Anyone have fun experiences with airport security and accessories ?

[Laurent]

Had my own experience not occurred, I would have assumed that Lucky was simply making up a story. Interestingly, about three weeks after my experience, a friend mailed me an article about a man who was asked to drop his slacks, did so, and was arrested for indecent exposure, since he had no underwear. That airport, also a Midwestern one, is about seven hundred miles from the one that challenged me.

[+ Lucky]

RE: Anyone have fun experiences?

 

"I would have assumed that Lucky was simply making up a story."

 

Gee thanks.:-(

[Laurent]

I did not think of you as a "wet dishrag." I do think, perhaps erroneously, that you made an unjustified assumption. If I had wanted to suggest racial overtones, I would have used "shuckin an jivin" instead of "shucking and jiving." Both security guards actually pronounced their g's on the words. "Casually sauntered" proably was a poor choice of words, not because of stereotypical suggestions but because it does not properly convey the extreme slowness with which those two moved. My arthritic 92-year-old mother would have covered that distance in one-fourth the time.

 

If someone injected me with truth serum, I might acknowledge a stronger reaction to your accusation resulted from a bit of lingering resentment from being accused of racism last year. Two students plagiarized. Yes, both were African-American, two of four African-Americans in my classes last year. I teach, usually only graduate students, in a university, which is striving valiantly to increae the number of black students and staff. I haven't kept track of how many students I've caught plagiarizing, let alone their ethnicity. Since so few blacks enroll in technical areas in my school, they make up a minute percentage of those I teach. Obviously, white males would make up a large majority of those I've caught plagiarizing; percentages, however, may be different, since so few students are anything other than caucasian or Asian.

 

I photocopied the articles from which they had copied, highlighted the copied passages in the articles and in their papers, notified the appropriage deans, and returned their papers. Most students, black and white, were appalled at their protest and said such things as, "Man, haven't you ever heard? That man checks every detail in everybody's paper.' They exaggerate. I could not do that even if I wanted to, but plagiarism offends me deeply; assuming that I'm too stupid to recognize it offends me, and if I suspect if, I become obsessive about finding it. My obsessiveness, however, is color blind. Have students sometimes got away with plagiarism? Yes, probably some have. Will that knowledge curb my obsession? No.

 

Or, perhaps I was still in a snit because I've lusted over Steven Draker for several years. He finally came to my city, but I had a horrible cold and had to miss seeing him. Continue to battle, Packy, but remember that no one has either the time or the energy or the resoures to wage war against every foe and choose battles that truly matter.

 

Finally, I promise not to write another dissertation on this board, and the rebel (and the hypocrit) in me is going to defy academia by not proofreading what I have just written.

[Laurent]

RE: Anyone have fun experiences?

 

Obviously, I owe you an apology. Actually, I've enjoyed many of your posts. Please continue to make them, and I promise not to jump to conclusions about any more of them.

[+ Lucky]

RE: Anyone have fun experiences?

 

Gee, thanks!

[PacNW]

>I hear ya Pac. But I am so tired of hearing the constant

>banter of political correctness from liberal white boys (I

>live in SF) about everything .... everyday.

 

You do realize how much of a luxury it is to say you're "tired" of talking/thinking about racism (or other isms) and have the expectation that other white guys are going to respect that and discontinue the conversation? Millions of Americans don't get a choice about dealing with those issues every day ... all the time. Consider yourself lucky.

 

Or Lucky's 87-year-old mother, if you're into that.

[PacNW]

I'm glad you brought the music bit up. It raises a lot of interesting questions, like: What has white society done over the last few centuries to create such a wellspring of anger that makes blacks want to express themselves with this kind of negative and hateful music? What kind of examples of stereotyping by whites have black artists picked up on and mimicked to such effect? How deep and how broad is the anger in the black community such that this music, judged by its popularity, strikes an obvious chord? What can we do to change society so that there isn't a desire to express this kind of venom among the underprivileged?

