Soul
01-01-2008, 11:20 PM
Found on Superfrenchie.com
The issue of whether French-bashing is racism comes back regularly in this blog, so let’s try to address it once and for all.
We’re of course talking about the worst instances, such as when we’re called cowards, monkeys, or dirty.
I say it is racism for the following reasons:
The concept of race is not a scientific one. Races do not exist genetically. The concept of race is a social one.
I define racism as being the hate of an entire people for just being who they are, as opposed to for what they may have done.
For example, when Jonah Goldberg calls us “cheese-eating surrender monkeys”, or says that “raccoons bathe more than the average Frenchman”, this to me is definitely racism.
http://superfrenchie.com/?p=97
For a test on whether an insult may or may not be racism, I suggest trying to replace the word French by a word such as “black”, “Mexican”, or “Jew”.
“When you insult the French people, simply because they are French, then it’s a kind of racism campaign,” Jean-David Levitte, the French ambassador to the United States, has said.
Others prefer to use words like “prejudice”, “discrimination”, “stereotypes”, bigotry, “xenophobia” or even “Francophobia” and think it is counter-productive to equate French-bashing and racism. I am certainly aware that many Americans define racism in a different context, as to them it is strongly associated with the history of their relationship with blacks in this country.
So, what do you think? Is French-bashing racism? [vote in the new poll]
http://superfrenchie.com/?p=357#comments
[Reps Appreciated]
The issue of whether French-bashing is racism comes back regularly in this blog, so let’s try to address it once and for all.
We’re of course talking about the worst instances, such as when we’re called cowards, monkeys, or dirty.
I say it is racism for the following reasons:
The concept of race is not a scientific one. Races do not exist genetically. The concept of race is a social one.
I define racism as being the hate of an entire people for just being who they are, as opposed to for what they may have done.
For example, when Jonah Goldberg calls us “cheese-eating surrender monkeys”, or says that “raccoons bathe more than the average Frenchman”, this to me is definitely racism.
http://superfrenchie.com/?p=97
For a test on whether an insult may or may not be racism, I suggest trying to replace the word French by a word such as “black”, “Mexican”, or “Jew”.
“When you insult the French people, simply because they are French, then it’s a kind of racism campaign,” Jean-David Levitte, the French ambassador to the United States, has said.
Others prefer to use words like “prejudice”, “discrimination”, “stereotypes”, bigotry, “xenophobia” or even “Francophobia” and think it is counter-productive to equate French-bashing and racism. I am certainly aware that many Americans define racism in a different context, as to them it is strongly associated with the history of their relationship with blacks in this country.
So, what do you think? Is French-bashing racism? [vote in the new poll]
http://superfrenchie.com/?p=357#comments
[Reps Appreciated]