A friend of mine who is my age has recently been kicked off of Xbox Live because he had an offensive motto, His motto had been "Kill the Jews" and when he told me I was not at all surprised he got banned, however he was quite surprised, and, outraged. Since we were talking on an online game some other people piped up and agreed with my friend that he should not have been banned for that. They also proceeded to talk about who they hate and agreed that they hated quote: "Niggers, Jews and Emos" I was completely flabbergasted by this and proceeded to leave the conversation after being told to "Shut up" for asking them why they hated these groups, but I did recieve one answer: "I just hate them, Like Cartman" If you are not aware Cartman is a character off of a popular TV show called South Park, it is a very offensive show but, if taken with a grain of salt can sometimes be funny. However it seems as though this show is promoting Racism and Prejudice. My question is this: Should teenagers be more sensitized about Racism, and how should we go about doing this?
hmmmm did you see my recent thread about South Park? http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=88324 For the record I like South Park and find it quite funny. I don't allow my kids to watch it yet though. Kids will pick up sayings from all kinds of shows or movies though, to get a laugh or be cool. In my time it used to be cool to use the famous phrases from such movies as Scarface....and you still hear them today. I don't know how many times I have heard ppl repeat that song from South Park....Kyles Mom's a Bitch. People will always copy or follow things that hear and see and I don't see how that will ever change. Nothing surprises me about what ppl esp teens say. My older one talks completely normal around us and is well behaved, but when I read some of his conversations when he leaves his messenger on it doesn't seem like the same kid. He doesn't swear but he talks in this broken...ghetto kind of talk, it looks like they can't spell or talk properly, but they all do. They all talk like they are black or something. I don't get it, other then they think it's cool. The kids have a strange way of thinking they are cool.
Do you think these kids really understand what they're talking about, or are they just shouting slogans to be cool? For example, African-American culture has completely taken over the youth entertainment market. It's hard to find a radio station that isn't dominated by rap and hip-hop. Children of all ancestries and heritages talk "Ebonics" to each other. Their heroes are all African-Americans. If the voting age were 12 instead of 18 Obama would have won by an even larger margin. Do you really seriously think that THESE kids "hate niggers?" It's just "trash talk." That's one of the many things that's part of their culture. I think your kids are smarter than you give them credit for. Nobody really likes Cartman, he's the kid we all love to hate because he's such an unrepentant asshole. And his brash approach to life often succeeds in unmasking even bigger assholes. Kids are reacting the same way.
I think if we'd look at a wider spectrum it isn't just teens. The basic fact is that people are people, some are racist, some like to rebel, some are liars and some just follow the crowd. You'd probably find half of those people weren't really racist they just wanted to fit in with the crowd or stick two fingers up at authority. It could be that the herd mentality of humans kicked in and nobody else had the guts to speak up against them, thought they weren't worth the effort, couldn't be bothered, or just didn't care. Maybe they're part of this whole brigade that believes in "free speech".:shrug:
It is all about being cool these days. Hell it was all about being cool when I was a teen too. They only thing that has changed is what they think is cool today. I agree with you Fraggle that these kids are just spouting off anything to try and sound cool. I don't really think it means much of anything if you dug into what they are really saying. It has become a lingo amongst the cool kids it seems. Heck, I have heard white kids call eachother Nigger. I am sure when they get older they will look back on it and see how ridiculous the whole thing was. I look back on when I was going through my rocker days and sat out on the curb listening to heavy metal on our ghetto blasters. We just thought we were the coolest too. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Now I just laugh about the whole thing.
Hey, heavy metal is cool! I just went to concerts by The Cult and Apocalyptica. It's better than the Elvis and Little Richard tunes we had when I was a kid! My wife and I were the oldest people at the Rose Bowl when Metallica and Guns 'n Roses co-headlined.
This is possibly the first(and last) serious post I will make on this board, with the deepest respect Fraggle, I hope I am as cool as you when I reach your age.Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
The difference here is that while you're looking back on it and laughing they are dieing, the cool crowd in my school smokes, weed or tobacco, if you don't they don't consider you cool, it's horrible because it's beginning to rub off on the younger kids as well, I've seen kids as young as 11 with cigarettes and cigars, not to mention all the meth heads, there is something seriously wrong with youth's definition of cool.
Yes, there probably is, but as far as I know that's always been a part of growing up - Figuring out if you want to be cool by your own definition of the word or to be cool by everyone elses.
