MovieChat Forums > Focus (2015) Discussion > You Americans are so sad

You Americans are so sad

posted 10 years ago by StakkaDakka
67 replies | jump to latest

I've just looked at the first couple of pages of this board and about 90% of the discussion is devoted to discussing RACE. Why are you all so goddam obsessed with RACE? I am Australian, we have a very multicultural society. While it certainly has its pockets of racism, it is nowhere near as colour-coded as your awful society. I can say in all honesty it never occurred to me even for a second while watching this film that the lead actors were different skin colours. I did not even notice, let alone care. That's because I wasn't raised in a culture that talks about 'us' and 'them' and what one colour does or doesn't do and the differences between colours and who should or shouldn't mix and BLAH BLAH BLAH. It;s all product of hate and fear. Why can't you just treat each other like human beings instead of dividing up into your little 'teams'. It really is both sad and sickening.

/end rant

[–] halomaniac88 10 years ago

Really? Didn't the Australian government steal land from Aboriginals, commited genocide, then oppressed them for 100 years? You sir don't get to lecture anyone on RACISM.

[–] StakkaDakka 10 years ago

That is such a stupid comment in about 50 different ways
Yes we have a messed up history like yourselves and pretty much the whole world but the difference is that we leave it in the past. We don't spend our daily lives gathered in little teams hating the other teams because things that happened 100s of years ago are supposed to be the behaviour of less evolved people.

It wasn't me BTW. You do realise that don't you? Because I have white skin it does not mean I am literally the person that mistreated indigenous people 200 years ago. Do you understand the difference? I am not on the TEAM of the racist white guy from 200 years ago because I also happen to have white skin. We don't work like that. We don't hang on to it. You guys hang onto it for grim death which is the difference I am talking bout.

[–] JewishMarine 10 years ago

I am not on the TEAM of the racist white guy from 200 years ago because I also happen to have white skin.

And we're not all racists because we happen to be American, you ignorant kangaroo fµcker. I'm sick of idiots like you who think you know anything about Americans. Americans are made up of people from all around the globe, different races, religions and nationalities, and for the most part, we get along just fine, so go fµck yourself.

“Can you prove the existence of G-d?” Bismarck replies,
“The Jews, your majesty. The Jews.”

[–] Simon-140 10 years ago

StakkaDakka:

We don't work like that. We don't hang on to it. You guys hang onto it for grim death which is the difference I am talking bout.

Given the recent heckling of, and booing at Adam Goodes (one of the finest AFL footballers in recent history & also an indigenous Australian) every time he scores a goal, I'd say you're overgeneralising. An awful lot of Australian yokels are racists and they hate it when indigenous people succeed where white Anglo-Saxons have failed.

Like you, I'm a non-indigenous Australian who has not personally abused or harmed an indigene, but (unlike you) I do not believe that this exempts me from the crimes committed by previous generations of Australians. Non-indigenous Australians are still benefitting from the murder and displacement of the traditional land owners: our government continues to seize mineral-rich indigenous lands and every Australian - indigenous or not - benefits from the sale of minerals recovered from these lands.

Essentially, we sidestepped the GFC by selling minerals that arguably belong to Aboriginal Australians alone.

We all benefit from the acquisition & sale of Aboriginal lands, yet we do very little for the hundreds of thousands of indigenous people who live in third world conditions, and who suffer from diseases that should never be seen in a country as wealthy as ours.

We have to get our priorities straight and stop pouring money into breast & prostate cancer research, while Aborigines are still going blind at six times the national average rate, because they are not being treated for trachoma - a simply diagnosed and easily treated bacterial infection.

Our treatment of our indigenous citizens is abominable, and we all bear the blame and carry the guilt for this appalling state of affairs.

____
"If you ain't a marine then you ain't *beep*

[–] Simon-140 10 years ago

A former Australian Prime Minister would have sneered at your comment, calling it the "black armband view of [Australian] history" --and it is. It is also essentially accurate.

____
"If you ain't a marine then you ain't *beep*

[–] Screen_O_Genic 8 years ago

halomaniac88: Well stated.

After all... tomorrow is another day.

[–] nottinghillfitness 10 years ago

1. I didn't notice the race difference either... Probably because they're the same race to me. The human race.

2. Your subject title is rather ignorant and racist.

3. Australia has as many racist bigots as the rest of the world. I can tell you are not one of them, but calling Americans more racist is unfair.

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] joekiddlouischama 10 years ago

Because they're largely a backward, god bothering, puritan, fretful, bigoted nation, despite having many intelligent folk there too.

What country are you from and how much time have you spent in America?

