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[fluffy]

Its a good stratagy to turn the other cheek and forgive thier offences.Taking the high road is best,unless you got a gang of kung foo warriors with you,If you retaliate it will make it worse .Give it the response it deserves nothing.This is the best thing here creating awareness

I'd be more inclined to adjust my response to the severity of the offending remarks/actions. If it's just a joke in poor taste then perhaps taking a moment and looking at the floor can instill an awkward silence that speaks volumes. More blatantly racist or threatening statements can be met with simply leaving the discussion, again the nature of the departure can be tailored to just how distasteful the others' company has become. I agree that any "play along" response only gives a form of consent to the action, and should not be used at all.

[A_Britishcolumbian]

so good to see this thread come back to life. i suspect the OP has long since abandoned it but the issue is still very relevant.
the Idle No More movement has certainly brought some horrid stereotypes and attitudes to the fore.

i was amazed at a few posters comments on a person's fluency in english, here in canada a land of so many different languages and no native languages being 'official'. that an asian is fluent in english should be no surprise, for instance both hong kong and singapore have english as an official language and their populations total about half that of canada, not to mention the over 50 other countries worldwide that have english as an official language including india which has a population of about 1.25 billion. racism against asians by europeans is especially confusing here, as this/these colonies were created as a gateway to the east.

one particular poster suggesting racism is 'just words' seems completely unaware of the ongoing genocides that plague too many areas of the earth.

i believe though that it was that same poster that brought up the interesting point that much racism is hidden, for instance a racist that expresses positive bias and thus the negative attitude is concealed.

the issue of racism has become even more difficult with our knowledge of genetics improving daily, there would seem to be primarily 3 species of man on this planet, this knowledge would seem to reinforce outmoded racist ideas. the continued hybridization of society may be a path toward and end to racism, but i doubt it. the increasingly isolated pockets of 'purebreds' will likely become targeted by the homogeneous majority.

my personal experiences with racism are not entirely odd to the contributors i believe. the majority of instances where i have been the target, the racism has been completely off base as my ethnicity has been misidentified.

the idea that racism is white towards others only is a very racist idea indeed.

i personally find some common terms to be particularly offensive, 'indian' for one, in reference to first nations or aboriginal persons. a term based on the mistake of a european that didn't know where on earth he was over 500 years ago but it still seems to be accepted today. calling indians 'east indians' whether they are from gujarat, manipur or anywhere in between.

education, tolerance and acceptance are certainly keys to working toward and end of racism as we know it.

myself, i am a racist, but i use the term differently than most i believe. i think we should embrace our own ethnicities and genetic heritages, and recognizing the same in others. so, racist, someone who knows their own 'race' and recognizes and respects the 'races' of others, respecting and celebrating our similarities and differences.

as far as what to do when faced with open racism, observe the bad, reward the good

[36Drew]

I disagree. I'm a big proponent of Occam's Razor.

http://www.experiment-resources.com/occams-razor.html

To me, embellishment or troll is the easiest answer. Much easier to believe than:

1) This person has met the most racist people I've ever heard of in Kelowna
2) This person has done so multiple times
3) This person is better educated than the multiple businessmen, teachers, etc... I know from Korea and Japan.
4) This person knows about Castanet forums and feels that this would be a suitable place for such a topic. I mean we are all cruel, strangers, etc.... Wouldn't friends, coworkers/classmates, family, etc... be a better place for a real discussion?

You obviously have little to no understanding, then, of Occam's Razor. You've (to paraphrase the very article you've linked to) "needlessly multiplied entities" and "'stacked' information to prove a theory" where "a simpler explanation fits the observations".

If you truly are a proponent of Occam's Razor, then you'd have to accept that the OP's event did in fact happen. Otherwise you'd need to combine your above with a fabricated (or embellished) story that requires premeditation and forethought - which is hardly the simplest answer.

[fvkasm2x]

You obviously have little to no understanding, then, of Occam's Razor. You've (to paraphrase the very article you've linked to) "needlessly multiplied entities" and "'stacked' information to prove a theory" where "a simpler explanation fits the observations".

If you truly are a proponent of Occam's Razor, then you'd have to accept that the OP's event did in fact happen. Otherwise you'd need to combine your above with a fabricated (or embellished) story that requires premeditation and forethought - which is hardly the simplest answer.

Not in the least. In order for the story to be true, a multiple of strange/uncommon things needed to have happened multiple times. And I quote:

The conspiracy line of reasoning contains too many suppositions: "If this happened, then this may have happened."

That is not even close to the simplest theory, based on the amount of data("facts") in the story.

Internet troll is far easier for me to believe. The premeditation and forethought of 1 person is much easier to believe than multiple people doing multiple things that are abnormal.

[kibbs]

My philosophy is racism is bad mkay. Most of us have been taught to be intolerant of people that are different. I can remember when making a stereotypical comment that included a whole race in front of a mentor he asked"Do you really believe that?"It made me realize that I actually did not believe what I was saying.I was repeating racist beliefs passed down to me.It was an awakening and allowed me to make friends from anywhere in the world.

