North London to Russia is a curious trajectory.
Im a Spurs (Tottenham) fan.
Me too.
I learned that Russian racism is marginally preferable to the American version.
Many of the biggest targets of Russian racism (like my grandparents) managed to leave over the last century.
Hey I’m a fan of both but that made me chuckle. 
That’s because when you talk to Alexa, something happens.
I can’t stand the franchise for the simple fact that it is thoroughly mediocre children’s literature that was aggressively marketed to adults who can’t be arsed to read an actual book.
Well, you’ve certainly stepped into a huge pile of shit. Do you do this on purpose?
I cannot resist noting that I am totally uninterested in association football but, owing to place of birth and upbringing, I am a birthright Tottenham supporter. And Tottenham is, for many reasons, perhaps the least racist football club. And until the vast injection of money into football, it probably had the best educated supporters. (When I was a kid quite a lot of the Orthodox Jewish supporters lived within convenient walking distance and had season tickets so they could attend games on the Sabbath.)
Unusually I find myself with @Nobby_Stiles on this. Rowling’s world is one in which some people are born to enormous privilege while others accidentally acquire it, and she’s absolutely fine with that. The non-privileged people are subject to a kind of apartheid, and the fact most of them are unaware of it is irrelevant. In the days of the British Empire, the more aristocratic foreigners acquired British privileges just as rich subjects like Saul of Tarsus could buy Roman citizenship. The idea that all people of “our” class must show class solidarity regardless of colour or origin is not particularly meritorious.
Compare it with Terry Pratchett’s word in which (plot spoilers) Vimes is in many ways the voice of ordinary people, and eventually (in Unseen Academicals which, like Snuff, is heavily about racism) Vetinari is able to show off to the aristocratic Lady Margoletta how in Ankh-Morpork ordinary people are now invested in citizenship and public spirit.
It’s clear that in reality in Rowling’s world once the bad guys started to attack ordinary people things would be different - military doctrine would quickly identify that the number of the enemy was small and so overwhelm them by attacking with so many different routes that they could not attend to them all. A group might be able to stop one drone, if they knew what it was. Their chance of stopping a simultaneous attack by dispersed artillery with short range missiles supported by laser guided bombs would be zero*. (Again, interestingly, Rowling seems unaware of the laws of thermodynamics, while Pratchett does not allow magic to function outside physical laws.)
*I had this discussion with an officer in the RA, so it isn’t a completely unbiased viewpoint.
Very true - and they made the best donuts too!
There is the interesting controversy about whether Tottenham fans should self identify as “Yids” and chant “Yid army”. Some commentators have said there is no place for the use of the word and I can definitely see that point. The standard Spurs fan defense is that Spurs fans have appropriated a term of abuse leveled at them and used it to self describe with pride,
Given that Chelsea and West Ham fans still occasionally hiss at Spurs games (to simulate the gas chambers) it seems to me that Tottenham fans have a pass for the time being. For what little its worth, I have always found Arsenal fans to be as racially tolerant as Tottenham fans. I cannot say the same for the other London clubs.
As for how I worked in Russia its a long and very tedious story.
So Russians are racist - if you are a Jewish Russian you are considered not Russian but Jewish. However while the average Russian knows you are racially inferior to him, that will not stop his sister from dating you and if she did so it wouldnt particularly bother him. Similarly if you are black. Russians seemed to have no doubt at all that black and brown people are ethnically inferior, however that shouldn’t get in the way of business or socializing.
Compare that with the City of Boston, and you soon begin to miss the Russian version of racism. That said, your grandparents made the right call.
I should add that this is true of most Russians. There is a sizable minority who will beat black people to mush should they catch them at the end of a subway line late at night. Same with the Russian police. However this is not different in the US.
Things are different nowadays. I have grandchildren who support Chelsea and Arsenal - but not of course Millwall.
I didn’t make your point about the Y-word because it is an offence to post it in this country. I’m not sure how it goes if you speak Yiddish and call someone a “Zayner yeed”, but who expects sense out of the Home Office?
error lol
Could be worse. Bruce Wayne has been endangering minors for over 60 years and had at least half a dozen victims so far.
You know, this is the kind of thread that makes BBS so endearing to me.
Have a great 2018 everybody, and keep posting!
At one British private school which I had better not identify (but which a friend attended) the headmaster was known as “The grease”.
What is the function of grease (beginning with L)?
He apparently retired without being arrested.
Well, given that the tournament is frequently fatal to the participants, I actually think it’s entirely appropriate. In situations where a teenager is about to go and get himself killed, a little yelling and noninjurious shaking by the shoulders gets a pass.
Of course, since Dumbledore’s reaction to every other young wizard and witch putting their names in for this absurd exercise in manslaughter is “LOL no1curr,” I agree that his behavior leaves a lot to be desired.
I’ve mostly been of the opinion that words are harmless, in and of themselves. It is the intent of the usage of any word that does the harm. Twain could use nigger over and over, but the intent was the opposite of being disparaging. Call me queer and I go, sure, I’ve always been a bit odd. But call me fag or faggot and I’ll get upset because I am NOT smokable. Well, depending on what you mean by ‘smokable’, so I guess that one’s ok too. 
Well I agree but generally people calling you queer are not referring to your odd habits but your homosexuality. Similarly I dont know if I find nigger offensive. Its just that when I have heard white people use the term they were definitely trying to offend me. So as a first approximation the use of such terms is probably offensive.
My own pet irritant is mulatto. I hate that word, partly because it has been applied to me but mostly because it is obviously fucking offensive. I think you need to be a little dim not to see that people of mixed ethnicity might be offended by a term which derives from the word for the sterile offspring of a donkey and a horse. Whenever people use “Mulatto” around me I suggest that I prefer “Quadroon”. Whilst technically it isn’t accurate it definitely gets the point across.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is a scene from a
movie, and book, and FICTION. Just watched one of the movies this morning. It is a truly kid empowering fun story that has nothing to do with the real world other than staying strong to ones convictions and being on the side of good. Pretty classic storytelling. (But y’know Luke’s Uncle sure would’ve been sued today I tell ya… ) Happy 2018!
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