I never said we had to start counting races. i just thought it was frustrating - from my point of view - that someone would use a majority of white people, and only blacks in the "bad guy" scenarios of a website. albeit, yes, it was a fairly obviously right-wing website... I just thought I'd point it out. Never once did I intend to suggest that we count races. Had I counted races, my life would've been entirely different, and probably a lot weirder than this. My whole life I've been surrounded by multiracial friends, and I celebrate that, but I don't make a concerted effort to befriend multiracial people - just in case you thought that might be my motivation (apparently I need to explain myself to the nth degree here) - it just happens. And I thought it was something worth pointing out that even though we're in this wonderfully diverse world, that we can have all these friends, and be these people of multiple ethnic backgrounds, there are still people who "don't get it." Who by their attempt at trying to fit in, exemplify those stereotypes of "ignorance" and "bigotry" or whichever other stereotype (or negative word) you would like to use.

and I'm sorry, maybe it is just me, but I still see not talking about things like antisemitism as being ignorant of the ongoing problem that exists. Sure, within our group, we have this wonderful thing where we don't think about eachother as races or genders or sizes or whatever, and we are just people... but those rose coloured glasses have to come off somewhere outside of that context. Perhaps I'm just trying to attone for the sins of my ancestors... who knows.

"so perhaps I'll just muzzle myself from now on."

Sorry, Alison, that wasn't really the (or, at least, my) intent. It's great that you and others are conscious of prejudices that exist. My feeling, though, is that we've gone over too far to the other side; that of self-muzzling "tolerance", where we restrain ourselves for some ideal of tolerance and, in so doing, create a prejudice against ourselves. My take was that, while it's important for diversity to be recognized, it shouldn't be (nor should it have to be) carefully measured and rationed out. I like to think (and hope) it's true that in our group it's not really issue; that just as we don't count the number of people with different hair colours or eye colours, we don't tally races.

"It's hard having at least three distinct races in your make-up, and not being able to identify fully with any of them."

I don't think that it is possible to fully identify with your heritage in this country, even if you aren't a mix. On the other hand, I don't believe that, no matter how far from our origins we are removed, we are (or can be) completely free of their influence either. I know, as far as I go, I end up delightfully in the middle between Indian and Canadian cultures (a fact that frustrates my cousins, but one about which they can do nothing.)

John Travolta's first in line.

Here is a link to the holly grail of old engineering junk. Probally won't find it interesting but its worth a look if you ae bored.

Old junk

If we're going to start talking about the wizard... Can we talk about other 80's nostalgia as well? I'll start by talking about old cartoon shows, when saturday was the day for kids to just sit back and watch cartoons. What happened?

okay... I get it. you all think what I did was horridly ignorant... so perhaps I'll just muzzle myself from now on. Perhaps I'm trying my best to understand how I fit into the whole multicultural framework that Canada's so proud of... and that I'm a product of. It's hard having at least three distinct races in your make-up, and not being able to identify fully with any of them for the fact that I was raised as a person and not a race... and heritage was just a byproduct of my parentage, not something to embrace or seek identity from.

Anyway, yes, I agree with you all. Perhaps I really have no place criticizing what I see in anything. Perhaps I should keep my knee-jerk reactions to myself. But perhaps I also deserve to see the multicultural mosaic everyone professes exists in this world, but no one fully acknowledges in the media or every-day life. Dialogue is dialogue, no matter how it's created or how it's perceived. And we've had some pretty good dialogue over this issue if you ask me.

I also agree that we cannot erase all the prejudicial opinions that exist, and that some of them might be good to keep. But that doesn't mean that we can't also recognize shortcomings. I'm all for reading texts etc. that have racist/feminist/etc-ist underpinnings like the Merchant of Venice... for what they are as works, and also for what it teaches us of where we've come from and how far we still have to go... but maybe that's just me. and so be it if it is.

Taylor has a good point. When taboos are taken away then there is no imposed boundary to cross. Then without this boundary we then become equal. Thoughts to deep for a monday morning... Head hurting...

Gary once said this half-jokingly, but it struck me as an entirely serious and profound statement when he said it. I shall share this inadvertant wisdom with you:

We were sitting around in CAB a year or two ago making racial jokes to each other when Gary suddenly stopped and made the following observation:

"People who are afraid to make racist statements to one another can never see each other as perfect equals. On the other hand, the group of people who make blatant racist statements to one another without intending for or resulting in someone being offended has done away with the concept of racism entirely."

We all laughed when he said it because it seemed like such a backward idea. But secretly I thought to myself "he's right". Making a conscious effort to be "politically correct" only serves to reinforce the notion of racism and propogate it as such. Racism exists wherever the subject of race is tabooed. Once racist thought has been truly dissolved however, such taboos are rendered unnecessary.

ye i saw the wizard a few times when i was a kid.... its just a big nintendo commercial ie only the sweetest damn movie of all time.... the part i remember best is when this bad ass dude walks into some restaurant with the power glove and wastes the hell out of this racing game.... hes got something like 108 games and he beat all of them.... the chick is totally digging this guy and u can tell savage is pretty pissed.... it was clutch no doubt about it

Oh yeeeah!