People from other countries often accuse Americans of being ignorant of other peoples—and they're correct. But many of those same folks judge America by the basest of caricatures and stereotypes, as you are doing here. America is an enormous, diverse, heterogeneous country with a broad spectrum of people and views. In some ways, it is probably the most diverse nation in the world. Judging the entire nation based upon a stereotype or a certain segment of the population is foolhardy, and the idea that the US is a "largely" puritan nation at this point in history frankly makes no sense.

Moreover, there is bigotry all over the world, and there is plenty of bigotry in Europe and Australia. To act all high-and-mighty in this regard is highly hypocritical.

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] joekiddlouischama 10 years ago

... it's not so much an issue of geography, frankly. A more egregious African-American death at police hands from last summer occurred in New York. There is more of a culture of bigotry in the remnants of the Confederacy, sure, but systemic problems with policing and the judicial apparatus transcend geographic lines.

[–] starwolf 10 years ago

Yes. And I kind of alluded to that in my statement. But any reasonable person would have to admit that below the Mason-Dixon Line, an undercurrent of bigotry and paranoia exists to this day. Moreover, with a political party that all but represents this close-minded clique, the existence of a substantial insular American constituency cannot be denied. Incidents like in Ferguson, MO, are testament to this fact.

1) The Mason Dixon line didn't extend that far west, so Missouri could not have been "below" it.

2) Missouri was a part of the Union during the Civil War. Or, if you want to claim it as neutral, then it had more Union sentiment since they supplied 4 times as many soldiers to the Union as to the Confederacy.

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] starwolf 10 years ago

Not really my point. All I was saying was bigotry still exists in the U.S. and it will likely take a few more generations to eradicate

Then I apologize for misunderstanding your point. But if all fairness, you did write

But any reasonable person would have to admit that below the Mason-Dixon Line, an undercurrent of bigotry and paranoia exists to this day

which, to me at least, had the clear implication that the "undercurrent of bigotry and paranoia" exists below the (extension to the) Mason-Dixon line.

It's everywhere.

That is, until Anglo white men aren't the predominant representatives of TPTB.

And we have a black president, and it's not just Anglo white men who are guilty of "bigotry and paranoia." Until recently, they have had the most power to do showboat bigotry and paranoia, but they are not alone in their feelings or actions.

Their are bigots of every race, color, and stripe.

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] starwolf 10 years ago

And you had a surplus chromosome sporting one before that. >The marionette strings are pulled from a lot higher that affected station for placating the masses.

Perhaps I am thick today, but I don't get this at all. May I please have some further elucidation?

And thank you for not pointing out I misspelled "there" as "their." I never do that, but I typed it on my phone and I think I had a typo and autocorrect helped me out.

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] montoto1984 10 years ago

Yeah I noticed that too. It's mindblowing. I know it doesn't mean they are all racist or that we don't have racist in our countries but it does makes obvious that interracial couples are still something the American society doesn't quite approve, while in other countries people just don't give a damn anymore. Seriously, I've never read those kind of comments from anyone who wasn't an American, and I find it very strange. It must be cultural...

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] JewishMarine 10 years ago

Mixed or 'Eurasian' progeny are more aesthetically pleasing than inbreed white trash, suffice it to say.

You're the fµcking racist.

“Can you prove the existence of G-d?” Bismarck replies,
“The Jews, your majesty. The Jews.”

[–] smithredmist 10 years ago

It's true. Americans seem to be obsessed with race. Sure, there's always going to be a few racist rednecks but it's all of the inner city hipsters that can't stop talking about race and racial identity politics that make the problem so much worse.

Here's a tip - set an example for your children by treating everyone the same. Don't feed the racist trolls - ignore them. If everybody did those two things, the problem would be gone in less than a generation.

[–] Hancockenstein 10 years ago

yea, I stopped at Australian.

Plot hole - Aspect of a film that is misunderstood or missed while using your smart phone.

[–] rabiddog67 10 years ago

You stopped at Elementary school.

[–] Hancockenstein 10 years ago

burn!

Plot hole - Aspect of a film that is misunderstood or missed while using your smart phone.

[–] skymoscow 10 years ago

"They shipped them out there for a reason".

[–] serenity159 10 years ago

There is a very important part of American history which will always politicize race issue. That part of history is known as the Civil War. That puts some Americans in that 'Us vs them' mentality.

Another group is that lives near one of those poor African American neighbourhoods also known as 'projects'. There is usually high crime rate in those areas and they are considered 'no go areas' specially at night. My brother works in a hospital near one of those areas.

Now he has travelled around the world but people who have been living all their lives there, have some what different perception when it comes to African Americans. The only educated, middle class African Americans they see are on TV. So they think its all some PC BS. :)