When Will People Stop Doing Stupid Things Like This?

Discussion in 'In the News' started by Cody Fousnaugh, Apr 25, 2018.

  1. Cody Fousnaugh

    Cody Fousnaugh Supreme Member
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    Like the high school student that made this sign to get a Prom date in Florida. Now him and his family are apologizing and the student says the sign was meant to be a joke. He done it off-campus, but his school wants to discipline him. A Law professor says he's only exercising his Freedom of Speech rights.


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  2. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    It was definitely NOT in good taste for him to do this; but I do not think that the school has any authority to discipline him for off-campus behavior. Going to a school is not the same as teaching there, or being an active employee of the school. It is not like being in the military where they can pretty much control your whole life. School is simply a place that you go to study and learn, and what you do when you are not in school should be your own business.
    Another thing that puzzles me, is why this hit mainstream news ? Was it a planned news stunt , so there were photographers right there waiting to take the pictures and put them on the news ?
    I think that this was a pretty dumb thing for this stdent to do; but I do not think that it deserves national news status at all.
     
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  3. Cody Fousnaugh

    Cody Fousnaugh Supreme Member
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    It’s race related, that’s why it hit the news.
     
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  4. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    I have some pretty mixed feelings about it. Granted, it's stupid and definitely tasteless and like @Yvonne Smith, do wonder why it is even in the news to begin with.
    That said, why is it that the Caucasian race has to walk and talk with so much caution and consideration of those of color but yet, on the opposite side, those same people we are trying so hard Not to offend turn around and are so blatantly offensive?
    Are there classes led by white people geared toward teaching blacks about racial temperance the same as there are classes for the whites led by black instructors?
    Do entire companies close the doors for a day in order to teach their employees about racial temperance when it is a Caucasian customer who get's hammered on?

    The whole racial thing as it stands this very day is really beginning to tick me off and frankly, I have to fight with myself in order to have a good attitude concerning my fellow human beings who just happen to be black.
     
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  5. Patsy Faye

    Patsy Faye Supreme Member
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    They say you reap what you sow @Bobby Cole
    That's why Blacks have attitudes and those attitudes wont change until Whites change theirs
    Bit of a vicious circle as the damage is so embedded, I doubt there will be a good lasting outcome even though
    there has been improvements
    In todays society, those that don't fit the norm are being browbeaten, never thought I'd see this as the case for
    the disabled but very sadly, even they are going through tough times - all down to sheer ignorance :(
     
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  6. Holly Saunders

    Holly Saunders Supreme Member
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    It would be in the news here in the UK if it happened...in fact it would be Headline news.... o_O

    I'm no saying it was right what the kid wrote, it was insensitive, but here in the UK he would have been arrested for a Hate crime....and I'm not saying that's right either.
     
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  7. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    Patsy, I agree that attitudes need to change; but from what I can see, the news is dramatizing things to foster more racial hatred.
    The truth is that most people don’t hate their neighbors because they are a different culture or skin color; but from what we see blasted in the news every day, you would think that all white people are racists, and that they are mistreating people who are not white.

    Something else that disturbs me about this whole race-discrimination is that it seems to only include white people and black people. When you look back through the history of the United States, white people (especially military) totally abused the native Indian tribes, but you never hear much about this, even though there were a lot of atrocities in the past.
    The Indians were forced to move to designated land, called reservations, and lived there in almost starvation and deprivation.

    Another nationality who was horribly mistreated by American white people , was the early Chinese who were brought here as workers. These people helped to build the costs-country railroads, and were used for many other kinds of hard labor, and were actually treated like slaves, just as much as the black people were. There are terrible stories of the Chinese being killed en mass in some cases, but you have to dig through history to even read about these events.
    Why are some parts of history buried, and other parts dramatized so much ?
     
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    Last edited: Apr 25, 2018
  8. Patsy Faye

    Patsy Faye Supreme Member
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    Totally agree !
    You probably know of my interest in Native Americans so I know of what you speak of
    The Chinese - yes I knew this too
    To me, it makes no difference what creed or colour, racism disturbs me greatly
    But you are so right about the media, which is why I won't read what they have to say on most matters
    They turn my stomach because they have created so much angst over the years
     
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  9. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    In a free society, people have a right to be racist. But other people have a right to respond to that. With the stupid prom stunt, for example, I think people should let him know that they think he's an idiot but it shouldn't be against the law and, if he did it outside of school, it shouldn't affect his standing in school.

    I'm not saying that racism should be encouraged, or socially acceptable. Given a choice between doing business with a racist or not doing business with a racist, I would choose not to do business with a racist. But it shouldn't be illegal.

    Racism is an attitude and I don't know how you effectively legislate against attitudes without the kind of crazy stuff that we see going on around the world today. In many ways, our anti-racism laws have driven the races further apart, I think.

    If I hate you because your skin is blue, all the laws in the world aren't going to make me quit hating you because your skin is blue, and I am likely to hate you more if the laws give you special privileges because your skin is blue.

