Subject:
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Re: What would a kid think? (Re: Concerns with Racial Attitudes and Lego)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Tue, 15 Aug 2000 20:56:54 GMT
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Viewed:
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225 times
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In lugnet.starwars, Todd Lehman writes:
> I don't think it was 100% crystal clear that Eric wasn't being serious.
Well, I thought that it was clear as soon as I said I had taken part in an
arranged marriage. I do know well enough that the practice still exist- even
here in the USA- but I thought that placed me well within the bounds of
fiction. Live and learn.
> If ... I
> didn't know that he was a swell guy anyway who would never advocate
> domestic violence, I might be disturbed as well.
Hmm. Well, to be clear, I think that domestic violence is totally repugnant.
The things I would like to do to men who raise a hand to a woman aren't fit to
be repeated on Lugnet. I thought for a moment before I raised the bar on
harmful tradition examples in my post to that level, and I guess I didn't think
long enough. I certainly wasn't trying to equate the two, I was just throwing
out "traditions" that have been discarded.
> However, Eric is a swell guy
Shhhhhhhhh! Jeez.
> and he was simply giving an faux anecdote to
> make a point, albeit facetiously and somewhat flippantly. Please try to
> take that into account. :-)
Yeah. I thought it would be a little more amusing- and get the point across
better- than simply saying that all traditions get thrown over eventually.
> In the meantime, let me offer the suggestion of turning back time 20 years
> to being a kid: Pretend that you were born in 1993 and you are now entering
> this debate. What would be your viewpoint as a 7-year-old? What arguments
> would you put forth arguments in favor of one side or the other? How would
> you react to the adults viewpoints expressed recently?
Hmmmm. That is, of course, the best way to look at things. I can't say that I
can fully take on the mindset of a child born in 1993- 20 years after I was
actually born- because every generation really has it's own pressures and
issues while growing up, which change over time. I can say a couple of things,
though:
I've read a lot of psychology papers that claim that racial issues are simply
not something that kids have, they are taught. I don't know how true that is,
but I can say that in my experience watching kids, it's true. Now, I'm not a
kindergarten teacher or anything like that, but that's what I've seen.
I can also say that as a child myself I never thought twice about the color of
minifigs not mapping over to the real world's diversity. Then again, one has
to keep two things in mind: First, I was not, as a child, confronted with
racial issues on a day-to-day basis. I was a middle-class white kid. Second,
at almost any age I think I would have identified that there was something odd
about a yellow figure representing Lando or Mace Windu- especially if there was
a "Lego Brown" at the time that was as widely available as it is today.
eric
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