07-13-2017, 11:42 AM -
(07-13-2017, 11:02 AM)Roger H. Sterling Wrote: Is that really racist though? Drawing attention to the colour of a mans skin and looking down at him because of that colour are very different things. Not buying that ahaha his skin is the same colour as *brown thing* is inherently racist. If Mayweather called him a golf ball with a beard, would that be racist?
Historical context matters. Given the centuries of discrimination against blacks, which are still going on now, those two examples just aren't the same. It's a false equivalence.
If Mayweather made fun of the colour of McGregor's skin in a similar way, in some soft sense it would be racist - but it wouldn't be on anywhere near the same level, as neither of them lives in a nation where white people were being lynched for the colour of their skin in living memory, where stereotypes making fun of the appearance and supposed stupidity of white people were central to pop culture within living memory, or where white people are still disproportionately poor, disproportionately likely to spend time in jail, and disproportionately likely to be killed by representatives of the state. All of these things matter when we talk about racism. Did making fun of Mayweather's appearance imply that McGregor supports these things? Of course not. But when you treat brown skin as something to be laughed at, that's what you're validating. Treating white skin as something to be laughed at isn't the same (unless you're in Zimbabwe or something, I suppose) - it's one of those things which is a bit of a dick move when you really think about it, like making fun of ginger hair, but which doesn't tie into a larger history of exclusion and discrimination.
A key point here is that what McGregor said is 'different', but in degree rather than in nature to more openly racist statements. Mocking the appearance of black people was always a part of the racist systems that served to exclude them, and still is.
Calling Nate Diaz a 'cholo from the hood' was pretty off too. McGregor gets away with things other athletes would get slaughtered for because he's 'good banter'.
Not really got the time to get into an hours-long discussion about this today. That's my position on this, and if you disagree then I'm not going to spend hours trying to convince you.
This post was last modified: 07-13-2017, 11:48 AM by Shuto Makino.