Anyway, another Friday night (eyeglasses, pros and cons, legal)

[Xa'at]

We'll just have to find a different place. We used to do the same thing with the relationship forum, then we moved on. Metla and I once tried to mount a full scale take-over of the fashion forum, but unfortunately no one noticed.

[Metlakatla]

What the hell; I see they closed that particular thread in the racism forum, something about flame wars, wtf.

[Barkingowl]

Maybe the devil was coming out of Hell to extract vengence or something.

[Xa'at]

Originally Posted by Barkingowl

Maybe the devil was coming out of Hell to extract vengence or something.

What a singularly peculiar thing to say...

[Barkingowl]

Originally Posted by Xa'at

What a singularly peculiar thing to say...

Why thank you! I try to be singularly unique.

[Metlakatla]

Originally Posted by Xa'at

Because you are. I should have known better than to stoop down to their fourth grade reading levels and try to inject some sense...

Hope I don't get banned for trying to circumvent the stupid language filter.

Xa'at, sometimes you just have to feel sorry for people. Take the Arizona Bear character, for instance...subtract that person's stance on "illegal immigration" per se from the equation and you've still got rampant xenophobia as expressed in her/his howlings about Hispanic music and language...which is really at the root of that person's quasi-coherent spewings in the racism forum. The person simply has an unhealthy physic need for an easy target and wants everything whitewashed, because anything else takes too much effort to understand.

Try to think of it the same way you'd feel about a theoretical woman all gussied up in her finest apparel ala Wal*Mart---unsettling enough in it's own right, but then you noticed that her well used Budweiser stained slip is showing, and not just a little bit, and you feel embarrassed for the poor creature....but yet you can't help but find some humor in it.

However...what is really unsettling with no humor involved is that there really is a different feeling in some parts of the country these days. And it's insidious. This immigration issue seems to be serving as a catalyst for the hate and the fear mongers to somehow at last "be someone"....

The last time I was in Portland, I ordered a nice bottle of Pinot in a restaurant while having dinner with the young Prince. He was asked for identification by the server, who then made a joke about his "Spanish" last name. The Prince barely raised an eyebrow and then started speaking in Russian. The last name in question is Italian. I just laughed.

People can be so weird. Why would a server in a dining establishment even remark on someone's name...so dreary and even silly. But there it is. It's in the air. All the more reason for young people like yourself to continue to speak up....just don't let them get you down.

[Xa'at]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

Xa'at, sometimes you just have to feel sorry for people. Take the Arizona Bear character, for instance...subtract that person's stance on "illegal immigration" per se from the equation and you've still got rampant xenophobia as expressed in her/his howlings about Hispanic music and language...which is really at the root of that person's quasi-coherent spewings in the racism forum. The person simply has an unhealthy physic need for an easy target and wants everything whitewashed, because anything else takes too much effort to understand.

Try to think of it the same way you'd feel about a theoretical woman all gussied up in her finest apparel ala Wal*Mart---unsettling enough in it's own right, but then you noticed that her well used Budweiser stained slip is showing, and not just a little bit, and you feel embarrassed for the poor creature....but yet you can't help but find some humor in it.

However...what is really unsettling with no humor involved is that there really is a different feeling in some parts of the country these days. And it's insidious. This immigration issue seems to be serving as a catalyst for the hate and the fear mongers to somehow at last "be someone"....

The last time I was in Portland, I ordered a nice bottle of Pinot in a restaurant while having dinner with the young Prince. He was asked for identification by the server, who then made a joke about his "Spanish" last name. The Prince barely raised an eyebrow and then started speaking in Russian. The last name in question is Italian. I just laughed.

People can be so weird. Why would a server in a dining establishment even remark on someone's name...so dreary and even silly. But there it is. It's in the air. All the more reason for young people like yourself to continue to speak up....just don't let them get you down.

Oh Metla, you're right of course.
It's funny... My family came over here from Italy not all that long ago- I'm a second generation American which seems to be fairly rare. Either people have been here since the mayflower... or they don't talk about their heritage. Or so it seems to me.
So half the time I'm sort of glad I have an anglicized last name: keeps people from messing with me in the airports... and half the time I feel like I've sold out.
It's weird like that.

[Metlakatla]

It seems really strange to me that it should even be mentioned--both with my first name and with my son's last name. It doesn't offend me; I just find it a bit perplexing.

You haven't sold out; it's just a name.

[barinnas]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

It seems really strange to me that it should even be mentioned--both with my first name and with my son's last name. It doesn't offend me; I just find it a bit perplexing.

You haven't sold out; it's just a name.

I also have italian ancestry, agree that the anglization of immigrants names was a mockery and an assault to our identity,if you add the latin immigrants
from spain, ortugal, france, and italy,along with the millions of eastern europeans, latin americans,jewish and african americans, the anglo-saxons
become a small minority in our country.

[karfar]

Should I feel special? What happens if your post is reported? And why would it be reported & how can you tell it's been reported? Oh god, those babies can't take it when someone challenges their hypocrisies so instead of using words they choose to "report" our posts????? Oh booohooohoooo!!!! Immature brats. So anyway, I decided to take a vacation from the forums this weekend, but now I'm fired back up. Oh yes, back to the topic, I myself am mostly german, very evident by my last name which translated literally means "travel head", english, irish & I once heard there was a teeny bit of jewish in there. So yep, I've got all the basic ingredients a lot of americans have, especially here in Milwaukee.