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Geomapping Racism With Twitter

Hugh Pickens writes "Megan Garber writes that in the age of the quantified self, biases are just one more thing that can be measured, analyzed, and publicized. The day after Barack Obama won a second term as president of the United States, a group of geography academics took advantage of the fact that many tweets are geocoded to search Twitter for racism-revealing terms that appeared in the context of tweets that mentioned 'Obama,' 're-elected,' or 'won,' sorting the tweets according to the state they were sent from and comparing the racist tweets to the total number of geocoded tweets coming from that state during the same time period. Their findings? Alabama and Mississippi have the highest measures followed closely by Georgia, Louisiana, and Tennessee forming a fairly distinctive cluster in the southeast. Beyond that cluster North Dakota and Utah both had relatively high scores (3.5 each), as did Missouri, Oregon, and Minnesota. 'These findings support the idea that there are some fairly strong clustering of hate tweets centered in southeastern U.S. which has a much higher rate than the national average,' writes Matthew Zook. 'But lest anyone elsewhere become too complacent, the unfortunate fact is that most states are not immune from this kind of activity. Racist behavior, particularly directed at African Americans in the U.S., is all too easy to find both offline and in information space.'"

409 comments

  1. Actually Measured by kenh · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How did they account for multiple racists tweets from one "tweeter"?

    One racist sending 100 racist tweets is not the same as 100 different racists each sending one racist tweet each.

    --
    Ken
    1. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      racists dont know how to sign up for 100 accounts.

    2. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Sure it's not, he's 100 times as racist as the other ones.

    3. Re:Actually Measured by stranger_to_himself · · Score: 5, Informative

      How did they account for multiple racists tweets from one "tweeter"?

      One racist sending 100 racist tweets is not the same as 100 different racists each sending one racist tweet each.

      Reading the article it doesn't look like they bothered. And they only found a total of 395 tweets which will lead to appalling precision in any of their findings. Sadly 'information scientists' don't always appear to be the best statisticians.

    4. Re:Actually Measured by thetoadwarrior · · Score: 2

      No, he means one account sending out 300 racist tweets vs 300 accounts, from different people, sending out one racist tweet.

    5. Re:Actually Measured by Sir_Sri · · Score: 4, Insightful

      With only a couple of days work this isn't bad. But it's not science, it's interest and a proof of concept for doing actual research.

    6. Re:Actually Measured by Sulphur · · Score: 1

      How did they account for multiple racists tweets from one "tweeter"?

      One racist sending 100 racist tweets is not the same as 100 different racists each sending one racist tweet each.

      Not a woofing.

    7. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Scientist would be so generous as to be inaccurate. It's a naively amateur stab at trying to do something edgy and thought provoking. It's like someone thought that if you scrape data off the web and put it on a zoomable map, it's somehow made more relevant and powerfOoh! Zoom in! There's a dot in my town!

      Does anyone else sometimes get the feeling that Dice Holdings has mandated ./ run accessibly humanitarian stories each week as part of an attempt to paint us as not being unapproachably terse neckbeards? I feel like they're wearing away the only part of my identity that keeps people from asking me to "fix their computer".

    8. Re:Actually Measured by stranger_to_himself · · Score: 4, Insightful

      With only a couple of days work this isn't bad. But it's not science, it's interest and a proof of concept for doing actual research.

      I accept they didn't work very hard on this but in that case its irresponsible to be promoting the findings among people who clearly won't bother to understand the (immense) limitations of the method. It's slightly irritating that as far as the general public is concerned this kind of back of the envelope calculation is indistinguishable from proper science. I wouldn't publicise any findings until I'd had them peer-reviewed and published. But then maybe I'm old-fashioned (and maybe this is why I don't have an academic blog)

    9. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The story also does not count African-American ("black") prejudice/racism toward Latino/Hispanic ("brown"). In reading many articles and comments, most people are unaware of this "black-on-brown" racism but, for those who live and work in minority areas, it is noticeable.

      The Washington Times published a story (three weeks in the weekend issue, IIRC) about "black-on-brown" racism in some major metropolitan settings. One was Memphis (where I lived for 16 years as an adult). The article was full of African-Americans making interesting/telling complains about Latinos/Hispanics. Statements such as "they don't look like us"; "they don't talk like us"; "we can't understand what they say"; they don't eat the same food as we eat"; even, "they don't smell like us". Quite interesting and enlightening articles. Either African-Americans are just as racism as "white" people or the noticing of differences is a normal function of being a human and part of a group.

      African-American are just as prejudiced against people who are not like them or are not a part of their group as any other group.

      Personally, I am at a quandary. Since my ethnicity includes European (northern and southern), African (north and central), Asian (near, middle, and far), and the new "Latino" and older Hispanic, who should I disdain? Which part of me is less than the other individual parts? Quite a problem in our race-oriented political culture. Thankfully, the Knoxville News Sentential ran article on "white" Southerners quoting experts who said all had 5% African blood. This means all Southerners are African-American and can legally claim to be "black" and joint the NAACP, the New Black Panthers, the Democrat Party; they can also change their EEO status and qualify for Food Stamps, Scholarships, etc., etc. much, (Oops, which part of me am I ragging on now?) LOL!!!

    10. Re:Actually Measured by AF_Cheddar_Head · · Score: 0

      They didn't. RTFM before asking stupid question and modded insightful even. Mod points aredefinitely given out too freely.

    11. Re:Actually Measured by CajunArson · · Score: 4, Funny

      STOP POINTING OUT FACTS! We just want to hear reinforcement of our stereotype that all white people are evil racists and all minorities are racially superior since they are completely incapable of being bigots towards anyone!

      Now excuse me while I go to the Black Panther meeting where we discuss how we will be "poll volunteers" again in 2016 to make sure that [insert name of Democrate here] wins because any other vote is automatically racist.

      --
      AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
    12. Re:Actually Measured by Hatta · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      And they only found a total of 395 tweets which will lead to appalling precision in any of their findings. Sadly 'information scientists' don't always appear to be the best statisticians.

      Doesn't matter, with an effect size this large you don't need that much precision. As bad as 'information scientists' may be at statistics, 'random guy on slashdot' is always worse.

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    13. Re:Actually Measured by ClioCJS · · Score: 5, Funny

      that person is probably 300 times more racist than someone with just one account

      --
      -Clio
      Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
      Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
    14. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      racists dont know how to sign up for 100 accounts.

      Not just a woofing. This condition is untweetable.

    15. Re:Actually Measured by Hatta · · Score: 3, Informative

      BTW, I just checked out a sample size calculator. For a 95 percent confidence level with a +- 5% confidence interval, and a population of 400 million, guess what your sample size needs to be.

      384.

      Now this calculation for a survey is a little different from what the researchers are doing here, but it illustrates my point. You can do a lot with small sample sizes if the differences between groups are large.

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    16. Re:Actually Measured by timeOday · · Score: 2, Insightful

      all minorities are racially superior since they are completely incapable of being bigots towards anyone!

      Racism isn't just about mere feelings. It's about a group wielding power against others in ways that cause real harm.

    17. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Obviously you have never seen moveon.org'ers in action then.

    18. Re:Actually Measured by __aaltlg1547 · · Score: 1

      They didn't. It's stated in the article. So prolific racists tweeters may have influenced the results some. I don't know if they also accounted for the common deliberate misspelling of the President's name (0bama), or referring to him as "Hussein" or other such references. I don't want to speculate on how racists on twitter usually refer to the President, but among haters on other forums, I've seen those two references at least as commonly as I've seen the man's name spelled correctly.

    19. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can do a lot. You can make up any number you want to.

    20. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If only there were some way to distinguish one twitter user from another. Like a "user name" or something. Oh well, that sounds too technically challenging.

    21. Re:Actually Measured by Sir_Sri · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I wouldn't publicise any findings until I'd had them peer-reviewed and published.

      Then you'd never get funding for a project like this.

      They're demonstrating that there might be something interesting to study, the press lets them ask for money rather than beg, and they're not all that invested in a project that might not go anywhere.

      its irresponsible to be promoting the findings among people who clearly won't bother to understand

      I hate to break it to you, but the press doesn't understand peer reviewed work any better. Whenever media ever looks at any academic work they completely misrepresent it. That's something you get used to.

    22. Re:Actually Measured by mothlos · · Score: 2

      Actually, it is ridiculously terrible. All it shows is that geolocated timestamped messages can be searched, but either their search criteria was awful or there aren't enough people creating these things to draw any conclusions about a meaningful population. The fact that they then tried to draw state-level conclusions on this dataset shows a feeble grasp of statistics.

    23. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This got me wondering: how many of the b-word tweets were done by African Americans and thus not the same racist meaning?

    24. Re:Actually Measured by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

      Forfty percent of all people know that.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    25. Re:Actually Measured by ultranova · · Score: 2

      Reading the article it doesn't look like they bothered. And they only found a total of 395 tweets which will lead to appalling precision in any of their findings. Sadly 'information scientists' don't always appear to be the best statisticians.

      What findings? Apart from actual racism, racist tweeds correlate with Internet penetration, Twitter penetration, trolls, teenagers, and locale-specific slang. In other words, the study is utterly worthless, regardless of the skill of whoever interprets the data, because with all the variables you'd need to compensate for the results will say whatever you want them to say.

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    26. Re:Actually Measured by stranger_to_himself · · Score: 4, Insightful

      BTW, I just checked out a sample size calculator. For a 95 percent confidence level with a +- 5% confidence interval, and a population of 400 million, guess what your sample size needs to be.

      384.

      Now this calculation for a survey is a little different from what the researchers are doing here, but it illustrates my point. You can do a lot with small sample sizes if the differences between groups are large.

      That's if they're only trying to estimate a grand rate. To make state-by-state estimates they need this number *per state*.

    27. Re:Actually Measured by DaveV1.0 · · Score: 1

      No, it is bad, especially if one is making a very public and devisive claim.

      --
      There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
    28. Re:Actually Measured by stranger_to_himself · · Score: 4, Informative

      I hate to break it to you, but the press doesn't understand peer reviewed work any better. Whenever media ever looks at any academic work they completely misrepresent it. That's something you get used to.

      You are right but this means that the peer review filter is even more important so that what gets out to the media and beyond has at least some chance of being right. Also, having been through the process a few times I'd say academics are at least as guilty of overstating their findings as journalists. We want the headlines and the 'impact' as much as journalists to.

    29. Re:Actually Measured by jamstar7 · · Score: 3, Funny

      racists dont know how to sign up for 100 accounts.

      Not just a woofing. This condition is untweetable.

      Must be a canarial disease...

      --
      Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
    30. Re:Actually Measured by codegen · · Score: 1

      While I understand the black on brown racisim exists, why would there be any black on brown racist tweets about Obama being re-elected? He isn't Latino. They were looking for racist comments about Obama. Just curious.

      --
      Atlas stands on the earth and carries the celestial sphere on his shoulders.
    31. Re:Actually Measured by DaveV1.0 · · Score: 1

      No, they are not demonstrating anything might be anywhere specifically because this is not a scientific study with a reliable result.

      --
      There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
    32. Re:Actually Measured by Ol+Biscuitbarrel · · Score: 1

      Finding which parts of the country are more infested with trolls is actually more interesting to me. BTW this isn't a troll.

    33. Re:Actually Measured by Jessified · · Score: 1

      One would hope they would take into account the name of the original tweeter so as not to double count.

    34. Re:Actually Measured by Jessified · · Score: 1

      However, the content and frequency of the posts is also relevant, albeit less so in a quantitative analysis. In some parts of the world, it's an uphill battle to be an overt, extreme racist, and such people must resort to subtle and implied racism. In other parts of the world, with a critical mass of racists, it's much easier to be overt.

      In other words, the comments of the racists say just about as much about the authors as they do of their silently supportive peers.

    35. Re:Actually Measured by Liquidrage · · Score: 1

      I can't believe you got modded up. It's basically the definition of science. You can argue the validity of the results, discuss the high potential of error. But it's science.

    36. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How in the name of whetever the latest King Kanute happens to be elected does one equate a tweet, what someone annonymously says or said, with behaivour?

      The article starts with the idea of surveying and ends with racist behaivour.

      Don't listen to what people say. Whatch what they do! That is the case for all, including you, me, the The surveyers, The Obama's and/or King Kanute's

    37. Re:Actually Measured by Sulphur · · Score: 1

      racists dont know how to sign up for 100 accounts.

      Not just a woofing. This condition is untweetable.

      Its GIStweeting.

    38. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Can I borrow that straw man when you're done with it? I have some crows in my corn field.

      Nobody (except maybe a handful of lunatics) believes only white people can be bigots against other races, or that all white people are bigots against other races. There are plenty of bigoted black people. There are plenty of non-bigoted white people.

      What they're saying is that the impact of bigotry is different when you have bring in the institutional power on an entire culture. Just by the circumstances of my birth, I get automatic advantages in this culture. Most of those advantages are pretty much invisible to me, at least until I see how it goes for someone had the bad luck not to be born with a white penis. It's easier to shrug off bigotry when you're winning, and harder to shrug it off when it's reflected in the circumstances of your daily life.

      That being called "cracker" as a white person generally provokes giggles as opposed to seething impotent rage is NOT because we're better people.

      And yes, African Americans can and do participate in institutionalized racism against Hispanics.

    39. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nice try bit the actual sample size is the rest of twitter, the 395 racist tweets are a small percentage of the millions of other tweets

    40. Re:Actually Measured by sjames · · Score: 1

      But on the internet, people spout junk all the time that they wouldn't dare say to someone's face.

    41. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Random people on the internet seem to not do well at statistics either...

      In general, people complain about small sample size here a lot, however, it really depends on the details of what you are looking at. There isn't some magical number that is enough and below which is useless. It depends on what kind of test and effect you are looking at. Way too often I see people around here talk of sample size being too small when the original paper quite clearly shows it is not, or in a few cases, makes an honest statement about what confidence there is in such a sample size. You can occasionally find cases where people around here assume a sample is big enough when it isn't from looking at the original source, due to effects from fishing, etc.

      In this specific case, the total sample size of 395 tweets could easily be enough, especially if they came from a couple states and different accounts. However, what is more damning is looking at the actual number from each state (someone else above says they only had one each for some of the states they rank as racist), and the issue that it could be a single poster in each state making a lot of tweets. So no, it is not the total number of tweets that is appalling, but the actual details.

    42. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Either African-Americans are just as racism as "white" people or the noticing of differences is a normal function of being a human and part of a group.

      What I don't understand is how so many people don't understand that noticing differences doesn't have to automatically include assigning values, "judging". I think the thought process is so ingrained and established we don't even realize we are doing it. Which leads to the false notion that because some make factual statements about our differences then they must also be making denigrating/approving statements about the other person.

    43. Re:Actually Measured by magic+maverick+ · · Score: 0

      I disagree. However, as I said below, racism matters most when it relates to "a group wielding power against others in ways that cause real harm". So, racism against whites in the USA is almost irrelevant; whites are the most powerful "race" (a socially constructed concept).

      People don't seem to like that sort of argument though, I got modded down -_-

      --
      HELP MY ACCOUNT HAS BEEN HACKED BY AN ILLIBERAL ART STUDENT SET TO DESTROY THE INTERWEBZ!
    44. Re:Actually Measured by timeOday · · Score: 1, Troll

      Focusing on the more substantive aspects of racism denies us whites of our "fair share" of victimhood.

    45. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the noticing of differences is a normal function of being a human and part of a group.

      Differences: those others don't go to heaven, we do; those others are noisy, we aren't; those others are not eligible to basic services, we are; those others have no rights because, we do; those others are not human, we are. That's the normal way start hate based on race, nationality, sexual orientation, religion, place of birth and political opinion, or ever wars between the sub populations involved. Surely the same tactic is the first step in full blow bullying at schools (writing that made me feel a disgusting fatty).

    46. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      all minorities are racially superior since they are completely incapable of being bigots towards anyone!

      Racism isn't just about mere feelings. It's about a group wielding power against others in ways that cause real harm.

      No, racism is a state of mind, you can be a racist git without wielding any power to speak of and without being a member of a dominant ethnic group. A Caucasian American person calling an African American person a 'Nigger' is being racist, an African American person calling a Caucasian American person a 'Honky' is also being racist. Being a member of an ethnic minority and suffering racism because of it does not automatically make it impossible for you to be racist yourself. It is amazing how many people fail to understand this fact.

    47. Re:Actually Measured by Belial6 · · Score: 2

      That is an incredibly racist statement. Of course, racists always rationalize why their particular brand of racism is ok.

    48. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I disagree. However, as I said below, racism matters most when it relates to "a group wielding power against others in ways that cause real harm". So, racism against whites in the USA is almost irrelevant; whites are the most powerful "race" (a socially constructed concept).

      People don't seem to like that sort of argument though, I got modded down -_-

      So basically it is all fine and dandy for you to be racist in the USA if you are not white? I don't really give a hoot about how you rationalise racism against whites. Racism is distasteful, racists are by definition ignorant bastards who get off on hate and I don't care what color these hooligans are. If you get the shit beaten out of you by a bunch of racist bigots, trust me... your serious concussion, broken bones and intestinal haemorrhages are anything but irrelevant no matter whether you skin is black, white, yellow, brown or green with red polkadots.

    49. Re:Actually Measured by Nidi62 · · Score: 1

      Personally, I am at a quandary. Since my ethnicity includes European (northern and southern), African (north and central), Asian (near, middle, and far), and the new "Latino" and older Hispanic, who should I disdain? Which part of me is less than the other individual parts?

      I guess I have it easy then. I have French on my mom's side, and German on both her and my dad's sides. The French in me never puts up a fight against the German :)

      --
      The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
    50. Re:Actually Measured by lahvak · · Score: 1

      The population size is actually irrelevant (provided it is large enough), at least for confidence intervals, which is what the sample size calculator does.

      --
      AccountKiller
    51. Re:Actually Measured by lahvak · · Score: 1

      On the other hand, the sample size is only determined by the confidence level, the population size is irrelevant.

      --
      AccountKiller
    52. Re:Actually Measured by Sir_Sri · · Score: 1

      You're confusing results with method.

      They can get data, they can visualize it, they can run some result on it. This is a demonstration of the tools needed to do research. With a small dataset it appears that there might be some tiny bits you can extract from the data. But mostly it's a tools to implement a method, that would produce results.

    53. Re:Actually Measured by magic+maverick+ · · Score: 0

      Are you calling me racist?

      --
      HELP MY ACCOUNT HAS BEEN HACKED BY AN ILLIBERAL ART STUDENT SET TO DESTROY THE INTERWEBZ!
    54. Re:Actually Measured by fatphil · · Score: 1

      Indeed, when you have an infinite error bar, you know you're doing things wrong. Or, perhaps, you don't even know that. It's hard to tell sometimes.

      --
      Also FatPhil on SoylentNews, id 863
    55. Re:Actually Measured by gstovall · · Score: 1

      Perhaps not relevant to you, but it was certainly relevant to me and my wife.

      Warning: anecdote.

      In 1988 my wife and I bought a house in a "racially mixed" neighborhood. We (anglo saxons) were excited by the possibilities of building friendships and learning about the black culture. Instead we:
      1) Were shunned by (all of) our black neighbors, who absolutely refused to say one word to us in the 7 years we lived there, despite our attempts to build relationships.
      2) When we went to local stores, we were treated badly by employees. For example, at Walgreens, if we were in line at the checkout counter, the (black) clerk would take people from behind us and check them out, and refuse to serve us until there was no other black people in line.
      3) I would always have to mow facing the street, because people passing by would attempt to hit me with beer bottles
      4) Several times gangs of youth would stand in my yard and threaten me and curse me out, merely because I was white, and despite the fact that I had tutored several of them in subjects they needed help with in school
      5) On the other side, one couple (he was an exec in the Dallas School District and she was a Dallas city councilwoman) were good friends, and we taught their children in Sunday School and had had them over to our house several times. But they were the only ones.

      We eventually gave up and moved to a neighborhood that was not so threatening, but the experience left a bad impression with us for a number of years. I really wish that time had turned out differently -- it seemed like, except for the one couple, all we encountered was blind, unreasoning hate.

    56. Re:Actually Measured by magic+maverick+ · · Score: 0

      I don't like racism, and I think that racism is wrong. However, so far as it goes, racism (of the verbal and written kind, which is what is being discussed I thought) against "whites" is less damaging to both the individual and society as a whole, than racism against "non-whites". This is because whites hold a superior position socially compared to non-whites, and are a non-marginalized, and privileged majority.