 

As far as Bill Cosby goes: Why will the corporate-dominated media jump on the bandwagon of a fabulously wealthy black actor who reinforces their established talking points, all the while ignoring other voices that might suggest more radical society-wide solutions to attack root causes rather than shallow attacks on distracting symptoms?

 

I wouldn't have guessed that zip and joel would have been interested in these questions, but I retain the ability to be amazed. Thanks, guys, for bringing this up.

[PacNW]

I encourage the writing of occasional dissertations on these boards. They're often more edifying than a lot of the reading on here. But if academia is your life, I quite understand a desire to get away from them.

[joel304]

Did you watch the entire speech and dialogue with the NAACP on PBS??? I did. Bill Cosby addressed crime, violence, dropout rate, blame whitey, no dad in the house, rude behavior in public, no respect, anti women music as attitudes that he sees as penetrating his community.

 

The "music" that you referred to is vulgar, but not directed at whitey. This music is directed at violence, anti-women, anti-police, thug bullshit. It, in my opinion, is the worst contribution to music or community that black people have made to date. To attribute this to "white oppression" is ridiculous. The kids, and ridiculous men that rap this shit could not tell you anything about slavery, its history, or the history of the people that fought against it.

[joel304]

Liberal white responses to the problem have left a community full of violence, murder, jail and single moms. Where were you for the Chinese??? They overcame segregation without even speaking the language, and probably own the building you live in.

 

Perhaps more hard truths from Bill Cosby and other successful black men and women would be helpful. Doting on oppression and injustice has created a problem of catastrophic significance.

[PacNW]

I didn't see Cosby's speech so I'd be interested to know if he had any suggestions for how to fix things, or if it was just the petulant chastisement that echoes most white commentators "Shame, shame they shouldn't do that."

 

You successfully avoided the thrust of all my questions. WHY do they want to make this music? They don't need to know any history to be pissed off about a society that gives them a second class education, limits their options for careers and advancement in those careers, shows them few role models except extremely pampered athletes and entertainers, is happy to let them anonymously fry their brains with drugs and the attendant violence of a drug culture (as long as that violence doesn't spill beyond the boundaries into white people's lives like with a black rape suspect shooting a white judge and holding a pious white woman hostage for 13 hours ... then everybody in the country knows his name and what a threat he is thanks to 24-hour-a-day "news" coverage), all topped off by a justice system that can make a black man a suspect simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. With all that, why shouldn't they be angry? And why should it come as any surprise that in one of the few avenues available to express themselves they end up expressing that anger in a blatantly ugly anti-social manner?

[joel304]

Poor white people are right there with them.

 

Cosby suggested that black parents assume their role, and serve as examples to their children, rather than dress and act the same way. He went further to encourage the black community to stop throwing around the word "####" like a basketball.

 

As far as anger ... i'd be angry too. But, when you act and dress the part of a "gansta," then you better expect the reactions that the police give. Black and white cops treat cars full of thugs with the same apprehension. Just like I don't pet pit bulls, but might approach a poodle.

[PacNW]

The Chinese entered the American racial mix long after the blacks and in much smaller numbers. The relatively short time period before the beginnings of societal enlightenment in the later 20th century, although an intensely violent one for Chinese, prevented the sort of institutionalized oppression that whites had had centuries to perfect over blacks. Also, their presence was limited to a relatively few but populous urban enclaves, primarily in booming cities in the West which could accommodate, and often needed, the manpower they represented. When allowed to immigrate, Chinese could arrive to a well-organized society within a society that ably mixed with that larger society once their ghettoization lessened a few decades back. It's not a particularly comparable situation to African Americans.

 

As a side note: What exact response are you trying to elicit with a statement like the "Chinese ... probably own the building you live in"? Am I supposed to resent it if one does?

[Funseeker 22]

Hey Guys !!!,

Talk about a thread going wild.

Can you please move your past biggoted racial problems to another thread and bring back the original topic. :-)

[joel304]

"Chinese ... probably own the building you live in"? Am I supposed to resent it if one does?

