[Image-1]
I am tired of intolerant and ignorant white people in this city who constantly ask me where I am from because I am a visible minority. God dammit, I’m from Halifax! My name may not be Jeff, Shane or some other WASP name, but I am as “Canadian” as you are (whatever that means). Your white-privileged asses need to meet more people of colour or something and stop living in your white bubbles. —Brown and here to stay
This article appears in Nov 27 – Dec 3, 2014.
“Area Viz-Min responds to stereotyping with more stereotyping. Crucial open and frank discussion about race devolves into sophomoric name-calling. Film at 11:00”
Racist, go fuck your “white privilege”!!!
I wonder if this would be published if the title was intolerant black people?
Look you fucking dummy, that is a common question here in Halifax… irrespective of your colour. The answer is simple: I am from (fill in the blank) and live here now. Then wr rrspond with, “Oh, I’ve never been to (fill in the blank) but I hear it’s beautiful!” This is called conversation. Welcome to Halifax and the rest of the world!
Oh, and you must LOVE my avatar! I’d try to explain it to you but I image your cloak of racism prevents any clear, rational thought.
Much depends on context and location. I highly doubt that anyone whose “white privilege” has forced them to live near maniac square devotes too much thought to the question “Where are you from” as they are curled in a fetal position on the ground while a dozen Air Jordans slam into their head and kidneys. For someone in the South End or downtown business district, aware of the very large population of foreign students that H^lif^x plays host to, it might seem like an innocuous conversation maker.
I once had a conversation with some students from Ghana and eventually the discussion turned to our so-called famous Maritime hospitality. Their experience was that Nova Scotians tended to be cold, distant and almost hostile, UNTIL they found out that they were from Africa. Then it was all friendliness and curiosity – almost as if “You’re not the local brand, so you must be okay”. I’m not suggesting that this is right, or even universal, but it does indicate that race relations here are a lot more complicated than can be summed up in one of the Scroat’s op-ed diatribes
Just a hunch, but if you were ignored, you’d likely bitch about that to, just get overself OP, seems like people are just trying to be friendly.
OB, I’m as white as white on rice but I still get asked where I am from on a regular basis. The assumption, based on experience, is that most adults are not born in Halifax but migrate here from other towns, provinces, or countries. And besides, if someone asks you a personal question it is generally a signal that they are interested in having a conversation and getting to know you. You should take it as a positive sign. Most people don’t give a rats ass about people they barely know. And if people were being intolerant they would give you the cold shoulder. I suspect that you are projecting some personal discomfort onto other people. I’ve met a number of very self-concious people like you and am guessing that you need to come to terms with who you are and be more comfortable in your own skin. Think about it!
“WHATEVER THAT MEANS”: THE PROBLEM OF DENOTATION
“My name may not be Jeff, Shane or some other WASP name, but I am as ‘Canadian’ as you are (whatever that means).” Brown and here to stay
Congratulations! You have made the first crucial step in philosophical reflection, a quest for the meaning of terms and their relationship, if any, to extra-mental reality. The question of such a relationship, of course, is called in philosophy the “problem of denotation.” Why do we call a tree a “tree?” Why do we call a cloud a “cloud?” In the same way, why do we call a Canadian a “Canadian”? In other words, is there a tight denotational fit between language and reality (the “correspondence theory”) or is meaning merely what it happens to mean to me (the “coherence theory”)? Discuss this with your friends, and write back soon.
Avatar #95: A $1 Note from the International Bank of Canada (1858). (“A Unique Achievement,” The Coast)
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
if someone doesn’t know you from elementary school, they will ask you where you are from. this appears to be a nova scotia thing.
much like giving directions like this ‘you know where the church was that burned down? you turn left there’.
I heard someone say ‘I emigrated from sheet harbour’ . really, op. if you are from sheet harbour but are asked the question while standing at pizza corner, then its a legit question.
I know people of various ethnic identities who embrace their visible minority status and love to talk about their family and cultural background. I also know a few who are very uncomfortable with their appearance – as I suspect you are OB. So, when someone asks where you are from it is like holding up a mirror. And, If you don’t like what you see, that’s your problem – not that of the person “holding up the mirror”.
The good news is that you can become more comfortable in your own skin. When I was in college I was extremely self-conscious about being tall and thin. One day in the dining hall a very attractive gal teased me about getting fat because I was having ice cream for dessert. I gave her a grumpy look and stormed off. Later on I realized that she meant no offence and was just trying to start a conversation. I was being an idiot.
So, OB, I recommend that whenever someone asks a personal question you assume they have good intentions. Take the opportunity to tell them all about yourself and your ethnic background. Ask them the same questions in return. They will love it. I love to talk about my germanic ancestry.
And I hope you will eventually be very comfortable with what you see “in the mirror”.
Cheers,
Zippy
Will montrealman’s #100 avatar be an amalgam of all of our (his co-commenters) avatars, so as to form a portrait of his true identity?