      And yes, all racists are a bunch of ignorant bastards. 1) Race is a social construct. 2) Race is a meaningless construct (why is Obama black and not white?). 3) People with blue eyes are just not as good as those with brown eyes, science proves it!

      --
      HELP MY ACCOUNT HAS BEEN HACKED BY AN ILLIBERAL ART STUDENT SET TO DESTROY THE INTERWEBZ!
    57. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Funny how you left out the fact that similar issues and attitudes coming from Hispanics, about Blacks. Especially in North Carolina.

      And I doubt very highly that you're 'Black', judging from the words that you used, and the little joke you attempted.

    58. Re:Actually Measured by Sir_Sri · · Score: 3, Interesting

      what gets out to the media and beyond has at least some chance of being right

      I don't think that has ever worked for anyone in the last 20 years I have no reason to believe it will start now.

      Not too long ago /. had posts from the communications department of the university of western ontario, which is where I am a researcher, and from our own university the document was a poor characterization of what the research actually was (HIV vaccine stuff in this case, though I'm in comp sci and they don't do our work any better). Somewhere along the line someone decided that the 'public' only understand high level concepts, so everything we communicate is written as thought it was for a 16 year old to understand. It doesn't matter than dozens of other research papers and groups will actually have to do the work to make the thing the 16 year old understand though, we talk about pieces of a puzzle as though they are a solution to the puzzle. And there's no central media authority who might change it.

    59. Re:Actually Measured by fatphil · · Score: 1

      Only if the sample is randomly selected.
      People who enter the sample by posting are self-selecting.

      --
      Also FatPhil on SoylentNews, id 863
    60. Re:Actually Measured by radtea · · Score: 1

      African-American are just as prejudiced against people who are not like them or are not a part of their group as any other group.

      Which is an irrelevant distraction because black Americans are not in position of class privilege or power. But thanks for bringing it up! Discussions of racism need more irrelevant distractions from people who have managed to fail to notice what the actual issues are about, but instead focus on irrelevancies.

      Personally, I am at a quandary. Since my ethnicity includes European (northern and southern), African (north and central), Asian (near, middle, and far), and the new "Latino" and older Hispanic, who should I disdain?

      The poor grammarian, for whom there is no excuse but ignorance and lack of education, as evinced by the rest of your post.

      --
      Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
    61. Re:Actually Measured by SomePgmr · · Score: 2, Informative

      Somewhere along the line someone decided that the 'public' only understand high level concepts, so everything we communicate is written as thought it was for a 16 year old to understand.

      I don't know if it's true or not, but I've heard that it's common for news sources to target somewhere near a 6-8th grade reading and comprehension level. I imagine that's a pragmatic approach if you'd like to get a message out and reach is more important than detail.

      As for this little report, I noticed that you see dots where there are lots of people, and a shotgun pattern in the deep south. Not particularly surprising.

      I'd like to see something like this that figures racists tweets by unique persons, as a percentage by topic, and figured for the origin's population.

      I mean, 10 unique racists in 200k election tweets in Chicago would seem pretty low compared to 6 unique racists in 100 election tweets in Nowhere, Alabama (pop 26).

    62. Re:Actually Measured by TapeCutter · · Score: 1

      And they only found a total of 395 tweets which will lead to appalling precision in any of their findings.

      Yet from a totally anecdotal perspective, their results look remarkably accurate.

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    63. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      299 times more racist.

    64. Re:Actually Measured by DaveV1.0 · · Score: 1

      Shit data is still shit data no matter how one visualizes it.

      --
      There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
    65. Re:Actually Measured by ganjadude · · Score: 3, Insightful

      To me, everything you just said, is in fact a racist comment.

      when person X cant get a scholarship to a college, eventhough their grades are higher than person Y, that is racism. when person X does not get a job as a police officer when they finish 3rd in the class, yet person Y -who finishes 15th in the class does get the job - that is racism

      sure "white people" who have been dead for 100 years held "black people" who have also been dead for 100 years as slaves. but that was then, There is no reason "black person" should get anything special from "white person" today because neither of them had anything to do with slavery

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    66. Re:Actually Measured by ganjadude · · Score: 2

      a black man is the president of the united states of america
      I dont ever want to hear that ever again.

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    67. Re:Actually Measured by stranger_to_himself · · Score: 2

      Random people on the internet seem to not do well at statistics either...

      In this specific case, the total sample size of 395 tweets could easily be enough, especially if they came from a couple states and different accounts. However, what is more damning is looking at the actual number from each state (someone else above says they only had one each for some of the states they rank as racist), and the issue that it could be a single poster in each state making a lot of tweets. So no, it is not the total number of tweets that is appalling, but the actual details.

      Can you show me any situation where less than 400 samples is enough to estimate fixed effects across a variable with 50 factors? This is in fact what was done, whether on not the guys doing the calculation realised it.

    68. Re:Actually Measured by stranger_to_himself · · Score: 1

      And they only found a total of 395 tweets which will lead to appalling precision in any of their findings.

      Yet from a totally anecdotal perspective, their results look remarkably accurate.

      Its a good point - I did wonder about this. I suspect there's a kind of bias going on whereby any result other than that with the face validity of this one would not have been published (the authors would have discarded it on the basis of their poor method). It's not possible to know how many combinations of searches and calculations were done before they arrived at this one. If that sounds cynical then it is, but I'm an (honest) statistician and I do have to work very hard to stoo myself falling into that trap sometimes. On the other hand, they could just have lucked out, or the sheer volume of positive tweets eminating from the blue states could have been resposible for the relative lack of racist tweets in those areas, which would have produced the same result regardless of possibly differing underlying levels of racism across states.

      I can't believe how much of my weekend I've wasted thinking about this.

    69. Re:Actually Measured by Belial6 · · Score: 1

      Yes. You are a racist. You rationalize why it doesn't count when you do it, but that doesn't change the fact that you are a racist.

    70. Re:Actually Measured by Solandri · · Score: 2

      Racism isn't just about mere feelings. It's about a group wielding power against others in ways that cause real harm.

      That's what has me face-palming. From a purely academic standpoint it's an interesting result. However, what they've done is created a report looking for discrimination based on race, but reported it in a way which could be used by people to justify discrimination based on state of origin (e.g. "those stupid redneck racist Southerners").

      It's just as wrong to propagate stereotypes based on region of origin as it is propagate stereotypes based on race. For your "a disproportionate number of racist tweets originated from the South" I will raise you "a disproportionate number of crimes are committed by blacks". The whole point of anti-discrimination is that you're not supposed to extrapolate general trends to automatically attribute those (usually rare) characteristics to a specific individual from the group. Yet this analysis on state of origin of racist tweets has none of the anti-discriminatory safeguards that would pepper a study on the rate of crimes committed by blacks, warning you not to extrapolate this conclusion to any individual member of the group.

      395 racist tweets from a 0.05% sample works out to 790,000 racist tweets for the country. Even if you assume each racist only posted one racist tweet max, that's 0.25% of the country overall being racist. For the state with the highest rate (Alabama) that's 2%. In an effort to root out racism, this study is presenting their results in a careless fashion which could be used to justify discrimination and anti-Southerner stereotypes against 98% of Alabama residents because of a small minority of bad apples. It is doing the very thing it is criticizing.

    71. Re:Actually Measured by timeOday · · Score: 1

      Sure, that's the kind of "substantive racism" I'm talking about. Nobody would argue that nonwhites are somehow incapable of such things, when they get the chance, or that it's OK when it happens... that's just misconstruing the argument, which is, minorities have suffered and still do suffer the vast majority of problems of this type you describe.

    72. Re:Actually Measured by Sir_Sri · · Score: 1

      Actually there is an entire field of science (monte carlo methods) about faking data for other researchers to make sure their tools work properly.

      Sometimes it's really important to prove you have the skills to do the research you are proposing. Think of it as being asked to code 'pac man' on a game development job interview, and yes, I know companies that were doing that as recently as this summer, or a more IT guy thing of trying to set up an e-mail account or the like. A basic proficiency demo. The thing with researchers is that you may have skills that no one knows exist to even ask for.

      But getting data - real data, millions or billions of pieces of data, requires a huge amount of time and paperwork, or you may need to write software to gather the data, you may need permission from Twitter and other networks, you may need ethical approval for data that might not be anonymous (what legal obligation do you have if this is threatening?). You need a lot more than 5 days to sort through the grant proposal for a project like this if you want to take any serious data. But to get to the point of having money to do that, you need something you can pitch.

    73. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That is your convenient definition to allow minorities to justify their own racism.

      I was listening to the Donnie Simpson morning radio show in my car pool to work in DC a while back. The had a discussion about how the rising cost of fuel prices and the effect on the black community. Hey Donnie, I have a good guess that it is effecting the black community as much as the white, Hispanic, and Asian communities. Secondly, where is this black community that is separate from other communities? Why is there a need to imply segregation? Why is a big deal made about the first black quarterback to win a superbowl, the first black president, the Hispanic to hold some cabinet position etc.. Who cares what color or race that person is? Shouldn't that be the true goal of all races where that is not even thought of? Why do people want to point that out? Does it really need to be pointed out?

    74. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Which is an irrelevant distraction because black Americans are not in position of class privilege or power.

      Wow.. Position of class privilege or power? What does that even mean? Really. Please tell me how I move up or down in this class based privilege system you are talking about or how do I determine where I am now?

    75. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "causing real harm" is most definitely up to both individual interpretation and the future historical record - and it seems to me that a couple of minority groups just wielded real power last Tuesday in contrast to the popular will of the "non-minority" population. Just saying. If I'm still allowed to, that is.

    76. Re:Actually Measured by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      Please mod this post up. And show it in bold print.

      You and I have disagreed at times, but this is the kind of thing "science-oriented" minds should see.

    77. Re:Actually Measured by LordLimecat · · Score: 1

      So its not racist if Im walking thru a city and some black guy calls me a stupid white cracker and looks down on me because of my heritage?

      Thats an interesting position.

    78. Re:Actually Measured by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      "You're confusing results with method."

      I think what the poster was trying to say, is that the results are probably not statistically significant.

      Intriguing, yes. And (in my own past experience) probably somewhat accurate. Which means, as you stated elsewhere, that it may be fodder for further study.

      But posting these kinds of preliminary results in a forum like Slashdot usually does little but foment rabid responses. I am actually surprised at the relative civility of most of what I have read so far.

    79. Re:Actually Measured by The+Wooden+Badger · · Score: 2

      My first thought upon reading the summary was how in the world did they control for hip-hop/rap's use of the "n-word"?

      --
      Heroscape, it's like legos combined with anachronistic wargames.
    80. Re:Actually Measured by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      Or maybe he meant that the source data was improperly selected or filtered. That may be a justifiable statement, too, but the results are the same: subjective experience suggests a genuine phenomenon, and the preliminary data may call for further study.

    81. Re:Actually Measured by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      "... we talk about pieces of a puzzle as though they are a solution to the puzzle."

      I call this the "Solar Cell Syndrome".

      I have read, on a very frequent and regular basis for more than 30 years now (how much more I will not say), "Scientists Have Found A Way To Increase The Efficiency Of Photovoltaic Cells By 50 Percent!"

      Of course if all of these hundreds of reports were literally true, and even if only a small fraction of those improvements worked together, we would today have photovoltaic cells that were 500% efficient or better. (Obviously not achievable with this level of technology and likely not at all.) Instead, their actual efficiency has c-r-a-w-l-e-d v-e-r-y- s-l-o-w-l-y upward. We might soon have some commercially that break 30%.

      Over the years, other fields of science and engineering have been guilty (maybe victim?) of this. It makes me rather sad. It may drive research grants, but dishonesty is what it is, and false promises are what they are.

    82. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      100% efficiency is the limit imposed by conservation of energy, so there's no need to quibble: 500% is definitely not achievable with any technology. Also, $/kW is also decreasing. Also, media sensationalism is almost always added by journalists after scientists stop talking. Media != research grant proposals, not by a long shot.

    83. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a valid argument, since they are taking the average of the hate tweets to all tweets.
      They should have also used median, mode and std dev , to give a better representation.

      What troubles me more is that it doesn't describe the level of racism : in the article, 2 of the examples are very aggressive, one could be mistaken simply being misinformed ( it's possible to believe that Obama won because he's black, without hating anyone . Still a bit racist, but no hate ).

      Ultimately, a tweet is a very small piece of text. It's very hard to derive the actual thoughts and feelings from that.
      If I were to put up a tweet saying " I don't like the black one " , I could just be referring to a desk.

      Give me the data, and I'll do my own analysis, and draw my own conclusions.

    84. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ok, sorry, that 3rd one was also horrible.
      Somehow my brain stopped at "Obama only won because he's black" , which didn't sound that bad, but the rest of the text is offcourse.
      Why couldn't I read the rest the first time ? I seem to filter that out automatically.

    85. Re:Actually Measured by Dr+Damage+I · · Score: 1

      White flight! RAAAAACIST!

      --
      "Cursed is he who rises early in the morning..." Isiah 5:11
    86. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pretty sure the white people who are dropped in favor affirmative action candidate are not the ones at the top of the list... and don't forget what Chris Rock said --- none of you white people would trade places with me and I'm rich!

    87. Re:Actually Measured by magic+maverick+ · · Score: 1

      Well done! Your anecdote trumps everything! You get 50 thousand "blacks are racist against whites too!" points!

      You win the Internet!

      Seriously though, racism sucks. But your experience is, I'm sure, pretty rare compared to the harassment that non-whites face in the USA (and other majority white countries).

      --
      HELP MY ACCOUNT HAS BEEN HACKED BY AN ILLIBERAL ART STUDENT SET TO DESTROY THE INTERWEBZ!
    88. Re:Actually Measured by magic+maverick+ · · Score: 1

      So wait, who am I racist against?

      Is it possible for white people to be racist against other white people? Or black people to be racist against other black people?

      Well, OK, it is. Irish people were treated shockingly in US history. But the Irish were considered a different race to the other whites. So I don't think that counts.

      Better question, is it possible to be racist against the "race" that society perceives you to be as?

      I accept I probably have internalized some negative thoughts about people who look different to me. But I'm working on getting rid of these thoughts.

      --
      HELP MY ACCOUNT HAS BEEN HACKED BY AN ILLIBERAL ART STUDENT SET TO DESTROY THE INTERWEBZ!
    89. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They're demonstrating that there might be something interesting to study

      I'm not really nigger sure why you think nigger that it's at all nigger interesting that some racist nigger fucks in the stereotypical nigger-hating states send the word nigger in their tweets right after the nigger election where a black man got nigger elected to a second term.

      I also nigger dispute the summary's nigger claims that it's "all too easy to find" nigger racist comments in the nigger information space. I've been on slashdot nigger for years, and I have yet to nigger see even a single nigger example of such hate speak.

    90. Re:Actually Measured by Chrisq · · Score: 1

      299 times more racist.

      Not on any normal scale. If I have a jar of pickles and you have three then you have three times as much as me, not twice as much

    91. Re:Actually Measured by Chrisq · · Score: 1

      How did they account for multiple racists tweets from one "tweeter"?

      One racist sending 100 racist tweets is not the same as 100 different racists each sending one racist tweet each.

      They just ignored Mitt's account

    92. Re:Actually Measured by Chrisq · · Score: 1

      STOP POINTING OUT FACTS! We just want to hear reinforcement of our stereotype that all white people are evil racists and all minorities are racially superior since they are completely incapable of being bigots towards anyone!

      And increasingly anyone pointing out unpleasant things about religious groups is called "racist" by the ignorant

    93. Re:Actually Measured by Talderas · · Score: 1

      They also searched for tweets that contained racial slurs such as 'nigger' or 'monkey' in combination with words related to to the election. Once I read that, I knew that the method was flawed.

      Take the state of Georgia. The map for it shows a cluster of "racist" tweets in the area of Atlanta. Atlanta, which has a 54% black population. It doesn't take much to realize that the slur 'nigger' may have been used by non-racists blacks when talking about Obama. Montgomery, Alabama has a 56.6% black population and also had a cluster of "racist" tweets.

      I'd take anything presented in the article with a huge grain of salt.

      --
      "Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
    94. Re:Actually Measured by Talderas · · Score: 3, Informative

      395 racist tweets from a 0.05% sample works out to 790,000 racist tweets for the country. Even if you assume each racist only posted one racist tweet max, that's 0.25% of the country overall being racist. For the state with the highest rate (Alabama) that's 2%. In an effort to root out racism, this study is presenting their results in a careless fashion which could be used to justify discrimination and anti-Southerner stereotypes against 98% of Alabama residents because of a small minority of bad apples. It is doing the very thing it is criticizing.

      395 that contained search terms that the searcher decided indicated racist intent. There's no indication that any of the tweets that came up were filtered for actual racist intent. For example "Obama won bitch, niggers back" would have came up as a "racist" tweet. However it's likely that such a tweet was not a racist and that the author of it was probably black. If you look at the clustering of where tweets were coming from you see that a high clustering was occurring in cities like Atlanta, Georgia or Montgomery, Alabama which has a majority of a minority population (54% black and 56.6% black respectively).

      The study is flawed and was never properly scrubbed, but the results were posted because it fits a preconceived notion (the south is racist) when the majority of the effect that causes that effect to show may originate from the very population which is the victim of racism against blacks.

      --
      "Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
    95. Re:Actually Measured by Talderas · · Score: 1

      They didn't.

      --
      "Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
    96. Re:Actually Measured by jafiwam · · Score: 1

      Or... how do they account for someone using terms who "can't possibly be racist" because they are black, showing up in this thing. For example "No_Limit_Nigga" on Twitter was shot to death in a justified self-defense shooting used all kinds of "racist" terms to refer to himself, and friends. (NLN was Trayvon Martin in real life.)

      This analysis' conclusions are over-reaching for what they purport to be able to measure. Sure, it notes what terms are used where, but not who said them and why... which is the core of what racism is. Words are not racist, how people use them might be.

    97. Re:Actually Measured by Shotgun · · Score: 1

      Tell that to my niece that has been harassed and bullied so bad for being a "white girl" that she had to move in with her uncle to attend a different school.

      --
      Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
      Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
    98. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you claiming that marginalization of Black people ended instantly at the end of the civil war? There are plenty of people still alive now that were voting against civil rights laws in the 60's. Some of them are probably current elected officials.

    99. Re:Actually Measured by t1oracle · · Score: 1

      The issue isn't race, it's tribe. People group themselves together and they have been doing this since prehistory as living in a group is always safer than being alone. In America your tribe is determined by "races" such as Asian, White, Black, and Latino. In Iraq the tribes are Sunni, Shiite, and Kurd. In Nigeria it's Ibo, Yuriba, etc. Anywhere you go in the world you will find these kinds of groupings. The thing is, a tribe is not set in stone. You can change the definition of it. Hopefully one day humans will evolve beyond this thinking, but until then I'll be happy just see American's define the tribe by country of birth.

    100. Re:Actually Measured by monkeykoder · · Score: 1

      Well done! Your guess trumps everything you get 50 thousand "I believe that the majority opinion is always correct!" points! You win the Internet! Seriously though, racisms sucks. But your experience is, I'm sure, just as limited as the experience of the poster you were replying to. My experience is limited to small towns in northern California and a few different areas with white minorities. It is sort of funny but each group of "underprivileged" people has always found the other "races" to be at fault (It doesn't seem to matter which race they come from). I guess everybody needs to project their failure onto others while those who seem to meet with success through effort of their own seem to judge on that merit. Again completely anecdotal but anecdotal evidence is better than your guess.

    101. Re:Actually Measured by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      "100% efficiency is the limit imposed by conservation of energy, so there's no need to quibble: 500% is definitely not achievable with any technology."

      Famous last words. I acknowledged that with our current technology it wasn't possible... if you want to go further and predict future technologies based on our current knowledge, go ahead. But people who have done that in the past have frequently ended up looking the fool.

    102. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I will grant you that it's odd that something which ended 100 years ago is still going on today. Yet as the widespread 2012 voter suppression efforts revealed, racism is still alive and kicking.

      It's almost like racists can never admit they're wrong. Like someone losing an election and spending his concession speech blaming everyone but himself for the loss.

    103. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The double standard is appaling. Blacks are, in my experience, just as if not more "racist" than whites. But "racism" is the new witch hunt. A quick way for someone to feel better about themselves is to do something for another culture that benefits the other culture at the expense of the doers' own. I can't think of anything more racist than that...

    104. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People who have acknowledged that conservation of energy is a general physical law (not technology-specific) have frequently ended up looking the fool? When?

    105. Re:Actually Measured by Belial6 · · Score: 1

      Better question, is it possible to be racist against the "race" that society perceives you to be as?

      Of course it is. A self loathing racist is still a racist.

