Miss America is of Indian descent-Twitter erupts in racism

know1

To me, racism is so incredibly, amazingly stupid, moronic and ignorant that it almost shocks me that more than about 2% of the population could be racist.

And I'm not easily shocked. I guess there are far more idiots out there than I thought.

Pingfah

know1 wrote:

And I'm not easily shocked. I guess there are far more idiots out there than I thought.

Well, 50% of Americans are below average intelligence!

Jason P

She only won $50K?

I think the allure of this contest expired after TV expanded past four channels.

Dirtie_Frank

I know this is far fetched, but with these so called "news" channel, I wonder how many of these posts were fabricated to drum up a story. I know there is bigotry and racism from every different American, but it makes selling a story so much easier.

Pingfah

Christ, is there anything people won't attempt to spin into a conspiracy? There's absolutely no need for them make up racist tweets, you're deluded if you think there wouldn't be plenty of fodder for them to choose from. All the assholes come out on Twitter.

Thirty Bills Unpaid

Pingfah wrote:

know1 wrote:

And I'm not easily shocked. I guess there are far more idiots out there than I thought.

Well, 50% of Americans are below average intelligence!

Here's the frightening thing: average intelligence is still really, really stupid.

qontheboard

Here's my favorite from that list of tweets. Jessica Ayers (with her picture proudly displayed) says " I swear I'm not racist but this is America." It seems to me I've seen this as an opening statement for many a post on the Train.

q

polaris_x

i'll refrain from the obvious ...

she is hot tho ... what's kind of crazy is that i'm guessing if she won american idol or something like that - no one would care ... but there seems to be some kind of patriotic association with miss america that brings out the ignorant ...

Pingfah

It's a solid rule of thumb that anybody who starts a sentence with "I'm not racist but" is racist.

And yes Thirty Bills, I agree!

Jason P

I'm not racist, but she is hot.

hedonist

Jason P wrote:

I'm not racist, but she is hot.

:thumbup:

And going back to your earlier post...this was an EVENT when I was a kid! And the whole "here she comes" spectacle at the end - winner crying, tiara askew, runner-up trying to look happy.

Now I don't even know what the point is of these things.

grooveme

It is embarrassing and sad. I am a second generation American of Indian heritage, and I am still amazed by the number of people who ask me "where are you from" and are unsatisfied when I say Fort Worth. When they add "I mean where are you originally from" I tell them Chicago, where I was born. I've only had a few keep going after that, tripping over themselves to figure out how to ask me what is my heritage is or where my parents are from, or so on. Maybe it's not nice to mess with them, but their assumption that I am from somewhere else is also not nice. I also have had people compliment me on how well I speak English (the fact that I have no accent other than maybe a bit of a Texas twang doesn't seem to register with them).

There are a huge number of people in this country who don't think that they are racist, but still think that anyone not white or black must be from somewhere else or are somehow not "real" Americans. The election of Barack Obama seems to have really brought them out into the open. Then there are the idiots who call an Indian Hindu an Arab or Muslim. I guess bigotry is associated with low intelligence after all.

None of it changes the fact that I think these pageants are pretty stupid and demeaning to women in general.

Pingfah

Hah, that's so true. I watched my friend embarrassing himself on the plane home from Canada once talking to a girl, who later told me her parents had emigrated to Canada from South Korea before she was born.

"So, where are you from?"

"Canada"

"Yeah, but where are you from?"

"CANADA!!"

PJ_Soul

It 's just a stupid question. These people wouldn't even have accents. Why not just ask them what their ethnic heritage is if they are curious about that? :fp: Mine's British.

grooveme

Pingfah wrote:

Hah, that's so true. I watched my friend embarrassing himself on the plane home from Canada once talking to a girl, who later told me her parents had emigrated to Canada from South Korea before she was born.

"So, where are you from?"

"Canada"

"Yeah, but where are you from?"

"CANADA!!"

Yep, I've been on the receiving end of that more than once. The funniest was when I was in Australia as an exchange student as a teenager, and someone asked me "Do they teach English in India with an American accent?" I kid you not

PJ_Soul

grooveme wrote:

Pingfah wrote:

Hah, that's so true. I watched my friend embarrassing himself on the plane home from Canada once talking to a girl, who later told me her parents had emigrated to Canada from South Korea before she was born.

"So, where are you from?"

"Canada"

"Yeah, but where are you from?"

"CANADA!!"

Yep, I've been on the receiving end of that more than once. The funniest was when I was in Australia as an exchange student as a teenager, and someone asked me "Do they teach English in India with an American accent?" I kid you not

Well maybe not the dumbest question. They do do that at "American Schools" in Thailand. A good friend of mine who was born in Fiji and grew up in Thailand (with an Indian Muslim heritage) was sent to "American School" by his diplomatic parents and he didn't have even a slight touch of an accent. He just sounded American even though he'd never set foot in North America.

grooveme

PJ_Soul wrote:

grooveme wrote:

Pingfah wrote:

Hah, that's so true. I watched my friend embarrassing himself on the plane home from Canada once talking to a girl, who later told me her parents had emigrated to Canada from South Korea before she was born.

"So, where are you from?"

"Canada"

"Yeah, but where are you from?"

"CANADA!!"

Yep, I've been on the receiving end of that more than once. The funniest was when I was in Australia as an exchange student as a teenager, and someone asked me "Do they teach English in India with an American accent?" I kid you not

Well maybe not the dumbest question. They do do that at "American Schools" in Thailand. A good friend of mine who was born in Fiji and grew up in Thailand (with an Indian Muslim heritage) was sent to "American School" by his diplomatic parents and he didn't have even a slight touch of an accent. He just sounded American even though he'd never set foot in North America.

Now that is interesting!

F Me In The Brain

PJ_Soul wrote:

It 's just a stupid question. These people wouldn't even have accents. Why not just ask them what their ethnic heritage is if they are curious about that? :fp: Mine's British.

Given the melting pot that America (and many places) are these days that can be a loooong answer!
Mine is relatively easy: 1/2 Italian, 1/4 Irish, 1/4 Puerto Rican.
My wife? Goog god, she has no idea of the amounts but the list is like 12 things. Kind of comical but I think it is cool. I only have one relative on the "grand" level who didn't get off a boat here, and that was my maternal grand-father whose parents came off a boat from Ireland. The other three 'grands' all came to America when they were kids.

I look white (like sunburn at the drop of a hat white) physically and here in the northeast it seems WASP-types like to rip on Puerto Ricans. I enjoy telling in-law family members (some for the 3rd or 4th time :fp: ) that I am PR so they can feel extremely uncomfortable after they had just made some bigoted joke about PRs in front of me.

In America the large percentage of us are mutts. We would be better off if we just learned to accept 'American' as a term to mean that you are a citizen of America.

Kat

And if aliens from outer space attack, we'll all be from planet Earth.
If they don't attack, we'll still be from planet Earth.

F Me In The Brain

Kat wrote:

And if aliens from outer space attack, we'll all be from planet Earth.
If they don't attack, we'll still be from planet Earth.

I like that.
(Still hoping they dont attack! If so Randy Quaid is not able to save us like he did in the movie...I think he is still hiding in Canada.)