    You can't stop me from hating you, but that doesn't mean that I should have the right to throw stones at you or enslave you because your skin is blue.

    On the other hand, if my neighbors start talking bad about me because I am a racist, or if people quit letting their kids play with my kids because I'm a racist, then maybe I'll reexamine my attitudes. It's a societal thing, and the legislators should mind their own business.
     
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  10. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    I agree, Ken. I think Americans really invented "free speech", and some of it has been horrible, but I think you should be able to express whatever opinion you have, as long as it is not slanderous (or libelous if in writing), but we have lost that ability with the move toward political correctness. Stupid, uninformed opinions are expressed daily on the TV and radio every day, and they should be allowed as long as they are taken as opinions, not as facts. Holly brought up "hate crimes" earlier; I don't think people commit crimes against people they love. I think so-called hate crimes should be treated and punished for the crime, not for the idea behind the crime. Especially with the advent of electronic communication, every opinion or idea can be contested. That wasn't always possible and folks like Walter Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley, et.al. controlled access to ideas, opinions, and facts. That is now not really possible. Information is out there that allows people to form opinions based on their own research and values. This guy's stunt was stupid and foolish, but what can you expect from a teenaged kid from the public school system? I am sure that many people will let him know his action was ill-advised, but, just like the teacher in Fresno, he thought he was being cute. The difference between the two incidents is that the teacher is older and should have learned what is socially acceptable in the public view by now.
     
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  11. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    When I was growing up, we would regularly use language to refer to someone cheating someone as saying they had been "gypped" or that someone had been "jewed." Brazil nuts were known as "nigger toes." People told "Pollock jokes.". I don't know that the people I grew up with or around were particularly racist, given that pretty much everyone I knew was not only of the same race, but related to me. These were used as words rather than as racist statements.

    As a child, these were simply part of my vocabulary, and I don't know that anyone thought twice about it or considered that there might be cruelty in it. I can remember the first time that I became aware that the word "gyp" referred to Gypsies, and that "jewing someone down" promoted the attitude that anti-Semites wanted people to have about Jewish people. Then again, there were no Gypsies or Jewish people around to be offended, and some of the few Polish people who were around told Pollock jokes too, so it didn't seem cruel.

    I wasn't raised to hate Romana, Jewish, or Polish people. Had that been the case, I would have realized that these words and jokes referred to real people, and I might have considered, much earlier, whether there was any reason for me to put these people down.

    Of course, I didn't realize at the time that this language was introduced or promoted by the German Nazi party even before World War II, and that cruelty surely was intended.

    However, I didn't need a law to make me aware that this was not acceptable language, and it didn't require threats of being expelled from school or jailed for me to eliminate this type of language from my vocabulary. All that it took was for me to realize what the references were to, and where they came from.

    I didn't know any Gypsies, so why would I hate them? The only Jewish person I knew was a guy from New York who served with my father in the Pacific during World War II. He was the only war buddy who my dad kept in touch with, as far as I know. He came to visit every couple of years, and everyone liked him. My dad, who rarely went more than a hundred miles from his farm, went to his funeral in New York. So I certainly didn't hate Jewish people, or have any reason to connect them with the idea of cheating people out of anything.

    There are some very real problems with racism, and we should continue to deal with these problems, but making protected classes out of some people, or trying to legislate against attitudes, is counterproductive.

    I still believe that the Obama presidency set race relations back several decades in the United States.
     
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  12. Kitty Carmel

    Kitty Carmel Veteran Member
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    This kid is a complete idiot. Maybe some home handled education about slavery might help. If I had a kid do this, I'd want to slap the sh*t out of him.
     
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  13. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    POLITE
    Adjective
    having or showing behavior that is respectful and considerate of other people.
    well mannered. civil. courteous. respectful. deferential. well behaved. well bred. gentlemanly. ladylike. chivalrous. gallant. genteel. cultivated.....

    Being polite is something that is only partially taught and the rest comes naturally from the heart once the root is well planted. When did we start planting weeds of anger and nettles of stupidity instead of those things that reflect grace and humility?
    No matter the race, creed or gender, being polite is the easiest thing to learn but it would seem that there are only a few left to teach it and even fewer examples of it to observe when one is in doubt of what it looks and sounds like.......................
     
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  14. Patsy Faye

    Patsy Faye Supreme Member
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    Agree Bobby but I don't see much politeness now
    Most shows on TV show the opposite !
    Role models are few now :(
     
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  15. Holly Saunders

    Holly Saunders Supreme Member
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    I'm naturally polite...sometimes these days it's hard to remain so when so often people young AND old, seem to have either not gained or learned the skill or have become ill-mannered, and some downright nasty in old age...

    All of us have our off days, perhaps due to pain or illness, but I'm tired of impoliteness becoming more the norm than the exception



    I agree with Patsy that there seems to be no role models these days...
     
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