      Sorry to go Godwin, and I am not trying to say you are a Nazi, but consider... If the rumors of Hitler's father being Jewish are true, would that mean that he wasn't a racist?

      I accept I probably have internalized some negative thoughts about people who look different to me. But I'm working on getting rid of these thoughts.

      Sounds like you have internalized some negative thoughts about people who look similar to you as well. Thinking badly of someone because of their race is bad. It is bad irrelevant of their race. It is bad irrelevant of your race.

    106. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So because his anecdotal comment contradicts your bias, therefore his anecdotal comment must be a falsehood and the other poster's anecdotal comment must be right.

      I live and work in Detroit. White people are a minority here. And I've never had a beer bottle flung at my head. Clearly my anecdotal comment must be a falsehood too!

    107. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Which would actually mean something, except Romney spent his entire 2012 campaign pandering to the fear and prejudice of white voters. Just like McCain did in 2008.

      Racism is alive and well, regardless of however you want to spin its existence. From voter suppression efforts to blatant racist advertising, the 2012 election showed just how little the US has advanced since the 1960s.

    108. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't know if it's true or not, but I've heard that it's common for news sources to target somewhere near a 6-8th grade reading and comprehension level.

      obligatory :)

      (captcha: imbecile)

    109. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, virtually all of the claims are 100% literally true. They are, however, restricted to certain, narrow bands of wavelengths of light, and they aren't all mutually implementable.

    110. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And also maybe why don't have anything interesting to say

    111. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, and the majority are also measuring from the same small set of baseline measurements (basically comparing the experimental results to the normal commercial-grade panels available at the time).

      And then there's the fact that the starting efficiency was about 10%.

    112. Re:Actually Measured by im_thatoneguy · · Score: 1

      a black man is the president of the united states of america I dont ever want to hear that ever again.

      Just because 51% of the country doesn't discriminate doesn't mean 49% doesn't.

      In fact it's the electoral college deciding so technically you could theoretically have 55% of the country being Jim Crow racists and still win the presidency.

      Obama could have lost the entire states of Ohio, Virginia and Florida. And every state that he lost could have voted 100% Romney and he would have won. It would have been a popular vote blow-out against Obama but an electoral college victory.

    113. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Did they find where the racist If Romney wins tweets came from?

    114. Re:Actually Measured by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      Sounds like Oak Lawn (or a number of north-of-downtown-but-not-North Dallas areas), where the white yuppies moved in and drove out the minorities.

      I walked down a small street just off Singleton when I went to a school in building with Pinkston High School (100% minority at the time). Kids were calling their parents out to look at the white person walking down the street. I was probably the only non-government white person they had seen in a long time, and rarely did the government bring good news.

      But I was pulled over for Driving While Black one time (yes, as a white person). The policeman apologized to me and sent me on my way, probably hoping I didn't press the issue, and I didn't. That was on Armstrong in Highland Park (where, for those not familiar with Dallas, the city was found to violate civil rights multiple times, something hard to do at the time, as it took harassing a housekeeper waiting at a bus stop for loitering. Her employers, a married pair of lawyers, didn't like their help being harassed, and did press the issue, and the city lost a lawsuit, as they have before). It was late at night, dark (so the cop couldn't see in the window) and I was driving a "bad" car, being a college student at the time and driving a 15 year old car. I was leaving after having volunteering at my mother's non-profit, and she was in the car behind me following me home when it happened. I probably could have pressed the issue, but a white person going to court over harassment would probably have not gotten me far, even if I was in the right, with witnesses.

    115. Re:Actually Measured by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      bla bla bla

      97% of black people voted for obama... you dont think that is racist?

      you know damn well if 97% of white people voted for romney that they would be called racists, hell obama won and his side is still claiming racism

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    116. Re:Actually Measured by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      you mean how 97% of black people voted for obama? that racism?? cause that is the only racism i saw this election

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    117. Re:Actually Measured by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      when person X does not get a job as a police officer when they finish 3rd in the class, yet person Y -who finishes 15th in the class does get the job - that is racism

      And likely illegal. Where did this happen, and did the person in 3rd complain?

      sure "white people" who have been dead for 100 years held "black people" who have also been dead for 100 years as slaves. but that was then, There is no reason "black person" should get anything special from "white person" today because neither of them had anything to do with slavery

      Reparations were never paid. Because of that, and the ongoing racism (quite blatant until the last 50 years or so), blacks, in general, had fewer opportunities. Given that your parent's success is the best measure of your success, that has long-term consequences. When there's a day when the average black person has the same opportunities as the average white person, then there will be equality. But when the majority of black people are poor (through direct or indirect actions of white people) then there may be some allowance necessary to right that inequality.

    118. Re:Actually Measured by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      That's what has me face-palming. From a purely academic standpoint it's an interesting result. However, what they've done is created a report looking for discrimination based on race, but reported it in a way which could be used by people to justify discrimination based on state of origin (e.g. "those stupid redneck racist Southerners").

      Racism is a bad thing, but going against racism is a bad thing, as you are acting on a thought crime. So "racism" from a legal perspective is disadvantaging someone based on race. If you hate them but can't hurt them, it isn't illegal racism. But if you are a racist hiring manager who only hires whites (or blacks), then it is illegal racism.

    119. Re:Actually Measured by gstovall · · Score: 1

      I absolutely agree that racism sucks, regardless of which group is on the giving and receiving end.

      I know there is white racism -- I know live near where a KKK group has its headquarters. But this formerly fearsome group now has about 50 members spread across 7 states, according to a newspaper expose of the group. I remember, back when a lived in Texas, a black man being chained behind a pickup truck and being dragged to death. That was awful racism.

      Other than those isolated things I've read about, I literally have not SEEN white on black racism acted out. What are the things that are commonly experienced by non-whites in the USA? When in Dallas, I heard about constant struggles between black, latino, and asian gangs, but I was never sure how much of that was racism and how much was gang dominance. As a manager in a hi-tech industry, we went through lots of training to ensure that there were no racial biases in our hiring, and we had a very diverse workforce. So, perhaps being educated is some kind of insulation from racism, or experiencing racism, but I truly have never personally seen racsm except as I previously described.

      Seriously, I am looking for details on other's experiences and perspectives.

      BTW, I founds your first two paragraphs rather odd..."blacks are racist against whites tool"? More explanation? I understand it's meant to be offensive, but I didn't really grok it, sorry...

    120. Re:Actually Measured by gstovall · · Score: 1

      :) I'm very glad you never have had one flung at your head. Tends to make one feel very unsafe on his own property.

      I'm happy to report that the various burglars at my house were a racially diverse group - 1 black, 2 hispanic, and 1 white. :)

    121. Re:Actually Measured by gstovall · · Score: 1

      Actually, this was in SE Dallas -- Jim Miller south of I-30. The neighborhood was a formerly all-white one that was, at the time I moved in, pretty racially balanced by number. Lots of white senior citizens, and as they left or died, mostly younger black families moving in.

      I had absolutely no idea there was that much hate existing anywhere outside of Los Angeles or Africa -- we were stunned. I seriously, even after all these years, do not understand how such hate was generated. There is no way those young teens had any personal experience with racism -- they had to learn it from their elders. I knew from the newspapers that Dallas had a race relations problem, but I just did not comprehend it still existed.

    122. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      395 that contained search terms that the searcher decided indicated racist intent. There's no indication that any of the tweets that came up were filtered for actual racist intent. For example "Obama won bitch, niggers back" would have came up as a "racist" tweet. However it's likely that such a tweet was not a racist and that the author of it was probably black. If you look at the clustering of where tweets were coming from you see that a high clustering was occurring in cities like Atlanta, Georgia or Montgomery, Alabama which has a majority of a minority population (54% black and 56.6% black respectively).

      Those tweets would be still racist following the basic definition of racism as prejudice or discrimination against a person of different on the origin or culture ( removing word race since scientifically human are one race species ). Discrimnation of minorities is different thing. Abuse of power is another ...
      But nowadays we get weireder and weirder definition of words baseed on current political interests. There are countries where racism is specifically meant to be any the discrimination but caused only by white people. This might be some kind of pendular reaction because this is specific to post colonial countries.

    123. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Racism isn't just about mere feelings. It's about a group wielding power against others in ways that cause real harm.

      No, this is just institutional discrimination. Racism is discrimination or prejudice against people of different origins be it biological or cultural.

      If what You say was true then neo-nazi groups in many countries should only be considered racist if their "racial claims" where supported by people wielding power. Otherwise they'd just have "an opinion" that is same OK as any other. I concur...

    124. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Right. The electoral college works as was proved by George Bush's victory in 2000.

    125. Re:Actually Measured by Quila · · Score: 1

      Yet as the widespread 2012 voter suppression efforts revealed, racism is still alive and kicking.

      Yeah, we saw that in 2008, with menacing Black Panthers wielding night sticks at a polling place. Even worse, the government had basically won its case against them under voter rights laws, but the Obama administration decided to drop it. Do you think Holder would have dropped the case if they had been KKK? I guess the administration didn't see the irony in using racist favoritism in the enforcement of voting laws designed to combat racism.

    126. Re:Actually Measured by Quila · · Score: 1

      At least Samuel L. Jackson admitted it. He's a racist prick, but you have to admire the honesty.

    127. Re:Actually Measured by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      I'd seen that in other parts of Dallas, but I was never really in SE Dallas. There's nothing there that isn't found closer elsewhere. Though I moved out of Dallas in 2000, and I have no idea what time frame you are talking about. The only times I'd ever go to or through SE Dallas was passing through to Seagoville or something, but even then, I'd never pass through the neighborhoods you are talking about, other than on a freeway at high speed.

    128. Re:Actually Measured by gstovall · · Score: 1

      Physically, it was a lovely area. Attractive, spacious homes, nice park, nice library.

    129. Re:Actually Measured by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do positive tweets supporting Obama because he's black count as racist as well?

  2. Anyone Have Original Numbers and/or Tweets? by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I love data porn and tried to play around with this interactive map. I lived in Minnesota for 23 years and do not recall it to be very racist -- even in the rural areas. So according to that map there are five red dots in Minnesota which are strangely all centered around the twin cities area (the most populated and liberal part of the state). And that data puts Minnesota mentionably close to the top of the list? But if I look at Virginia, I can't even count the number of red dots there's so many and it's not even halfway up the list? What the hell?

    Do each of these red dots indicate a single tweet? What are the numbers and tweets that they're looking at here, I feel like the LQ value is not doing the best job of reflecting "racism."

    --
    My work here is dung.
    1. Re:Anyone Have Original Numbers and/or Tweets? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Doesn't it indicate that Minnesota non-racist don't tweet as much on the topic as do the non-racists in Virginia?

    2. Re:Anyone Have Original Numbers and/or Tweets? by GrumpySteen · · Score: 2

      The dots indicate single tweets.

      The reason Virginia isn't very high up on the list despite the large number of racist tweets is that it was offset by an even larger number of non-racist tweets which aren't shown on the map. If you look at the floatingsheep page linked in the summary, they explain "we aggregated the 395 hate tweets to the state level and then normalized them by comparing them to the total number of geocoded tweets coming out of that state in the same time period."

      As a result, a single racist tweet is much more influential in the calculation when it comes from a state with a very low number of tweets overall (Utah is one that suffers from this).

      Also, they counted tweets, not accounts tweeting. One person who tweeted twenty racist comments is treated the same as twenty people all tweeting one racist comment. Obviously those should not be treated the same for determining how racist a state is.

      Ideally, I think they should have counted accounts that tweeted racist comments and each state's score should have a margin of error give based on the number of accounts tweeting vs the population in the state. But they didn't, so there you have it.

    3. Re:Anyone Have Original Numbers and/or Tweets? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am from the South and of course we are considered to be racist for the most part by other parts of the country. On a personal level I don't judge people as a group but as individuals but do admit that a lot of my brethren here tend to be more apt to lump black people in a group. No one much uses the N word anymore, it's things like "A bunch of Democrats were over there" or something like that where it is understood that the group in question was black. I work for the US Air Force as a civilian and I notice that among young Airmen from up in states with low black populations that upon living and working here for a while they tend to fall in with these same local people in attitude. I heard one speaking to some local guys telling them that he always wondered why Southerners hated blacks and after being stationed here he now knew. A lot of this had to do with the fact that he was an idiot who liked to party is some unsavory areas which brought him into conflict with some of the local blacks who tend to not like whites at all. I do notice that Northerners who come here to work find things are not what they thought they were.

    4. Re:Anyone Have Original Numbers and/or Tweets? by bfandreas · · Score: 1

      This whole thing should be taken with a grain of salt.
      You need to take population density into account. More people, more assholes, more asshole tweets.
      Also the sample size is awfully small. So small in fact that multiple counts may weigh in much more significantly than they should.
      Also not all twits are tied to a geolocation.
      You also need to compare it to how the population is composed.

      In fact you shouldn't use this data if you want to find out which states are more unpleasant than others. You could say that most asshats live near the coast. But given that that's where the majority of the US population is living that's not even newsworthy.

      But the approach certainly is promising. Just don't try to use it to prove there is intelligent life on this planet. That's what SETI is for. So far no response from planet Earth :(

      --
      20 minutes into the future
  3. Careful by sideslash · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They're only looking for racism directed against Obama, so they won't find (for example) black against white racism in Philadelphia or Latino against Caucasian racism in California. It is truly regrettable that certain organizations like the SPLC dilute their otherwise honorable mission by turning a blind eye to hate in some of its notable forms.

    1. Re:Careful by nopainogain · · Score: 2, Interesting

      We all know the numbers are skewed. You can make statistics do anything. I live in Philadelphia. We live with Andy Reid and had Donovan McNabb for many years.. Statistically, McNabb threw the fewest interceptions in the NFL..... Factually, he couldn't hit a receiver's hands with a ball if he was given military targeting lasers.

    2. Re:Careful by postbigbang · · Score: 5, Informative

      The SPLC does in deed execute their honorable mission. Go to http://truthy.indiana.edu/ for other meme propagation and dissemination graphics so you can see that this is one lens to the output of a much larger engine.

      --
      ---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
    3. Re:Careful by magic+maverick+ · · Score: 0

      The funny thing about racism is that it generally doesn't matter unless it is against a group that historically has been persecuted and marginalized. So, racism against "black" people is a problem, because it re-enforces that they are a marginalized and persecuted group. However, in most places "white" people are not a marginalized and persecuted group. So while racism against "white" people is wrong, it is not socially such a big deal.

      Except where it is a big deal, such as certain parts of Africa. In those places "white" people are a persecuted group, and there are racist policies by governments. (And yet, it is still the case that overall, white people have a better deal in Africa than the majority of black people. The only people who have it better, generally, are those in government and the rich.)

      You are, I suspect, just trolling. Because racism against white people in the USA doesn't matter, and is barely notable compared to racism against others. (Yes, historically there was a lot of relevant racism against white people, from other white people. The Irish, for example, got a bad deal for some time. But today, racism against white people is quite irrelevant.)

      --
      HELP MY ACCOUNT HAS BEEN HACKED BY AN ILLIBERAL ART STUDENT SET TO DESTROY THE INTERWEBZ!
    4. Re:Careful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But it's totally different if the recipient of the hate is white. Regardless of their words and actions, white people clearly deserve it. It's a cheap consolation knowing that the ugliest traits of humanity are more colorblind in terms of who they infect than our species itself.

    5. Re:Careful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      When 93 percent of race X votes for the same race, that is racism. Race is not an issue in the elections anymore. It is just more skewed to minorities now.

    6. Re:Careful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Are you out of your fucking mind? So all the highly qualified whites that get boned out of a job because there was a less qualified but black candidate.... that just doesn't matter?

      You must never have been fucked out of a job before. Lucky ignorant you.

    7. Re:Careful by kenh · · Score: 2

      SPLC catergorized the New Black Panther Party and it's leader as a Right-Wing Extremist group, because, apparently, they never allowed for the possibility of a Left-Wing Extremeist group.

      --
      Ken
    8. Re:Careful by Nerdfest · · Score: 1

      Racism is racism, and shouldn't be acceptable in any form, aor against any race to exactly the same degree. Do do so is racism in itself.

    9. Re:Careful by kenh · · Score: 1

      white people clearly deserve it

      Among the more ignorant things I've read on Slashdot today.

      Because white people a hundred and fifty years ago mistreated black people, ALL white people "clearly deserve it"?

      --
      Ken
    10. Re:Careful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      " Because racism against white people in the USA doesn't matter,"

      Voters in Philadelphia disagree.

    11. Re:Careful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because white people a hundred and fifty years ago mistreated black people, ALL white people "clearly deserve it"?

      Huh, so segregation was 150 years ago?

    12. Re:Careful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Poor poor peckerwood, just can't get a break, and it's always somebody else's fault.

      Don't you worry, I voted for the party that won't roll back welfare and unemployment benefits, and we won. You'll be well taken care of, even as you bite the hand that feeds you.

    13. Re:Careful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's payback white boy.

    14. Re:Careful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you swap white and black, then their ideology fits well with the rest of that list. The SPLC's actual classification of the New Black Panther Party is Black Separatist, alongside the Nation of Islam.

    15. Re:Careful by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Of course. If you disagree you're condoning the mistreatment that occurred.

      Didn't they teach you in kindergarten that two wrongs make a right?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    16. Re:Careful by magic+maverick+ · · Score: 1

      I didn't deny that racism is racism. And while it isn't acceptable, the simple fact is, that in majority "white" countries racism against "white" people generally doesn't actually matter if you look at it from a society perspective. Because ultimately white people are not marginalize or persecuted, and so racism doesn't contribute to the marginalization or persecution.

      --
      HELP MY ACCOUNT HAS BEEN HACKED BY AN ILLIBERAL ART STUDENT SET TO DESTROY THE INTERWEBZ!
    17. Re:Careful by magic+maverick+ · · Score: 0

      Inciteful more like it, amirite?

      Got any, I don't know, citations? Any evidence that "highly qualified whites" were denied a job that was instead given to a "less qualified but black candidate"?

      I bet you also complain about women getting jobs that should really be going to men ... Oh noz, the womenz and the blackz are stealing my jobz!

      I don't really give a shit if a job was given to an otherwise equal "black" candidate instead of a "white" one. And if a black candidate was given a job despite being less suitable for the job (it's not just about qualifications and experience, but also about personality and other less tangible aspects), then I would have a problem with that. But I wouldn't care too much, because frankly white people generally have an easier time of it. It's called white privilege -- white people in a country like the USA have advantages simple because of the color their skin. Racism.

      --
      HELP MY ACCOUNT HAS BEEN HACKED BY AN ILLIBERAL ART STUDENT SET TO DESTROY THE INTERWEBZ!
    18. Re:Careful by davydagger · · Score: 1

      reading the article, you see nothing more than political skulldrugery

      " Here is incontrovertible proof (as if we needed it) that racism isn't just some imaginary talking point invented by liberals, but an actual problem."

      From this sentence its quite obvious what is being done here. Subjective pseudo-research to quantify democrat/liberal talking points. Reading the article, from a liberal blogger, while further reinforce the point.

      It seems to me their biggest concern over racism, is critizism of elected officials they favor. A few cherry picked off color twitter comments, and they are already rasing alarms.

      Not only is it obviously missing out on anti-white racism, it seems to be ignore good oid fashion white on black racism when its not politically motivated.

      this is a political slashvertisement, where a bunch of apparantly out of touch "liberals" feel the need to prove themselves by misleeding the public at large with un-scientific biased, subjective journalism.

    19. Re:Careful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      SPLC is a joke.

    20. Re:Careful by sideslash · · Score: 1

      Counterexample -- racially motivated black-on-white violence in inner cities. Clearly, black-on-white racism matters, and perhaps it is you who are trolling.

    21. Re:Careful by sideslash · · Score: 1

      There are multiple problems with the SPLC, including that they venture too far into politics and end up sometimes just being mouthpieces for their particular brand of partisan viewpoint. As such, they find themselves policing speech by moderately mainstream voices on the opposite side of the political aisle, and condemning mere political incorrectness as "hate speech". By crying wolf like that repeatedly, they eventually lose credibility with roughly half the country (those not of their obvious political alignment).

      An example -- the SPLC calls out Pamela Geller as a proponent of hate. However, I can't see that she's been any more or less a proponent of hate than Christopher Hitchens was. And frankly I don't think that would be a reasonable way to categorize either person, since both of them have probably been beneficial in the net to our society by being willing to be politically incorrect and take on abuses where they saw them (for example Geller with Islamic honor killings, and Hitchens with Catholic sexual abuse).

