Comments on: Reporting live from the nightmare

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 21:12:12 +0000

To the extent that we enjoy making sweeping generalizations, and also belonging to in-groups, yes, I suppose most of us rather do revel in bigotry.

To me, the problem isn’t so much our tolerance or lack thereof as individuals, but our willingness to accept violence as a solution, and to accept social inequality as inevitable. Until that changes, I really don’t think it matters how much we sanitize our thoughts.

By: beth

beth — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 20:43:02 +0000

Right. But what do we do about it? I’m convinced that people LIKE being racist.

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 19:11:53 +0000

I mean, if people were casually suggesting to each other that the water in their wells was going bad because the Jews were putting poison in them – a very common suspicion a few hundred years ago – I’d really want to know that, wouldn’t you?

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 19:06:09 +0000

Thanks, Fred – I’ll check those out.

Beth – I agree that those remarks are offensive – that’s why I was interested to see them apparently expressed so casually by Joel’s neighbors. Without honest reporting, we’ll never know the true extent of racism and and bigotry in this country.

By: beth

beth — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 17:09:28 +0000

As tragic as the fires are, the “towelhead” remark is really offensive. Nobody could say that kind of stuff about Jewish people today, for instance, but it’s perfectly fine for the American media to write and report racial slurs against Arabs and Muslims. It makes good copy, apparently; it makes me ill, and gives permission to ordinary people to use those words and make those stereotypes.

By: Fred Garber

Fred Garber — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 15:06:46 +0000

Dave…. I have been watching this fire as it has developed. Here are a couple of links…

http://danielhernandez.typepad.com/

http://sosdfireblog.blogspot.com/