BobbyR]

Jimmy Buffet wrote about the subject:

He ain't nothin' but a Dickhead.
He's been one all his life.
If he ever gets married
he'll be a Dickhead with a wife.
He's got no damned excuse.
God knows how he tries.
He'll be a #$%*in' Dickhead until the day he dies.

He's got a pretty girlfriend
and he flirts behind her back.
He looks at other women,
tries to get them in the sack.
He tells her that he loves her,
then he doesn't call for days.
When it comes to bein' a Dickhead,
he's got a million ways.

He ain't nothin' but a Dickhead.
He's been one all his life.
If he ever gets married
he'll be a Dickhead with a wife.
He's got no damned excuse.
God knows how he tries.
He'll be a f**kin' Dickhead until the day he dies.

When he's out drivin' he's a Dickhead in his car.
When he's out drinkin' he's a Dickhead in the bar.
When he's at a party he's a Dickhead drinkin' beer.
He's got to be the winner of "Dickhead Of The Year".

He ain't nothin' but a Dickhead.
He's been one all his life.
If he ever gets married
he'll be a Dickhead with a wife.
He's got no damned excuse.
God knows how he tries.
He'll be a f**kin' Dickhead until the day he dies.

If he's got no job he's a Dickhead out of work.
If he's got no manners he's a Dickhead and a jerk.
If he's got no money he's a Dickhead with no class.
If he's got no brains he's a Dickhead and an ass.

He ain't nothin' but a Dickhead.
He's been one all his life.
If he ever gets married
he'll be a Dickhead with a wife.
He's got no damned excuse.
God knows how he tries.
He'll be a f**kin' Dickhead until the day he dies.
He'll be a f**kin' Dickhead until the day he dies.

[Uncle Ernie]

Sometimes I wonder about my racism.
But then I remember how I get mad at Jews, Irish, English, women, children, Italians, Muslims, Chinese, and especially stupid white Republicans.

So then I wonder if it's racism if everyone is worse than me, or I'm merely discriminating.

By that time I'm looking for a place to park and I'm mad at the media for telling the world Asheville got voted friendliest town in America so all the dam Floridiots and yuppies move here and the prostitutes we have in City Hall can't put a gag on the developers who make it so easy for all these fools to move her and that's why I have to pay 3 times as much as I used to for a parking spot 1/2 mile away!

By then I hate everyone but my dog.
Does that make me a bad person?

[okie]

It's been my experience that people with the weakest position on any given subject will say the most outlandish and stoopid things.  This bumper sticker is a good example.  The person(or in this case the maker of the sticker) can't tell you WHY a Harley is better, then brings a racist comment to the table.

I have also observed that all racists are in need of the very same IQ points that they say the minorities don't have.  Sort of like why a guy with a small pencil drives a Corvette.  Trying to make up for something.

Just what the heck are you doing going around  looking at the all of the Corvette guys' pencils?   

[canyon750]

The last time i checked we were all human (for better or for worse).  It doesn't matter if one nut is bigger than the other (or ovaries for the ladies) we are all (mostly) conceived the same way and the end result is the same; you die.  When people realize to not fear what you don't understand then MAYBE things can get better.  It all starts from within yourself.  If you want to not be afraid then learn more about what scares you the most.  It's hard because no matter where you turn everything is telling you to fear something; just check out that ad for disinfecting spray!     You were scared the first time you took your bike on the freeway, you were scared the first time you hopped in the sack with someone (not me  ) but you got over it and you were a better more confident person on the other end.  Will we see it get better in our lifetime?  Don't hold your breathe...

[Gordo]

Not only is racism alive and well, it regularly manifests itself in the way that _other_ motorcycle enthusiasts view Japanese motorcycles. "Jap" bikes are so often given "also ran" status when they are amazing well-engineered machines. Whenever I hear someone bagging on Hondas I find it comforting that the cb750 is the bike that tanked the other motorcycle manufacturers in the 70s.