      Ironically, if we lower the bar so much that any criticism of a group constitutes "hate" (so as to include Geller and her ilk), the SPLC itself becomes a hate group, no?

    22. Re:Careful by postbigbang · · Score: 1

      Of Hitchins, I can't comment as I don't have sufficient information. Geller, however, is indeed a hater. But she's one of many. The SPLC has made a few mistakes along the way, but no one is perfect. Not me, not you, not them. I don't excuse the misgivings I see, rather, I applaud them for what they've done. There is much more that needs to be done to bring civility to a fearful society.

      --
      ---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
    23. Re:Careful by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      my uncle is a police officer, his first time through it happened to him.He ended up at a better station making more money a year down the road, but he was in the top 5 of the class, didnt get the 1 of 5 jobs meanwhile the only black man to apply, who finished outside the top 20, got a job. the only hispanic man who finished outside the top 30 got a job

      Call it what you want, but until the people are judged by their actions, and not by the color of their skin, it is racist.

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    24. Re:Careful by sideslash · · Score: 1

      The comparison goes something like this: Pamela Geller criticizes the Islamic religion, and the late Christopher Hitchens criticized pretty much all religions, as an outspoken atheist. Both notably pointed out real, modern abuses and made a case for how those modern abuses grew from the root of old traditions. Neither deserves the attention of an organization like the SPLC, to my knowledge.

    25. Re:Careful by postbigbang · · Score: 1

      Geller's advocacy of extreme measures oddly mimes some of the more extreme orthodox factions of other beliefs. Hitchens case is comparatively unknown to me.

      Should the SPLC investigate? Perhaps. Indicate, indict, or exonerate.

      Not sure the outcome in these cases. Skepticism isn't prejudice. Prejudice is prejudice.

      --
      ---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
    26. Re:Careful by sideslash · · Score: 1

      What extreme measures?

  4. ugh, it's too early by nopainogain · · Score: 0

    It's too early to mitigate trolls. My coffee hasn't kicked in yet.

  5. Re:niggers by postbigbang · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Lucky for you, free speech covers your spew. Posting AC doesn't allow us to revile you as thoroughly as we should, but we'll remember your hate.

    --
    ---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
  6. Oh boy, here we go... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah, but how much of that is from hipsters trying to be "ironic" and /b/tards trying to be edgy?

    1. Re:Oh boy, here we go... by nopainogain · · Score: 1

      Don't forget "unique" and "completely original" lol

  7. Alabama and Mississipi Full of Racists. by Arancaytar · · Score: 1, Funny

    Film at Eleven.

    1. Re:Alabama and Mississipi Full of Racists. by LordLimecat · · Score: 1

      Apparently as long as you avoid being racist yourself, you can be just as bigotted as you like about people from different locations.

      Seriously, the amount of irony and hypocrisy in this discussion is unbelievable.

  8. Re:So now we have proof by nopainogain · · Score: 1

    I'm just waiting for one who lacks reading comprehension skills (to know that was an insult) to come in and say "ROLL TIDE" which seems to be the "we know nothing but football" middle-america-battle-cry variant for that part of the world. Here in PA, we get to hear "we are" over and over from the Pennsyl-tucky-ans because PSU grads can't seem to finish a sentence.

  9. Re:Racist terms? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You'll find that the number of people (racist or not) calling Obama a "cracker" are vanishingly small, so this is completely irrelevant to the study.

  10. Re:niggers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    Except that there was no hate in my post. I was just typing random words.

    It was you who interpreted hatred. Who wanted to see hatred when none was there.

    I'm from a mixed race family (that's "mulatto") and I'm mocking those who insist words can only convey one possible sentiment, as well as those who use simplistic algorithms to gauge that sentiment.

    You know what's more effective than, "Waa don't call me a nigger!"

    "Yes, I am a nigger. Get used to it."

    Like dear Quentin Crisp explained: tolerance only comes when you've worn people down into accepting that you are what you are.

  11. Re:niggers by Arancaytar · · Score: 2

    You'll find that what makes your post racist (as well as homophobic, as well as plain stupid) isn't any word that is contained in it, but the fuck who wrote it.

  12. Congratulations, Slashdot -- achievement unlocked: by jeffb+(2.718) · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Make Trolls Stay On-Topic"

  13. Re:niggers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My post expresses a hatred for homosexuals? Please do explain.

  14. Re:niggers by postbigbang · · Score: 1

    I might even believe you if you hadn't tagged the end of your post with:

    "...especially processing conducted by faggots."

    Maybe you are mixed, maybe not. Your post infers the prejudice with those words. I know the vocabulary, I understand the malice and fear behind them. Sadly, I live not far from where the KKK was founded and there are a lot of scared people of many races here. Each of them has racial "power" that's actually the flipside of fear. In my book: all are individuals, some better than others on their own merits.

    --
    ---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
  15. Wow, they have done it again by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 0

    Modern media: redefining "racism" and "hate speech" in any way that suit their current needs. I mean...WTF? We've hardly begun teaching computers to understand meanings in natural text, and now we have suddenly computers making psychological profiles? Give me a break.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
    1. Re:Wow, they have done it again by mariox19 · · Score: 3, Funny

      The most charitable explanation for your post is that you did not click on the link and take a look at the article.

      --

      quiquid id est, timeo puellas et oscula dantes.

    2. Re:Wow, they have done it again by spire3661 · · Score: 1

      The computer drew no conclusions, it merely computed the input it was given, using the parrameters programmed into it. Any profile created is the result of HUMAN thought, not computation,

      --
      Good-bye
    3. Re:Wow, they have done it again by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 0

      Oh, bur I did. The most charitable explanation for *your* reply is that you are gifted with some sort of supernatural immunity to sheer frustration, can never, ever lose your balance, and therefore can't understand why, e.g., people sometimes do things out of exasperation (like kicking a dustbin and stubbing their toes) they wouldn't do in a saner state of mind (and I'm sure that in your innocent POV, those must seem like violent felons-in-waiting prone to hate crimes against garbage disposal equipment). Well, guess what. People aren't perfect, but not all those who aren't perfect are rotten at core for that reason alone.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    4. Re:Wow, they have done it again by kenh · · Score: 1

      May I remind you, this is Slashdot - reading past the headline is optional, and in no way required (or expected) before posting here...

      --
      Ken
    5. Re:Wow, they have done it again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You seem *very* angry.

    6. Re:Wow, they have done it again by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      I *am* very angry. I've had an insight today into the procedural workings of the parliament of my country and I'm in a very murderous mood. That's probably why I understand how much people can be frustrated. ;/

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    7. Re:Wow, they have done it again by mariox19 · · Score: 1

      We've all lost it when stubbing our toe. But, in the past when I've stubbed my toe, my reaction has never been to yell out, "Who's the nigger who left that there?"

      --

      quiquid id est, timeo puellas et oscula dantes.

  16. Re:niggers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    if you hadn't tagged the end of your post with:

    To illustrate how word usage has changed. "Faggot" on the Internet has become a generic term for an unfashionable/foolish person and is completely divorced from sexual orientation - the word started off having nothing to do with homosexuality and in this context once again has nothing to do with homosexuality.

    Does it matter that I'm also bisexual? It shouldn't, by the way. A bisexual bi-racial! I can put my hand down someone's pants and be pleased with whatever I find, and I don't sunburn easily. The world's my oyster, they told me.

    (I forgot to tell them I was allergic to seafish!)

    I know the vocabulary, I understand the malice and fear behind them.

    You know that the words often carry malice or fear, and think that this mean that the words should always carry malice or fear. It's like fearing an object you consider cursed, or relentless hunting an albatross.

    That's no way to progress.

    Cheer up.

  17. Re:Racist terms? by captainkoloth · · Score: 2

    Cracker Barrel isn't meant as a term of offense. Specifically, it's a term coined because general stores in the 19th centuries kept items, Like crackers in large barrels. Though, I wouldn't hold them up as a standard of racial harmony considering how many times they've been sued for racial discrimination.

  18. Re:niggers by slacktivist · · Score: 0

    Yeah I guess you're right. Let's ignore the word's history as a term of disparagement, accompanied with violence, because kids these days just stop short of carving the words 'faggot' or 'nigger' into someone's corpse.

  19. Subjective data. by dtmancom · · Score: 0, Troll

    These days, "Wow, I really disagree with Obama's policy on taxation" = racism.

    1. Re:Subjective data. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      "Wow I really disagree with Obama's policy on Taxation" = Political Discourse
      "Wow I really disagree with that N*****'s policy on Taxation" = Racist

      It's not that hard to figure out.

    2. Re:Subjective data. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnRpZ0GI7ug

      You hit it. The above is a link to a video of Jimmy Carter stating that reason people don't like Obama policies is because they are racists. Agreed to by Biden, Pelosi, and Reid. As an Independent I don't like many of Obama's policies and since the DNC LEADERSHIP, not just jackasses with a TV or radio program, think I'm a racist because of that I guess I don't need to support the DNC and they are not looking out for me.

      Because of that video and the reactions to it I will never vote for another DNC member again, not even for dog catcher.

    3. Re:Subjective data. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What are the chances of a random Twitter post being written by a child? Probably not bad. Do children ever try to make themselves look cool/tough by using grown-up words? Gee, once or twice. But I don't think kids usually are honestly racist; they haven't fully developed empathy, etc. and try to appear edgy by using bad words.

  20. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by Ogive17 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    While your statement in itself may hold true it's completely irrelevant to the topic.

    --
    "Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
  21. Not surprising but the data is flawed by thetoadwarrior · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The data only accounts for racism specifically targetting Obama by the looks of it. So not surprisingly the states that lost the civil war have the most. But it appears to be counting tweets vs accounts. That makes a huge difference because it only takes one mouthy retard to drive your state up the ranks.

    1. Re:Not surprising but the data is flawed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      And how does it handle colloquial use of certain terms that are likely considered racist.
      For example, if someone tweeted, "My nigger, elected again, you go black man!" (a positive statement), the algo may detect that as racist ( a negative tone).

      Or is a human reviewing each tweet and rating it.

    2. Re:Not surprising but the data is flawed by kenh · · Score: 1

      Wow, I wonder if there is a correlation between the way the state voted and their uncovering of racisim in tweets?

      There are several kinds of racists:

      a) Racists that don't know about/don't have accounts on Twitter
      b) Racists that have accounts on Twitter, but refuse to post racists tweets
      c) Racists that have accounts on Twitter AND post racist tweets

      Their "analysis" only picks up the third type of racist.

      Question - would their sophisticated analysis software detect a re-tweet pointing out someone else's racist tweet as being racist? For example, if a popular twitter account holder sent out a racist tweet, and then several hundred people that got the one original racist tweet and RT'd it, putting "racists idiot!" in front of the racist post, would that RT count as a new racist post?

      --
      Ken
    3. Re:Not surprising but the data is flawed by thetoadwarrior · · Score: 1

      I would guess it gets considered racist. I doubt someone is reviewing them by hand and they probably want to make it look worse than it is.

    4. Re:Not surprising but the data is flawed by WGFCrafty · · Score: 1

      Lost the Civil War and rank among the poorest and least educated.

    5. Re:Not surprising but the data is flawed by thetoadwarrior · · Score: 1

      if I had to guess there is probably no sophistication. I also think it's likely it doesn't pick up most racists because most of them are likely to be older people who don't use twitter. Also the example tweets in one of the links show it's generally all young people (surprisingly a lot of girls too - I thought they were more likely to keep their racism quiet) so I guess it's kind of cool what you can do with twitter's API but it doesn't mean much.

    6. Re:Not surprising but the data is flawed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lost the Civil War and rank among the poorest and least educated.

      The states in this article also have the most 47%ers. I didn't know why Romney didn't seem to know that.

    7. Re:Not surprising but the data is flawed by hundredrabh · · Score: 1

      Hmmm... seems like twitter now represents trends of the whole population? Seriously ..WTF..

      Need to create a twitter account and start voicing my opinion. Seems like this is a better way to get heard these days!

      --
      --whacky
    8. Re:Not surprising but the data is flawed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lost the Civil War and rank among the poorest and least educated.

      #11 Georgia
      #14 Texas
      #37 Alabama
      #38 California
      #39 Rhode Island
      #40 South Carolina
      #41 Louisiana
      #42 New York
      #44 Vermont
      #49 Hawaii
      #51 Maine

      Good old civil war winning slightly better educated South Carolina and Louisiana kicking New York's, Vermont's, Hawaii's and Maine's butt.

  22. Re:niggers by postbigbang · · Score: 2

    Somehow a meme developed whereby people of color could use the N-word and believed that to be ok. I believe the use of the word carries negative implication no matter who uses it, any any context. It's protected speech.

    So also is the f-word.

    Your status as a bi-sexual of mixed-race is dubious in my mind, or you wouldn't be actively disrespecting yourself, and others that might be similar to you. Why hate yourself and allow that to propagate? You can be proud. This is 2012. Time to stand up and be counted for being human, no matter the color, no matter the sexual orientation. You presume me to be white and str8. This presumption is part of the problem. By labeling, we do injustice, by pre-judging, hence prejudice.

    --
    ---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
  23. Re:niggers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Let's ignore the word's history

    No, let's not ignore the word's history. Let's acknowledge it as part of the history of the word.

    kids these days just stop short of carving the words 'faggot' or 'nigger' into someone's corpse.

    Yes, "kids these days". Never has the world been more racist. Oh wait.

    Stop tilting at windmills. It'll distract you from the overwhelming problems which continue to exist. (And racism is one of them, but not to the extent you dream.)

  24. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by mory · · Score: 1

    I think to gather this dataset for what you are talking about would require a highly polarizing event with the opposite result. But lets be honest here, there isn't much of a dataset for the main article.

  25. Re:Racist terms? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Sure seems to be the same to me.

    And yet they're not even close to being the same thing. In the case of Cracker Barrel, 'cracker' has more than 1 commonly used definition and it's clearly not the racial slur in the case of the restaurant. Also, the racial slur 'cracker' doesn't have the same cultural baggage associated with it. For example, you won't find it hard to use the word 'cracker' on network television, but it would be incredibly hard to get permission to use the word 'nigger'. There are few places in the U.S. where a white person could go and have to deal with any form of racism. The same is not true for most minorities.

    If you have a problem with the word 'nigger' being considered a racial slur and can't understand the difference in cultural baggage between 'cracker' and 'nigger', you might want to take a little more time to study racial issues in this country. You obviously don't have any experience dealing with true racism first hand.

  26. Slasdot's racist comments... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...are all the work of that "A. Nonymous Coward" guy. Find this Mr. Coward (assuming that is his real name), and all of the racist posts on /. will end.

    No need to thank me...

  27. Re:niggers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Your status as a bi-sexual of mixed-race is dubious in my mind, or you wouldn't be actively disrespecting yourself

    And you can kindly fuck off and stop telling me what words I am allowed to use to describe myself.

    By labeling, we do injustice, by pre-judging, hence prejudice.

    The only labels I've placed are on myself. You're the one going around talking about how other people should go labelling or not labelling.

    I'm sufficiently effeminate that most people assume I'm a raging queer - although I can and do enjoy people regardless of gender. And I'm proud of the honky, nigger and wetback mixing pot that is my family. Isn't that great? Not to you, I guess. You want me to tread carefully and be worried about how I self-identify. Because whites ended up using "nigger" as a derogatory term, now no-one at all should use the word ever - because whites are the language police, right? Do you realise how patronising that is? Get that burden off your back, son.

  28. Re:So now we have proof by Hentes · · Score: 1

    I was trying to make a point that calling the inhabitants of a place racist is itself a form of racism. Looks like you guys didn't get your sarcasm detector calibrated today.

  29. One Tweet for Utah, One Tweet for North Dakota by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Interesting

    With only a couple of days work this isn't bad. But it's not science, it's interest and a proof of concept for doing actual research.

    I think it's absolutely horrible and the fact that these states names but not their numbers have found their way into headlines and a Slashdot summary makes me sick. They might have been right to indict the Southern states that we already know have issues along these lines but their map of tweets lists precisely one tweet for Utah and one tweet for North Dakota. The really appalling thing about the North Dakota tweet is that it is geolocated to Minot, a town that has seen an explosive growth in transient workers from states like Oklahoma and Texas in order to meet the demand for workers with oil specialties in the oil fields near there. It's probably a fifty/fifty shot the tweet was from an actual permanent resident of North Dakota.

    Basically if a low population states hits the top of your study and the data is that sparse (one tweet!) then I think you should omit that as an outlier and stricken those names from your press release. It's great to recognize these things in your data and to talk about them in your analysis. It's unjust to propagate just their names throughout the news making people think that North Dakota is not only cold and sparsely populated but it's also racist.

    Someone in Salt Lake City could have been joking in one tweet and suddenly Utah is one of the most racist states in a Slashdot summary. A transient worker who feels like lost his job in OK and had to use his CDL in Minot, ND because a black man was president could fire off an ignorant tweet and suddenly North Dakota is full of racists.

    --
    My work here is dung.
    1. Re:One Tweet for Utah, One Tweet for North Dakota by GrumpySteen · · Score: 4, Informative

      The floatingsheep page specifically says, "we are measuring tweets rather than users and so one individual could be responsible for many tweets and in some cases (most notably in North Dakota, Utah and Minnesota) the number of hate tweets is small and the high LQ is driven by the relatively low number of overall tweets." It's not their fault that the author of the Atlantic article left out those details.

    2. Re:One Tweet for Utah, One Tweet for North Dakota by TubeSteak · · Score: 1

      According to the census, North Dakot's population is 90.4% white and 1.3% black.

      The State may or may not be full of racists, but we definitely know that it is not full of black people.

      --
      [Fuck Beta]
      o0t!
    3. Re:One Tweet for Utah, One Tweet for North Dakota by stranger_to_himself · · Score: 2

      The floatingsheep page specifically says, "we are measuring tweets rather than users and so one individual could be responsible for many tweets and in some cases (most notably in North Dakota, Utah and Minnesota) the number of hate tweets is small and the high LQ is driven by the relatively low number of overall tweets." It's not their fault that the author of the Atlantic article left out those details.

      It is their fault for publishing crap that they know will be headline grabbing, no matter how many caveats they put in.

    4. Re:One Tweet for Utah, One Tweet for North Dakota by jamstar7 · · Score: 1

      The floatingsheep page specifically says, "we are measuring tweets rather than users and so one individual could be responsible for many tweets and in some cases (most notably in North Dakota, Utah and Minnesota) the number of hate tweets is small and the high LQ is driven by the relatively low number of overall tweets." It's not their fault that the author of the Atlantic article left out those details.

      It is their fault for publishing crap that they know will be headline grabbing, no matter how many caveats they put in.

      Funding. That's how they get it. Post raw data that suggests a problem, apply for funding to monitor and/or fix the problem, rinse and repeat. Academia lives on funding. Without it, those statisticians would have to go get real jobs.

      --
      Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
    5. Re:One Tweet for Utah, One Tweet for North Dakota by GrumpySteen · · Score: 4, Informative

      LOL

      You clearly did not look at the website. The guys who did this are in academia, but the website is not an academic publication nor would any of the stuff they post garner funding. Their top articles include such things as "The Beer Belly of America", "The Price of Weed", "Church vs. Beer? on Twitter" and "Church, bowling, guns and strip clubs."

      They're doing this as a fun hobby, not serious academic research. There is no funding, no grants, nothing.

    6. Re:One Tweet for Utah, One Tweet for North Dakota by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's unjust to propagate just their names throughout the news making people think that North Dakota is not only cold and sparsely populated but it's also racist.

      And then you name drop Oklahoma twice. Ironic.

    7. Re:One Tweet for Utah, One Tweet for North Dakota by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "They might have been right to indict the Southern states that we already know have issues along these lines"

      You are ignorant and extremely unintelligent.

    8. Re:One Tweet for Utah, One Tweet for North Dakota by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They might have been right to indict the Southern states that we already know have issues along these lines

      They also have the highest percentage of blacks in their populations. Maybe they know something you should?

    9. Re:One Tweet for Utah, One Tweet for North Dakota by fatphil · · Score: 2

      Did you miss the section of the website titled "Publications"? And are you familiar with the concept "publish or perish"? I suspect they're having fun whilst trying not to perish.

      As for the "no academic research", that's certainly true - I don't think I've seen any less scientific crap since some students spray-painted some grey squirrels red in order to balance the size of the two populations.

      --
      Also FatPhil on SoylentNews, id 863
    10. Re:One Tweet for Utah, One Tweet for North Dakota by GrumpySteen · · Score: 2

      "Publish or perish" refers to publishing papers in an academic journals, not putting stuff on a personal website. The fact that you don't understand the difference is sad.