 

 

No. I am saying, that blacks need to do some soul searching and find out why they aren't owning their own businesses and evolving like everyone else? Why are they getting worse? The further away from slavery we get, the worse their community performs.

[joel304]

Bigoted ... Not hardly ... Realistic discussion

[Funseeker 22]

>Bigoted ... Not hardly ... Realistic discussion

 

Apologies on my "biggoted" spelling error.

Now let`s move the "realistic" discussion onto the Political Forum.

Valid points from both sides. I just hadn`t planned on History being recreated on this intentionally light thread. :-)

[joel304]

You are so innocently adorable that I want to cyber hug ya I don't do that for everybody.

[Funseeker 22]

>You are so innocently adorable that I want to cyber hug ya

> I don't do that for everybody.

 

I think I felt an innocent cyber grope ? or maybe it was just a mild eq ?

[PacNW]

>Now let`s move the "realistic" discussion onto the Political

>Forum.

>Valid points from both sides. I just hadn`t planned on History

>being recreated on this intentionally light thread. :-)

 

Currently, this thread is second in number of hits on the front page of the Deli, lagging far behind the BN/Bel Ami thread. Even on the front page of the Lounge listings, it’s surpassed only by the BB player frenzy, the wide-ranging “other interests” discussion, and the phenomenal numbers for HooBoy’s tributes. That shows a lot of return visits, and it can’t be just joel and me checking in to post the next installment. Since it’s been hijacked for quite a while now (oops, I didn’t say that) those return visits must be being made by people who are aware of the tack it’s taken and retain an interest in it here. Let it live and die on its own merits.

[JamesK840]

What a load of crap, and at the least you could title the sub-thread...

 

>...those return visits must be being

>made by people who are aware of the tack it’s taken and retain

>an interest in it here. Let it live and die on its own merits.

 

The number of hits is because the POSTED TOPIC is obviously interesting to many of us and every time the thread shows new posts we look in with the hope there are more amusing (or otherwise) encounters posted not for your bullshit, darling.

 

I've seen it taken too far, and of course the moderators have their hands full at the moment, but I do wish there was more moderation of off-topic/hijack posts sometimes. I've even been known to enjoy a good philosophical political debate, but there's no reason they can't be in appropriately titled threads in the correct forum.

[PacNW]

RE: Insert pithy title here

 

Sometimes life’s messy like that, dear heart. People are talking and suddenly inspiration hits and the discussion goes off on a tangent and soon they don’t even remember what they were originally talking about. I never set out to hijack this thread; my thoughts just started flowing in a different direction based on some of the early exchanges. As I’ve pointed out, nobody’s stopping anybody from posting amusing airport security stories as well. There are a couple existing subthreads on here you could add yours to. Or you could start another clean thread for them and I PROMISE!!!!! (cross my heart and hope to die, spit in an old mangy cat named JamesK840’s eye) I won’t contribute anything. Until after somebody else posts off-topic. x(

[PacNW]

RE: NOT a funny airport story

 

So what both Cosby, with his “suggest that black parents” and “encourage the black community”, and you, with your “blacks need to do some soul searching and find out why”, are doing is forcing responsibility for dealing with the burden of racism in America onto the black community? How is this not a matter of “blame the victim”? I know this is a pat phrase that raises untold number of hackles. However, there has been a significant change in the way rape is viewed in the last quarter century or so, in large part because of a shift in awareness of the utter inappropriateness of blaming the victim. Why is it fought so strongly when attempts are made to apply it to the far broader context of racism?

 

If there were some golden past where blacks and whites had full equality and racial harmony ruled the land, and then blacks of their own accord subordinated themselves and made their lives a misery, you might have an argument. In the real world, where we’ve never even been close to that kind of utopia, it’s just another excuse to dismiss racism as a black problem that whites don’t have to be concerned about unless they’re one of those Birkenstock-wearing liberals.

[+ deej]

RE: Insert pithy title here

 

>Sometimes life’s messy like that, dear heart.

 

And sometimes somebody needs to be spanked.