[333]

There might be a reason the Japanese are looked down on.  That little something called Pearl Harbor?  After we kicked their butts, we helped them rebuild their society.  They started importing cars and bikes.  Maybe not the safest vehicles, but at the time, some of ours weren't either.  But that pissed off a lot of people.  And that hate still exists

[mkramer1121]

i don't discriminate, i hate everyone...

but on a serious note, people are just plain stupid.  most of these fears and prejudices come from being uneducated, or refusing to see past the low % of the minority that are illegals, are on welfare, etc.

[ekim98]

i don't discriminate, i hate everyone...

but on a serious note, people are just plain stupid.  most of these fears and prejudices come from being uneducated, or refusing to see past the low % of the minority that are illegals, are on welfare, etc.

I'm not sure what that has to do with the bumper sticker, but are the numbers really all that low?? And how much do those minorities actually cost the "non-minority legal" people in money and rights. Not that that is a good excuse, but it is a fact of American life. 

[Bob550four]

There might be a reason the Japanese are looked down on.  That little something called Pearl Harbor?  After we kicked their butts, we helped them rebuild their society.  They started importing cars and bikes.  Maybe not the safest vehicles, but at the time, some of ours weren't either.  But that pissed off a lot of people.  And that hate still exists

I've got an aunt that shows this hateful ignorance still today toward the japanese.  I dont understand nor will I ever comprehend WHY.

I fail to comprehend WHY one can dislike another human because their skin is a different color, or they are jewish, muslim, christian or whatever other diverse element you can bring into the equation. 

As I see it, all humans are very similar in what parts we've got inside us, and we all have to get along to survive,  so why hate one another when you could love each other and be very happy.

yet world peace/happiness is a theorhetical impossibility to me. reason being, even when theres no problem in the world, man will find something to be discontent with, or too happy. and right back to our violent destructive ways we go.

[Terry in Australia]

I've got an aunt that shows this hateful ignorance still today toward the japanese.  I dont understand nor will I ever comprehend WHY.

Best you go ask your Aunty why she hates Japs Bob, my Dad hates 'em too, mostly because of the atrocities they committed against Aussies, Americans, Brits, New Zealanders etc, in WW2. A lot of my Dad's school mates who went to fight in the Pacific Theatre were murdered in the most vile ways by those little bastards.

They still haven't apologized for torturing and starving many thousands of Chinese and Korean civilians and allied prisoners of war to death, and continue to teach their children that they in fact, were the victims, and not the aggressors.

This has got nothing to do with rascism, and everything to do with hating a country for their actions and their attitude. The "anti-Jap" motorcycle discrimination was born from my Dad's generation's hate for anything Japanese, you know he still won't own anything that's made in Japan in his house, and you can imagine the crap I took from him and my Grandfather when I bought my first CB750 in 1977.

As I said, nothing to do with the color of their skin, but the content of their character. Cheers, Terry.

[edbikerii]

Why the hell would you blame "Americans" for being racist just because one idiot has a stupid bumper sticker?

Don't us Americans get enough #$%* from the rest of the world, now you gotta go and calls us racists, like we're the worst of the bunch?

Stupidity knows no national boundaries.  In my travels around the globe, I've seen both racism and stupidity in MANY foreign lands, including Brasil, Mexico, Canada, England, etc.  Frankly, the United States is probably the best of the bunch.

If you think racism is isolated to white rednecks, then you should try living in a major city and see how "minorities" can be!  Or, just watch the news and listen to Al Sharpton or Louis Farrakhan (another fellow Bronx boy, I'm ashamed to say).

Not wanting to start a fight with you Ed, but to the outside world, the US is considered the world capital of rascism.

The KKK, White Supremacists, American Nazi's, the murder of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, the way the American Government treated Muhamed Ali, Mississippi Burning, Rodney King, and recently the way the poor black victims of Hurricane Katrina were ignored, have all contributed to America holding this unenviable title.

Don't get me wrong, rascism is alive and well world wide, (there was talk about the KKK starting a "Klaven" here in Oz a few years ago) but currently, America wears the #1 tag. Nothing to do with Harley or Honda, just human nature. I think it'll still be awhile before the rest of the world thinks otherwise.