    11. Re:One Tweet for Utah, One Tweet for North Dakota by tompaulco · · Score: 1

      And then you name drop Oklahoma twice. Ironic.
      Which was not even mentioned in the summary, even more ironically. I guess all of Oklahoma's racists moved to North Dakota.
      Actually, I disagree with my own statement, Most of the racists in Oklahoma are minorities. Of course, that is true anywhere.

      --
      If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
    12. Re:One Tweet for Utah, One Tweet for North Dakota by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A transient worker who feels like lost his job in OK and had to use his CDL in Minot, ND because a black man was president could fire off an ignorant tweet and suddenly North Dakota is full of racists.

      I live near ND, and I can assure you that tweets or no tweets, there is (and has always been) plenty of racism in ND. Granted, it's usually directed more at the Native Americans and the Mexicans who come up for the summer harvest seasons, but the black population has been trending upwards in recent years so it's time for them to get some as well I guess.
      And shit like this doesn't help your image much, either: http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2012/08/03/racist-decapitation-murder-shakes-small-north-dakota-town/

    13. Re:One Tweet for Utah, One Tweet for North Dakota by fatphil · · Score: 1

      I do understand the difference, and you are a fucking lazy idiot. If you'd have followed the link I mentioned, you'd have seen the following:
      """
      In addition to the Floatingsheep blog we have a number of academic papers in various stages of review, revision and published form. ... The Professional Geographer 64(4): 602-617 ... Journal of Urban Technology 18(1): 115-132. ... Journal of Urban Technology 18(1): 93-114 ... Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie 101(4): 422â€"436 ... World Health and Medical Policy 2(2): 7-33. ... Environment and Planning A 42(4): 763-764. ... GeoForum 40(4): 523-534 ... GeoForum 38(6): 1322-1343 ... Environment and Planning B 34(3): 466-482. ... Societies and Cities in the Age of Instant Access. 231-244
      """

      --
      Also FatPhil on SoylentNews, id 863
    14. Re:One Tweet for Utah, One Tweet for North Dakota by Glothar · · Score: 1

      It's unjust to propagate just their names throughout the news making people think that North Dakota is not only cold and sparsely populated but it's also racist.

      Yes, it's important to avoid thinking that this proves North Dakota is racist. That's an unfair assessment of the people of North Dakota.

      The majority of people in North Dakota dislike black people. But they also dislike people from India, Pakistan, China, South America, Mexico, Japan, Morocco, Australia... pretty much anywhere that isn't North Dakota. Minnesotans have some degree of reciprocity. Heck, they don't even like people who grew up in North Dakota, lived in a city for a while and moved back.

      Put more plainly: North Dakotans are xenophobic. Small town friendliness is only extended to people within the small town, and anyone who doesn't look like the majority of the rest of the people in the area isn't going to be all that accepted. The fact that the president has an appearance that immediately identifies him as "Not North Dakotan" (compounded by the amount of "book learnins" he's got) is enough that I was never under the impression that he'd ever be liked by the state (in general).

      Now, there are plenty of counter-examples, of course, but after twenty-two years of experience, I can safely say that North Dakota is the least tolerant place I've lived. Does it equal the warmth, and openness with which everyone of all ethnicities is welcomed to rural Mississippi? Dunno. Never lived there. Now, does the data in TFA actually model that? Nope, it does not. Sadly. In my mind, North Dakota does deserve to be right up there with Mississippi for doesnt-look-like-us hatred.

    15. Re:One Tweet for Utah, One Tweet for North Dakota by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now, there are plenty of counter-examples, of course, but after twenty-two years of experience, I can safely say that North Dakota is the least tolerant place I've lived. Does it equal the warmth, and openness with which everyone of all ethnicities is welcomed to rural Mississippi?

      Fuckin' trolls are thick on Slashdot.

    16. Re:One Tweet for Utah, One Tweet for North Dakota by GrumpySteen · · Score: 1

      1) Childish insults do nothing to make your case.

      2) Those references show that those papers have been published referenced in academic journals, not their personal website. You clearly do not understand the difference between an academic journal and a personal website and you're demonstrating that lack of understanding in your post.

      I'm done explaining it to you.

    17. Re:One Tweet for Utah, One Tweet for North Dakota by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The State may or may not be full of racists, but we definitely know that it is not full of black people.

      What's your point? That it's OK to slander it in the media because you don't approve of the people living there?

    18. Re:One Tweet for Utah, One Tweet for North Dakota by fatphil · · Score: 1

      Indeed, insults do not make my case, they simply decorate my case. If the slashdot audience is going to have to plough through your idiocy, they may as well at least have something that adds some amusement to the drudgery.

      And you couldn't explain yourself out of a paper bag. You were totally and utterly in the wrong in the first place, and, once that was demonstrated to you and to the slashdot reading public, had the stupidity to re-iterate how wrong you were. That's either brave or stupid.

      I think I know which.

      --
      Also FatPhil on SoylentNews, id 863
    19. Re:One Tweet for Utah, One Tweet for North Dakota by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "They might have been right to indict the Southern states that we already know have issues along these lines"

      You are ignorant and extremely unintelligent.

      Like that racist in the White House from the most southerly state!

  30. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 2

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  31. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by Nerdfest · · Score: 4, Informative

    Why is it irrelevant? They claim they're measuring the geolocation of racism, but only pick one very specific type.

  32. Re:niggers by kenh · · Score: 1

    To illustrate how word usage has changed. "Faggot" on the Internet has become a generic term for an unfashionable/foolish person and is completely divorced from sexual orientation

    That's funny, it had the same definition when I was in middle and high school, but for some reason that excuse doesn't innoculate me from the way others respond to that word.

    If you are the only one that knows what you mean when you use that word, it is your problem, not you're listeners.

    --
    Ken
  33. And the counterpoint? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Did they track the racist tweets, death and riot threats if Romney won? I saw a lot which doesn't mean anything statistically. One picked just now https://twitter.com/MsIvory69/status/267567462298554368 PS. Not at all a Romney supporter.

  34. Should be Celebrating by unamanic · · Score: 1

    Never mind the fact that:
    - they did not account for multiple tweets from the same person.
    - do not consider any term "racist" unless it has been used to "subjugate a people for generations"
    - think that 359 TOTAL geocoded tweets out of ALL geocoded tweets (.05%) is statistically significant.

    We should be celebrating that only .05% of the population is outwardly racist. Who cares if the south has a marginally higher number or the 359 racist Twitter users. This story is as ludicrous, sensationalized, piece drivel that doesn't really show anything. I've lived in Alabama for almost 3 years now and have yet to run into an openly racist person.

    When the author was confronted with questions regarding why he did not do a reciprocal piece, regarding racism against Romney, he argued that there are not words for whites that have the same power as the "n" word for blacks (although he included the word "monkey" in his "study", a word I've heard used to describe fools both white and black alike). It is clear that the authors view is that is impossible whites to be the subject of racism because they were the oppressor 60 years ago. The article leaves you with the implied conclusion that if someone did not vote for Obama, they must be racist (a implication that the author denies in his follow up).

  35. Looks like US population density map by alexmin · · Score: 2

    Did they really expect clusters in Rocky Mountains?

  36. Who gives a damn? by Lawrence_Bird · · Score: 0

    The obsession of three groups - blacks, jews and "progressive" whites over "hate" speech, "racism" and "discrimination" is tired and old. Grow up and get over the fact that, for whatever their reasons, some people just don't like you and never will. Nobody ever guaranteed you a world in which everybody loves each other and sings Kumbaya. So your feelings are hurt. Or you feell "threatened". Know what? My feelings get hurt every day. And I feel "threatened" when I walk or drive through certain areas. I don't go running to the cops or my congress critter to "protect" me unless something actually happens. And we certainly already have enough laws on the books to cover every imaginable form of violence.

    And as I'm sure to be downmodded, I might as well add this: If twitter were around in 2004 (or even 2000), would this type of analysis be done looking for racicsm and hate speech directed against the white candidate? Really?

    Perhaps our progressive friends should spend a little more time in the hood and hear what is said about whites (and even other minority groups). They might be shocked to find that minorities are just as good at hating on others, other minorities included.

  37. They failed to consider the other direction. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    There were loads of racist tweets from blacks threatening to riot if Romney won. Did they manage to track any of those?

  38. Re:niggers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    for some reason that excuse doesn't innoculate me from the way others respond to that word.

    Aye. No need to use among a bunch of homosexuals who are going to be nothing but hurt.

    But fine to use it among people, homosexual or not, who have a more mature understanding of language.

    Also: "inoculate", "your listener's/listeners'". Bad spelling and grammar often suggest a disrespect for the reader. But I'm not going to turn this into some guilt trip...

  39. News Flash by snspdaarf · · Score: 2

    You can find assholes almost anywhere

    --
    Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
    1. Re:News Flash by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Particularly toward the rear.

    2. Re:News Flash by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Alimentary, Dr. Watson!

    3. Re:News Flash by fm6 · · Score: 1

      So you're saying all racists are assholes? If I were a racist, I'd be offended by your stereotyping!

  40. Re:Racist terms? by kenh · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Apparently Chris Matthews gets to decide what is racist. For example, he declared that refering to "Chicago" is racist.

    --
    Ken
  41. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by a_mari_usque_ad_mare · · Score: 1, Informative

    It wasn't life that was unkind, it was their fellow white Americans.

    Also, my mother passed through New York City on the way to Europe and remembers seeing signs saying 'No blacks' and such on restaurants. She is younger than 150.

    --
    The map is not the territory.
  42. Worthless by Jiro · · Score: 2

    Aside from the problems people already mentioned, if you look in their FAQ, one correction they didn't even mention is correcting it for total Obama support. Obviously if a place has twice as many Obama opponents it's also going to have twice as many racist Obama opponents. But that doesn't prove that it has "more racist Obama opponents" in the sense we normally think of. If you want that you need ratios.

    And 395 is a very small number. They mention that it's not a sample, but it's all the geocoded racist tweets they found, but since it is such a small number, they failed to account for the possibility that there just isn't a lot of racism in the first place, and even if they did look for ratios, "very small percentage compared to another very small percentage" isn't interesting.

    And they mention they didn't bother checking all the hateful comments about Romney (they did check for anti-white comments, but they didn't check for comments reflecting other stereotypes). Their excuse is basically "we were trying to find out about racism, which that's not". The trouble with that reasoning is that while anti-Romney tweets are not germane to what they literally claim to be looking for, they are germane to the subtext of what they're looking for, which is that racism is a big problem--if there are a lot of anti-Romney tweets, that can show that the number of anti-Obama tweets is not really such a big deal. "Blacks called names almost as much as Mormons" makes a bad headline, after all.

    1. Re:Worthless by Fred+Ferrigno · · Score: 1

      Obviously if a place has twice as many Obama opponents it's also going to have twice as many racist Obama opponents.

      That doesn't follow. Suppose there are two states: Redstate and Raciststate. The two states have roughly the same population.

      In Redstate, the normal political inclination in a year with two white men running is 60-40% Republican. 10% of the population is racist and won't vote for a black man no matter what. Let's assume these racists are equally divided by party.

      In Raciststate, the normal political inclination is 50-50% split evenly between the parties. However, 30% of the population is racist and won't vote for a black man. Again, let's assume they're evenly divided by party.

      So what happens when a black man runs as a Democrat? In Redstate, the Republican will pick up 4% (10% of the Democratic vote) to win 64%-36%. In Raciststate, he'll pick up 15% and win 65%-35%.

      So even though the two states have roughly the same number of people voting Republican that year, you can tell Raciststate is more racist because of Democrats who voted based on race. What's more, if you took the ratio of racist voters relative to the Republican vote, rather than the whole population, you'd be get an inflated estimate of racism in the whole population in both states.

    2. Re:Worthless by jazzdude00021 · · Score: 1

      "Blacks called names almost as much as Mormons" makes a bad headline, after all.

      Just remember: everyone's a little bit racist.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbud8rLejLM

  43. Missives heading for New York by snspdaarf · · Score: 1

    Film at Eleven

    --
    Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
  44. Re:niggers by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Actually, it's not the word, it's the person that makes it racist. As George Carlin ($deity bless his smutty soul) said "Eddie Murphy talks about niggers, but he's not a racist, don't be silly. He's a nigger". Is Carlin a racist for using the word? I kinda doubt that he is. And even if, he's not for using the word.

    Words are, by themselves, nothing but just that. Words. Idioms to represent something, in case of a noun, to represent an item, a person or an idea. It's the intention behind the word that makes it racist or not. And that's not depending on the word. If a racist calls someone an Afro-American (or whatever the PC word is right now, sorry if I don't keep up with the bull but I prefer to be correct instead of PC), the intention is to use the word not only to ridicule PCness, but also to use the PC term to deem someone inferior.

    It is not the word. It is the person that is racist. And by changing the politically correct term for it, you don't change racism. You just paint the shit in a different color, but it still reeks.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  45. Similar analysis for homophobic tweets by stepdown · · Score: 2

    It's not mapped, but NoHomophobes.com have a live stream of tweets containing homophobic language. Write up over at the Guardian's Data Store

  46. Re:Racist terms? by kenh · · Score: 1

    Wow, conflating an item in a 19th century general store with a restaurant chain and a racial slur?

    Sometimes white people are called "Cracker"

    General Stores used to have "Cracker Barrels" where folks would sit around the barrel, eat the crackers, and talk about the day's events, politics, etc.

    There is a popular restaurant chain called "Cracker Barrel"

    --
    Ken
  47. This whole topic is full of shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    How is that when people speak their mind it is labeled "racist"? Isn't there a freedom of speech? President is the public persona, up for discussions. There is the first amendment, people. Freedom of speech and expression.

    When black people vote for him just because he is black, how isn't this not a racism?
    When minority people get lower passing grades in schools how isn't this a racism?

    People have the right to speak their mind.

    1. Re:This whole topic is full of shit by pclminion · · Score: 4, Insightful

      How is that when people speak their mind it is labeled "racist"? Isn't there a freedom of speech?

      Ding ding ding! We have a winner. Calling these idiots racists is an exercise of free speech.

      Oh, you wanted us to sit silently while you spew little-minded vitriolic bullshit? Is that how you think free speech works?

    2. Re:This whole topic is full of shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How is that when people speak their mind it is labeled "racist"?

      If their mind is full of racism, it becomes obvious when they speak it! (Except to racists and trolls.)

    3. Re:This whole topic is full of shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have seen niggers say things that are more logical than the shit you just spewed.

    4. Re:This whole topic is full of shit by fm6 · · Score: 1

      How is that when people speak their mind it is labeled "racist"? Isn't there a freedom of speech?

      It's funny how trolls (and aren't racists a kind of troll?) always get all mad about their freedom of speech being violated, just because somebody points out that they're trolling. As if the 1st amendment covers saying things that are offensive, but it doesn't cover telling people that they're saying offensive things.

    5. Re:This whole topic is full of shit by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      People absolutely have a right to speak their mind. When they use that right to say things like "oh my god, we elected the nigger again", they clearly identify themselves as racist. It's not illegal to be a racist in the USA, because of freedom of speech, but it's also not illegal to point finger at someone who's a racist and say, "look, what a jerk".

    6. Re:This whole topic is full of shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And what did he say that was vitriolic? You are a racist!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  48. Re:niggers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Cool story br... I mean, fag ;)

  49. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by 0xdeadbeef · · Score: 2

    Seriously. My feed was full of black people calling Romney "cracker-ass cracker", and I had to de-friend people posting racist jokes about him and his dancing horse.

  50. Re:niggers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Call someone patronizing, then 'son'.

    I loled at the retard who thinks he is in charge of language.

  51. Perhaps you've heard of by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    'These findings support the idea that there are some fairly strong clustering of hate tweets centered in southeastern U.S. which has a much higher rate than the national average,'

    Perhaps you've heard of the American Civil War? States Rights? John C Calhoon? The Confederacy?

    The old timers down there still haven't conceded THAT contest either, trust me.,

  52. Re:niggers by postbigbang · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not at all.

    Language is tricky. You can be what you want to be. My doubts about the nature of your posts has to do with your seeming self-reviling. You describe yourself in terms that don't connote pride, they connote self-loathing, which shouldn't be the case.

    Along thru this thread, I've told you that you can use any words that you want; they're protected speech. Your inference, however, is that you seem to despise these things. Being of mixed race, part of the LGBTQ rainbow, these are who you are as an individual. I respect individuals. I don't respect negative labels.

    For English, there is no real language police. There is, however, the semantical choices made by English speakers that contextually infer their contexts, and their meanings. Describe yourself in any way you see fit, but don't believe that others want to use the negative inference you've used as well. Indeed, these words are used to subjugate you by labeling you in negative terms. Those negative terms are viable. But they do little good.

    That you may be perceived by others negatively is their misfortune. For you to do so, however, validates their negativity and prejudice. Be proud. Pride is a positive quality, and eschews the negative.

    --
    ---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
  53. Re:niggers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You're failing to recognize satire.

  54. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by Eristone · · Score: 0

    Gee - I didn't realize 1964 was 150 years ago, Mr/Ms AC.

  55. Re:niggers by postbigbang · · Score: 1

    We knew nothing of the intentions of the speaker until they spoke, using words and vocabulary, inference, inflections, and other linguistic keys to understand their utterances.

    Words can demean, save that those they target may not be demeaned by them. While Carlin used speech loosely and for great humor and insight, this particular choice poises Eddie Murphy dropping to a low common denominator of reference. Carlin may be no racist, but the term is demeaning nonetheless.

    --
    ---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
  56. Re:niggers by postbigbang · · Score: 1

    Think it through. There are two sides to every coin.

    --
    ---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
  57. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by khallow · · Score: 1

    Oh gosh, who else hasn't used their time machine yet? I believe the word is "retro"? I haven't used it in a century, you know, so I might have forgotten.

  58. racists see racism where there is none by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Those who are on the witch hunt for racists are often more demonstrably racists than those they "reveal".

    1. Re:racists see racism where there is none by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Bullshit.

  59. im not sure theres a negative impact by nimbius · · Score: 2

    if the results arent strictly scientific from a statisticians observation. The overarching point is to draw attention to this kind of behavior and place it in contexts such as the "you lie" incident during healthcare reform, the birther rhetoric and even the tea party itself. This was more an exercise in the patterns and processes of social inequality than it was a mathematical endeavor of quantification in my opinion, and it deserves further research into questions like what are the causes and solutions.

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
  60. Nice project by koan · · Score: 0

    But you could have just asked, I don't think anyone who lives in the US would be surprised by something we all know already.

    --
    "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
    1. Re:Nice project by DaveV1.0 · · Score: 0

      Surprised that you are a bigot who judges people by the stereotypes of the locations in which they live? No, no one is surprised by that.

      --
      There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
  61. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'll bet they counted anyone who tweeted "I'm white and I did not vote for Obama" as a racist.

  62. Re:niggers by Omestes · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As a person who isn't a kid these days, and is completely unfamiliar with hip internet parlance (i.e. lives in the real world), terms like "faggot" and the n-word (I don't even want to type it) are still highly charged, and loaded with ugly context. I really doubt that most gay people or black people would also find these words fully acceptable (go find one, call them it, then try to tell them that its okay on 4chan so they should relax).

    Words do have power. Words shape our understanding and conception of the world. Words with a loaded history of venom and hate still maintain a portion of that long after they stop being completely pejorative. It doesn't even matter what the speaker means, as meaning is created mostly by the perceiver.

    Further, your being a bit naive. If someone calls me a "fag", I'm pretty sure they aren't critiquing my fashion sense, they are trying to tie me to a group which (for some stupid reason) they find undesirable. It is an insult which hinged on the idea that homosexuals are bad or dirty. This is the actual content behind the word. The word isn't bad, but the connections it requires to have meaning are.

    Unless of course they are asking for a cigarette, or some firewood.

    Hell, "fuck" has pretty much become a normal word now, but there still are some connotations lurking in the background which keeps me from ever really wanting to use it (I do, and often, but don't find it a point of pride).

    --
    A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey
  63. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by Soilworker · · Score: 2

    And I've seen a lot of black-only club, why is it different ?

  64. Re:All of which are red states by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Generalize, much? Mind closed.

  65. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by TubeSteak · · Score: 0

    They claim they're measuring the geolocation of racism, but only pick one very specific type.

    There's actually a term for "black-to-white racism."
    You know what it is? "Reverse-racism"

    If you want to do more than skim the surface of racism, it helps to look at the issue in relation to power structures.
    Which is another way of saying "not all racism is equal."