[Thinktank]

My philosophy is racism is bad mkay. Most of us have been taught to be intolerant of people that are different. I can remember when making a stereotypical comment ....

Actually, none of us have been taught to be intolerant. And 100% of the times someone is accused
of being a racist, IT IS JUST WORDS, because none of us have been taught to be intolerant.

But all of us like to say negative things about another person's ethnicity. It makes us feel good.
It makes the other person feel bad. If we didn't say anything bad about another person's ethnicity we would
have to say other bad things about the person, because that's the way people are. We're jerks. But we're not racists.

As we get older, and we've heard so many comments about our ethnicity, we do the only logical thing - we start
to say bad things about other people's ethnicity - EYE FOR AN EYE. But it has nothing to do with racism because none
of us Canadians are racists. Jerks - yes. We're not like Jesus was. We're jerks.

Here are some of the things people have said:

I saw garbage on the streets in Mexico.
Israel is the most 'apartheid' country on earth.
India has slums.
African countries are corrupt.
The French are rude.
The Germans are even more rude, and arrogant.
The trains in Spain and Ukraine were dirty.
Some guys in Egypt wanted to steal my stuff.

We're going to have genocides anyway. The big rich warmongers are the ones that will see to that.
Genocides have nothing to do with people's tendency to say bad things about other ethnicities
as a way to either make themselves feel better, to make the other person feel bad.

There's nothing really wrong with saying things about other countries. it doesn't make you a racist.
It won't cause a genocide. It doesn't mean you're intolerant. everyone does it. And everyone will continue doing it.

Canada dumps it's sewage into the drinking water. See? It's fun. Israel terrorizes the Palestinains on
a daily basis. The Yanks spend more on bombs than all other countries combined.

Feel free to say anything you want about other countries. it doesn't make you a racist.



.

[fluffy]

I don't think bad behavior is a given, it's all in how we see the world, and we can adjust our own outlook simply enough. Racism, like whining and complaining in general, feeds on itself. If you can stop saying it for long enough, eventually you'll stop thinking it, but every time you let it slip past your lips you have to start over.

[Thinktank]

Japan killed millions of Chinese.
Japanese think they're superior to Koreans.
N Korea hates S Korea.
Chinese killed Tibetans.
Russians killed Polish.
Germans killed Polish.
Polish even invaded Ukraine at one time.
the British exploited India.
Portugal used slaves in Brazil.
India hates Pakistan.
Pakistan tests nuclear bombs because of India.
Hutus killed Tutsis.
Ethiopians killed Eritreans.
Iraqis killed Kurds.
Americans killed Iraqis.
Arabs liked slavery too.
The rich in El Salvador killed the poor.
Syria kills it's own people.
My neighbour argued with his neighbour over where the fence should be.
A farmworker got in a serious fight with the farmer over money.
Every country kills their neighbour eventually.

bad behaviour is a given.



.

[fluffy]

...bad behaviour is a given.

Only for those who see it that way.

[juz516]

But it has nothing to do with racism because none
of us Canadians are racists. Jerks - yes. We're not like Jesus was. We're jerks.

Seriously? lolol

[Thinktank]

show me one incident of genocide or slavery in canada.

I've never seen any racist intolerance in all my life in Canada.
I've heard hurtful comments thousands of times, but that's not racism.

it's just words.

[Fancy]

show me one incident of genocide or slavery in canada.

I've never seen any racist intolerance in all my life in Canada.
I've heard hurtful comments thousands of times, but that's not racism.

it's just words.

Just because you haven't seen racism personally doesn't mean it doesn't exist. What do you think hate crime laws were put into place?

[juz516]

show me one incident of genocide or slavery in canada.

I've never seen any racist intolerance in all my life in Canada.
I've heard hurtful comments thousands of times, but that's not racism

1. Racism is not simply genocide or slavery
2. If you have never seen any racist intolerance in Canada you are either very naive in your perception of racism or live in a bubble
3. Words are the biggest form of racism....racial slurs, racial comments, etc.

[Thinktank]

What do you think hate crime laws were put into place?

I know of one incident. When USA warmongers were planning the biggest 'hate crime'
in decades, Sunera Thobani spoke at UBC - saying basically war is a bad idea. That's when
she was accused of hate crimes. Amazingly.

Maybe hate crime laws were put in place to shut people up.

Sunera Thobani is a women's studies professor at UBC and a past president of NAC, a national Canadian women's organization. She gave a speech (Sunera Thobani's Speech) at a conference on Oct.1, 2001 criticizing US foreign policy and calling for peace. She also stated, twice, that we must all "love thy neighbor". Since then she has been vilified in the Canadian media, a guard had to be placed outside her classroom to protect her students from the press, and to keep the press from entering her classroom, and she has even been investigated by the RCMP for a possible hate crime.
http://everything2.com/user/starchyk/wr ... ra+Thobani

[Thinktank]

3. Words are the biggest form of racism....racial slurs, racial comments, etc.

then 100% of us are racists. So it's no big deal.