Day in the Life of Bob - Postman rings the Doorbell

olias

So the OP posts a (made up?) thread, berating the post office and (falsely, if it is a made up story), claiming that two postmen came to his house, threatening, intimidating and swearing at him, oh, and decides it's relevant to point out that they are black and arab. When I point out this is rather distasteful, the only thing the two people siding with the OP can come up with is to accuse me of being an idiot, leading a sheltered life, and being a member of the kuklux clan? Have I got that right? Thank you.

Olias

scheming_gypsy

that's pretty much it. If somebody can find something racist in something innocent then it's because they themselves, are racists.

George_Michael

I agree with Olias on this.

If the 2 men who came to the OP's front door were white Englishmen, does anyone honestly believe that he would have stated
"This postman was a well-built young white man and his friend was a tall white man".

Their colour and race had nothing whatsoever to do with what happened, so why the need to mention it at all?

gordikin

George_Michael wrote: »

I agree with Olias on this.

If the 2 men who came to the OP's front door were white Englishmen, does anyone honestly believe that he would have stated
"This postman was a well-built young white man and his friend was a tall white man".

Their colour and race had nothing whatsoever to do with what happened, so why the need to mention it at all?

The police will ask you for a description...why would you not mention the colour of their skin?

gordikin

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

that's pretty much it. If somebody can find something racist in something innocent then it's because they themselves, are racists.

You're so so wrong if you believe that.

George_Michael

The police will ask you for a description...why would you not mention the colour of their skin?

The police would also ask for the OP's name, address, age and many other details, none of which were put in the opening post.

Just because you would have to give a description to the police, there is no reason why it needed to be given on here.

scheming_gypsy

gordikin wrote: »

You're so so wrong if you believe that.

yeah of course.. but you always get some clown saying something innocent is racist just because you mention the colour of somebody's skin.
It's completely irrelevant to anything for them to pull them up on it with it has no racial intent.

matt9b

relic wrote: »

He edited it because of idiotic comments like yours.... as he was telling us the story it is up to him how he potrays the people in it. Simply describing someone by the colour of their skin isn't being racist, it's fact.

Have you ever dealt with real racism in your life? Or are you one of these very sheltered people who claims anyone who discusses another persons colour, or where they were born as a racist?

Relic

_scheming_gypsy wrote:

you always get some clown saying something innocent is racist just because you mention the colour of somebody's skin.
It's completely irrelevant to anything for them to pull them up on it with it has no racial intent.

I agree with scheming_gypsy and Relic on this. We are forgetting that we should only use that card where it truly exists. If I was in a country where white was a minority, then i might incorporate it as a detail in a story. If I say someone is gay, that doesn't mean I'm homophobic. I like the way bob tells his rants, he obviously puts effort into making it enjoyable to read.

Bob didn't just say "arab", he said something like "young bearded well-built arab man". There is no reason for the word 'arab' to be taken with any derogatory intent, it's included in a descriptive story and is no different to saying he had blonde or brown hair. As scheming_gypsy mentioned, olias, it could be argued that your automatic perception of the words 'arab' or 'black' as derogatory might make you appear less tolerant than someone whom it wouldn't even occur to, because the idea that it's derogatory is so far from their minds.

Another example of pulling the racist card is the guy who plays the character "Ali G", who incorporated "Is it cos' I is black?" into his character.

In the words of Evan Davis: "There's a statistical problem that arises here. It's the Ali G line: 'Is it cos I is black?' Now supposing you are black, or gay, or short, or some status that is perceived as disadvantageous. If you fix upon that status you will then make the statistical mistake of viewing the [descriptions] or random knocks that anybody has in their life and assuming they're [homophobic or racist or..] because you are black or gay."

olias

Are you seriously telling me that the OP would just as likely had told the story as:
Two postmen came to my door, they were rude, threatening and swore at me. They were both white men.
Thought not.

The fact is, the story (though why someone should make such a one up and post it as fact on a forum designed to assist people to 'praise, vent or warn' consumers about genuine issues with companies is beyond me) would work equally well without the need to refer to someones skin colour. The fact that an extremely negative story about someone behaving in a rude, offensive, thuggish and threatening manner, sees fit to point out that those behaving in that manner were an arab and a black man, rather than just 'two postmen' would indicate a degree of negativity to those of that ethnicity, and that their colour had some bearing on the way they behaved.

Olias

OlliesDad

olias wrote: »

Are you seriously telling me that the OP would just as likely had told the story as:
Two postmen came to my door, they were rude, threatening and swore at me. They were both white men.
Thought not.

The fact is, the story (though why someone should make such a one up and post it as fact on a forum designed to assist people to 'praise, vent or warn' consumers about genuine issues with companies is beyond me) would work equally well without the need to refer to someones skin colour. The fact that an extremely negative story about someone behaving in a rude, offensive, thuggish and threatening manner, sees fit to point out that those behaving in that manner were an arab and a black man, rather than just 'two postmen' would indicate a degree of negativity to those of that ethnicity, and that their colour had some bearing on the way they behaved.

Olias

By describing the people just helps to set the scene for people and get the reader more drawn into the story. For example, I have just finished reading Harry Potter to my eldest son. JK Rowling took great care to describe eah of the characters and my son, who is 5, was able to tell me all about how Ron Weasley has ginger hair despite the story not being about hair. JK Rowling didn't have anything against people with ginger hair, its just it helps people to picture the scene (obviously i am not comparing the OP to a novel, it just gets across the point of including details that are not important to the story)

I think that people have become too sensitive to others mentioning a persons ethnicity.