    --
    [Fuck Beta]
    o0t!
  66. Re:Racist terms? by russotto · · Score: 2

    There are few places in the U.S. where a white person could go and have to deal with any form of racism.

    No. There are few places in the U.S. where a white person WOULD go and have to deal with any form of racism. Lots of places they COULD go, but don't.

  67. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by Amorymeltzer · · Score: 2

    The reelection of the first non-white person to be president in the USA was the biggest and most-watched news event, any type of racism not aimed at Obama would not relevant, regardless of where it came from or was aimed at.

    --
    I live in constant fear of the Coming of the Red Spiders.
  68. How about racism against Romney? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How about they do the same thing for Romney looking at the week before the election? There were a very large number of racist tweets against him - threats to assassinate, start riots, start fires, etc.

    1. Re:How about racism against Romney? by DaveV1.0 · · Score: 1

      Were the tweets because of Romney's race? Or, were they because of his religion or political ideology? Unless one can definitively answer that question, one cannot make the study you suggest.

      --
      There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
    2. Re:How about racism against Romney? by slacktivist · · Score: 2, Informative

      How about they do the same thing for Romney looking at the week before the election? There were a very large number of racist tweets against him - threats to assassinate, start riots, start fires, etc.

      I don't understand this. "Don't go after the white folk racists! Them blacks is just as bad!" Why are we trying to shift the blame so that if some blacks call whites crackers and some whites call blacks niggers let's just call it even? How about we call them both out without downplaying one side OR the other. The "but they do it too" game is itself inherently racist because it detracts from the point that racism directed in any direction is immoral.

    3. Re:How about racism against Romney? by RightSaidFred99 · · Score: 0

      Well, were there really or was it just blathering from right wing conspiracy kooks? I noticed the latest is they're ranting that the election was fraudulent somehow.

      I didn't and wouldn't vote for Obama, but the far right wing is kooky as shit.

    4. Re:How about racism against Romney? by Dr+Damage+I · · Score: 1

      "How about we call them both out..."

      Good idea. In fact, that's the point of the posts you object to. The examination of racist tweets "called out" one specific kind of racism without any attempt to "call out" any other kind. Why would you defend that sort of conduct? And why would you defend it by accusing it's detractors of exactly the sort of shortsightedness that the examination of racist tweets suffers from?

      --
      "Cursed is he who rises early in the morning..." Isiah 5:11
    5. Re:How about racism against Romney? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No that's not entirely true. Racism directed at an underprivileged class has real world ramifications for that class of people. "Racism" against the privileged class due to inequities in the system is simply an innocuous byproduct of the anger and outgrouping made possible by that system. Saying one form is equal to another is missing the actual damage caused when one side holds the reins. If you're walking down the street and you get stopped by cops for your white skin, and this is endemic of the norm, then you can tell me that the racism is equal. Until then you need to recognize that being called a cracker is wholly different from being denied a job, being denied opportunities and being denied a life not under scrutiny by a police state.

  69. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by a_mari_usque_ad_mare · · Score: 1, Informative

    The difference? Massive levels of prejudice and bias, both official and unofficial from the federal government, state governments, the police, and the legal system. I would cite something here but this is basic, uncontroversial US history.

    I don't think you should be allowed to have racially exclusive clubs, but I think you are full of shit with your "lot of black only club". For a moment, let's assume you are right. You still must be profoundly ignorant of United States history to think the shoe is somehow on the other foot. In some Southern states, blacks are over 90% of the prison population, but I am sure that is just some crazy coincidence, right?

    --
    The map is not the territory.
  70. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by Nerdfest · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I know another term for reverse-racism ... it's "racism". It shouldn't be made different in any way. If people keep doing things to treat any type of racism differently, it will never stop.

  71. What did you expect from Jezebel? by SuperBanana · · Score: 1

    Jezebel is about presenting everything in a way that makes liberal women outraged.

    Also, like most people in gender studies, they wouldn't know the scientific process or logic even if it pinched their ass.

    1. Re:What did you expect from Jezebel? by slacktivist · · Score: 0

      Jezebel is about presenting everything in a way that makes liberal women outraged.

      If a woman is outraged by Jezebel's content that proves that Jezebel's motives are to outrage. And if she isn't outraged then she simply isn't a liberal brainwashed sheep falling into the honey pot. You might just have an unbeatable argument there, were it not for the lack of supporting evidence (based in reality.)

    2. Re:What did you expect from Jezebel? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Jezebel sells ads targeted to snarky third-generation feminists. At best, it's social justice softcore pr0n, thus the focus on the obvious examples of culturally backwards nutjobs such as politicians who think rape can't get you pregnant. They're doing reasonably well at expanding readership, and I'd think you'd be more supportive of the entrepreneurial initiative of profiting off a rapidly growing, under-served market.

      To their credit, the point of the original article was "zomg racists lol", not science. It's not their fault or their responsibility that someone took the snark and tried to turn it into science. On the other hand, you'd have to be blinded by stupidity agenda to not realize that there are some pretty vocal racists bellowing in impotent rage that the culture is leaving them behind.

      As to your other point, yeah, a lot of people in critical theory can be irrational, on the other hand their critics aren't doing any better.

    3. Re:What did you expect from Jezebel? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Jezebel is about presenting everything in a way that makes liberal women outraged.

      Also, like most people in gender studies, they wouldn't know the scientific process or logic even if it pinched their ass.

      They wouldn't know, but they would be thrilled to be very very so outraged by the pinch, yet strangely proud and turned on by the fact it was their ass that was chosen to be pinched.

    4. Re:What did you expect from Jezebel? by kazekirifx · · Score: 1

      Yeah. Wish they had warned me before I clicked on a link to Jezebel. Ouch! My eyes!

  72. Racial Bias in the data by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They completely skipped the "Ima get whitey if Romeny wins!" stuff.

  73. Why ignore all the religous bigotry? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Why hasn't there been a map showing all the bigots not only tweeting anti-mormon slurs, but printing their hate as news stories? Does the hatrid and bigotry from the left not count (or is it not only tolerated, but condoned)?

  74. Re:Racist terms? by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    When I was a kid there was a cheese called Cracker Barrel. Harvey Smith was on the adverts.

    Harvey Smith rocked.

    I can't vouch for the cheese; myself and dairy products don't get on.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  75. "Racist" is hard to measure by retroworks · · Score: 2

    I work internationally, and when the term comes up in a context like, say Africa, where people feel like underdogs but are not minorities, or have multiple splits within the race as in China, it gets really complicated. The term has more meaning in USA or European contexts, perhaps, but since this is "Geomapping" it is a geographic study and I don't think this will work. t would be similar if you were trying to track "Classist" tweets across a geopolitical line where the economic strata are different. They should be measuring "aggression" or "separatism" or something. It would be easier if Twitter got people to add hashtags #Imatroll or #fromadickweed or #aggressiveshithead etc.

    --
    Gently reply
  76. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    wait, is Mitt Romney a Centaur?

    I thought the dancing horse jokes were about his wealth, which is not racially based.

  77. Nice Narrative you got there. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Sure would be a pity if some facts happened to it.

    Goggle results: "White devil": 55M, "N**r" : 19M.

    Oikophobia you much?

  78. Uh huh, now where's the graph... by DRMShill · · Score: 0

    for all the blacks and latinos who voted against Romney solely because he's white? This problem goes both ways.

    1. Re:Uh huh, now where's the graph... by Mindcontrolled · · Score: 1

      You mean "who voted against Romney because he showed the finger to everyone who is not a rich white male", right?

      --
      Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
  79. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by shadowofwind · · Score: 5, Interesting

    When white people hate black people, the people who are harmed the most by it are black people.

    When black people hate white people, the people who are harmed the most by it are black people.

    In the US there are more white people than black people and the white people have more power. The situation is not symmetric.

    For now, the 'specific type' of racism that was measured is still important in a way that the others aren't, even if the others are important also. Soon white people will be a minority, but then black racism still won't be a large threat to white people, it will be asian and hispanic racism, or the absence of it, that affects them primarily.

    I agree that racism is a better term than reverse racism. But its BS when people (not necessarily you) bemoan the fact that black racism isn't treated like white racism. Likewise for when people complain of "class warfare" when rich people are criticized for abusing the power that money gives them. (When a poor person thinks that rich people should pay more taxes, and politicians pander to that, it doesn't harm the rich person in anything like the way the poor person is harmed by the self serving actions of the rich person. Getting laid off to increase the quarterly earnings of an already profitable company, for instance, is a lot worse than a multi-millionaire having to pay 20% capital gains tax instead of 15%. The argument is made that higher capital gains taxes would hurt poor people because it discourages investment. This ignores the fact that 'investment' activity is often more parasitic in nature rather than economically constructive. But even supposing the argument is valid, it still illustrates the asymmetry - its the poor person who suffers in both cases. This doesn't imply that rich people are 'worse' than poor people, or that poor people would be any kinder if their roles were reversed. But it does mean that when you're successful, the wealth you acquire gives you more power to affect other people, and you're responsible for what you do with that.)

    I consider myself to be racist, and its something I'm not entirely ashamed of. I don't think that cultures are in every sense equivalent, and I don't think that all kinds of intelligence are uniformly distributed across genetic groups. Its BS when black people act like their worst stereotypes then complain of racism when they get criticized for it. But its worse to use even real weaknesses and shortcomings of other people as an excuse to unjustly abuse and exploit them when you have the power to do that. From where I stand, white people who try to draw an equivalence between black and white racism generally don't see anything like the truth about how grievously black people have been fucked over by white people. And I'm not just talking about Jim Crow, that affected many still-living black people. Our entire social and economic order is still to a very large extent built around the values and strengths of non-black people. Its not being 'fair' when you define virtue in terms of your own best advantages then punish others for falling short by that standard.

  80. they're only measuring half of it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    On the first election, a lot of people flat-out stated they were voting for Obama because he was black.

    Which I will happily agree is completely understandable. In my youth the army had to be sent in so a black man could attend university. It's been a long, ugly fight, and it's nowhere near over yet.

    But a 'positive' racist vote is still racism. Looking only at 'hate tweets', only tells us about 'hate tweets'.

    Confusing 'hate tweets' as a measure of racism overall, is another indication of how very far we have to go to get over it.

  81. Re:niggers by swillden · · Score: 1

    The authors of the article point out that they distinguished between "nigger" and "nigga". I think that's a pretty useful distinction. It seems to me that when people type the term they tend to use the former when they're using it in derogatory fashion and the latter otherwise.

    --
    Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
  82. George Carlin - oblig by SternisheFan · · Score: 1
    I love and treasure individuals as I meet them; I loathe and despise the groups they identify with and belong to. - George Carlin

    http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=PqxPQuIPV2A&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DPqxPQuIPV2A

  83. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by Nerdfest · · Score: 1

    Regarding cultural stereotypes ... yes, I pick on those, and any ridiculous cultural behaviours as well. Cultures are voluntary, not racial, and can be changed. You say our economics are built around the values of 'non-black' people. Other than racism, there is no basis to that statement. Indians, asians, etc, have no problems, but black people do? The only thing other than racism causing that would be culture, and that can be changed. All it takes is the will to do it. The racism needs to stop across the board though. If you treat any kind differently than any other kind, you always end up with a pendulum effect where it never stays in the neutral position.

  84. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Unlike fucking Putin loving assholes such as yourself, in America we believe people can vote how they want for whatever reason.

    If Romney wanted 99% of the white vote, he should have tried some economic populism.

  85. In defense of Oregon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There are at least three Oregons. The Willamette Valley (holding a majority of the population)
    Southwest Oregon , noted for being "reactionary" and past home for the KKK.
    and East of the mountains Oregon, ranches and farmers who vary ...

    I would guess that the majority of racists tweets came from SW Oregon,

  86. Seems like BS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Racism is more complex than just a few words. There is no way or determining the demographic of the tweeter either. Consider how many people posted things such as wanting to kill George Bush. Is that racism towards whites, hate, or simply venting frustration? Even when racial code words are used, it's not necessarily racism because people learn to repeat phrases rather than invent them.

  87. Raises hand nervously by david.given · · Score: 1

    If I were to ask what 'the age of the quantified self' means, would I regret it?

  88. Marion Barry by Frankie70 · · Score: 2

    Marion Barry was first racist against Asians

    http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0412/74866.html

    We got to do something about these Asians coming in and opening up businesses and dirty shops. They ought to go. Iâ(TM)m going to say that right now. But we need African-American businesspeople to be able to take their places, too.

    He then fake apologized for his racism
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/dcs-marion-barry-widely-rebuked-for-comments-about-asian-business-owners/2012/04/05/gIQA27SVyS_story.html

    By late Thursday, Barry backed off the remarks, saying through his Twitter account that he is âoevery sorry for offending the Asian American communityâ with an âoeadmittedly bad choice of words.â But he continued to voice concern about conditions at some restaurants and other businesses in Ward 8, which he said are owned mainly by Asians.

    âoeI admit, I could and should have said it differently. But the facts are still very present in our daily lives here,â he tweeted. âoeWe are tired of sub-standard treatment, tired of being kept [at] arms length distance, tired of the lack of community engagement.â

    Then he slurred the Polish people while apologising to Asians

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/marion-barry-commits-new-gaffe-while-apologizing-to-asians/2012/05/24/gJQASY7nnU_story.html

    At a news conference after the meeting, Barry and several Asian American leaders sought to present a united front, saying that the dialogue is an important step toward defusing long-standing tension between blacks and Asians. Asked about the underlying sources of the conflict, Barry said the United States âoehas had racial tensions since it was founded.â

    âoeThe Irish caught hell, the Jews caught hell, the Polacks caught hell,â Barry said, invoking a word that Polish people have viewed as disparaging.

  89. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by C0R1D4N · · Score: 1

    In the whole country over 95% of the pruson population is poor people. Crime is driven by economic status not skin color. Why black people are poor is because social mobility is practically non-existant. They just got stuck starting lower than everyon else thanks to malaria driving a need for cheap and malaria-resistant labor in the warm and marshy parts of the americans five hundred years ago.

  90. Re:niggers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I not only fucked your dad in the arse and filled it with gushing cum, but I also shat on his face. He not only ate my shit, but then attempted to lick my cum out of his arse.
    Later I fisted him and pulled out a rather large shit, which I smashed in his face while he was sucking me off. This caused him to orgasm even though his cock was tied tightly at the base.
    Your dad was into some freaky stuff. I'll send you some photos if you're interested.

  91. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Did you know the US just reelected a black man to power as President of the United States? Apparently not.

  92. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by SourceFrog · · Score: 1

    If you want to do more than skim the surface of racism, it helps to look at the issue in relation to power structures

    OK, let's start by considering that the president of the most powerful country in the world is black.

    --
    My other UID is three digits.
  93. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They just got stuck starting lower than everyon else thanks to malaria driving a need for cheap and malaria-resistant labor in the warm and marshy parts of the americans five hundred years ago.

    Jews were stuck in gas chambers 70 years ago and they are rich matza loving Iran haters today.

    Cherry picking works both ways.

  94. Relevant Frank Herbert quote by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    (Sorry, it's not from Dune)

    "Justice belongs to those who claim it, but let the claimant beware lest he create new injustice by his claim and thus set the bloody pendulum of revenge into its inexorable motion."

  95. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Black-on-black crime widely ignored, say African American activists

    In 2009, completed law-enforcement investigations showed that 352 African-Americans were killed by known whites — a category that includes Latinos — and 4,094 African-Americans were killed by African-Americans, according to FBI data.

    NYPD Report Says 96 Percent Of Shooting Victims Are Black or Latino

    The statistics, which cover crime in 2012 through the end of June, show that 96 percent of all shooting victims and 97 percent of all shooting suspects in the city were black or Latino. The report also shows that more than 90 percent of New Yorkers stopped and frisked so far in 2012 were black and Latino.

  96. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    calling Romney "cracker-ass cracker"

    Wow! I should have voted for Romney as he surely knows his computer security stuff and is one of us, one of us, one of us.

  97. Re:niggers by SternisheFan · · Score: 1
    George Carlin was one of the trailblazers in comedy, with comics blazing a trail for him (Lenny Bruce, for one example, paid a heavy price in the name of comedy). For the uninitiated, I suggest watching some of G.C. on youtube. For him, words were just words, it's how they are used, the 'context' used at times, that's when trouble starts. The intent meant when directed at someone else in order to belittle and demean, in order for the speaker to have a false sense of superiority over another, that is the wrong.

    "For instance, you take the word "Nigger." There is absolutely nothing wrong with the word "Nigger" in and of itself. It's the racist asshole who's using it that you ought to be concerned about. We don't mind when Richard Pryer or Eddie Murphy say it. Why? Because we know they're not racist. They're Niggers! Context. Context. We don't mind their context because we know they're black. Hey, I know I'm whitey, the blue-eyed devil, paddy-o, fay gray boy, honkey, mother-fucker myself. Don't bother my ass." - George Carlin

  98. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by dbet · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It sounds like you decided that since it's not realistic for the whole of black men to have power over the whole of white men, that you've extrapolated that into believing that it's not possible for a black man to have power over a white man.

    White man walks through black neighborhood, gets attacked by black men because he's white. If you don't count that as racism than you should probably stop trying to use words at all.

  99. Re:niggers by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    The term is demeaning because it has been used primarily to BE demeaning. It is meant to be demeaning because it is used predominantly by racist people.

    Any term can easily share that fate once it is picked up by racists. That's why I consider it complete idiocy to try to use "friendlier" words to put people down. An example.

    "Cripple" is no longer politically correct. Now it's "people with special needs" (or did it change again? Again, I don't keep up to date with bullshit). That neither changes the condition, nor does it mean that these people receive equal treatment. It's just repainting the shit.

    Changing the term does not change how people act and react. A politically correct term spoken by a racist is still racist, because that's how he means it.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  100. A few hundred tweets vs 93% of a demographic. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why are people bothrring to point out a few hundred people that can tweet but not pointing out that a statistically impossible vote of one demographic occurred in the last two elections. Vote Democratic if that's what you value but please please please stop voting just because it's the black guy. You can't get 93% of any large group to agree on what to eat much less politics. It angers me some but saddens me more. We've now made it socially acceptable to be racists as long as it's against someone other than the black guy. Data results like this are garbage and trivial when compared to the election results.

    I apologize for typos. I'm on a phone.

  101. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by TheGoodNamesWereGone · · Score: 1

    I'm sorry that you don't like me. You're articulate and obviously intelligent, and a capable human being. You really hit the nail on the head when you said that not all cultures are equivalent. From where I sit black culture is doing far more damage to black people than white racism is. There's no difference between you and me: We're both pink inside and we both bleed red.

  102. What's racist anyway? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Romney is a rich pig in magic underwear

    Obama is an incompetent, tax and spend liberal.

    Is either of these racist? The first is arguably anti-Mormon, but, Romney is White, so I bet it would get a free pass from most liberals. The second is a political objection and arguably mostly factual. But since it criticizes a (mostly) black person, many liberals consider it to be "racist".

    That's nonsense. Obama DESERVES criticism, and I guarantee most Republicans would hate him just as much if he were White.

  103. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by shadowofwind · · Score: 1

    Cultures are voluntary, not racial, and can be changed.

    Of course cultures are to a very large extent not racial. As stated, your position though is that genetics have absolutely no impact on human characteristics aside from outward appearance. Or else that non-superficial hereditary differences between individuals always perfectly average out between groups which developed substantially in isolation from each other under different conditions. Maintaining either proposition requires denying almost everything that is scientifically known about biology.

    You say our economics are built around the values of 'non-black' people. Other than racism, there is no basis to that statement.

    Aside from things like skin color and hair curliness, I don't presume to know what characteristics of black people are passed down genetically and which are passed down or imposed socially. Certainly there is a complex and subtle interaction. Since I can't completely separate the two, and neither can anyone else, when most people say 'black' they mean something that includes both genetic and cultural heritage. Of course its an over-generalization, there being huge differences between different groups of black people, and huge differences between individuals within any particular group. And a downside of course is that the use of the word 'black' this way seems to imply that differences are immutably tied to skin color, even when they are mostly historical and cultural. Though its also an imperfect phrase, I'll call them African Americans, since this is the context of the discussion of black and white racism, and I want to be clear that I'm including all kinds of cultural differences including those which are not connected in any direct way to skin color.

