polite_gandalf wrote on Dec 31^st, 2016 at 7:49pm:


Oh, that's easy. It's when you're mean to decent white people everywhere.

polite_gandalf wrote on Dec 31^st, 2016 at 7:49pm:


English can be very difficult for newcomers because of these inconsistencies, but I assure you that the words still have meaning despite them. Like I said, keep at it and you'll get the hang of it eventually.

Race and class are like beauty - you know it when you see it.

Frank wrote on Jan 2^nd, 2017 at 1:51pm:


I think thats the problem Frank - people "see" race, as in outward superficial physical features like black skin or slanty eyes - but it is in fact a categorisation that is completely arbitrary. There is actually more genetic variation within these "groups" than between them and other groups.

And then you know you're really in trouble when you get people like FD throwing in their ignorant stereotypes about the 'other' into the mix - boldly declaring somewhere as vast and genetically diverse as Asia to be reduced to the one "Asian race".

Come to think of it, it seems to me that its people insisting that humans can be categorised into "races" (whatever that means, no one wants to explain it) that is half the problem. Because its little more than a demonstration of chauvinistic ignorance based on fear and prejudice.

polite_gandalf wrote on Jan 2^nd, 2017 at 2:19pm:



The outward signs matter mostly when they signify the cultural beneath.
Slanty eyed Chinese krone, yammering loudly on her phone on the train?
Olive skinned man with massive beard, wife in a niqab, swaggering down street in a Lonsdale Tshirt?
Subcontinental woman in sari, reeking of BO and stale curry in the supermarket?
Honky dude with piggy eyes and a rat-tail, covered in tats?
Fragrant yummy mummy with adorable, well-behaved blonde kiddies at the beach?

Racial stereotypes are not baseless. You don't have a lot of blonde people reeking of stale curry or a wife in a niqab.


Race is not everything but it is not nothing either. One of the best books about Muslim is by a West Indian Indian, VS Naipaul.

polite_gandalf wrote on Jan 2^nd, 2017 at 2:47pm:



Is Zionism racism?

Race doesn't stand alone, it signifies a lot of cultural markers: outlook, values, beliefs, attitudes all adding up to group identity. People adopting group identities - Black, Muslim, Indian, European, Chinese - assume the characteristics of the group they identify with.

This is why it is incongruous to see a blonde and blue eyed 'Aborigine' or a white hijabi. It's interesting that there are not a lot of Chinese converting to Islam but it's the races that have lost the cultures within them: blacks, Aborigines, uneducated or damaged whites.

Look at Muslim stand up - racial and cultural stereotyping is the stuff of jokes because we all understand the stereotypes. And we understand them because they are based on well-observed truths.

Ethnicity is just another word for race. You put on the full Muslim paraphernalia an you will be subject to some sharp comment or lamentation about what's gone wrong with you.

Karnal wrote on Jan 2^nd, 2017 at 9:17pm:

So - is Zionism racism?

Frank wrote on Jan 2^nd, 2017 at 9:31pm:


No