Is the trigger to quick?

http://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/celebrity/ellen-degeneres-defends-herself-against-ra...

Ellen DeGeneres a racist?

Might we be too quick to label a statement as racist?

Does perceiving everything as a slight have an effect of minimizing actual slights?

Ask this guy.

Or ask this kid how quick the trigger is...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Tamir_Rice

>2 Jesse_wiedinmyer:,3 So much for my devastatingly humorous response, but good points.

FWIW I don't think Ellen DeGeneres is a racist. What I do think is both her and her show are clueless and dim witted. I see what she is doing more than anything as trying to tag along with the Olympic thing going on. She lives in her ratings bubble more than in anything resembling the real world.

As Jesse aptly points out though racism is very much alive and kicking. The one guy very obviously not just a victim of police violence but also of racial profiling. Stopped 52 times for minor traffic violations? Basically it's see a black guy---pull him over--find a reason to give him a ticket. It's going on all the time all over the country. Police and police departments seem to be living in some kind of time warp displacement. Their attitudes are like back in the 1930's, 40's and 50's. Time for them to fucking catch up. Time for them as well to get out of their cars and start walking beats and actually meeting the people they're suppose to protect and serve.

I'd actually assume Ellen is racist. And I'd assume she is misogynistic. And I'd assume she is homophobic.

I'm pretty sure those are ALL safe assumptions.

#7--well honestly my interest in show business or television entertainment of almost every kind is extremely miminal. I never watch her show or anything else she's in so maybe you have a better idea.

Show business?

Try culture.

Each of those words applies to every of aspect of the conversation.

What I think of daily shows such as DeGeneres' show is not what I'd call culture. But if you think so that's fine.

Ellen's "show" is probably more feminist, more anti-homophobic, and less racist than most people's "tell."

Is that culture?

>10 lriley: What I think of daily shows such as DeGeneres' show is not what I'd call culture.

You're mistaking "culture" for "cultured."

Why not allow the graceful retreat of #8 and leave it at that. I admit my position is tainted by my underlying agreement with the poster--I haven't watched television in decades and am not up on most popular cultural figures. When asked why I left the US I often begin with politics, but sometimes lead with 'culture', which is not mistaking it for cultured, rather acknowledging that the barren nature of much of tellyculture in the US might lead one to misunderstand what I am referring to if I accept it as culture.

#14--well honestly I'm not what I would call a really cultured person. For that matter I wouldn't consider myself educated either. College/University was never an option for me. I look at myself somewhat as an left wing mix of anarcho-socialist autodidact and a beer drinker. So why would I be watching Ellen DeGeneres, Oprah, Dr. Phil or Judge Judy in the afternoon? For cultural points of reference if we're looking in the area of visual media my cultural reference points are somewhere around nowhere--bordering on off the grid. I've never watched an episode of The Simpsons or Friends for instance. I have seen bits and pieces. I've never seen a Star Wars movie or even E.T.---and the list of things I haven't seen on a screen will get much longer and longer. Have I really missed something that might have made my life that much richer? I do admire a lot of modern art. I've always loved Jackson Pollock for instance. To me that's a kind of trance art that doesn't really need an explanation.