Here in Oz the two most popular car manufacturers are Ford and (GM) Holden. I've seen the same bumper sticker on a young blokes Holden, saying "God made Fords to keep dickheads out of Holdens". At the time, I just thought that sadly, God had failed again.......... Cheers, Terry. 

Self-rightous global anti-American prejudice notwithstanding, my travels have shown that America is one of the most progressive nations in the world, especially with respect to racial tolerance.

For crying out loud, in Brasil, racism goes beyond being merely black, but HOW BLACK people are.  Lighter skinned black Brasilians frequently look down upon their darker-skinned countrymen.  In Italy, northerners openly mock southern Italians, referring to them as black because they have curly hair--it is so common that they even make comedic movies about it (see Mimi Metallurgico - with Giancarlo Giannini, one of Italy's most famous comedians).

The examples go on and on.

The only country I've visited where I can honestly say people might be more "racially tolerant" than the US is the UK.  However, even in the the heart of London, in 2000, I witnessed a racial bias incident.  An angy motorist who had just received a parking ticket yelled at the black traffic cop, screaming "N1@@3R" at the top of his lungs at 8:30 in the morning on Tottenham Court Road, in front of the Edwardian Grafton hotel, where I was staying.

I've never met, or even seen, a member of the KKK, nor an American Nazi, nor the murderers of MLK or Malcolm X (himself arguably a huge racist).

So, don't kid yourself, or try to fool others.  The US has no monopoly on racism.

[TwoTired]

Just a point of observation and not intended to be derogatory.  The media in the US has presented the aborigines as being highly discriminated against and oppressed by bigoted white Australians.  Not likely I'll ever get there for a first hand witness of such events, though.  But, if you believe what is presented here, it is widespread and pervasive throughout Australia.
Wasn't the Bosnia issue about bigotry?
What of the strife between peoples of Pakistan and India?
South Africa doesn't have racial issues?  Rwanda? Mogadishu?

But, I can easily believe being mislead by a sensationalist media, wherever they are in the world. Growing up in Illinois/Chicago area, we were always told only about the worst news from California, and certainly anything with a racial bias.  After moving to California, I noticed the news media bombarded the California public with all the worst events from Chicago, everywhere else in the nation, as well as the world.  One had to wonder why you'd move to anywhere else in the world.
It's human nature to want to believe you live and exist in the best place in the world to be.  The media is only too happy to reinforce those beliefs as that endears the audience to their "shows" masquerading as news informants.

It it's not just US media, either.  I've listen to and watched news from the UK, Germany and other "news" feeds.  They never fail to cast America in the worst light imaginable to reinforce hatred of a people.  The same incidents that happen and get reported even semi favorably here, suddenly become near catastrophic and outrageous events when reported in another country.  It's called spin and sensationalism.  Even benign reports are tinted with outlandish undertones to cast Americans as unreasonable, mindless louts.  It doesn't surprise me that other countries hate Americans.  Our own media casts us in a poor light.  And, media controlled by other governments certainly do nothing to endear Americans to foreign hearts.  It's not in their best interest.  "Keep the people fat, dumb, and happy" is one key to long lasting government stability.  The media is a powerful tool toward that end.

Cheers,

[ofreen]

I had some of the same thoughts as TT when I read Terry's statement about where the U.S. is in the hierarchy of racism.  My wife's side of the family all live in Australia, so I am aware that racism is an issue there.  (I once asked her cousin what people there thought of "Quigley Down Under."  Man, did I get an earful.)  Just Google 'Australian racism' and see what you get.  Even so, I agree with TT that I can't be confident I have a clear picture of the true situation.  I believe it is the same for people that live elsewhere who think they know something about conditions in the U.S.  For good or ill (I think good), the U.S. washes its dirty linen in public for all to see.  Bad news is usually more interesting than good news, so is more widely disseminated.

