hypochondriac

Is this considered racist? Bearing in mind I don't think the joke would really work without the darker skin because it would be extremely difficult to see who it was.

So your view is that the character of apu is racist? I suppose the counter argument to that would be that the Simpsons is a show full of stereotypes and many individuals of Indian origin have praised that character and got rather heated at the suggestion that a character they love is a racist representation. For my part, I don't like to throw around words like racist unless there is some sort of harmful intent behind it which brings us nicely back to this darkening of the skin thing. Thank you for expressing your opinion by the way. I don't really agree with what you've said but I like to hear opposing views. I tend to favour a libertarian outlook where people are free to dress however they like just as long as they can accept the criticism that comes with it. I'm still not sure I understand how blackening your face to pay tribute to a favourite sports star or person you admire is actually being harmful to anyone. I doubt most of the people complaining about that are either black themselves or were old enough to remember minstrel shows. I do however think more of a case could be made against blackening your skin due to the history of it but my personal view is that dismissing every incident of that type of thing as irredeemably racist is a step too far.

That's what I was asking you. I don't think we've managed to define where the line of acceptability is yet. So any sort of darkening of the skin for a costume is an unacceptable line to cross yes? Is that the case for every ethnicity? Could an Asian person darken their skin to dress as a black figure they admired? Or could a white man change the colour of his skin to go as atilla the hun? Or is the very act of changing your skin colour unacceptable? I see there was a documentary on apu from the Simpsons and how a white man playing him is perpetuating harmful ethnic stereotypes. What are your thoughts on that?

My sisters boyfriend is an ex professional footballer- played against saints the lucky b*stard- and I found his insights really interesting. According to him, the best coaches and managers are the ones who can have a laugh and a joke, let everyone go out and have a drink but who you know that if you go too far will crucify you. Apparently him and some of his team mates got involved in a fight in a club in the early hours. The manager came out strongly and condemned them whilst behind closed doors his only concern was that they were stupid enough to do it in public and he wanted to make sure that they all backed each other up. He reckons the authoritarian managers and coaches had little chance of success because the players wouldn't play for them. Would be interesting to know Black's style in this regard.

Extenders are rubbish. Get the tp link powerline one, they work perfectly.

Have you considered using a powerline kit? I use a tplink one from maplins and it's fantastic.

You should never assume someone's gender. Even if you look white you could identify as a different race anyway so you just never know.

Well yes- although clearly dressing up as a nazi is entirely different from dressing up as your favourite basketball player. The issue is where you draw the line and decide which symbols are unacceptable. Is it OK for someone who isn't Asian to dress up as Jackie Chan for example or is it just darkening your skin colour that's the issue due to the history of minstrel shows? I mean there are articles online saying that no one is allowed to dress up on Halloween as someone that isn't from their ethnic background due to "cultural appropriation" which I think is absolutely insane.

I think context is key here. I mean I could certainly imagine situations where it would be acceptable for anyone to say the N word. I think dressing up in blackface is a silly thing to do but I do think there's a difference between a minstrel show and someone blacking up in order to dress as their favourite sports star for example. I read an article last year about a little boy who had blacked up his face to go as his favourite Australian football player. I know that's not the same, but it just highlights the fact that this issue isn't entirely black and white- excuse the pun.

Oh god exactly what this conversation needed - a moralising sermon from Verbal. Didn't your partner get all annoyed because you were spending all of your time on here?

I agree with much of that 1977- good post. One thing I will say is that I believe both trump and brexit are largely consequences of a certain type of people ignoring legitimate concerns of those in society with less opportunity to the point that they felt they had to make their voices heard in the manner that they did. I don't have as much of a fear of right wing extremists as you do because I don't believe that the majority of people voting these type of people into power are actually racists or extremists themselves - rather they are the only ones articulating the frustration that the unheard are actually feeling. The EU exacerbates the situation because they don't actually want to listen to the people they supposedly rule over. What moderate political parties from all nations need to do is to listen to their population and find fair solutions or at least begin the conversations about how to tackle mass migration, radical Islam and giving the lowest in society a voice and you will see these extremist so called populist parties disappear. My worry though is that the EU's answer to this disquiet and anger is to push for greater integration and to remove the power of nation states- I think if they carry on with that you will see more extremism within Europe as a response and I don't think that what anyone really wants but people will go to them if they are the only ones willing to address their concerns without calling them racist, sexist or xenophobic etc etc.

