Is this Australian KFC cricket advert racist?

[Gwylan]

There's this odd thing said (well I find it odd) that the language was put to a vote and German was almost chosen! That, I find very hard to believe - and that it would even get voted on at all. Does anyone believe there was a lot of German spoken by the early immigrant settlers?

It's hard to believe because it's not true - although it's a persistent urban myth. What happened was that there was a request that some laws in Virginia could be translated into German for the benefit of German settlers. The vote was merely on whether this request could be discussed and was rejected by one vote. So, no German didn't even close to being adopted as an official language - in fact, there is no "official" language of the US, English happens to be the most widely spoken ... for now.

Whenever in the company of our cousins across the I always refer to American Civil War as the 2nd British Civil War, they dont like that, or the fact that during said war the British proclaimed freedom for the slaves.

I thought I was the only Brit who wound up the septics with the 2nd Civil War jibe. It's a good one - mainly because it's true.

The other great myth is that the Boston Tea Party was a protest against taxation from the British, when it was really an attempt by Boston merchants to turn back cheap tea (and other imports) from Britain as they undercut their profits. Of course, this was a manifestation of colonialism too as the cheap tea came from their Asian colonies but the whole story is not quite as romantic as current US right-wingers try to portray it.

 

[thejackal]

Leaving aside that "Southern Yanks" is a contradiction what experiences of racism did you experience in the Southern USA? Not meaning to doubt you and I'm sure it's pretty endemic in places but I live in Northern Florida and honestly find the Northern transplants to be more racist than the locals. With that said Florida is pretty untypical of the South in many ways.

Not exactly true. There are 2 definitions of the word "Yankee" or "Yank" (from Merriam-Webster):

Main Entry: 1Yan·kee
Pronunciation: \ˈyaŋ-kē\
Function: noun
Etymology: origin unknown
Date: 1758

1 a : a native or inhabitant of New England b : a native or inhabitant of the northern United States
2 : a native or inhabitant of the United States

Most Europeans take Yank to mean #2.

That aside, my experiences of racism in the US are exactly as you say: that it is institutional and endemic. In Boston, where I lived for a year at the end of the 1980s, my (very few) black mates lived in slums like "Jamaica Plain" whereas my white mates lived in middle class suburbia or posh downtown redbricks. They did not go to the same schools, eat at the same restaurants, play the same sports etc. They lived separate lives. In Southern California, where I spent over a year in 2001/2002 it was even worse. In the white coastal bubble that I lived in there were no blacks or asians. You just didn't see 'em. You had to go to a poor area to see a black or asian face. And when 9/11 happened asians were openly abused and attacked in the streets. Yes, it's partly ignorance, but isn't racism exactly that?

 

[cunning fergus]

That's not what I said. Most of the criminals in prison are not in there for rape or murder, so enough of the Daily Nail headline bollox.

No, crime is just a natural result of inequality in society. It's a simple fact that it's the poor and the 'worthless' that commit most of the crime in any society. Simply focussing on the race of the criminals and not their circumstance is a very shortsighted and - dare I say it - racist way of looking at the problem. That's all.

I don't work for the govt or even agree with what they've done. I'm a humanist. I've seen quite a bit of the world and what I have come to learn is that people are people. They have the same problems and the same reactions. What links the criminals of the world is not the colour of their skin but where they, or more importantly their group, be it an ethnic group or political group or social group, fits into a society and how that society treats them.

I'm not suggesting you could ever get rid of crime by raising people's self esteem. I'm not suggesting you could get rid of crime at all.

Go see the world and work it out for yourself.

So as a Humanist you subscribe to the following:

Humanism has two core beliefs, with two important implications. The core beliefs are:

1) People should learn to think for themselves, not just blindly accept what they are told by figures of authority. This is because authority figures too often have an agenda of their own, frequently the enhancement of their own wealth or power. And even when this is not the case, authorities are themselves often uninformed or confused.

2) Values are based in the human person. In order to know whether a given course of conduct is meaningful or right, we can ask ourselves whether it promotes the maintenance or development of the normal capabilities of human beings, such as thinking, feeling, and physical health.

The two important implications are:

1) People should try hard to get the facts before forming opinions or commiting to values.

2) People should base their values primarily upon the sacredness of life.
The idea that all people are much the same everywhere, and are equally entitled to justice and opportunity regardless of race or gender, owes much to Humanism.

In respect of point 1) the facts on the UK's prison population does not indicate that all is well in this multicultural paradise we are told we live in. That's thinking for myself, using FACTS not emotional cliches.

In respect of point 2) you seem to have lost your Humanist moral compass when you lazily accused the Aussies of being the most racist amongst other whites from SA and the US. Its like only white people can be racist (next time you are out in the world working it out try opening your eyes and ears).

 

[User removed 4]

Not exactly true. There are 2 definitions of the word "Yankee" or "Yank" (from Merriam-Webster):

Main Entry: 1Yan·kee
Pronunciation: \ˈyaŋ-kē\
Function: noun
Etymology: origin unknown
Date: 1758

1 a : a native or inhabitant of New England b : a native or inhabitant of the northern United States
2 : a native or inhabitant of the United States

Most Europeans take Yank to mean #2.

