Trouble in Paradise
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
My Racist Scarecrow?
Went out for the mail. Neighbor lady calls to me from her doorway, then she walks over. Says she likes the Halloween decorations but wonders if my scarecrow is racist. 0_o
From the mouth of the woman who calls her landscapers the Mexicano Tacos.
It looks like this one:
Re: My Racist Scarecrow?
Well I be done seen near 'bout everything when I see an elephant fly.
Click me, click me!
I don't think you're a racist for putting the thing up there or not realizing it. But yeah, that particular crow is harkening back to a rather racist depiction.
http://www.cracked.com/article_15677_the-9-most-racist-disney-characters.html
ETA: I also wouldn't think you were a racist if I saw it in your yard. I'd just think, silly white lady, she doesn't even know. And then I'd have to hate you for putting that song in my head.
Click me, click me!
It's sad how I watched this as a child and didn't see any racism in it. But I didn't see race at all then. It took me years for me to realize that my dad wouldn't let me go to my best friend's birthday party at five because he was black and I was white.
Check us out
She is stupid. I have 3 scarecrows in my yard. We do a lot of things in 3's.. 3 kids. My daughter liked the crow one because of his yellow beak. lol
The others are orange and yellow: a pumpkin head and a canary-looking thing.
Who told?????
That's exactly the quote that went through my head when I saw that pic!
Currently Reading: Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes
eeek...that stinks. I didn't even think about it until HS posted the link above my post. I don't think you did it intentionally-- but it could be perceived as racist.
It's less racist than "Mexicanos Tacos."
But I did think of the Dumbo crows when I saw the pic. I mean, I get it...it's a crow, and it's a scarecrow, and that's funny, because it's a crow that is scaring other crows. Or maybe it's a crow dressed up as a scarecrow to infiltrate the scarecrow base. I don't know. I don't think it was intended to be racist by any means, but yeah, I did go straight to Disney racism.
Yes, this is where we were going with it. I didn't even have Disney on my radar.
I'd leave it up, honestly. But I grew up in rural Missouri. People had way more racist shitt in their yards. And their stuff was intended to be racist. So maybe when I see something that could be inadvertently racist, I don't realize it's a problem.
Its a crow. Crows are black.
I guess if you automatically jump to the Disney conclusion, it could be, but its more tasteful than the taco statement.
Oh, well as long as it isn't as racist as someone else then it's all good?
Uhm oookay.
I mean leave it up if you want to. I really don't care and I don't think you deserve to be run out of town for it. But do so because you don't believe it's a big deal, not because it's less racist than something else.
Shiit, the confederate flag is less racist than cross burning. It doesn't mean I have a free pass to fly the stars and bars. So weird.
Click me, click me!
Completely off topic... I just realized that I've never seen Dumbo.
http://pandce.proboards.com/index.cgi#general
I didn't mean that, although it definitely came across that way. I think I meant more that it isn't intended to be racist, so I don't see why she shouldn't leave it up. I mean, if it WAS intended, leaving it up because the other lady's "Mexicanos Tacos" was worse, yeah, that would be stupid as hell. But...I don't know. I suck at articulating. Maybe I did mean what you said. I think what Eduardo Bonilla-Silva says in "Racism without Racists" is true. And even after reading that book, I think I still suck at the whole racism thing. Ugh.
I don't think you personally are racist, and I can't say for sure if the makers of the scarecrow are racist, but my mind did go straight to the Disney crows.
But I will admit my total naivete and say I didn't realize those movies were racist till I read that article awhile ago (20-ish years after seeing the movies). So if I hadn't read it I probably wouldn't have looked sideways at your scarecrow, I would have just thought oh, a crow scaring other crows, heh.
Yeah, the whole wasn't mean to be racist disclaimer doesn't really hold up because it's near impossible to discern intent from an image or a depiction. God only knows what Lucas meant with Jar Jar (besides insulting our intelligence) or what Michael Bay was thinking with those stupid robots in the second Transformers (he probably wasn't because he was too busy racking up potential sexual harrassment suits.) But it still looks ridiculous.
In any case, this scarecrow is gray territory because it's not a traditional symbol of racism and sooooooo many people don't know. So leaving it up or taking it down is completely dependent upon the individual. Personally, I never would have put it up in the first place, but like I told BookMaven, I wouldn't assume anyone who did knew.
Click me, click me!
The same here. I think that the lady who made the blatantly racist remarks of "Mexicanos Tacos" needs to examine herself before attacking a scarecrow.
Here is a question too-- is it just the Disney reference that makes it racist? For example, if it were a black cat dressed as a scarecrow, would that be racist too? I'm not try to be snarky at all. I just am genuinely unsure.
See, I took the robots in Transformers to be rednecks, even though I know that there was a huge controversy about racism (and I can totally see why everyone else viewed them differently than I did). EDIT: I was actually more offended by Jazz in the first movie, because he was obviously intended to be black, AND he died (and as we all know, or should know, the black guy almost ALWAYS dies in a movie). As for Jar Jar, I didn't know there was anything racial about that. I just thought he was a horrible character that needed to go away forever.
You definitely make a valid point, though. The intent doesn't have to be there for it to come off as racist (or even for it to actually be racist). I would have put that scarecrow in my yard, totally oblivious, but I probably would have taken it down if someone pointed it out because I would then be terrified of offending my neighbors. I'm full of white guilt and would die if someone thought I was racist. But I am also completely oblivious most of the time.
It's okay, though. I can make racist remarks because I have black friends (HAH!).
No, of course not.
In any case, while crazy neighborlady need to check herself before she wrecks herself, that doesn't mean she isn't right. Especially as we're talking about different ethnic backgrounds. Racism isn't universal. Plenty of people are racist towards one group or socio-economic background but not another.
There's no one drop rule for racism.
YWIA!
Click me, click me!
This makes good sense.
Thank you.
Click me, click me!
Have you read "Racism without Racists"? If not, I really do suggest it. He talks about this quite a bit.
Unrelated, I would love to have dreads, but the whole not washing your hair to get them thing really wouldn't work for me.
I don't know, Rashad kind of sounds like my white boyfriend 5 years ago.
No, I'll have to find it though because it sounds interesting.
Click me, click me!
TRUTH!!! OMG, If I never hear someone tell me, "you're so well spoken" or "you're so articulate" again, I'd be a happy, happy woman.