[BobbyR]

American bashing never really bothered me since when "civilized Europe"  started two World wars the uncouth Americans were called help sort thing out. That is nehither here nor there.

I think the US is admirable in that we have a more diverse population and have had one since the  1800's. Th US has absorbed more ethnic and racial groups than any other Country. Somehow it was made to work. Sure there were and are bumps to smooth out.

We had waves of immigrants that no one has had. When you went to most Countries and go on a bus, you saw mostly Swedes in Sweden, Englishman in England, Irish in Ireland etc. When you came to New York, you had and still have ethnic neighborhoods.

The earliest groups mainstreamed themselves and have intermarried to a point you can have four different Cuisines at a holiday dinner. We now find Jewish/Christian marriages are fairly common, which would have been unheard of 20 years ago.

The African Americans still have some progress to make on several fronts. However those that have what it takes to succeed are doing so.

The latest group are from Latin America and quite a few have moved from their Barrios and into the suburbs, where they  put up with the high taxes the rest of us do. They have been successful in the trades.

I am told that now Scandinavia and other Countries are dealing with in influx of immigrants and problems are arising since they never had to deal with a diverse and multicultural society. Very few Countries have. The US has done a better than average job dealing with large influxes. We are far from perfect, but it is working better than the rabble rousers here and abroad would admit.     

[FunJimmy]

In our part of the world that kind of message might have you up on charges of inciting hate.

[BobbyR]

Yeah I guess so. We have the first amendment on this side of the highly fortified border between our Countries. 

[Terry in Australia]

Well it looks like I've upset you guys again by having an opinion that some here would label "America Bashing", which seems to me to be a convenient "Call to arms" for other patriotic Americans to jump in and ignore what they would otherwise agree with, to rally around the flag and defend their country's honor. Fair enough, we all love our countries, but that "patriotism" shouldn't cloud your reasoning.

Unfortunately there don't seem to be too many black Americans on this forum, (which, ironically, flies in the face of the bumper sticker that started off this thread) because I'd love to read what their thoughts on the subject are. Somehow I don't think that they'd necessarily agree that America is the world leader in creating a comfortable co-existence for non-white Americans that some here would suggest. Cheers, Terry.

[mkramer1121]

i don't discriminate, i hate everyone...

but on a serious note, people are just plain stupid.  most of these fears and prejudices come from being uneducated, or refusing to see past the low % of the minority that are illegals, are on welfare, etc.

I'm not sure what that has to do with the bumper sticker, but are the numbers really all that low?? And how much do those minorities actually cost the "non-minority legal" people in money and rights. Not that that is a good excuse, but it is a fact of American life. 

how many illegals shop at our stores and contribute to our economy or do the jobs that we don't want?

[canyon750]

Unfortunately there don't seem to be too many black Americans on this forum, (which, ironically, flies in the face of the bumper sticker that started off this thread) because I'd love to read what their thoughts on the subject are.  Cheers, Terry.

Well Terry, at least you know how THIS Black American feels about the subject.  Not all of us are lazy, welfare taking, feel sorry for me because I'm Black, drug taking, rap music loving, uneducated beings!     Like I stated before, and will paraphrase again;  I think we would all be better off if we stop thinking of ourselves as "American", "Australian", "Canadian" or where-ever "ian" or "ican" you might be and start by being HUMAN first.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with being proud of your country of origin but not if its going to blind you to the way of life and opinions of other people.

[Demon67]

At 68 going on whatever, the only thing that I really am not tolerant of is ignorance, for it seems to me if your going put a group down, at least have the wit to know the group and its blind spots so that when you slam them you don't sound like a 3 year old, repeating mommy and daddy's drivel. So Canyon750 I agree with you and add that there are too goddam many ian's,ican's ism's and other pigeon holes available for the terminally mindless. I get bitter as hell every once in a while, thinking that the promise I was told about when I was young, that each generation is better than the one before and should strive to be better, then I see bumper stickers like that or hear Newfie jokes and I want to withdraw a little further into the depths of the land and away from the idiots and #$%*s.
The Demon