That aside, my experiences of racism in the US are exactly as you say: that it is institutional and endemic. In Boston, where I lived for a year at the end of the 1980s, my (very few) black mates lived in slums like "Jamaica Plain" whereas my white mates lived in middle class suburbia or posh downtown redbricks. They did not go to the same schools, eat at the same restaurants, play the same sports etc. They lived separate lives. In Southern California, where I spent over a year in 2001/2002 it was even worse. In the white coastal bubble that I lived in there were no blacks or asians. You just didn't see 'em. You had to go to a poor area to see a black or asian face. And when 9/11 happened asians were openly abused and attacked in the streets. Yes, it's partly ignorance, but isn't racism exactly that?

You replied to Cunning Fergus's post on the comparitive over representation of blacks in the crime figures and prison population as nothing to do with race , but everything to do with being poor and marginalised, then surely the fact that all the blacks that you knew lived in poor areas had nothing to do with racism either, but everything to do with being poor and marginalised ? as you stated , crime is comitted by the poor and 'worthless ' in society , nothing to do with race , as is the fact poor and 'worthless' people live in shit areas, nothing to do with race, agreed ?

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

Saying the Ozzies hate the Asians, Irish & English is frankly laughable. I've never heard anything bad said about Africans & certainly not Asians who are well thought of as hard working people - I'm married to an Asian & neither of us have ever faced racism in Australia.

Maybe the people you know are just shit people

I reckon in 20 years 1 in 5 kids will be Eurasian.

Walk around Melbourne and you`ll spot countless mixed anglo/asian couples.

 

[thejackal]

So as a Humanist you subscribe to the following:

Humanism has two core beliefs, with two important implications. The core beliefs are:

1) People should learn to think for themselves, not just blindly accept what they are told by figures of authority. This is because authority figures too often have an agenda of their own, frequently the enhancement of their own wealth or power. And even when this is not the case, authorities are themselves often uninformed or confused.

2) Values are based in the human person. In order to know whether a given course of conduct is meaningful or right, we can ask ourselves whether it promotes the maintenance or development of the normal capabilities of human beings, such as thinking, feeling, and physical health.

The two important implications are:

1) People should try hard to get the facts before forming opinions or commiting to values.

2) People should base their values primarily upon the sacredness of life.
The idea that all people are much the same everywhere, and are equally entitled to justice and opportunity regardless of race or gender, owes much to Humanism.

In respect of point 1) the facts on the UK's prison population does not indicate that all is well in this multicultural paradise we are told we live in. That's thinking for myself, using FACTS not emotional cliches.

In respect of point 2) you seem to have lost your Humanist moral compass when you lazily accused the Aussies of being the most racist amongst other whites from SA and the US. Its like only white people can be racist (next time you are out in the world working it out try opening your eyes and ears).

Firstly, I said I was a humanist, not a Humanist. It's a personal belief in the value of human beings, not membership of some religious group or organisation. Keep your dogma to yourself, it means nothing to me.

Secondly, who told you we live in a multicultural paradise? It certainly wasn't me pal. Nor did I lazily accuse anyone of anything. I just related my own personal experiences; You're the one that just regurgitated some questionable home office figures! Do *you* work for the government?..

When I first went to S.A. in 1996, just a few years after the end of Apartheid, I was surprised how little racism there was in both directions; I expected there to be a lot more, especially black on white. I have also lived in Hawai'i where racism (although there's a lot less of it) is as much directed towards the whites as it is the Polynesians. In Hawai'i, however, the prisons are mainly full of Polynesians, because they make up the bulk of the poor over there.

It seems to be only you that reads "Its like only white people can be racist" between the lines that I've written.

 

[thejackal]

You replied to Cunning Fergus's post on the comparitive over representation of blacks in the crime figures and prison population as nothing to do with race , but everything to do with being poor and marginalised, then surely the fact that all the blacks that you knew lived in poor areas had nothing to do with racism either, but everything to do with being poor and marginalised ? as you stated , crime is comitted by the poor and 'worthless ' in society , nothing to do with race , as is the fact poor and 'worthless' people live in shit areas, nothing to do with race, agreed ?

Not at all, no.

I made a comment about my perception of racism in the world, based on my own experiences.

Your mate fergus then steamed in sarcastically with a load of home office figures related to crime in the UK.

So I tried to make the point that any rational, un-biased observer might look a bit further than the colour of their skin, to their societal group, be it ethnic, political etc. for the causes. That's all.

It seems that those who have issues with black/white/asian are always looking to prove who's right or wrong, whereas those who see past skin colour are more interested in what it says about society, what we can do to understand these bigoted attitudes, and how we can maybe change them for the good.

If the poor and the 'worthless' of a particular society are made up, disproportionately, of a particular ethnic group then that says a lot about how that group relates to that society, and not simply that 'darkies' or 'pakis' are a bunch of thieving, drug-taking layabouts.

The question is why the poor and 'worthless' are made up of a particular ethnic group. And if the answer is "because of the colour of their skin" then I'm afraid that is, in my opinion, just simplistic and racist.

 

[Nibble]

Yankee is an evolution of the Mohawk name for English Invaders Yengees.