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Recently, I have joined a debate group on Facebook. It's a rather nice group, except for the way some people have a habit of posting images to start their topic rather than simply making a statement.
One picture showed what looked like a happy, upper-middle class or upper-class black family and was labeled "Black people." And another showed the rapper Lil' Wayne and was labeled "Niggers," with the statement "When you put it like that, is it really racist?"
One of the members posted (quite accurately I feel,) that the answer was yes, it's still racist, because the term is racist even if you mean a certain subculture of black people. But he concluded with "They're both black people, but one is more civilized."
That bothered me. I don't like the idea of calling someone 'more civilized.' Civilized seems like it should be a fairly binary state. Either you are civilized, or you are not. You may be deviant or not deviant, but you're still civilized unless you reject civilization, in which case you're uncivilized.
But what really got me about that is, well... Lil' Wayne, whatever you think of his music, is a musician. He goes to a studio, records himself rapping, puts a beat to it, and then distributes it. He distributes it through Cash Money Records, who print it on CDs and send it to stores, where it is sold. It is also sold digitally. Lil' Wayne then gets some of the proceeds from that. It is also distributed digitally, and he gets the proceeds from that too.
Looking into his background, he was arrested once, for marijuana possession and illegal possession of a firearm (I'd dispute the second charge, to tell the truth.)
So unless smoking marijuana is uncivilized, or owning guns is uncivilized, then really he seems like a fairly civilized person. And if that makes someone uncivilized, is John Lennon uncivilized? He certainly smoked marijuana.
Or is it that owning a handgun makes someone uncivilized? (In fact, Lil' Wayne never claimed to own it, it was on a tour bus that he traveled with his manager in. The manager owned the handgun legally. Wayne was nevertheless charged with 'unlawful possession' for sitting close to it.)
And the last thing that gets me... Why do I never see rednecks and hillbillies called 'uncivilized'? I seem them called stupid, backwards, idiotic, inbred, all sorts of things. But I've never seen 'uncivilized.'
This is bothering me, I suppose.
One picture showed what looked like a happy, upper-middle class or upper-class black family and was labeled "Black people." And another showed the rapper Lil' Wayne and was labeled "Niggers," with the statement "When you put it like that, is it really racist?"
One of the members posted (quite accurately I feel,) that the answer was yes, it's still racist, because the term is racist even if you mean a certain subculture of black people. But he concluded with "They're both black people, but one is more civilized."
That bothered me. I don't like the idea of calling someone 'more civilized.' Civilized seems like it should be a fairly binary state. Either you are civilized, or you are not. You may be deviant or not deviant, but you're still civilized unless you reject civilization, in which case you're uncivilized.
But what really got me about that is, well... Lil' Wayne, whatever you think of his music, is a musician. He goes to a studio, records himself rapping, puts a beat to it, and then distributes it. He distributes it through Cash Money Records, who print it on CDs and send it to stores, where it is sold. It is also sold digitally. Lil' Wayne then gets some of the proceeds from that. It is also distributed digitally, and he gets the proceeds from that too.
Looking into his background, he was arrested once, for marijuana possession and illegal possession of a firearm (I'd dispute the second charge, to tell the truth.)
So unless smoking marijuana is uncivilized, or owning guns is uncivilized, then really he seems like a fairly civilized person. And if that makes someone uncivilized, is John Lennon uncivilized? He certainly smoked marijuana.
Or is it that owning a handgun makes someone uncivilized? (In fact, Lil' Wayne never claimed to own it, it was on a tour bus that he traveled with his manager in. The manager owned the handgun legally. Wayne was nevertheless charged with 'unlawful possession' for sitting close to it.)
And the last thing that gets me... Why do I never see rednecks and hillbillies called 'uncivilized'? I seem them called stupid, backwards, idiotic, inbred, all sorts of things. But I've never seen 'uncivilized.'
This is bothering me, I suppose.
Why? I have no words to describe my bafflement at this.
With these folks, no amount of calling them "white trash" will get them upset, nor will it persuade them to upgrade their lifestyle. They're proud of living in filth, or participating in various other redneck activities, that they'll never change. It's an endless cycle--the offspring will perpetuate it, simply because they're too stupid to know any better.
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