• Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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    4 hours ago

    This is how dog-whistles work. They reinforce racist ideas, but with a veneer of humor. If someone calls it out, you can say, “You’re the racist!”

    “Black people are primitive” is the Big Lie that “justified” slavery and the thousand wrongs that continue today, like substandard medical care.

    Let me just remind you about all the racist shit that was being said about Obama when he was President, and all the way to about 8 months ago Trump posting a video of himself as the Lion King with animations of Barack and Michelle Obama as apes.

    This meme doesn’t just equate Black people with cannibals, it targets the one Black person so uppity as to become President. (And a damn sight better President than Trump or Bush.)

    If this meme is colorblind this guy would work as well. https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/871828-sarim-akhtar-aka-disappointed-fan-gets-spot-in-hong-kongs-meme-museum

    Or there’s several others, even the how about no girl could stretch to it.

    And it would be funnier if it didn’t include the racism. But no.

    Using Obama was a deliberate choice.

    • Apathy Tree@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 hours ago

      I’ve never heard that sort of racism, that black people are cannibals, so i think that’s pretty outdated racism even by racist standards.

      I had a friend’s kid try that crap on me recently, though. Made a racist joke off the back of my offhand and entirely innocent comment about monkeys, and I called his ass out for being a racist piece of shit about it. His parents were unbelieveably thankful that I did because the kid actually likes me, so maybe it helped. But thats so much to ask a sometimes-over friend to do on like a regular basis. If i have to call him out every time he sees me, he won’t like and respect me anymore, so won’t matter if I do call him out.

      But really, what’s the problem? We call them as we see them, but we should never allow them to take our language from us. They dont deserve nearly that much respect or control. Obvious dog whistles, fine, we can avoid those like above monkey stuff depending how it’s presented. But we should never ever give ground without them winning it, and they aint done shit in decades worth claiming our language.

      • potoooooooo 🥔@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        All racism is outdated. There isn’t a newer, hipper racism that’s finally caught up with modern times. It’s all the same old ignorant, insecure shit.

    • Return_of_Chippy@lemmy.worldOP
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      3 hours ago

      You’re beyond jadded trying extra hard to be bothered by something innocuous. If they used that guy you could make the argument that Pakistan doesn’t have explicit cannibalism laws so its perpetuating the idea that Pakistanis are cannibals. Or that the meme is framing middle eastern people/muslims as violent because they are seeking out an arms dealer. Literally anything can be a dog whistle if you do enough mental gymnastics to make it one.