    Suppose that all African American characteristics are entirely a matter of nurture and have absolutely nothing to do with genetics. Its remains true that culture is not entirely a matter of choice. It is shaped by the demands of circumstance, and there is a huge amount of experiential inertia that can't just be indoctrinated away. If someone uses where they came from and who they have been so far as an excuse, then they're not being fair to themselves or to their alleged persecutors. But its not being fair to them to say that its entirely a matter of 'choice' either. I am who I am, for a multiplicity of interrelated reasons, and I want a fair chance. And no, your 'cultural' values do not give me a fair chance. To a large extent they are hurdles designed for other kinds of people to be able to clear them. They do not look to who I am and see what I can contribute, and do not give me a fair chance to prove it in 'the market' either. If someone is especially good at organizing and memorizing facts, they equate this with intelligence and competence, and design tests to identify and reward people who are like themselves. Or if they're not good at these things, they make a fetish of creativity and problem solving instead, and issue and respect credentials based on that. Add up this kind of behavior across a large group, and you get a systematic bias against other groups, whether you admit its there or not. Calling the recognition of this 'racism' doesn't make it less true.

    Indians, asians, etc, have no problems, but black people do?

    Indians in America are mostly from relatively privileged (upper caste) families, and came to America for graduate school or other professional pursuits. They suffer racism, but you can't reasonably compare them to African Americans who are descended from slaves. Transport an Indian slum intact to America and then you'll have a better comparison. Ethnic neighborhoods populated substantially by refugees, such as the one I live in, are in many ways a lot more like African American neighborhoods.

    Native American's have arguably been wronged even worse than African Americans, and in many ways have equal or worse problems. Those p

  104. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He's not Black enough.

  105. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What was he doing in a black neighborhood? I bet he was a KKK member scouting the place. He had no business there.

  106. So what does this mean? by Nyder · · Score: 1

    That we have racist people in the USA? Shit, play an Online video game with voice chat, you'll hear all sorts of racist stuff, plus lots of other weird ass shit that makes you cringe.

    Ya, you can use tech to see what state the tweets come from. I bet you can use technology to see who exactly is the people putting out racists tweets.

    I hope no one got grant money for this, total waste of money.

    --
    Be seeing you...
    1. Re:So what does this mean? by GodfatherofSoul · · Score: 1

      I was all set to join a BF3 clan that touted itself as "for adult players." I even made my first monthly donation. I was on their Ventrilo account maybe 2 times before I started hearing all kinds of racist yapping going back and forth. Cancelled my donations, stopped using voice chat, and went back to playing peacefully without all the hate speech.

      --
      I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
  107. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by radtea · · Score: 1

    I know another term for reverse-racism ... it's "racism". It shouldn't be made different in any way. If people keep doing things to treat any type of racism differently, it will never stop.

    Yet no one anywhere has any difficulty distinguishing "reverse-racism" from racism. Why is that? Think really hard about it and ask yourself, "Beyond irrelevant characteristics like skin colour, what distinguishes 'reverse-racists' from racists?"

    Could it, perhaps, have something to do with the distribution of wealth and power between the two groups? Negative attitudes by members of one artificially delimited social group against another are irrelevant if the people doing the discrimination are powerless to act on their negative beliefs.

    So you might conclude that "reverse-racism" could also be called "irrelevant-racism", while racism remains as relevant today as it ever was, sadly.

    --
    Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
  108. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Indians, asians, etc, have no problems, but black people do?

    How did you come to this conclusion?

    You've got your head in the sand, but yet you are still talking. That's amazing!

  109. hrm by akma · · Score: 1

    Did they only map white racists, or others as well? Such as those threatening violence against whites if Obama lost?

    --
    akma
  110. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by shadowofwind · · Score: 2

    If it looks to you like black culture is doing more damage than white racism, I won't argue with that. I'm not going to deny the reality of what someone else can see, and I'm not in a good position to judge which of two diseases is worse. I was just trying to point out this other side too, what I see.

    I recognize that we are all the same, even though every individual is also a little bit unique, and even though there are relationships between groups of individuals. I agree that everyone deserves a chance to aspire to what they want to aspire to, without being told that they can't because they belong to the wrong group.

    I do feel some anti-black hatred in my heart, and emote some of it by reflex. Where it comes from I don't know. I wasn't taught it by my parents or my peers, and I haven't been significantly harmed by black people in my life. Maybe I'm psychically picking it up from other people, or maybe its an instinct for 'us' to survive at the expense of 'them'. Maybe I've created it myself in response to other analogous experiences, trying to do to others what has been done to me.

    I won't apologize for the honesty of my perceptions. But certainly my perceptions are not perfect, not complete. If I've harmed anyone by a 'soft bigotry of low expectations', I am sincerely sorry, just as I'm sorry for where I've expected too much. And where I've done real harm by being too open and honest, I'm sorry for that also.

    Identity is a subtle and fluid thing to me, like a big ever-changing fractal, not defined in terms of any group that I'm a part of, but not defined exclusively by my own 'personaI' collection of nerve responses either. I am an individual, but at the same time tribe is not nothing to me, spirit is not nothing to me. I take some responsibility for the racial hatred I feel, irrespective of its origin. And its utterly wrong and unjustified, however great or little it may be.

    To whatever extent I have wronged you, or 'disliked' you rather than giving you the respect and love that all people deserve, I am truly sorry. Someday I will atone for it if I can, I swear. Maybe words like love and atonement are too personally intimate, too presumptuous, or too pretentiously dramatic. But I can't think of another way to say what I really feel.

  111. Is this measuring racism by Gonoff · · Score: 1

    or just extreme stupidity?

    Of course, people could argue that is a pretty good definition of racism anyway.

    --
    I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
  112. White people aren't allowed to have their own... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...countries, apparently.

    Nor freedom to NOT associate with people they don't want to.

    Gee... how 'democratic' it all is.

    The USA is fast on its way to becoming a third world country.

    Third world people = third world country. The evidence is overwhelming.

    Non-whites are being flooded into EVERY white country on Earth, all thanks to our unelected, unseen Jewish 'masters'.

    If liked putting garlic in every food I ate, including ice cream, cakes, etc. would it be okay with you if I was in power, if I made it the law that garlic had to be added to EVERY food?

    It's exactly the same with the genocide of white people - sorry - 'mass immigration'. A handful of filthy Marxist scum, shabbas goy, who work for the unseen Jews behind all of this, tell the MAJORITY of whites, who obviously don't want to live around non-whites, that we HAVE to.

    How 'democratic'. And the braindead cretins on Slashdot support this shit, because you're too STUPID to think it through for yourselves.

    And then you mod down any dissenters like myself, so we get banned.

    So I have one simple question for you: how bad does it have to get for white people before you arrogant idiots admit you're wrong?

    Will it be when somebody YOU love is murdered by a black? Or when YOU are attacked by a mob of black 'youths' and almost killed? Or when the whole country is in a civil war because the hate-filled non-whites can't contain themselves any longer, and there aren't enough white people left to provide them with all the WHITE luxuries that these parasites came here to take in the first place?

  113. Well we have half the story now.... by Nagaru · · Score: 1

    How about all the racists who voted for Obama cause he is black? Surely they posted, messages reflecting that.

  114. Re:niggers by flimflammer · · Score: 1

    Your status as a bi-sexual of mixed-race is dubious in my mind, or you wouldn't be actively disrespecting yourself, and others that might be similar to you.

    You can't use someones interpretation of words to discredit what they said about being bi-sexual and of mixed race. Not everyone applies the same power to words as other people. Not that I necessarily believe them, but I'm friends with an african american who will easily throw out the word "nigger" and also have a friend who is gay who uses the word "faggot". Am I really in that much of a rare position? Perhaps it is because of them that I'm not afraid of these words and also perhaps why I've got no issues with their lifestyle and/or race. I grew up with these people.

    It amazes me to this day people are afraid to say these words, even in proper context of merely discussing the words. The "taboo" nature makes me think of superstition and all the wonders that has brought us.

  115. Non-sequiteur by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The conclusion simply doesn't follow. Someone who is really worked up by someone crushing their dreams are liable to say something bad about that person. They'll use whatever bad word that comes to mind, and "nigger" might be one of them. You can't conclude that a person is racist just because that person uses "nigger" about a black person. The whole idea of mapping word choice to racism is ridiculous. Racism is not about words or what makes some people feel bad or uncomfortable, it's about the desire to discriminate on no factual basis and based solely on race. Probably many of the people posting these nigger-comments would be quite happy to cheer for a black republican president. Most of them probably aren't calling Obama a nigger because he's black, they are calling him bad words because they didn't want him to win. Or maybe they really are all a bunch of racists, but this story proves nothing of the kind.

  116. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by shadowofwind · · Score: 1

    One other thing....

    When you force someone to work in support of an evil system, you set him at war with himself. He wants to work hard, love the fruit of his labor, and care for his family. But he also hates what he's supporting, and consequently hates what he's doing, and eventually hates himself. How can he not? Every day it takes an honorable and capable man, already imperfect like everyone else, and drives him toward becoming someone just a little bit more insolent and slothful. Of course he is responsible to fight against the evil in his heart. But its not a fair fight, his very ability to fight for what is right is what has been assaulted. Then after you've worn him down this way for 400 years, or for a half billion, in one way or another (we're all human), its his fault if he can't instantly spring into angelic perfection as if it never happened? Suddenly its all a "choice"? This is bullshit. I've experienced both sides of this, and its bullshit. Yes the first thing he needs back is his strength of character, and bankrolling his life or making excuses for him isn't going to give him that. He has to pull himself up, nobody else can do it for him. But at the same time, pretending that his condition is primarily his doing because there is no longer significant white racism, that its his moral failure, is just wrong.

  117. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Chris Rock will tell you himself." And Chris Rock, being black, automatically and authoritatively speaks for all black people, right? Just like, I dunno, Jon Stewart speaks for all Jews, J-Lo for all Hispanics and Paris Hilton is the authoritative voice of all white America?

  118. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by russotto · · Score: 1

    Could it, perhaps, have something to do with the distribution of wealth and power between the two groups? Negative attitudes by members of one artificially delimited social group against another are irrelevant if the people doing the discrimination are powerless to act on their negative beliefs.

    When you're being knifed for walking down a street in the wrong colored neighborhood, will it matter to you whether the thugs knifing you are of a social group generally significantly less powerful than your own?

  119. Re:Racist terms? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yep, that is grad school. At least with an online masters degree, you don't know you're the minority.

  120. what an asnine thread by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Racist behavior, particularly directed at African Americans in the U.S., is all too easy to find both offline and in information space."

    hahahahahahahahahahahahahah

    Laughing my dumbass off forever

    the biggest, worst, loudest, most televised racist resides at 1600 penn ave. her husband lives there with her.

  121. Should have included other countries as well by PhamNguyen · · Score: 1

    I hear racist attitudes to Obama are also very common in Israel

  122. Sampling issue - data bias by Kittenman · · Score: 1

    Just twigged - they looked at 'tweets'. So we're not looking at racists, we're looking at their interpretation of Racists, who use Twitter, who tweeted about the election result. That's not a great basis for anything. Maybe not all racists use twitter.

    We may need a door-to-door sampling using a questionairre. God, that would be good: 'On a scale of 1 to 10, how racist are you?". And then we're into whether racists really see themselves as racist. And do some non-racists see themselves as racist.

    I should do a thesis on this...

    --
    "The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes" - Winston Churchill
  123. What about anti-white tweets? by BinBoy · · Score: 1

    Their definition of racism is limited. Why didn't they include the phrase "old white men" in their search? It comes up about every 5 minutes on twitter.

  124. Re:niggers by postbigbang · · Score: 1

    Self-slur is neither uplifting or accurate. People use self-demeaning words all of the time. Doesn't make it better or give them respect; they're labels. My personal experience says that when people use demeaning self-labels, they're depressed or on the offensive about being defensive. There is no real pride there. They're somehow admitting to be different in a derogatory categorization. I find nothing wrong with any race, mixed race, browner than you, lighter than me. I don't really care about another's sexuality as it has no context for me. Gay? Bi? Trans? Str8? Fine. Have a nice day. Context, the negative type, then allows people to perpetuate mythological connotation to the nature. Queer? Swings both ways? Chick with a dick? Dude without one? Makes no real different but the terminology is negative, and potentially abusive-- and prejudicial.

    Discuss the words? Fine. The context for this entire post is the geo-location of tweets that are derogatory in nature. These weren't fellowship, kinship tweets.

    --
    ---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
  125. "Geomapping"?? by Azghoul · · Score: 1

    What the f*** now?

  126. Re:So now we have proof by mhotchin · · Score: 1

    It's stereotyping, not racism. Racism is a specific (and particularly pernicious) form of stereotyping, but not all inclusive.

  127. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by fm6 · · Score: 1

    almost ALL black people are racist.

    LOL. I mean jeez, the irony! You obviously have no idea how racist that statement is.

  128. bullshit study...bullshit ideals by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I doubt that they counted all of the blacks tweeting about how they were going to riot if Romney won the election.
    Once again racist == anything bad about anybody except whites

    Get fucked.

  129. Re:niggers by fm6 · · Score: 1

    Speaking of old people with outdated vocabularies, can anybody explain to me why "suck" and "screw" no longer have any sexual connotation? It's just weird.

  130. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    From where I stand, white people who try to draw an equivalence between black and white racism generally don't see anything like the truth about how grievously black people have been fucked over by white people

    Why not? It is like someone dressing like a slut then getting pissed off when they get called one. You are wearing the uniform of one....

    Want people to stop hating you? Stop acting like a jackass.

    You know what I hear the most out of 'crackers'. "I dont want to be racist but...". After awhile it wears on you. You can not help it anymore. You keep acting like an ass people start to assume you are one.

    The current president was elected on racism. 95% of the blacks who voted, voted for him. When statistically this time around it should have been about 50/50... The democratic party seems to be cool with that. Just so long as their guy was elected. *GO TEAM*!!!

    The biggest thing holding back many of our cultures in this nation these days is social security. We are warehousing our population at an alarming rate (and many seem fine with that from all groups). When they should be out helping build a better America. I am not saying we should let people starve. But we need to find a motivation for people to help out. At this point getting rid of it may be worse as we now basically have 4 generations of people dependent on it for everything. This is not paying them back for past grievances. It is putting them away into a small part of town where you do not have to deal with them.

    If many people got a real view of the slacktavism they are committing by saying 'my taxes help pay for those people'. they would be shocked into doing something (ANYTHING) different. The system is being systematically gamed from all ends. I have had many people get upset that I do not take advantage of food stamps. Then seem even more shocked when I tell them "I make enough so I dont have to why dont you try to do better?". They see *me* as being wasteful in not taking advantage of the 'free shit'. They even still say "I want my 40 acres and a mule" (as if someone from the inner city would have any clue what to do with a mule and the 40 acres other than sell it).

    It starts with our educational system which being manipulated for monetary and political gain. Everyone is being screwed out of simple things like how to add and read. These days you have to take it upon yourself and your families own good to make sure your children get an education. I met one black man (quiet recently) who was nearly 50 years old and had no idea that North Carolina was a Confederate state. He was actually mad about it. He thought 'his state was in the union and liked blacks'. This is like basic US history stuff... He lives on 'disability' because he 'hurt his back' even though he walks everywhere he goes and never complains about it. He sells drugs on the side because 'crackers got money'. Then buys hes cheap beer and watches cable all day. The man has no job and makes about 800 a month. He goes from food shelter to food shelter and stocks up on 2-4 months of 'free shit'. This a perfect example of someone who could work and make his life much better. Yet has been lulled into being warehoused.

    These people have 0 motivation to do better. Why should they?

  131. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by LordLimecat · · Score: 1

    Hey, _I_ know what will make racial tensions go away! Lets excuse racism when one group does it and focus exclusively on how the OTHER race is the source of all of our problems. THAT will make everyone like each other!

    Theres no such thing as reverse racism. Its not my fault I was born white, and for someone to fault me for being born white is just as racist as anything described in the article.

  132. Can a nigger computer detect irony? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, but can their nigger computer detect irony? No problem. iPads come in white too, because they're gay. I understand that irony is particularly gay.

  133. Fine, but you are describing the state of 99% of by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    99% of all people, perhaps 99.999 %

    We are all being fucked by a tiny, tiny percentage of rich elites - and everything that divides us (like "racism", or "elitism" or "randism") keeps them in power.

  134. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by coaxial · · Score: 0

    White man walks through black neighborhood, gets attacked by black men because he's white. If you don't count that as racism than you should probably stop trying to use words at all.

    Put up or shut up.

  135. Garbage no Hate Whitey Tweets by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There were plenty of Hate Whitey tweets threatening to kill or beat or riot, on the part of Black people, if Obama lost.

    There were plenty of Hate Mormon tweets, by Blacks.

    There were plenty of threats to burn cities down, if Obama lost, by Blacks.

    Black people routinely engage in the most heinous of hate crimes, aganist Whites. The murder of Britney Watts, a young White woman, by (son of Civil Rights Attorney) Nkosi Thandiwe, a Nigerian immigrant, is one example. So too is the murder of the elderly Straits, Bob and Nancy, Bob was 90, Nancy 86, by a "pack of Blacks" as Mel Gibson would say, including 21 year old Tyrone Woodfork (if Obama had a son, he'd look like Tyrone). Or the murder of two White British Tourists by 17 year old Shawn Tyson. Or the murder of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsome, after gruesome torture, rape (for both), and mutiliation. By four Black men and one Black woman, all of whom find the torture/murders funny, and who brought relatives to view the bodies and laugh, take pictures. The murders of mostly eleven elderly Whites in Wichita by two Black brothers come to mind, as do the murders of eight White men by Black Omar Thornton, angry over being fired after being caught stealing.

    Black people have basically, carte blanche to kill Whites as they please. No significant penalties happen and Black violence against Whites is out of control. NO NADA NONE hate crime charges were ever filed, instead the NAACP is protesting AGAINST the trials of the murderers of Newsome and Christian. As "racist" or some such. Statistically, the amount of Black on White hate crimes, including rape, murdery, and assult outnumber the other way by a factor of 100 to 1.

    White racism does exist. Its as rare as a Chinese NBA player. Meanwhile Black racism against Whites is as common as an NBA player with five or more kids by five or more women.

    You don't have to take my world for it. There are THREE easy checks to see if my assertions are right or not.

    ONE, check out the FBI stats for crime, at the DOJ. They stopped ... keeping track of race for RAPE, SINGLE ASSAILANT in 2007 (you might wonder why) but that's a good start. SECOND, just hang out on Twitter with a bunch of Black people. Just watch what Black people tweet amongst themselves when they think that no Whites are around. THIRD, go visit WorldstarHipHop.com . See what Black people post, as videos, every day, of Black people assaulting Whites. Which they find hilarious.

    Don't take my word for it ... check it out yourself particularly WorldStarHipHop.com. See what Black people themselves post for their own amusement.

    [The Southern Poverty Law Center might have done good work, as late as the early 1970s. Now, its a charter member of the Direct Mail Hall of Fame, its executive director Morris Dees has a major art collection valued at over $100 million, and has named Pick Up Artists like Mystery and Neil Strauss as "hate criminals" ... because they don't call the women they pick up back. No seriously, they HAVE. Apparently a fuzzy hat and manscara equals the Klan. Who knew? SPLC, Shark, Jump. Like "racism" its nothing but a scam for idiots.]

  136. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you want to do more than skim the surface of racism, it helps to look at the issue in relation to power structures.

    Marxism - because not converting to it is to only skim the surface of an issue.

  137. Garbage in, Garbage out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    First, they tracked occurrences of offensive words like "nigger" ... ok, fine...

    1. How many of those instances were of blacks commenting on each-other in non-racist contexts?

    2. How many were by democrats attacking Black Republicans like West, and Love? and even if that number was small, what was the ratio of vile tweets to the candidate relative to the number of black candidates on each side? Rank-and-file voters do not pick candidates from the total population; they pick from those who run, and although black republicans nearly always win their congressional primaries (as an example) few actually choose to run for those seats... so the low number of black republicans is not direct evidence of racism on the right... and the low number of black republicans in elected office means that there are fewer to be twitter targets of left wing bigots... so the lower number of racist tweets from the left is also not evidence that all is well on the left.

    Second, they selected words likely to help them make a case against Conservatives during an election where Conservatives lost a fight they thought they'd won... ok, fine, but that's pre-loaded to catch emotional outbursts from the unhinged fringe.

    1. How many racist slurs were flung against Republicans (both blacks spitting at whites and whites spitting at blacks) in the immediate aftermath of the election and the re-election of Bush?

    2. Did they look for the tweets that called whites "devils" or "crackers", etc? Many in the on the left who hated romney called him a racist, a looter, a murderer, various anti-mormon slurs, etc (thereby masking their race-based hatred of him by using non-racists terms) and that also does not show up in such a stupid so-called study.

