I might not be very offended by this display if the one next to it contained figurines depicting some redneck with his pants down in an outhouse, with a gun, with few teeth, with a bottle of corn liquor beside him, with a misspelled sign on it, fucking his daughter.

1) re: thorn. I’ve never seen a Klan rally either. Interestingly, the two Pat “saw” consisted of every Klan member in the nation according to the SPLC. I thought that would have been newsworthy or something.

2) Robert, you said that you are not personally offended by these. You said that these are offensive to black Americans because of the stereotypes. Yet, one commenter after another has testified that “Black Americana” is mostly purchased by blacks. And now you have the nerve to say that someone else is playing gatekeeper to what is offensive.

3) The assumption that racist white people would buy these is laughable. I’ve know many racists in my life, and none of them liked black people. Fittingly, none of them had any sort of black memorabilia in their house. Kinda makes sense when you think about it.

4) Padreag is apparently mixed-raced and offended by these which he/she has every right to be. The issue, though, isn’t whether they’re offensive in a vacuum (which they obviously are), but if the market is among non-racists who purchase them for historical reasons. I think the latter is clearly what’s going on here.

5) The disturbing part of this is that people act like they want this to be proof that the South is really just backwoods, racist hillbillies. Radley correctly asked the question as an outsider trying to make sense of it. Robert Porter is considerably less acquainted with the South (and America also, apparently), yet he wants to play judge and jury about what they represent and where the market for these is.

6) If these are really unacceptable in the black community in Charleston (the only people who really matter in this), then they have the power to have these removed immediately. Considering that they’re in the freakin airport, it would take one call to a city councilman for these to be gone. Barring that, I’m certain that there’s a businessmen or lawyers group in Charleston that could convince a gift shop owner to remove $50 worth of crap from their shelves.

Two thoughts…

1) Why do Klan rallys seem to spontaneously occur every time you visit the South? As someone who was born and lived in the South for 26 years, I’ve yet to see a Klan rally. Am I not on the memo list?

2) Though I’ve never seen a Klan rally, I have lived a week riots which included lootings, beatings, shootings, and of course marches in the streets and buildings on fire. However, this occured in Cincinnati, OH – not the South.

thorn

Touche, Mr. Porter. Touche. :)

However, I would not say that the South is any more “racist and ignorant” than any other region of the country; it just has a culture that is in some areas very different from that of “mainstream” America. I’m a native Midwesterner and to me the Confederate flag represents slavery and racism, and always has. So, when I went to Mount Vernon earlier this year, I was fairly appalled to see various items in the gift shops emblazoned with the flag. I was specially shocked to see it on kids’ toys (little Civil War hats, etc.). I have seen other instances of this in Virginia as well. But to a lot of white Southerners the flag is still very much a symbol of regional pride and has little if any racial overtones, and they naturally resent Yankees or “liberals” who suggest it does. Many blacks see it as being a symbol of Jim Crow and racial oppression.

I guess I am saying that to a large extent what is “offensive” depends on who you ask; it’s a very subjective term. But for me, a mixed-race Midwesterner, those figurines are definitely offensive.

Well that’s fine, don’t be. Just don’t pretend you are the gatekeeper on what is and isn’t offensive. If someone is offended by something instead of immediately rejecting their offense perhaps it would be worthwhile to investigate the reasons behind it. Claiming any offense is based on “political correctness” and “ignorance” is, in itself, ignorant.

Yes… They’re probably in the North too…

The Catholics called . . . they want their guilt back.

A lot of people join the Klan. Does that make the Klan right?

A lot of people followed Hitler. Did that make him right?

So I’m foaming at the mouth for being sensitive to the daily affronts experienced by others as a result of these back-biting little slaps in the face that white red-necks place around in our culture.

Things like this doll display are a constant reminder to minorities that these racist creeps still exist and that they would be happy to resurrect those good old days. Shouldn’t a black American be able to go to a store in a public airport and not be confronted by some snide dehumanizing representation of the oppression of black America?

I would accept the display if it included a pot bellied white creep holding a whip.

