Melvindale Students Forced to Act as Slaves in Honor of Black History

[antongast]

Now, are terms like "good ole Michissippi" racist? Perhaps.

Drawing a comparison between one US state and another US state is racist? I'm not sure I follow your reasoning there.

[bartock]

Drawing a comparison between one US state and another US state is racist? I'm not sure I follow your reasoning there.

Well, it was a bit cheeky, which is why I said "perhaps." However, with the geographics, it is like saying "Hazeltucky," or what have you. Detroit has been compared to Mogadishu, and I would think that comparison would be racist in nature. It ultimately isn't really about comparing one place versus another. It is comparing negative stereotypes of the people of one place versus another, under the geographic guise.

[De'troiter]

Well, it was a bit cheeky, which is why I said "perhaps." However, with the geographics, it is like saying "Hazeltucky," or what have you. Detroit has been compared to Mogadishu, and I would think that comparison would be racist in nature. It ultimately isn't really about comparing one place versus another. It is comparing negative stereotypes of the people of one place versus another, under the geographic guise.

The "Michissippi" comment was sarcasm hence the , following the comment.

[antongast]

Well, it was a bit cheeky, which is why I said "perhaps." However, with the geographics, it is like saying "Hazeltucky," or what have you. Detroit has been compared to Mogadishu, and I would think that comparison would be racist in nature. It ultimately isn't really about comparing one place versus another. It is comparing negative stereotypes of the people of one place versus another, under the geographic guise.

Comparing Detroit to Mogadishu is absolutely racist, because the implication is that black people turn cities into lawless war zones.

"Hazeltucky" is basically a case of middle-class white people from the northern US stigmatizing working-class white people from the southern US, which is certainly classist, but it's pretty hard to argue that it's racist.

Michissippi, as far as I can tell, is an accusation that Michigan's political culture is just as regressive and insular as that of Mississippi, whose regressive and insular political culture is much more well-known. It can certainly be somewhat derogatory and offensive, especially if it's being said by a New Yorker or Californian or something, but I don't really see any racial element there at all. Nobody is arguing that Michigan and Mississippi are insular and regressive because of their racial makeup, and if they were it would be an idiotic comparison because the two states have wildly different racial demographics.

[bartock]

Comparing Detroit to Mogadishu is absolutely racist, because the implication is that black people turn cities into lawless war zones.

"Hazeltucky" is basically a case of middle-class white people from the northern US stigmatizing working-class white people from the southern US, which is certainly classist, but it's pretty hard to argue that it's racist.

Michissippi, as far as I can tell, is an accusation that Michigan's political culture is just as regressive and insular as that of Mississippi, whose regressive and insular political culture is much more well-known. It can certainly be somewhat derogatory and offensive, especially if it's being said by a New Yorker or Californian or something, but I don't really see any racial element there at all. Nobody is arguing that Michigan and Mississippi are insular and regressive because of their racial makeup, and if they were it would be an idiotic comparison because the two states have wildly different racial demographics.

One can't ignore the admitted subjectiveness of any of those statements and attempt to draw hard conclusions...it really depends on the rationale behind the person making the statement. The Hazeltucky thing has been used as you've suggested. It has also been used in purely negative connotations. Same with Taylor-tucky and all of the downriver jokes...there are many implications of "white trash", which is just as racially tinged [[TO SOME) as a word like "ghetto" is to others. You talk about the Mogadishu comparison, I would suggest that most references to Hazel-tucky and Taylor-tucky are less about geographics and more about attempts to portray folks living in those places as Deliverance-types.

So, appreciating your interpretation of what others have said, without being in the mind of the person who made the statement, you can't say one way or the other. Looking at the context, I'm inclined to believe it is a little of "Column A" and "Column B".

[antongast]

One can't ignore the admitted subjectiveness of any of those statements and attempt to draw hard conclusions...it really depends on the rationale behind the person making the statement. The Hazeltucky thing has been used as you've suggested. It has also been used in purely negative connotations. Same with Taylor-tucky and all of the downriver jokes...there are many implications of "white trash", which is just as racially tinged [[TO SOME) as a word like "ghetto" is to others. You talk about the Mogadishu comparison, I would suggest that most references to Hazel-tucky and Taylor-tucky are less about geographics and more about attempts to portray folks living in those places as Deliverance-types.

So, appreciating your interpretation of what others have said, without being in the mind of the person who made the statement, you can't say one way or the other. Looking at the context, I'm inclined to believe it is a little of "Column A" and "Column B".

But "Deliverance-types" and "white trash" aren't racist tropes [[regardless of what SOME may think about it; there are lots of people who are wrong about lots of things all the time). They're one group of white people looking down on another group of white people. It's wrong and unfair and prejudiced, but "racist" is the wrong word for it.

[bartock]

But "Deliverance-types" and "white trash" aren't racist tropes [[regardless of what SOME may think about it; there are lots of people who are wrong about lots of things all the time). They're one group of white people looking down on another group of white people. It's wrong and unfair and prejudiced, but "racist" is the wrong word for it.

Really? Kind of depends on who is saying or suggesting it, doesn't it? I've heard this same argument as it relates to the "N" word.

[fryar]

I'm sure glad my hyperbolic comparisons of Detroit to famously war-torn cities have mostly involved Sarajevo, circa 1994.