    Let everybody say what they actually believe and feel... even if it is vile and racist and hateful... the evil people on both sides will expose themselves and we will all know who they are; that's what our founders, in their wisdom provided with the 1st ammendment. "Studies" like this one are dishonestly designed to detect a pre-selected result to provide political ammo, with the ultimate goal of saying that either some voices should be suppressed or ignored; freedom and safety demand that we neither muzzle nor ignore any voices, particularly not the ones we dislike.

  138. Mississippi is a shithole by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Someone alert the media!

  139. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

    Ah, yes. Where would we be without liberal apologists for racism? Gosh, if people were accountable for their deeds then we might actually make progress. I leave you with the immortal words of The Band (all-white, in case you are one of those people who changes the meanings of words if they are spoken by the "wrong" skin color [change the meaning of "wrong" by the culture you relate to the most]) and please do change the meaning of "she" and "drunkard" from their original meaning to this context:

    Up on Cripple Creek she sends me
    If I spring a leak she mends me
    I don't have to speak she defends me
    A drunkard's dream if I ever did see one

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  140. Re:White people aren't allowed to have their own.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Non-whites are being flooded into EVERY white country on Earth,

    Mere centuries ago whites such as the British and the vikings were flooding into every colored country on earth, and under far more hostile terms. Their "invasion" has been considerably more peaceful.

    Will it be when somebody YOU love is murdered by a black? Or when YOU are attacked by a mob of black 'youths' and almost killed?

    Is this what blinded you into a hilarious caricature of a butthurt racist?

    Or when the whole country is in a civil war because the hate-filled non-whites can't contain themselves any longer, and there aren't enough white people left to provide them with all the WHITE luxuries that these parasites came here to take in the first place?

    Clearly irony is lost on you. Know that both non-whites as well as the whites with a brain are all laughing at you.

  141. Re:niggers by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    What's wrong with being a racist is that you're hating the wrong person. Don't hate the black person. Hate the asshole, independent of his skin color.

    Are there black assholes? You can bet your sweet white ass there are. Just like there are jewish assholes, gay assholes, latino assholes and yes, white assholes too. Being an ass doesn't have much to do with your skin color, your sex, your religion or your lifestyle. People are people, and some people are just simply and plainly assholes the world would be far better off if they just offed themselves.

    The problem is a feeling of entitlement. I'm entitled to being treated nicely and get freebies no matter how much of an ass I am because I'm jewish/black/latino/gay/white. No, screw you, you're not. The only thing you have a right to is being treated like a human being unless you waive that right by being an ass.

    The main problem with being racist here is that it actually MAKES people assholes. Take one nice black person. He's going around his life trying to get along and get ahead not by a feeling of entitlement because he's black but by an attempt to be a productive, "good" person. If he is hit with racism time and again, what will his reaction be? "Screw you, white breads, I'll now treat you the way you treat me".

    Congrats. You just created a racist.

    Is that your goal? If so, please go on. You create a completely unnecessary "us vs them" spiral that wastes your resources.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  142. That Murderer Was Californian by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And shit like this doesn't help your image much, either: http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2012/08/03/racist-decapitation-murder-shakes-small-north-dakota-town/

    Um, from your own link:

    In sentencing Wacht and ruling out the possibility of eventual parole, the judge cited the murderer’s extensive prior criminal record in California and his refusal to cooperate with law enforcement and disclose the whereabouts of Johnson’s remains.

    The murderer was from California. You are right about racism towards Native Americans but that's usually in regards to not being welcomed to live on their reservations. From WDAZ:

    Authorities believe 54-year-old Kurt Johnson was shot in the forehead and then decapitated. A California man is being held on murder charges in the case.

  143. This talk is a cover for the real genocide occurin by Eravnrekaree · · Score: 1

    There were also reports of black panthers showing up at polling places to intimadate voters. It is very inaccurate to just portray this as being one group.

    I would also like to mention as well that while those tweets are mostly just chatter , we are ignoring the very real racial genocide that is accuring right before our eyes and all around us. The fact is that the European race is going extinct. People of European extraction are having far too few children to even regenerate their population level, this means that each year the European ethnic population gets smaller and smaller and this cannot go on for ever, eventually ther race will be completely destroyed and cease to exist. This is nothing less than the genocidal extermination of an entire race of people and is no different in effect than any other genocidal extermination. The extermination is as well traceable to specific policies of the Democratic Party which seems to have decided that it hates the white race and wants to destroy it. Abortion, without which this would not be happening, killed huge numbers of white babies each year. Abundant access to birth control pills which I call genocide pills and should have never been approved. The anti family, man hating, white hating rhetoric that constantly spews out of the Liberal media in the USA which has been an agent in nothing less than the annihilation of the white race.

    This is not an abstract argument and it is no joke. By 2040 Europeans Americans will be a minority in the US, under 18 whites will be a minority much more quickly than that, this decline is continuous and shows no signs of stopping, whites are declining as a percentage of population as well as in absolute numbers as a percentage of global population. Eventually real white Europeans will vanish completely from the US, being destroyed by Liberal, anti family, child hating policies that have encouraged this population decline, and what is left will be destroyed by miscegenation. The result is genuine white people, will be nowhere to be found and will have been completely exterminated off the face of the earth.

    What the immigration invasions in the USA represent is the crowding out of white people globally and their decline as a percentage of global population and gradual complete annihilation as a unique, distinctive race, and their eventual destruction as a unique, distinctive race, and the gradual death of the white race globally. This represents a crowding out and eventual death and annihilation of the white race. It is not only happening in the US but also in all European countries. I would also like to point out that no other race faces this kind of jeopardy, Indians, Mexicans etc who are flooding into the US are in no danger of going extinct in ttheir own countries in fact they are rapidly expanding populations. The japanese and Koreans despite facing shrinkage would rather cope with the economic challenges and work to reverse and stop the shrinkage with policy themselves rather than to allow their countries culture and identity to be forever destroyed by immigration invasions. Essentially in Europe dark skinned islamic races are replacing the native populations of European countries at a such a rate that there will be no true members of the native European population left.

    In the USA they use terms like "nation of immigrants" to basically dupe white people into allowing their race to basically be destroyed and crowded out of the country. The nation of immigrants lie is laughable in Europe but white populations in Europe are in even more rapid, catastrophic decline adn headed for extinction more quickly than in the USA. The fact of the matter is the term "Nation of Immigrants" is a nonsense term and holds absolutely no legal meaning or weight, the USA has no obligation whatsoever to allow it to be invaded and the countries founding group to be destroyed and rendered a shrinking dying minority in the country that they founded. As well the nation was never a nation of Immigrants from anywhere and Everywhere at all. That

  144. Not twice as much.... by Dareth · · Score: 1

    Not twice as much....but 200% more.

    --

    I only look human.
    My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
  145. Re:This talk is a cover for the real genocide occu by Eravnrekaree · · Score: 1

    I would also like to point out that the term 'diversity' is being used by the very people who are destroying the white race as a way to train white people to allow their countries to be invaded by rapidly reproducing foreign races that will eventually destroy the white race. These people know exactly what they are doing, there is a conspiracy to destroy the white race and these things that are causing this are the result of this conspiracy to implement the policies that are causing it.

    Secondly, the thirsd world immigration invasions will never stop and will destroy the white race unless we close the door and stop allowing it. In fact, these immigration invasions are enabling the very high reproductive rate in third world countries because they know that they can reproduce like crazy and then invade European countries, crowding out the European race and destroying Europe and as well it gives them no incentive to solve their own countries problems because they think that they can invade other countries rather than solving their own problems. Stopping the immigration invasion is the only thing that will stop the destruction of th white race and also stop third world races from crowding us out, and as well will force these third world countries to work on solving their own problems rather than invade other countries, and will stop the brain drain from those countries

  146. Racists Can't Math. by SoupIsGood+Food · · Score: 1

    1) Around 10% of the population is African American. Even if there were the same proportion of "reverse racists", the numbers would be ineffectually small.

    2) Segregation, sundown laws and lynchings were common up until the mid '60s, and not the 1860s.

    3) This election featured a center-right candidate, a party moderate, famous for his business-friendly policy positions and support of the petroleum and natural gas producers - Barack Obama. White men voted against him in droves, against their own economic interest. Tell me again how white supremacism is no longer an issue in this country.

  147. Re:This talk is a cover for the real genocide occu by GodfatherofSoul · · Score: 1

    Very interesting! I too would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

    --
    I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
  148. Re:This talk is a cover for the real genocide occu by Eravnrekaree · · Score: 1

    Unfortunately, this is no joke. I wish it were not true, really. The Fertility rates in most European countries are around 1.5. You need 2.1 just to replace your population. This means that the European population is shrinking every year. This cannot go on forever. Instead of actually doing something to actually stop this shrinkage, and save the ethnic and cultural identity of their countries, European governments seem to have decided to destroy the populations of their own countries and replace with with violent, Islamic fanatics from the middle east. Abortion and the anti-family and selfish mentality of social liberalism and the attacks on christianity in Europe are to blame for this shocking decline.This is basically destroying European races. The effect of this is genocidal. It can be stopped, we know how to stop it by public service campaign promoting family values and Europeans having large families, and ending abortion except in cases of rape or the mothers health, but socialist and liberal seem to long for the day when Europeans have gone extinct.

  149. Inverse Racism by automatic+anderson · · Score: 1

    How do they account for people of a specific group referring to themselves with racial slurs? I cant listen to a rap song without hearing the word nigger and im not even sure what to say about gangnam style. Isnt it about chinese rich people?

  150. What if I just don't like Obama? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is it racist just not to like Obama's policies?

  151. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Someone said it earlier, racism is defined by using power to cause harm.

    No it isn't.

  152. Re:This talk is a cover for the real genocide occu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Maybe you should reply to yourself again with some more racist claptrap, I don't think your Karma has sunk low enough yet.

  153. Re:This talk is a cover for the real genocide occu by Eravnrekaree · · Score: 1

    I actually believe we should preserve all of the worlds races and respect them, and avoid any further immigration invasions, and respect the racial composition of each of the countries.. I am sure you do not agree. It is you who are racist. I think that the United States should grant additional reserves to native Americans and that we should strongly defend the USAs borders from all immigration to protect our native american population as well as the other population groups in the country. Mexicans are a grave threat to the USAs traditional Western European culture and also the native american traditional culture as the Mexican immigration threaten them all. I am sure that you agree with none of this because you hate the USA, hate whites and hate native americans too. What I propose is stopping all immigration into the US to protect the traditional demographics, including such groups as the native americans, and that the white majority has done well and will continue to do well in assuring equal rights to the other groups in the country such as the black population and the native american population . I support equal rights for all of the traditional groups in the USA and strongly oppose immigration which threatens all of the traditional groups of the USA.

  154. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No. Racism is wrong, so black people who are racist get a pass?

    Racism is wrong. Whites who do it, and it's as wrong when blacks do it.

    Stop making excuses for people being an a-holes.

  155. What's the problem? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I hate niggers too.

  156. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    wait, is Mitt Romney a Centaur?

    I thought the dancing horse jokes were about his wealth, which is not racially based.

    That is the incredibly vain Alex Rodriguez you are thinking of.

  157. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    500 years? It was only in 1650 that the African-American Anthony Johnson introduced slavery to the 13 colonies.

  158. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Chris Rock will tell you himself." And Chris Rock, being black, automatically and authoritatively speaks for all black people, right? Just like, I dunno, Jon Stewart speaks for all Jews, J-Lo for all Hispanics and Paris Hilton is the authoritative voice of all white America?

    Only the ones like Rashad Bobino, Chris Rock and those other black men who like to attack white women. The smaller the better.

  159. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

    How often does that happen, vs the number of times a black person doesn't get a job because he's Black?

  160. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

    White man walks through black neighborhood, gets attacked by black men because he's white. If you don't count that as racism than you should probably stop trying to use words at all.

    How often does that happen, compared to a black man not getting a job because the boss doesn't want a black person for a worker?

  161. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by russotto · · Score: 1

    Will it matter to you, as you're being knifed for being white in the wrong place, that 10 or 100 or 1000 black people somewhere didn't get a job somewhere that day because they were black, while only 0.01 white people didn't get a job because they were white?

    Racism is racism; a racist act stands alone, and does NOT rely on the relative power of the races the individuals committing it belong to have effect. Members of the more powerful groups can of course do more damage by being racism, on the whole. But that doesn't mean that the members of less powerful groups cannot be racism.

  162. Re:niggers by Phroggy · · Score: 1

    I remember when "crap" suddenly became acceptable to use in polite company. It was about 1998.

    --
    $x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
    $x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
  163. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by Soilworker · · Score: 1

    But why would I give a shit about american history ? Of course I'm ignorant of it, it's stupidly uninteresting at best.

  164. Racists of all sorts? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wonder if 'racist' in this context means only 'anti-black'. In my experience there are as many 'racist' black people as there are 'racists' of other ethnic origins. So did they count 'positive' comments, which were race based (e.g. one mentioning that a 'brother' had won and how good this would be for blacks) as racist also?
    I bet that if Romney had won, and there were comments to the effect that it was good to see a white person had won, they would count that as a racist comment. But I strongly suspect that they do not count similar sentiments when a black person wins as racist. Am I wrong?

  165. Polarization of the facts... TRUTH IS: by rjbradlow · · Score: 1

    Clearly the proprietor of this research is polarized and began a one sided view and attack of racism without presenting any unbiased facts regarding the other side of the racist coin.
    I'm quite sure that if we accumulated the data on the other side of the 'racist' coin we'd find to a higher degree that this racist hatred exists far more abundantly against whites than whites against any other race.

    If whites are all so racist, then please explain how the great majority of whites have forsaken their own heritage to adopt the cultural mannerisms of 'African Americans' and how the term Wigger was born?
    No, I think we see more white people embracing the black culture than any other Non-black race on the planet.

    How many Asians and Hispanics are running around your town dressed in the latest of thugwear exposing their undergarments 'grills' & 'bling', grabbing their crotches, driving jacked up cars with 22" wheels, and dumbing down their dialects and vocabularies to try and fit in with the "Niggas"?
    How many other races have a large number of their population (both sexes) involved in relationships and sexual flings with blacks?

    If we examine all of the racist data that can be accumulated we would find that it is white people who are the most hated and discriminated against race of all. So let's all keep singling out a few white trash examples to keep the hate whitties fire burning.

    Even in the smallest regard, One need look no further than their own mirror to find a bigot.

    While it is true that racism or bigotry does exist and that it is not helping anyone in this country by any means other than to serve it's intended purpose by those who are trying to keep it alive and thriving. Which is to say that it serves no purpose other than to divide and conquer a nation.

    It is being used as a political tool in a toolbox full of deceit for keeping a war machine churning.
    What most people fail to see is that this hatred is being spoon fed to them by those who want all of this animosity to flourish.

    It serves a purpose, and it is serving it well.

    Everything that is happening today is all part of a big picture; pieces of a puzzle that when finished will reveal a great horror that none of these idiots will have realized was coming since they have all played a part in keeping themselves dumbed down and blinded by their own hate fired ignorance of the puppet masters behind this whole mess.

    Mark my words, It's been a long time in the works and it is coming.
    We have been warned time and time again but nobody wants to hear or accept the truths that have been irrefutably documented and presented.

    The public at large is more concerned with themselves, their own lives, and their own opinions than becoming educated about and involved in actually making positive changes in this country and stopping the corruption that has such a firm grasp of it's balls.

    Time to wake up Sheeple.

    Time to make a difference starting with the person in the mirror.

    Let go of all this stupidity and start opening your mind to what is really happening here or before long we will all be looking back at how great this country actually was, all the freedoms we took for granted and let slip away, all those who have fought and died for those freedoms, and that we were all too full of shit to see it coming.

    1. Re:Polarization of the facts... TRUTH IS: by rjbradlow · · Score: 1
    2. Re:Polarization of the facts... TRUTH IS: by rjbradlow · · Score: 1
  166. You forgot the other rule by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Racist behavior, particularly originating from African Americans in the U.S., is all too easy to find both offline and in information space.

    That applies to every other race as well. This article is nothing but thinly veiled propaganda. Once we get beyond it we may have a chance of solving the problem.

  167. Re:How about black-to-white racism? by MeNotU · · Score: 1

    I may not agree with everything you said, but that was well thought out and argued. It certainly gave me a lot to think about.

  168. Elections by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Anyone care to overlay this map with the election results? see if there actually is any correlation between "red" and racist?

  169. A perfect example racism on twitter... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    is this going to be geomapped as well, or swept under the [cbs] rug?

  170. Re:naive? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I really doubt that most ... black people would also find these words fully acceptable (go find one, call them it, then try to tell them that its okay...

    While most of the posters on /. are younger and probably majority foreign, it's often a good idea to remember that locality and experiences have a lot to do with one's facts and opinions on racism and/or discrimination. Being white in a location (in US) that's less than 50% white, my experiences with not just race, but nationality have informed me that racism and prejudice and nationality cuts across all races and geographic lines. In both family and friends, when the groups are entirely white AND white/hispanic, I can't EVER remember over the last decades, including in my youth, when any other race, including Afr/Am-black was brought up or commented on in a disparaging way. The only times it was brought up for any reason would have been a school or government form that requested or demanded the info, something in the news, some issue in school involving it, or something similar. However, from areas I've lived in with various racial and national groups, I can tell you the severity of the racism/nationalism I've seen from various groups far surpasses some of the white on black racism I've seen in schools, television programs, newspapers. From Puerto Ricans against Mexicans (whether the Mexicans are present or not), Filipino against Central/South American individuals from several (all?) of the countries there, Turkey/Greece, many nations north/south or rural/urban, but the real eye openers is how racist the Afr/Amer-blacks are. The big one that a lot of white people aren't aware of is the one that the n-word is used for. For "African-Americans" who are born here, but especially those whose parents or even further up the family tree are born here, the vile contempt and vicious verbal and even physical attacks on "niggers" (first time I ever remember writing the word out) who are born in Africa and moved to the US., is really unbelievable. I've seen this in person, including in more than one case where an "African-American" family "helped" one or more Africans to enter the US from Africa, yet treated him/them like their own slaves for manual labor, like dirt in general, and letting the African(s) know every few minutes or so, that they were, niggers, _African_ niggers, and on and on. They had no problem doing this right in front of me in most cases. My profession at the time allowed me to be present within, around, and outside their households.

    Another of their favorite racist targets were Jews in nearly every household I've been to (over a hundred) if/when anything in this regard was discussed amongst themselves. And the biggest eye opener was that in nearly every time I was present and they had an ongoing discussion, including in non-electoral periods, they brought up race in nearly every discussion, usually against whites, but also while including whites, very often jews came into the discussion, as well as hispanics but at at lower rate than the first two. But the "nigger" term, used in a disparaging way against others not present was in nearly every discussion as well. In my family, I don't ever remember a race discussion ever coming up unless in the examples in my first few sentences above, and if then, very rarely (the topic of urban/rural did come up for economic/political reasons from one of the countries I descend from). Among friends, nearly the same, except in high school it came up among classmates because the lunch room was unusually shaped and was self-segregated (something I wasn't even aware of and sat for a few days in the "black" section until one of my classmates came to me and pulled me out of the area and that's when I became aware of the segregation. I was too busy eating and studying to notice.

    And while the "nigger" topic among African-American households I've been in is a very common topic of discussion, the bigger or more controversial topic where the real

  171. Re:naive? by Omestes · · Score: 1

    Racists are everywhere, in every nationality or race, this is true. Some of our largest atrocities came about because of it, and not all of them involved white people (Rwanda comes to mind). I disagree about Hispanics, though. First you brought up Puerto Ricans, which last I checked were Hispanic, and I have met some racist Mexicans (against other Latin Americans, or Blacks, mostly).

    As for Jews, I have met some racist ones, and I have met some well-adjusted ones, in my experience the latter out weigh the former. With Jews you have to remember that there are still some among them who lived through the largest racist atrocity in recent memory, so the shadow remains. Also there religion has been plagued by persecution, and somewhat focuses on it (though this might be slowly changing, at least in the U.S.). Also Jews are among the most hated groups among everyone I know. Most of my friends are rather modern in their views (most of them being various flavors of not-white, and/or gay), but a lot of them still dislike Jews. People, especially people in poorer areas, hate them. I would be a bit wary too.

    Also, a lot of racism is actually classism. Historically, a lot of American blacks had a beef with Koreans and Asians. Not because they are Asian, per se, but because they own businesses in Black dominant, depressed areas. The same is true with Jews. There is a race element, sure, but there also is a bit of economic frustration rearing its head in the most irrational way.

    --
    A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey