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New York, 12:17 PM
Sun Nov 15
12 posts in the last 24 hours
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09/30/09
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And you thought this photo was awkward?
09/29/09
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[guanabee.com]
09/29/09
1. Call an entire country of people racist
2. Make value judgments about their culture, unless of course we are talking about spaghetti!
3. Make associations to mob ties and gentrification.
It's rude and frankly, hypocritical. "Hey, we don't like this racist guys, so why don't we call an entire people a bunch of no-good, crime-ridden, racist idiots."
09/29/09
09/29/09
@bowel_and_the_obstructors:
09/29/09
But try to send Joey Baggodonutz of Staten Island on a blind date with a lady of color and you'll see his head explode. Followed by his mother's, and neither of them would care if the lady in question was Beyonce.
09/29/09
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09/29/09
Jealousy? Thy name is Berlusconi.
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09/29/09
Also, it's less of a prejudice against blacks because they're black, and more of a prejudice against blacks because they're poor laborers. The ancient racist stereotypes that have always existed have been dusted off and are being redeployed against them. But, make no mistake, it's the class status of the immigrants that's feeding the racist sentiment. For all of this, we've Berlusconi and his populist revolution to thank.
09/29/09
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09/29/09
Just because they have a jerk for a president doesn't mean the country (or the people whose family hails from that country, @skt.smth) is full of jerks. Let's not apply the same logic Americans bridled at under Bush.
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09/29/09
Um, no. There's a much longer history behind Italian racism, and it certainly doesn't revolve around the US. The country's physical closeness to Africa might have something to do with it - historical enemies, etc etc. Sicily was first attacked by Islamic Africans in the 7th century. And so it began.
09/29/09
09/29/09
Remember, the respective European countries have been, for the last thousand years or so, and up until very recently, almost totally homogeneous, culturally and ethnically. When you know, or have seen, very few people unlike yourself, you're far more likely to view those who are different in a suspicious light.
Remember also, the Italians aren't just prejudiced against "the Other", there's also a great deal of North/South prejudice within Italy itself. Northern Italians view Southern Italians as being "practically African". This prejudice led to a cultural ostracism that was partly responsible for the Sicilian exodus to the U.S. in the early 20th Century, that, and famine. Thus the irony in so many Sicilian Americans being such racist assholes, because back in the Motherland Sicilians are looked at by their fellow Italians as practically African.
09/29/09
To be honest, I feel like most people with strong monocultural identities will tend to be racist, xenophobic, etc. to a certain extent. I may be wrong, but Italy has always seemed like a relative monoculture to me.
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My second favorite line from Othello.
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Spanish Inquisition anyone?
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"Signora, wait for me outside," he joked