jesus
Check out the comment thread from DCist's reference to my recent panda post. It's pretty vicious — they're on the verge of convincing me that I'm a horrible, horrible racist.
Well, for the record, I really wish that pandas came from a different part of the world — one with a boringly conventional cuisine. I'm sorry that the eccentricities of Chinese ingredients are considered a slur by some. To be honest, it seems like a criticism that could be leveled against virtually any culture. To the extent that Asian cuisines are singled out as its target, I can understand the sensitivity, if not its volume.
Seriously, though, the whole joke was supposed to be a self-deprecating exercise in jingoism and xenophobia, not an excuse to pick on the Chinese. It wasn't meant in an "Asians will eat anything" sort of way. It was meant to be taken in the style of "Jews eat Christian babies!"
See? Nothing offensive there.
Comments
In case you didn't see yesterday's Daily Show with Jon Stewart, here's a recap of their "Mmoment of Zen".
It was a video of several (maybe 8) Chinese Panda cubs in a human-type nursery. There was a Chinese narrator with subtitles at the bottom. Although I'm sure the translation was humor inspired by the DSwJS, the narration ends with "they are so cute I can't wait to eat one". Or something to that effect. If you can catch the rebroadcast at 7 PM today, you should see it.
remember the Colbert report when he apologized for his unintentionally racist comment "Me rikey tea!"
Somehow I can't see Larry David apologizing for last week's show in which he suspects his Korean bookie of kidnapping Jeff's dog.
nice blog, thanks.
Thanks for the affirmation. DCist commenters can be kind of a pain in the ass.
Tom, I hope you're prepared to apologize for offending DCist commenters.
never! let them do their worst!
This morning I saw http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/06/AR2005120600265.html which reminded me of this whole thing
I know! Wonkette has a photo of the food section front page.
History will vindicate me.
The biggest mistake on DCist: Allowing comments. Imagine how boring the Colbert Report would be if any jackass could chime in about how offended they were.
are you kidding? the comments are half the reason DCist is so popular. even if they are regularly occupied by jackasses.
I've just now tried to stop the silly DCist debate "once and for all."
We'll see if it works.
I notice the '"Butterstick" is an offensive name' theme petered out pretty quickly beyond a down-thread comment suggesting that you guys "get over it" (i.e., your loving nickname for the cute little bugger) and "love him for who he is" (i.e., not really a stick of butter at all).
Yeah, so what's that all about? (I'll grant that I don't pay much attention to east coast Pandas, so I'm probably behind the curve on this controversy.)
Yeah, I can't say that I understood why the poster considered "Butterstick" offensive (other, maybe, than the fact that it slightly undercuts Chinese nationalism -- but c'mon, China can't expect to maintain monopoly rights forever). It just didn't make much sense.
The one criticism that really stung:
the "butterstick" campaign (and people who use the word "heart" as a verb, it's the same people) sucks, it's the worst kind of "i'm smart, but i'm really a sorority girl at heart" cutesiness
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