White Culture

Never occurred.to me that it had the same associations for you as it does for me and others. Tbh I assume it didn’t for the Bugs Bunny writers either.
Just felt it was particularly awkward reading it in this topic.

7 Likes

It was a play on “moron” from the Bugs Bunny cartoon. Unfortunately, “moron” comes with it’s own baggage. Both are best left behind.

10 Likes

Fresh after investigating themselves and discovering that beating up women is good policing (well done boys!) The English establishment has investigated itself and found that it’s all individuals and there is no systemic racism and to say there is would undermine the centrists who just want to do good!

To be fair I have often said that n many respects the UK is far ahead of the rest of Europe, but to claim there is no evidence of systemic, institutional racism is utterly and profoundly wrong.

And if your definition of centrists being annoyed includes Tories, your centre has the policies of a 1970s fascist party.

9 Likes

I haven’t read the article or the report but just as a guess, does it say that referring to institutions as institutionally racist should be avoided because it makes all the people in those institutions feel they personally are being accused of being racist and they don’t like it so they dig in to their racist institutions rather than maybe perhaps change things?

And instead we should just leave things as they are and tell the police and the army how wonderful they are and give them a gold star every time they manage to not let a black man die in their cells?

5 Likes

But maroons are roasted chestnuts too?
(Had to link this fine example of redneck engineering/upcycling)

Very interesting article. Is explains also the wildly diverse perspective on these themes between Europe and USA.

I haven’t read the 250 page report either. The line I quoted above about BLM alienating decent centrists seems close. The most chilling part of the article is this "Responding to one of the most contentious passages in the report, which argues that a “new story” needs to be told about the slave trade, which would highlight cultural transformation of African people, de Cordova said: “The government must urgently explain how they came to publish content which glorifies the slave trade, and immediately disassociate themselves with these remarks.”

It has to be remembered that the Tory leader of the house of commons wrote a “great man” history of the 19th century. As a for example if you can write about George Gordon and not use words like racist, genocidal, conscience free, treacherous, evil, scum, you are not a human being with an iota of morality in your world view. Man was the devil.

The Tories are engaged in a current project to rehabilitate the slavers and murderers, the thieves and genocidaires from any kind of reasonable judgment of history and instead engage in a culture war now. This is their civil war statuary. They know what they are doing.

6 Likes

Not in French. Roasted chestnuts are marrons. Completely different pronunciation, too.

10 Likes

UK version of Il Douche’s 1776 Project? Kinda sounds like it.

6 Likes

Got me interested, it’s the same word in a sense. At least in terms of the color.

maroon (məˈruːn)
vb (tr)
1. to leave ashore and abandon, esp on an island
2. to isolate without resources
n
3. (Peoples) a descendant of a group of runaway slaves living in the remoter areas of the Caribbean or Guyana
4. informal US and Canadian a person who has been marooned, esp on an island
[C17 (applied to fugitive slaves): from American Spanish cimarrón wild, literally: dwelling on peaks, from Spanish cima summit]
maroon (məˈruːn)
n
1. (Colours)
a. a dark red to purplish-red colour
b. (as adjective): a maroon carpet.
2. an exploding firework, esp one used as a warning signal
[C18: from French, literally: chestnut, marron1]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
ma•roon1 (məˈrun)

n.
1. a dark brownish red color.
adj.
2. of the color maroon.
[1585–95; < French marron literally, chestnut, Middle French < Upper Italian]

Redneck? Seriously?

5 Likes

18 Likes
16 Likes

Throw in Protestant vs. Catholic and it gets even messier (if also more accurate).

10 Likes

Yup, checks out

Marjorie Taylor Greene Forming Caucus To Promote ‘Anglo-Saxon Political Traditions’ (forbes.com)

8 Likes

The last hold out of that is from a woman who runs a shop called THE CELTIC WAY in Asheville, NC. She’s of Scottish heritage and is DEEPLY racist against the Irish… And I don’t think you can be racist against the Irish in America, cause we’re categorized as white…

Or people like Marjorie Taylor Greene.

10 Likes

Are your ancestors Protestant or Catholic? Did they settle in the South or the North? Protestant Irish in the South were pretty much always considered white. The Catholics who immigrated to the North (particularly NYC and Boston) in the 19th century? Not so much. At least until the middle of the 20th century.

I’m Italian American, and there was a similar dynamic for my family, and there was also a lot of tension with the Catholic Irish communities. Most of it is gone, but there are some places in Boston that aren’t great for me to wander around.

3 Likes

There’s a book on the topic

Is there any hold over in the US with north south prejudice in Italy? I love Italy’s fierce regionalism when it comes to food but it can get s little over the top.

1 Like

Because you’re of Italian descent? Is it that evident in your appearance? And what sort of evil has befallen you so far as a result?

3 Likes