Dod

[yurp 0]

my take on racism - I think we can all agree it sucks.

I live in China with an American dad, an English mum and a Chinese wife. I have a few mixed race cousins - I have friends from Spain, Pakistan, India, France, Holland and Germany, that I can think of right now. Now I've both heard ignorant comments coming from Chinese people who automatically assume I don't speak Chinese and I've heard English and American people voicing racist sentiments, but here's how I see it...

I feel sorry for them. I don't argue with them. They have their right to those opinions however abhorent I find them. I try, by my actions and in the way I lead my life, to show them that stereotypes are eternally flawed. That there are a##holes and nice people everywhere, there are small-minded b#####ds and generous souls in every country on Earth.

On the other side of things, when a true cross-cultural friendship blossoms, it becomes possible to insult your friend on whatever level lends itself to the situation. It is the tone that's important (which is why it should be avoided on a forum - tone is not something easily readable from posts). I can call my buddy a stupid w#nker whilst laughing and he will laugh at himself too. On the other hand I might call someone a stupid w#nker in anger and expect them to be p**sed off at me. With my Chinese friends I don't mind being called an old ghost - it's meant in jest - I take it as such, but by Chinese people who don't know me, I take it as an insult - which it is (like I say - they assume a foreigner doesn't speak Chinese here). I then take joy in speaking loudly and politely in Chinese to that person - who - while being embarrassed, will not want to loose further face and will appreciate the fact that I didn't openly say - "you racist ****".

Context is an important issue in all this - as is tollerance. By bashing someone as a racist directly we may reinforce those racist opinions. Strangely, by tollerating it we might be assumed to be accepting those abhorent opinions - vehemence may result from either aproach, but reaching accross the divide is always the key.

Finally - don't let those divisive b#####ds who run our governments scare us into xenophobia - they are the real enemy, and their use and tacit encouragement of racism is what we should fight.

That's all folks.

[maure 1]

Yup, nothing has changed. We are still a group of people from all over the world who like to have fun and argue and enjoy our common passion for Formula One and friendly debate over whatever goes through our (usually dirty) minds.

And you are still a racist a$$hole.

It is evident we have different ways to deal with the bigotry and violence of some posters. So, I won't insist that my laughing at these poor sobs is better than your approach. However, I do hope that you are not offended by the bigots and are able to always keep in mind that comments such as FedUp's reveal a lot about him and nothing whatsoever about anything else...

[Jez 0]

^^

Nice sig Jez

I thought I would pay tribute to DC with my end of year sig

Thats a great sig too Nate

If he manages to crash into Hamilton in Brazil I promise to have a sig of him for the whole of next year!

I agree good sig Jez, yours too Nathan.

Thankyou sir!

[Quiet One 15]

It is evident we have different ways to deal with the bigotry and violence of some posters. So, I won't insist that my laughing at these poor sobs is better than your approach. However, I do hope that you are not offended by the bigots and are able to always keep in mind that comments such as FedUp's reveal a lot about him and nothing whatsoever about anything else...

Nah, I appreciate your concern, though I sometimes turn into some sort of anti racist zealot, and, as Muzza pointed out, I might have overreacted which would be bad. Is hard to tell what is right and what is wrong! So my advice is: stick with doing the wrong thing. At least you will have fun while at it

As for the way to deal with the bigotry and violence of some posters, believe me, it would not harm you if every now and then you stopped being so violent in your replies! Cav (at least to my untrained eyes) seemed just like you in the old days. You would say something and he would reply with a non-stop tirade of sarcasms.

You sound like that most of the time

In due time, I learned to see what was behind that, and I was gladly surprised to find some really interesting thoughts. Of course, he will always be argumentative, but in a fun way. He does not take all this so seriously now. His anti Alonso rants are just games. We all know that now. We still don't know when you are being serious and when you are joking with your anti Lewisterics rants!

Your best posts are those when you are not being sarcastic. Mind you, I love being sarcastic myself, but no all the time it is called for. And the less you use it, the most effective it becomes when you post some vitriol

[maure 1]

my take on racism - I think we can all agree it sucks.

I live in China with an American dad, an English mum and a Chinese wife. I have a few mixed race cousins - I have friends from Spain, Pakistan, India, France, Holland and Germany, that I can think of right now. Now I've both heard ignorant comments coming from Chinese people who automatically assume I don't speak Chinese and I've heard English and American people voicing racist sentiments, but here's how I see it...

I feel sorry for them. I don't argue with them. They have their right to those opinions however abhorent I find them. I try, by my actions and in the way I lead my life, to show them that stereotypes are eternally flawed. That there are a##holes and nice people everywhere, there are small-minded b#####ds and generous souls in every country on Earth.

On the other side of things, when a true cross-cultural friendship blossoms, it becomes possible to insult your friend on whatever level lends itself to the situation. It is the tone that's important (which is why it should be avoided on a forum - tone is not something easily readable from posts). I can call my buddy a stupid w#nker whilst laughing and he will laugh at himself too. On the other hand I might call someone a stupid w#nker in anger and expect them to be p**sed off at me. With my Chinese friends I don't mind being called an old ghost - it's meant in jest - I take it as such, but by Chinese people who don't know me, I take it as an insult - which it is (like I say - they assume a foreigner doesn't speak Chinese here). I then take joy in speaking loudly and politely in Chinese to that person - who - while being embarrassed, will not want to loose further face and will appreciate the fact that I didn't openly say - "you racist ****".

