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Gammon is not racist

Urban, where words have other (useless in scope) meanings... :facepalm:
IRL most people understand the word racist to mean holding prejudicial views about others or another, based on their race, ethnicity, or granted, more debatable, country of origin. The power dynamics of a given situation may give context to that racism but the absence of a recognisable power differencial doesn't magic away the racism itself, requiring the victim to choose some other descriptor to please bellends on the internet.

As for Gammon, I don't think it's racist in it's main use. A bit dodgey maybe. But in the context Spymaster has described it, is. This because it has nothing to do with the supposed attitudes of the target, just skin colour.
In it's main use?
You seem to be contradicting yourself here, massively. On one hand you're saying that racism is racism, regardless of power dynamics, and you absolutely disagree with it, then you go on to say that racism is ok, because you don't think it's racism? What if the 'gammon' thinks it is racism? Are you making decisions on their behalf? Are you deciding what is and isn't racism? Are you saying I shouldn't get pissed off if someone calls me a paddy?
 
Some words live in the margins between definitions.

I don’t think this is a word that helps anyone. We live in days of simplistic soundbites and arguments expressed in 100 characters or less.

If all the left can do is throw slurs back when some elements of the right are sharpening their arguments, we’re frankly fucked. We’re on the verge of losing so much as it is with our stupid habit of only talking among ourselves.
 
Are Irish an ethnic group rather than race?

The Irish were always white, as inconvenient as that is to your hypotheses.

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In it's main use?
You seem to be contradicting yourself here, massively. On one hand you're saying that racism is racism, regardless of power dynamics, and you absolutely disagree with it, then you go on to say that racism is ok, because you don't think it's racism? What if the 'gammon' thinks it is racism? Are you making decisions on their behalf? Are you deciding what is and isn't racism? Are you saying I shouldn't get pissed off if someone calls me a paddy?
No contradiction. Its main use isn’t racist. That use is talking about a group with certain political views and A tendency to get a bit red-faced. and angry.

Of course if someone is having a go at you, making assumptions about you based on you being Irish, they are being racist.
 
No contradiction. Its main use isn’t racist. That use is talking about a group with certain political views and A tendency to get a bit red-faced. and angry.

Of course if someone is having a go at you, making assumptions about you based on you being Irish, they are being racist.
What about the new 'white power" symbol, which is predominantly used to mean OK. Do we allow that, too?
 
What about the new 'white power" symbol, which is predominantly used to mean OK. Do we allow that, too?

Don’t know anything about that one. But if it’s being used by a white supremacist, yeah it’s racist If it’s being used by someone else unaware of the white power meaning, just to mean okay then there is no racist intent. It might still be perceived as a racist symbol by someone. But the intent is not there.
 
Don’t know anything about that one. But if it’s being used by a white supremacist, yeah it’s racist If it’s being used by someone else unaware of the white power meaning, just to mean okay then there is no racist intent. It might still be perceived as a racist symbol by someone. But the intent is not there.
But if it's being used as a white power symbol, then it is racist, regardless of whether some people are unaware of it.
 
Certain people have appropriated the 'gammon' slur, and they're using it as a racial slur. Regardless of its historical (?) definition, it's now being used as a racial slur, and its previous/historic use doesn't negate that fact.
 
I’ll frequently use the term when my infant son gets all pink and screamy, as babies do, describing him as having gone ‘full gammon’, or just referring to him as ‘the gammon’. Do I need to book myself a place at re-education camp?
 
colonialism is a thing

I think I'm turning into my old man. People talk bollocks and don't make any sense these days. When did '[insert thing here] is a thing' become a worthy substitute for substantive argument?

You never would have seen such obscene behaviour on these boards 5 years ago.

The decline of urban and civilisation more generally is a thing :(
 
it's not an argument
where does our contemporary understanding of race come from?

That’s a complex question and no doubt one that undergraduates everywhere are writing 2,000 word essays on. My answer would be from a range of sources but increasingly from postmodern/poststructural thought.

Why?
 
because ignoring colonialism and imperialism turns racism into people being mean to each other which is useless except to naturalise race and obscure the violence that created it

the influence of postmodernism/poststructuralism is massively overstated
 
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because ignoring colonialism and imperialism turns racism into people being mean to each other which is useless except to naturalise race and obscure the violence that created it

the influence of postmodernism/poststructuralism is massively overstated

I don’t agree with your latter point. We can add the postcolonial academy to the list as well.

As to your first point that’s true generally speaking but who has been doing that on this thread?
 
I don’t agree with your latter point. We can add the postcolonial academy to the list as well.

As to your first point that’s true generally speaking but who has been doing that on this thread?

it seems to be the favoured definition of most people here, otherwise people wouldn't be so passionate about affirming the existence of racism against white people

I think academic theories are mostly post-hoc and reflect political arrangements that already exist whether in the academy or in society in general
 
Eh? Go for a full sentence, anytime :thumbs:
You may find that when you use your words, the pointless stupidity of your posts becomes clearer.

EtA, too early for this. I'll leave it. But pick your shit up ffs. It's depressing even for 2018.
 
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it seems to be the favoured definition of most people here, otherwise people wouldn't be so passionate about affirming the existence of racism against white people

I think academic theories are mostly post-hoc and reflect political arrangements that already exist whether in the academy or in society in general

I am genuinely at a loss to understand how the comments on this thread have led you to conclude that urban posters do not recognise the historical reality of colonialism and imperialism and power relations and the contemporary consequences.

As I’m sure you know, contemporary understandings of race arent linear.

Explain to me then how you’ve drawn this conclusion and what evidence exists for it
 
it seems to be the favoured definition of most people here, otherwise people wouldn't be so passionate about affirming the existence of racism against white people

I think academic theories are mostly post-hoc and reflect political arrangements that already exist whether in the academy or in society in general

What would you call the attitude that existed in Britain towards Irish people? The Punch caricatures of Irish people drawn with thickened brows and pot bellies...drunk...and dishevelled? The ads in Windows in the 50s 60s 70s..."No Blacks No Irish"?
Do you think that there was no racism intended because they happened to be white skinned so it couldn't be racism? Or is this all part of the colonial narrative too? Consider that Ireland was no longer a colony in the 50s and 60s and 70s. And yet many Irish immigrants were disdained in Britain by ordinary people. Made fun of because of their accents..or poor appearance.. or just being a "Paddy".
Racism? Or not...? White racism against white people? Or not?
Racism is surely an attitude of superiority over and discrimination against another person based on their race, ethnicity, country of origin, skin colour
..... perhaps racism is any and all the above...?
 
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