Alex, What is known as great way to identify racism.
JS Online: News:: "Custom Now, a store in the River Hills Mall, has been selling a bumper sticker that reads, 'Save a Hunter Shoot a Mung.'
Though misspelled, the slogan was seen as a reference to last month's shooting in Wisconsin. St. Paul resident Chai Soua Vang, a Hmong man, has been charged with murdering six deer hunters after a dispute over a deer stand.
Shopper Jessica Flatequal said she complained to management and was told the store sells many offensive items. 'When I asked to talk to someone about it, they said it's in reference to the hunting incident,' she said.
Flatequal said she was then asked to leave the store.
Some local Hmong residents said the bumper stickers disturbed them.
A store manager who declined to give his name said the word 'mung' in the bumper sticker was actually an acronym for 'minuscule unseen naughty gnat.'
'It's not racist,' he said."
3 comments:
I am basing the following comment on the assumption that the store manager was white. At any rate, I doubt he was Hmong.
I enjoy the fact that whites always attempt to define what is and is not racist. In fact, this should not be surprising. "Race," that is defining someone based on their perceived biological superiorities and inferiorities, has always been about power (whites defining other groups in order to maintain power and control). Defining what is and is not racist is only an extension of that power struggle in modern society.
Cold in Laramie
This makes me think of an exchange from Spinal Tap:
Marty: You play to a predominately white audience. Do you feel that your music is racist in any way?
David: No, no, of course not. You know...we say, 'Love your brother.' Well, we don't say it, really.
Nigel: We don't literally say it.
David: No.
Nigel: We don't really literally mean it.
David: But that message should be clear.
Nigel: We're anything but racists.
Why is it that people ignore racism? Chloe, I am sorry, but you are WAY off here. Let's not forget that this is the same Wisconsin that in the 1970s had bumper stickers that read: "Save a fish, spear an Indian" in "protest" to American Indian fishing rights that are guaranteed by treaty. I guess you would also consider this an attack on fishermen, since many Indians in Wisconsin fished, and not on American Indians.
America needs to acknowledge, finally, that it is a nation built upon race and racism (race-based slavery, federal Indian policy, Japanese internment, Mexican deportation). That does not mean that all Americans are racist today, but the legacy of prejudice and ignorance linger.
-- Cold in Laramie
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