Context is an important issue in all this - as is tollerance. By bashing someone as a racist directly we may reinforce those racist opinions. Strangely, by tollerating it we might be assumed to be accepting those abhorent opinions - vehemence may result from either aproach, but reaching accross the divide is always the key.

Finally - don't let those divisive b#####ds who run our governments scare us into xenophobia - they are the real enemy, and their use and tacit encouragement of racism is what we should fight.

That's all folks.

You are correct. There are all kinds of ways to treat this kind of violence. Some would hug the bigot, others will offer the other cheek, some will ridicule the bigot,... interestingly, there is no known cure.

No I honestly don't think Fed Up has a problem with foreign people. If I remember right, Fed Up was originally saying a lot of people outside Britain hate Hamilton and make stupid comments about him because he's so good and so successful so young. He thinks most people around the world resent Hamilton coming in and beating their own drivers, especially when it seems Hamilton has had an easy ride.

Personally I don't agree with that, but it's not such a stupid thing to say. I remember back when Damon Hill was being trounced by Schumacher week in week out and there was a lot of anti-Schumi feeling in the UK. Of course people justified it by complaining about Schumi's tactics but imho a large part of it was just resentment. If Damon had been more talented and less of a gentleman, few Brits would have complained!

So Fed Up just said that in a flippant way imho, using a silly nickname for 'persons without British citizenship', and a careless turn of phrase. He's posted here for a long time and never had any issues with foreigners before. Anyway, I only wanted to make my views known, not argue about racism again.

Of course, of course. When there were claims of racism somewhere on Spain months back, you were on them with a sledgehammer. Now that it is one of your bigots, we hear plenty of excuses.

As expected.

[maure 1]

Nah, I appreciate your concern, though I sometimes turn into some sort of anti racist zealot, and, as Muzza pointed out, I might have overreacted which would be bad. Is hard to tell what is right and what is wrong! So my advice is: stick with doing the wrong thing. At least you will have fun while at it

As for the way to deal with the bigotry and violence of some posters, believe me, it would not harm you if every now and then you stopped being so violent in your replies! Cav (at least to my untrained eyes) seemed just like you in the old days. You would say something and he would reply with a non-stop tirade of sarcasms.

You sound like that most of the time

In due time, I learned to see what was behind that, and I was gladly surprised to find some really interesting thoughts. Of course, he will always be argumentative, but in a fun way. He does not take all this so seriously now. His anti Alonso rants are just games. We all know that now. We still don't know when you are being serious and when you are joking with your anti Lewisterics rants!

Your best posts are those when you are not being sarcastic. Mind you, I love being sarcastic myself, but no all the time it is called for. And the less you use it, the most effective it becomes when you post some vitriol

It is true that I post for my own amusement and that I cannot, for the life of me, take any of this seriously... hmmmm.

[Quiet One 15]

It is true that I post for my own amusement and that I cannot, for the life of me, take any of this seriously... hmmmm.

Then stop being so confrontational!

No need to be at war all the time. You were never at war with me (I will always wonder why, though, as many times we disagreed). You will surely find lots of things in common with Muzza (yes, he sometimes thinks too low of the Spaniards, but they are teaching him to be more tolerant...whatever it takes to conquer some Spanish girls' hearts ), with Cav and his perfectly logic takes on reason and science, and who knows who else!

I am not tolerant by nature. I learned a lot about tolerance here. Listening to people whose views I despised or hated at first. Respecting people with that kind of views is hard but it is so very rewarding too!

Just my take

[cavallino 2]

It is true that I post for my own amusement and that I cannot, for the life of me, take any of this seriously... hmmmm.

I think it is rather sweet that you post here for our amusement . But sometimes I feel like going all Jane Austen on you, 'I fear my dear you have delighted us long enough with your conversation'.

[The Burro 0]

I think Quiet One just made a damn good post. I agree (which now hurts the worth of that post, but... ) with it.

[Max Mosley 2]

Of course, of course. When there were claims of racism somewhere on Spain months back, you were on them with a sledgehammer. Now that it is one of your bigots, we hear plenty of excuses.

As expected.

Ah yes, as usual you're more interested in scoring points than in making serious ones. In fact I've often defended the Spaniards, as you can see here for example. In contrast I remember you excusing Spain when we once talked about genuine racist violence in Spain, whereas you waste no opportunity to say every single Brit is racist. But when all you do is joke maybe consistency is too much to ask for.

Muzza ... sometimes thinks too low of the Spaniards, but they are teaching him to be more tolerant...whatever it takes to conquer some Spanish girls' hearts

Tell me about it! I'm just grateful they don't mind my sexism.

EDIT: Btw I never thought low of them! I just think Spanish culture is different to yours and mine regarding certain things. In many ways it's better, like I said in the Cafe not so long ago.

I think it is rather sweet that you post here for our amusement . But sometimes I feel like going all Jane Austen on you, 'I fear my dear you have delighted us long enough with your conversation'.

No, Maure is a great compliment. He obviously sees you as a fun challenge. Why wind up anyone else?