Lunch Break: PSA against the “R-word” by Glee stars
by Laura Loo
In light of porn publisher Larry Flynt’s recent reprehensible slurs against Sarah Palin’s little boy Trig, who has Down syndrome, this new PSA by 2 Glee stars against using the “R-word” is timely. Read the backdrop at ColorLines.com. WARNING: offensive slurs, including the N-word…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T549VoLca_Q[/youtube]
Email LauraLoo with your Lunch Break suggestions.
[HT: Kelsey at SecularProLife.org]
Jun.02, 2011 12:49 pm |
Video of the day |
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
That “r” word is probably the only crossing-the-line word I used as a kid. It was meant as a synonym for “dummy”. But just because it wasn’t meant seriously, does not make it acceptable.
By the way, Lauren Potter is cute as a button. She alway brings a smile when she is on the show.
Why no “crackers” representing? I kept waiting………………………………………….
Apparently that’s still ok. I see.
Great PSA.
Now, if they could convince music writers and singers to stop using vulgar lyrics….
Is there actually a problem in some places with people using “cracker,” ChristianHippie? I am like one of five white people in my neighborhood, grew up in NYC, and I’ve honestly never heard that word used except by white people. Hear all the other words in the video with some degree of regularity, though to be fair I only ever really hear black people use the n-word.
Although the other day some NYU student laughed at me when I dropped my phone on the Lower East Side at the end of an extremely bad day, and when I sarcastically thanked him for his courtesy he said, “Well excuuuuuuuse me, I’ll just get out of your gentrified way then!” I stopped right there and said, “I have three questions for you before we can talk about gentrification. Where did you grow up before you moved here, who pays your rent, and what do you do for a living that allows you to be bar-hopping in a trendy neighborhood at 6pm on a Wednesday?” He just rolled his eyes but man was I ready for a discussion on socioeconomics and gentrification by then. I should have asked him what phone HE has personally found appropriate for carrying in formerly-gritty NYC neighborhoods. Ten bucks says it was an iPhone, probably a newer version than mine.
Anyway. I have heard cries of ”gentrification!” far more commonly than I’ve ever heard anyone call a white person a cracker. Which would be just about never. Are there towns in the US where this actually happens?
“Cracker” is heard more in the southern US than elsewhere, specifically Florida, Georgia, then heading over to Louisiana. If anything, I think usage is declining as the decades go by.
I grew up the minority in inner city schools in Austin TX. and minority in southern TX McAllen. In Austin I was one of 7 white kids in the school of thousands.
So yeah, I was in the south, and even here in the midwest “Cracka” or “cracker” is used jokingly. It’s also appeared in some popular contexts until recently one of them being in the positive slang term made popular by a certain zebra in Madagascar “cracka-lackin'” as in “no white folks here.” also the title song, “The traveling song” by Will-i-am is expressly about being unhappy around other races and wishing to again be with “my peoples”. I can understand missing your birth culture, country, or home, and of course intrinsically everyone there is likely the same race as you, but if this was a white guy wanting to leave a black country and be back with “his people” it would never have gotten air! It would have been viewed as racist, but because he’s _____insert_any_race_but_white_here______ then it’s ok to want to get away from the white folks.
Anti-white racism is everywhere and I’ve experienced my fair share. Just like anti-black, anti-Hispanic, and all other racial prejudices anti-white prejudice should be equally considered and discouraged. The closest thing we got was the “kike” comment, and I’m just saying, what about us “crackers”, “white breads” “snowflakes” and “honkys”?? :)
Anti-white racism is everywhere and I’ve experienced my fair share. Just like anti-black, anti-Hispanic, and all other racial prejudices anti-white prejudice should be equally considered and discouraged. The closest thing we got was the “kike” comment, and I’m just saying, what about us “crackers”, “white breads” “snowflakes” and “honkys”??
Many people. have bad experiences with people of other races and then develop a prejudice towards EVERYONE of that race. However, two wrongs don’t make a right. All racism is wrong, no matter who it’s directed against.
My father grew up in the rural south, in northern Florida. The black community wasn’t as terrorized by the Klan, etc., as compared to places like Alabama, but it was bad enough — he had a friend who was shot by the “nightriders.” He is in his eighties, but he still refers to white Southerners as “peckerwoods,” a term that I almost never here around here.
Many people. have bad experiences with people of other races and then develop a prejudice towards EVERYONE of that race. However, two wrongs don’t make a right. All racism is wrong, no matter who it’s directed against.
Agreed :)
I’m sorry to hear about your father’s friend. Violence against ANYONE for ANY REASON is a tragedy and wrong, and to use race as an excuse is….. well, there is no PC term for that level of ignorance. Peace <3
I suppose you would have to be around a non-white community a lot to hear most of the racist attitutedes toward whites. So don’t dismiss the possibility that they exist among all of us.
Your analysis of The Glenn Beck rally was so…juvenile.
Oh, ChristianHippie, I certainly am not arguing that there isn’t anti-white racism. I just didn’t really think that cracker is a commonly-used term, except PERHAPS as a joke. Whereas in my experience the terms in the video are actually commonly used for direct offense. The point of the video is of course to demonstrate that to call someone “the r-word” is just as offensive as to call them a kike – it’s about the words themselves, equating that word with words we all shy away from because we hear them and hate to hear them; and I think that putting in words that are not commonly used as insults would dilute that message.
I heard about Madagascar before! I am not a huge fan of most American cartoons these days anyway but that shocked me.
I just didn’t really think that cracker is a commonly-used term, except PERHAPS as a joke.
Once while driving to visit some of our African-American friends in a predominantly AA neighborhood in Chicago, two young men crossing the street looked into our vehicle and shouted at us “Cracker!”
I didn’t take it as a joke.
I understand Alexandra, no hard feelings here :) We’ve simply had different experiences with this.
I’m just sayin’ if the N-word and other slurs are off limits as “jokes” then white-slurs should be as well. I would not expect my black friends to laugh if I call them the N word, and I would appreciate the same courtesy as not to be called a “Cracker” or any other anti-white slur.
it’s about the words themselves, equating that word with words we all shy away from because we hear them and hate to hear them; and I think that putting in words that are not commonly used as insults would dilute that message
But this is my point exactly! Anti-white racism is either ignored (it IS commonly used and it IS an insult), made excuse for, or belittled in popular media and society. The view point that bringing up anti-white racism would “dilute” the message that prejudiced slurs aren’t ok is a problem. That “cracker” is a “joke” and “the n-word” and other such slurs aren’t, is a problem. It’s racism. It’s not ok no matter who the target is. I think anti-white racism was ignored in the PSA, that’s all I’m sayin’. :)