Can’t wait! Envirobating at the thought…
WHERE THE FRIG IS MEATY’S AVATAR?
Speaking of intolerance… my avatar is missing… Mod, mind providing an explanation (and not a definition of intolerance)?
The confused OB aside…the position of the regs is that white privilege…does not exist? Holy shit.
From: Mr. Meaty
Date: 12-04-2014 10:35 AM (GMT-04:00)
To: Michaela Cavanagh
Subject: Re: missing avatar
It is not racist; it is a parody of Zwarte Piet, a traditional Dutch character. Following this logic, are the Dutch people who employ Zwarte Piet in their Christmas celebrations therefore racist? Is posting a bitch entitled, “Intolerant white people” not racist?
I am not looking for a debate or argument, but strongly suggesting you review the brush with which you paint things.
I’ll consider myself gagged. Should I flog myself for being gay too?
With love and kisses!
Mr. Meaty
Sent from Samsung Mobile
——– Original message ——–
From: Michaela Cavanagh
Date: 12-04-2014 10:26 AM (GMT-04:00)
To: Mr. Meaty
Subject: Re: missing avatar
Hello Mr. Meaty,
The avatar contained content someone flagged as racist/offensive. Please refrain from using images like that in the future.
—Web editor
On Thu, Dec 4, 2014 at 9:52 AM, Mr. Meaty wrote:
Good morning!
I was online, reading and making my usual comments at LTWWB and all of a sudden, my avatar is missing! Can anyone provide an explanation?
Much appreciated!
Mr. Meaty
Maritimers aren’t friendly … they’re nosy.
http://www.miataturbo.net/attachments/inse…
HaliOOPs – we’re racists, at least according to the Mod here…
*pissed off and poking the bear*
*and not a bear, ’cause I’d feel better if I were poking some bear right now…*
The concept of White Privilege exists, as an artificial construct of cultural marxists and squishy liberals reeking of collective guilt. If flipping the bird to those who try to use it as an argument ender makes me racist, then see y’all at the cross lighting, Hurr durr.
*trundles off to get some gas*
If I find the Coast offensive, can I flag it and have it pulled from the Internet?
MY AVATARS
RSVP
: Blackie (12/04, 10:03AM)
My #100 avatar? This requires long-term planning which, in the case of Bitch, I am neither capable nor inclined. Indeed, I have not yet determined what #96 will be! However, you might be interested in the process, such as it is.
Accurate records require double-entry book-keeping. On the one hand, for each avatar I carefully enter its topic and date on long, legal-size pads (I am now on pad #4) and – this is imporant- I categorize each entry according to its, um, category. So my current avatar, “The International Bank,” is categorized under “Old Canadian Paper Money” which, as is indicated in the write-up, is #13. So far there are some 13 categories – other avatars are one-offs – so you can see that recording my avatars is quite complex.
Selecting the next avatar is not so much a matter of routine but rather a matter of a spur-of-the-moment decision. However, I like to spread out the different categories to avoid bunching which I find inelegant. So as you can see, the present issue is not so much determining #100 but determining #96!
I hope that this has been helpful.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
these comments are full of more white whine than my mom on new years, shit.
White, Caitlin? WHITE? Racism!
Caitlin’s banned from the Internet!
Mod… MOD! Ban Caitlin!
As a white person, I’m rarely asked by other white people where I’m from, presumably because they assume I’m from Halifax or another predominantly Caucasian town, like most other white Canadians. I understand, as white people, we have a hard time conceptualizing what it might be like to live as a minority non-white person. The statement “check your white privilege”, while inflammatory, is meant to motivate us into this type of thinking. So, try to think about it next time before immediately taking offense.
I’m white and originally from Halifax, while I spent my teen years/early 20s in the valley, and I get asked pretty regularly where I’m from.
When I ask people where they’re from (white or persons of colour) I usually ask because I’m interested in hearing their story and when I do ask I will usually say “are you originally from Halifax?” The only time I ever say “where are you originally from” is if I’m talking to someone I know isn’t from Halifax (like, for example, when I met a couple of friends who I knew had immigrated to Canada).
I like me some dark meat. Next time dey axe you dat, say you from Nunya.
^^ nunya biznis! hahahahahaha
anyhoo, I am so white I shimmer (yeah I am a vampire) and I really do get asked where I am from. go to Vancouver and everyone will ask where you are from because no one was born there (except me, I was born there but I moved so now no one is) everyone is CYA.
I became racist as fuck living there, so I moved. it was pretty ucky being a visible minority, esp since I got too old to wap people and run like heck. now I am back in the land of white privilege, and I like it!
NO_FOOL, your grammar is racist-BANNED!
