[teflon]

I know I will have to be careful here because I just got a warning from Det about this very same subject, which I fully accept and this is in no way a dig at him.

It's an interesting topic nonetheless and I would like to see some viewpoints from you fine folks. Shall we assume that the term 'racism' includes insulting or abusive language or violence directed at people who because they are in some way different from the 'racist'. I'm going to ignore the violence side of things because that is cut and dried (black and white), it's obviously completely unacceptable.

What I'm interested in is the insulting/abusive language side of things. Is a statement racist because of the intent, or because of how it was taken? Where does pointing out differences between peoples become insulting? Is there such a thing as positive racism? Are some races actually better or worse at certain tasks or abilities?

Let's take a moment to look at some of the more common 'derogatory' terms. Once again I hope I don't cause any offence here, I merely look to promote debate.
The most famous/infamous 'racist' word is probably the N word when applied to black folks. For the sake of argument, let's call it Nigger. Etymologycially speaking (the evolution of language), the N word has a loooong history. It is believed to have arisen from ancient Africans as a geographical distinction. Meaning 'person from the wide river', presumably the River Niger, at this stage it's not exactly what we consider racist. But somehow in times of slavery the word became a derogatory term which white North Americans would use to berate the poor old slaves. Thus black people began to feel offended by it, who wouldn't?

Thankfully black people in the West now have equal rights and have reclaimed the word, but only for themselves... fine.

The other infamous one, in Britain at least is Paki. This is just a shortened version of Pakistani, in the same way that Scot is short for Scottish, but it was the way the word was used which eventually made it hurtful. Especially when it was applied to Indians and Bangladeshis ignorantly. Innocent people describing a visit to the 'Paki shop' became tarnished with racism by skinhead groups going around kicking in 'fucking Pakis'... fine.

Far Eastern people have an in-between skin colour neither brown nor white, and got branded 'yellow'. Surely not a problem, but then came Vietnam and Chinese communism which made them disliked and yellow was often suffixed with fuckers or similar. So again they took offence, who wouldn't? You may also have noticed their eyes also have different shapes to ours, pretty obvious really and who knows which shape is best? Theirs are probably better on a sunny day and ours better on a damp foggy day. Who cares? They do... we're not allowed to mention it now.... fine.

Black guys are really fast at running, but not very good at swimming. Asians seem to have a natural advantage at abstract mathematics but are short and hairless. White people got organised hundreds of years before the others but are now becoming big and fat.

Where is your personal line drawn? I think it should be fine to say all those words (minus the fucking etc) and point out all those differences, we are all different and we should celebrate that rather than shove it under the carpet and pretend everyone is the same in case someone feels bad. Call me any 'racist' term you like, as long as it's not said with venom or hatred I really wouldn't think any less of you.

Please be sensible as this topic has the potential to go down in flames, use some philosophy, you have it there inside your brainbox, you might as well.

Tef the Cracker Jock Round-Eyed Fucker.