Drama Llama Bing Bang

[patgund]

You would think that food_porn would be one community free of Drama Llama infestations......

.....not so, according to this post

Basically, someone posted a list of humourous cooking definitions. (I liked the ones for Yogurt and Tongue)

But one was:

"arab coffee: Thick, black, bitter coffee, traditionally served in tiny cups at gunpoint."

Now, a) I've lived in the Middle East, b) I hate coffee, and c) I've had to drink Arab Coffee (and Turkish and Persian Coffee) when offered to me as a guest, and as a result, I read it as "because you would prefer to be forced at gunpoint to drink that industrial sludge willingly" Nothing racist, just the fact it's nasty sludge pretending to be a drink.

However, someone took that post as some racist diatribe against Arabs and stereotypes.

*face plant*

Honestly, some people would find racism in their breakfast cereal. Not to mention the general "Good Lord, the rod up that person's butt must have a rod up it's butt" factor

Comments

[beki.livejournal.com]

They are offense kleptomaniacs. If they can't find a good reason to take offense, they find a bad one.

[maedb.livejournal.com]

some people would find racism in their breakfast cereal

'scuse me but have you actually looked at Lucky Charms? And I hear they hide faces in the Cocoa Puffs. And you don't want to know about Cap'n Crunch (he's gay). Now you know why I don't eat breakfast.

So much ridiculous racism, so little time. =grin=

[mistresshuette.livejournal.com]

How is it that if someone makes a supposedly disparaging remark about someone who is the same race as you, it is called racism? People of Middle Eastern descent are the same race as Europeans, as are people from India. They may not be of the same ethnicity, but they are the same race as Europeans. Any remark could possibly be called anti-semitic [an ethnicity], but would a Jew [who is also semitic] making a disparaging remark about an Arab [also semitic] be called anti-semitic?

And while I am on this rant, when did Hispanic become a race? It also is an ethnicity. North, South and Central American Indians or, better yet, Native Americans, are a different race from Europeans. But when did Mexicans or Cubans or Puerto Ricans become a race of their own? While I can understand some might have mixed blood, most of them do not identify themselves with Native Americans. They identify themselves as being Hispanic or Latino. An ethnicity. Sigh.

[maedb.livejournal.com]

Ya wanna know when it happened? About the same time they declared a war on terror. How "they" think they can eradicate an emotion, I'm not sure, but it certainly ranks up there with catch-all phrases that don't mean anything at all.

[electorprince.livejournal.com]

I dodge around the coffee by asking for chai instead. If they get inquisitive, I stick the blame on an ulcer that I don't have.

Time will pass

[fionnbharro.livejournal.com]

Wait. That's all we have to do.

I was one of the first to respond to the post on that blog. And I see how it could be offensive, and *yes* I understand it's not much better than industrial waste pretending to be a caffeinated beverage.

The thing is, we 'middle aged white men' can say "Nigger", today. Not all the time, and it depends on context. And mostly because the listener understands we're not really racists and by using it, we're most likely trying to be funny.

But 20 years ago, we couldn't. No way, no how, end-of-story, The End.

Even if it might have been humorous.

Nigger, Nigger, Nigger, Kike, faggot, Gook, Spic. Hey, there; lookit that. I wrote bad names.

Right now, we have to wait to use 'Arab' and 'gun' in the same sentence if we're trying to be amusing -- even if we're not trying to make the associations that rednecks currently make (and how's that for a 'loaded' name?). We may have to wait another 30 years for people to start disassociating 'Arab' from 'Terrorist'. And it's a sad thing, because I *don't* associate the two in my head -- but I know many others do.

And until things settle down in a decade or three... social discourse might just have to dance around this issue for a while. Just to keep things calm for the time being.


Just my $0.02

Re: Time will pass

[aeddie.livejournal.com]

Hey you forgot Chink and I'm offended in my 1/4 Chinese-ness that you left it out. :-)

I knew there was a reason I didn't stay in that community for long.

Re: Time will pass

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

"We may have to wait another 30 years for people to start disassociating 'Arab' from 'Terrorist'."

Dunno about that. I do know a number of Japanese-Americans you can ask about it though. :-/