Put it this way. Presuming we don't have some sort of injury crisis, I doubt very much that keeping vvd for another six months will be the difference between relegation or survival. I think a much bigger bearing on that outcome will be what attacking players we get in and if selling vvd will allow us to bring in a better calibre of attacking player- as I believe it would do- then for me it is well worth selling him.

It's a cost benefit analysis. We won't be making any significant signings in my opinion as we aren't flush with cash so I'd rather we sold vvd which would enable us to strengthen. We have a fair amount of depth at cb compared to other positions and I'd rather play the likes of Stephens as he seemed good last season.

That's a laughable opinion regarding soggy. It's easy to see how he has followed me around the forum for years, mentioning me in posts when I haven't spoken about him at all. Clearly it's something he gets off on but this is going off topic. We have an adequate defence without vvd, certainly more than enough to keep us up. If selling him allows us to bring in some more attacking quality that we clearly lack then I'd be more than happy to do so, particularly because he will be leaving in the summer anyway.

I still don't understand why a "white person" or any other ethnicity should have their actions dictated by what others did before they were born who they just happened to share a skin colour with. I'm not responsible for anything they did in the same way that Germans born now have zero responsibility for atrocities their ancestors may have been involved with. Identity politics is cancer.

Hmm I'm not sure about that logic. If you look at some of the universities nowadays then there is an ever growing list of things that offend people. I wouldn't for a moment think about pandering to people like that but he must have known the reaction he was going to get so he must of felt it was worth the hassle and silly screeching from the easily offended.

I'm now in the weird situation of having to agree with always- it makes a change when he actually discusses the team rather than bashing people for having a different opinion. Vvd came back from a serious injury and I haven't seen anything from him on the pitch that suggests he isn't really bothering. Like all players they have good abd bad patches of form. I expect the team being weaker than when he was last in it has been a bit demoralising bit as far as on pitch performance I think he's been professional. I'd still sell him in January and use the money to reinforce other areas where we clearly need some extra help.

It's terrible. You have bbc reporters having to hire bodyguards to attend a conference, hitlists being drawn up against mps because they have slightly differing opinions in some areas and then the inflammatory stuff on front of all the papers about traitors and the like. It's deeply unedifying and of we aren't careful we will end up like America with no chance of any sort of moderate centre.

Let's be clear- lunatics from both the hard left and the hard right have been guilty of making disgusting threats against mps. It's one giant negative of brexit that anyone has felt it necessary to hurl vile slurs at one side or the other simply because of what they think is best for the country. Fair enough being critical if you're actually trying to be underhanded but it's absolutely not on getting personal with mps because they have a different opinion about hpw the country should be run. All sides need to learn that very simple message.

I'd say West brom were undoubtedly worse than us and seemingly Swansea are too. I'd back us to finish above Newcastle at the moment too so that's at least three below us.

Probably not. I expect if I cared enough to actually look at this outrage the majority of people moaning would be white.

I think regardless of the rights and wrongs of dressing up like that- personally I think it's fine- he must have known what the social media response was going to be and so it's entirely his own fault if he is now getting a backlash. You have to pick your battles with this type of manufactured outrage and I really don't think dressing up as a black man is the hill you should be choosing to die on.

Indeed. You and others like you are the worst culprits.

It would require us losing our next two. Even then it's still an overreaction to say we are going to get relegated. We aren't in the same situation as Swansea for example. I think we won't be far off the relegation zone this year but we have improved performance wise over the last few weeks to make me confident that we can scrape enough points to get by. Ideally I'd like a change of manager though during that period so we have something to feel hopeful about.

Bit of an overreaction. I reckon at the moment, Huddersfield, Swansea, Newcastle and West brom are bigger contenders for the drop than us. That could change of course- the Huddersfield game will tell us a lot but that will probably be a draw. Not a time to talk about certain relegation just yet but if I were the club I'd look to make a change if we are hovering around the drop zone about Christmas.