Sorry, Mod’s rules…
I guess an avatar of Anne Frank doing blackface is out of the question, then?
well what about the whole no-fool schtick Mod? we all know she is not a huge, ill educated black woman. I think she’s a skinny, white lawyer or law student.
so why wouldn’t her parody of black women be offensive? the avatar, the speech patterns.
oh wait, you’re not thinking its real are you? oh, say it ain’t so. you let that stuff go because you think black women really are that trashy??? this is your idea of tolerance?
(and for the record I don’t think her schtick should be banned, but neither should meaty’s annual Christmas parody of the z/p fuss that erupted in nova scotia)
I have always found it fun, that when you ask people where they’re from they’ll say Ontario or England, New Brunswick etc etc etc…..but when you ask a Nova Scotian who was born in Cape Breton where they’re from, we always say Cape Breton.
Time to rebuild the CBLA bye, down wit da causeway
~;p
POSTSCRIPT:
“WHATEVER THAT MEANS:” THE PROBLEM OF DENOTATION (Montrealman, 12/04, 9:09AM)
In my previous post I distinguished two principal philosophical ways in which meaning is understood. This might have appeared as irrelevant to many but it is not. I gave the example of the “correspondence theory” in which there existed a relation of correspondence between the word “tree” and the mind-independent reality of an external object possessing leaves and branches. The point is that the tree is a “percept,” something one observes. There is no disagreement as to what constitutes a tree because we can all observe it.
However, my example of the “coherence theory” of meaning is not based on a percept – something one observes – but rather a concept, that which bestows meaning on percepts, that which one observes. I gave the example of a “Canadian.” How is a Canadian to be identified as being a “Canadian”? He can not be identified on the basis of percepts but only of concepts, on the basis of the concept “Canadian.” But the question then arises, where does the concept come from?
What does, and what does not, constitute a Canadian is a cultural concept. It is part of our conceptual baggage, that by which we make sense of the world. A Canadian is a “Canadian” by virtue of the concept of “Canadian” cohering with a range of sub-concepts jointly constitutive of “Canadianness.” By extension, our concept of “people of colour” is a product of the coherence those concepts jointly constitutive of what we mean when we speak of “people of colour.” It is not a percept but a cultural concept.
The difficulty with cultural concepts in particular and the coherence theory of meaning in general is that of the difficulty is distinguishing truth from falsehood. Since the coherence theory is grounded on concepts, that by which we make sense of the world, to say that another’s concepts are simply false is to state an argument rather than stating a fact as with the perception of the tree. Put differently, racism where it exists – real racism – is extremely difficult to eliminate since it has become part of the cultural baggage which, for the racist, makes snse of the world.
So, philosophy may be no solution to the problem of racism but it does throw some light on its nature. In other words, we know what it means, and that’s a start.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
Too many words… banned!
OF PERCEPTS & CONCEPTS
RSVP
: Mr Muzzled (12/05, 6:35PM)
An interesting comment, but not for the reason you think. In addition to the fact that you should have added “for me” to the comment – there were “too many words” for you but not too many words as such – the comment is incoherent. How many feet should a tree be? To say that there were “too many words” is like saying, incoherently, that a tree is “too many feet” high. But the interesting part is that it mirrors my analysis of racism – not substantively but structurally.
The number of words would be categorized as a percept, that which one actually sees on the page but the meaning of the words, the concept which gives them coherence, lies at another, higher level. So in maintaining then that there were “too many words,” in other words, you have reduced the concept to the percept with the result that your comment is a conceptual “flatliner.” It is without coherent content.
In the same way, the racist reduces the human being to the colour of his skin. The colour of his skin, not the quality of his mind, is the determining factor by which he is to be assessed. He has reduced the concept to the percept and so that is equally a conceptual flatliner.
I realize that you are not a racist but the structure of your comment and that of the racist made it, at least for me, an interesting comment.
Avatar #97: “Newsweek” magazine, June 5, 1944.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
Misunderstanding sarcasm – doubled-banned!
CAN ONE BE SARCASTIC ABOUT SARCASM?
RSVP
: Mr. Muzzled (1:27PM)
An “interesting” comment, but not for the reason you think. My previous point was simply theoretical, comparing the structure of your comment with that of a racist, i.e., reducing the concept to the percept. Whether your comment was sarcastic or not was irrelevant to my investigation.
However, In the present case your comment is “interesting” in that it demonstrates the difficulty of conveying tone in one’s comment on Internet communication. Am I, for instance, being sarcastic now? Is my comment tongue-in-cheek? Do my quotation marks indicate sarcasm or are they merely a ruse designed to throw you off the scent? Can you tell? How can you tell? Write back soon.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
Wow, no idea it was such an offence. I often ask as I have lived in different parts of the world and love to continue practicing my languages. Had no idea I was being a mean white person.
Yikes
it’s a fairly innocuous question, i tell them where i was born and if they want more info, have at it
Great to see you hanging around here these days, bread lady! <3
thanks pk, you guys crack me up, i need that
OB. I’d like to asked you where you’re from. Then ask you to go the fuck back there!