I lived in central Florida for a couple of years. The day I arrived in town there was a Klan protest going on against hiring a minority police officer. Thousands of Klan garbed thugs angrily threatening the city hall. The day I left Florida there was a massive Klan protest going on. Again with fully robed Klansmen protesting. This time against having the confederate flag removed from the county office building.

As a journalist I have been to Klan rallies in both the north and the south. The difference being that the north has social diversity in the workplace and higher union wage levels that allow people, of all colors, to rise up from the economic bottom of society. In the right-to-work south poor people, especially minorities, are still oppressed by not having any economic opportunity even where there are jobs because white control all the jobs and minorities can only get the worst lowest paying jobs.

I covered a fire in a poor black neighborhood in Florida. The white firemen used water only to keep the fire from spreading. Not to stop the fire in the house. When I asked about this I was told that the n’s house was not worth the risk of engaging the fire. The let the house burn to the ground. I have covered thousands of fires and never heard that outside the south.

The white south is a racist and backward as it has ever been.

Well said.

And you start from the assumption that they’re not offensive. The responsiblity lies with you to explain how dolls based on the racial slurs and the clearly offensive blackface routine are not offensive.

Do you really think the South is so assbackwards that overtly racist knicknacks are sold in airports?

Yes. I think people remain ignorant and hateful to this day.

Perhaps if this issue piques your curiosity, you should do some reasearch and try to make sense of it instead of assuming that the South is chockablock with racist neanderthals.

And perhaps you should do some research on the origins and meanings.

What in effect you are saying is that you’re not offended therefore no one else has the right to be offended. That’s very easy for you to say.

As one historian (doubtlessly a politically correct liberal!) has explained, “The Mammy was created by white Southerners to redeem the relationship between black women and white men within slave society in response to the antislavery attack from the North during the ante-bellum period.” Thus the Mammy and Sambo figurines that come out of the Jim Crow era are a direct reflection of this. Don’t try to tell me that I’m just maligning the South. Racism is real, yes in both the South and the North, but Southern racism is more overt while Northern is more hidden.

There is no reason, whatsoever, to defend these racial stereotypes.

It kinda depends on who the market is for them, doesn’t it?

If it’s for non-black folks who are racist or don’t know any better, and such people make up the majority of purchasers, then yeah, it’s pretty bad.

If most buyers are black, then I presume they have perfectly valid reasons for buying tacky racist mementoes of the old south.

I’ve not used a cop-out, nor have I justified any racism in the South by declaring that racism is more acceptable because it is also present in the North.

You stated, ““The South is still as racist and ignorant as it has ever been.” and my response was simply pointing out that it is quite false. The South is far less racist than in the 1800’s, or for that matter the 1950’s.

I inferred from your statement that you find the South – not the North, and not America in general – to be a center of ignorance and racism. My reply to you was stating this is not the case. In my experience, those 2 factors exist more in the North than the South.

thorn

Um, did you read the multiple witness accounts that these objects are primarily purchased by blacks, the group you are supposedly defending with your mouth-foaming rant? Good job – reactions like that aren’t solving the problem, they ARE the problem!

I remember the first time I heard the term ‘coonass’. It was from a coonass. :) I figured out right away what it meant because of the context it was used in.

I’m sure a great many people had egg on their face after their ignorance was exposed to them in learning what the colloquialism meant. And yet some people maintained it was racist regardless of explanation simply because it ’sounded’ racist.

Thanks for bringing that up, very applicable here. :)

The problem I have with comments like yours is that you assume these dolls are racist and work from there. Do you really think the South is so assbackwards that overtly racist knicknacks are sold in airports? Perhaps if this issue piques your curiosity, you should do some reasearch and try to make sense of it instead of assuming that the South is chockablock with racist neanderthals.

This thread reminds me of when a reporter taped Nick Saban relaying a story about a “coonass fellow.” The next day there was all sorts of media outrage until people started figuring out that coonass isn’t offensive to most. If you spend 5 minutes in southern LA, you’ll see a RCA (Registered Coonass) bumper sticker on an appropriately coonass vehicle.

Lee,

I think that question was directed at Trish; however, you should probably try the Cracker Barrel. They got everything there.