1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Today in Old White Racist Columnists

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by MisterCreosote, Apr 17, 2018.

  1. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    Every community weekly or penny saver from Juneau to Key West has a writer like that. Genteel and clueless, an avid, well-meaning retiree with a fifteen dollar vocabulary in a ten cent head.

    In the great scheme of things she's harmless.

    Cohen, on the other hand, is the white, male upper middle class arguing on behalf of a toxic status quo.
     
  2. MisterCreosote

    MisterCreosote Well-Known Member

    Cohen is just another in a long line of people who don’t realize “white privilege” doesn’t equal “you’ve never suffered any hardship in your entire life, ever.”
     
    Donny in his element likes this.
  3. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    I boil the Cohen column down to

    "Hey, I understand the world is changing, and I empathize and sympathize with the minorities and the gals because I've been passed over too, but I think the world will be better served if we keep upper middle class white males at the wheel just a little longer."
     
  4. typefitter

    typefitter Well-Known Member

    This is an important distinction that took me too long to make.
     
  5. Bud_Bundy

    Bud_Bundy Well-Known Member

    My sainted mother, who passed away a few years ago at age 95 always used the term colored. She didn't mean it negatively, but she grew up in an all-white area and lived her adult life in another white dominated area. Every time she would say that in my presence, I would try to quietly tell her it was now offensive, but it was so ingrained in her that she couldn't or wouldn't stop.
     
  6. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member

    While I don't agree with your characterization, I think it's fair that I unpack my point here because I didn't make it well enough for you.

    1. I think the line is racist, regardless of its intent.

    2. If it were in jest, it's still racist and wrong. To me, "jest" is not a mitigation, but I can see how someone would think it is. On such a serious issue, it's worse to make light of anything.

    3. If it's not in jest, I think it could be in contempt, which is also racist and wrong.

    4. If she was really sincere in calling for a curfew, it's racist, wrong and deluded, like she's some kind of idiot. Which, maybe she is.

    5. I try to discern the differences between sincere and insincere. That distinction matters to me in part because I've seen how the gross insincerity of a place like Fox News has charmed millions into moral bankruptcy. I read the columnist's line as something out of that insincerity, with a chiding tone.

    I don't condone it.
     
  7. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member

    What does "white privilege" equal? I agree it doesn't mean "you've never suffered any hardship" but what does it mean? What is a white person supposed to take it to mean?
     
  8. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    Count me too, in not seeing a call for a curfew.

    The column was tone deaf, she is probably racist (and clueless about it), etc. But I didn't see anything in there calling for a curfew. The way it read to me was more along the lines of, "Cops shoot black men at night. You people (always gonna end bad when you go the "you people" route) might want to stay home at night."
     
  9. HC

    HC Well-Known Member

    I think it is just a call to recognize that being white gives you an advantage over non-Caucasians. Five of my siblings are First Nations Canadians. We grew up in the same house with the same parents and went to the same schools and church. The world does not treat them the same way it does me.
     
  10. poindexter

    poindexter Well-Known Member

    There is nothing, zero, nada in her past, or her writing, that I see that would infer she was joking.
     
  11. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    She's not calling for a curfew. Just advising the darkies to stay inside after a certain time. Probably noon.
     
  12. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member

    Gotcha. Well, it's one of the two ways I initially read the line. I can also read it with contempt. I did not read it as suggesting a city policy, but any version of it is racist. I didn't read it as the equivalent to a Nazi Germany policy, as the original link did, but it's racist all the same.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page