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A good example of what I would guess is a "charged" situation for this woman. Not sure if it is true out where you are, but around here, there is a good bit of bias in the Hispanic community against Mexicans. According to some of our friends, people from Costa Rica or Guatemala or so on will tend to assume that Mexicans are lower on cultural and economic scales. If the same is true where you are, then I could imagine that someone is far more likely to assume that "Mexican" is meant in a negative way - because that is what their repeated experience has been. :(
This is an agricultural area, mostly Mex. I have made a lot of amigos among them too. There is more to be said about this lady, frankly, she was ignorant and trying to make herself "big"--she bossed everyone around, Mexicans too, and was not very well liked except for the three "friends" of hers which she kept on a tight, tight, tite rope. I suspect she had "friends" only because they could bask in her power. Amongst people in general, however, this is NOT the rule for people. If society has 1% that are psychopaths, they make it appear there are more than there really is simply because they are so visible and wreck people's lives so often.
 
Just a question : If someone else does the same thing is it spam ?
( I have commented on the color of this engine with stirlingkit on facebook.)
no. i think you are new to this brand. check out what other famous Youtubers say about this brand.


 
Unfortunately, there are so many examples on both sides - examples of comments that really are racist, sometimes explicitly but also sometimes implicitly and perhaps unconsciously ... and there are examples of comments that were heard as racist when they really were not intended as such, even unconsciously. And to make life even more difficult, the line between these two can be very fuzzy. Certainly the way I first introduced the term was not intended to be racist at all ... and according to Richard, the actual manufacturer of the knives was based in USA ... but could there have been some racist overtones or motivation in the choice of the Asian-sounding brand name by this USA company? Could be ... but how can we tell?

The fact of the matter is, we are constantly bumping up against cultural and ethnic and other demographic boundaries in just about everything we say and do. It is difficult for us to escape our own history and heritage, the speech patterns and references that we learned along the way, and even harder for us to know if there might be some inherent bias at work in how those patterns and references evolved. It is all too easy to participate in biased patterns without consciously choosing to do so ... all too easy to accuse someone of being biased, and all too easy to deny any bias whatsoever.

Rather than being either accusatory or defensive, we might do better to acknowledge that we are all, always, biased in certain ways, both consciously and unconsciously - and then talk through how each of us is hearing something that is being said, vs. what we thought we were trying to say, and ponder together how we can better communicate with one another. At different times and in different contexts, some areas of bias are far more "charged" than others, due to personal history, surrounding events, and so on. Many of us have made comments that could well be perceived as age-biased, but in the context of this forum, where many of us acknowledge a certain, ahem, maturity of years, such comments are probably generally understood to be gentle teasing - often directed at oneself. In another context, though, or for another person who has experienced agism in a very negative way, these "innocent" comments may be heard as very painful. If that is true for someone, I want to know it so that I can be sensitive to how my comments are being heard.

I would say the way the dialogue unfolded here was a good example of how to handle the issue. Jasonb raised the question in a way that I perceived as straightforward inquiry. Richard and I explained the reference, and Jason acknowledged that that made sense. Now we both know more than we did before - Jason knows a bit of Americana, and I now realize that someone who does not share my history may hear this reference as racially "loaded" in ways that I certainly do not intend. A good, open dialogue to clear up misunderstanding.
This demonstrates that it's not always what you say but what people hear, it's a reflection of the experiences of each person.

I think everyone has biases and prejudices, they are derived from our personal history, whether one is racist or not just depends on what we do with them.

As far as the Ginsu Knives comment, I'm not sure but I think when they came up with the name, it was because of the quality of some imported Japanese knives at the time and wouldn't have been considered racist, more complimentary.

FWIW, because it was posted on so many threads, I too thought it was spam.
 
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This demonstrates that it's not always what you say but what people hear, it's a reflection of the experiences of each person.

I think everyone has biases and prejudices, they are derived from our personal history, whether one is racist or not just depends on what we do with them.

As far as the Ginsu Knives comment, I'm not sure but I think when they came up with the name, it was because of the quality of some imported Japanese knives at the time and wouldn't have been considered racist, more complimentary.

FWIW, because it was posted on so many threads, I too thought it was spam.
For probably 30 years I thot the Ginsu knives were actually Japanese origin. Then one day (about 30 years ago) I was watching a late nite talk show in which one of the originators was explaining the origin of the knives. He was an American, acted just like a used car salesman, and had grown rich thru his various enterprises. He laft about how he and his partner could not sell these great knives (they actualy were very good knives), and so sthey changed the name. And then proceeded to push the knives like used car salesmen. This is a true story. This was the start of their fortunes that they made, it was very successful. (My Wolf family always said, " A succesfull success fool sux from a cesspool", so I'm not too sure that this type of success is not really success.)
 
This demonstrates that it's not always what you say but what people hear, it's a reflection of the experiences of each person.

I think everyone has biases and prejudices, they are derived from our personal history, whether one is racist or not just depends on what we do with them.

As far as the Ginsu Knives comment, I'm not sure but I think when they came up with the name, it was because of the quality of some imported Japanese knives at the time and wouldn't have been considered racist, more complimentary.

FWIW, because it was posted on so many threads, I too thought it was spam.
as for a young man like me, I'm 30 years old. when I heard of Ginsu Knives, i thought of it was racism too. but after seeing everybody's explanation, i'm fine now. and sorry for sending repeat posts because I'm new here. not knowing where to post is the best way.
 

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