School Superintendent’s ‘Racist and Sexist’ Text Messages Make Us Wonder What’s Wrong With People (VIDEO)

woensdag 25 september 2013

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
by Adriana Velez 13 hours ago

If everyone in your community could read your text messages, would they be horrified? The racist and sexist messages between school superintendent Richard Como and athletic director Jim Donato have rocked the community of Coatesville, Pennsylvania. Apparently the texts between these two men included graphic references to faculty and students. Just a few harmless, private jokes between two men? Not so much.

Copies of the messages between Como and Donato were given to the school board from an anonymous source. The Chester County District Attorney office discovered the messages when they were conducting an unrelated investigation of the district. Meanwhile, Como and Donato both resigned reportedly when they found out the board planned to fire them -- but the damage is already done.

So how bad were these text messages, anyway? Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan says, "The text messages that we reviewed were of a shockingly racist nature. They looked like something from 1813, not 2013." Oof, that bad, huh? I'm glad I haven't found transcripts of those messages yet, though I'm sure it's just a matter of time before they're leaked. (Maybe it's already happened and I just don't know because I don't want to know ...)

Board President Neil Campbell issued a statement saying that the school board had moved as quickly as possible on the incident and were cooperating with the District Attorney. "The racist and sexist language expressed by the two men was sickening and obviously unacceptable," he said.

So now we're all in agreement that this was disgusting behavior, especially coming from adults who are supposedly leading school faculty and students. Wouldn't you expect more from them? This must come as a horrible shock to the families in the community. Or maybe not. About a third of the school community is black, and I bet they're unfortunately all too accustomed to racism coming from any and all sources.

Meanwhile, I can't help imagining (if these allegations are true) what this meeting of the minds between Como and Donato must have been like. At what point did they recognize they were racist, sexist kindred spirits and start letting the shit fly with each other? Do these people have radar for their type? Ugh, probably. At least everyone else seems to agree that their exchanges were wrong. Now everyone who works for the district has to do sensitivity training. But the two people who needed it most should have gotten that training a long time ago.

Are you surprised that two adults with leadership positions in a school district were exchanging offensive text messages?

Image via ABC

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Adriana Velez

is a staff writer who dabbles in food, parenting, news, entertainment, molecular biology, and anything else that that pops into her head. She lives with her elementary school-aged son in Brooklyn, land of urban farms and artisan everything.  

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Racist 1-Word Note on Restaurant Bill Is Almost Too Awful to Believe

woensdag 11 september 2013

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
by Adriana Velez 13 hours ago

We've seen a lot of nasty things written on restaurant bills, but I think this must be the worst. Student Toni Jenkins was waiting tables at a suburban Nashville Red Lobster when she saw the note a 20-something couple left her. Instead of a tip, she got the n-word scrawled on the bill. Ugh! Toni was so appalled, she posted a photo of the bill on Facebook, commenting, "... so happy to live in the proud southern states ... God Bless America, land of the free and home of the low class racists of Tennessee."

I can see how that insult would sting. I don't blame Toni for responding the way that she did. She says it was a post intended just for her friends and family, and she just wanted some support and commiseration. But then her employers found out about her Facebook post.

The restaurant suspended Jenkins for a couple days while they decided what to do. She was suspended on full pay, but still -- what kind of message does that send? Is she really such a danger to her customers that they're afraid of exposing more customers to her? OMG, the uppity bitch who doesn't like being called racist slurs -- run for the hills!

I can see why it's unprofessional to post a receipt with an ugly slur online. While it's not the restaurant's fault at all, it's not great publicity for them, either. But I'm a little puzzled by the suspension. They say it's "standard procedure" for employees who post photos of receipts online. But under these more extreme circumstances, couldn't they have just had a conversation with Jenkins and asked her to remove the photo and not post any like that in the future? 

At least Red Lobster sent out a statement condemning the racial slur. A spokesman says the chain is "extremely disturbed" by the incident. "We take this extremely seriously. This kind of language is completely disgusting and has no place in our restaurant or anywhere else, and we are committed to getting to the bottom of what happened as quickly as possible." Jenkins hasn't actually missed any days at work and is expected to return on schedule. I kind of feel like her suspension got blown out of proportion in reports, though I also think she shouldn't have been suspended at all. 

At any rate, I'm glad Red Lobster is clear about saying bigotry has no place at their business. Like I always say, racism is not delicious.

Would you feel uncomfortable dining near the kinds of people who leave racist comments on restaurant bills?

Image via Robert S. Donovan/Flickr (N.B. This is not the receipt referred to in the post)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Adriana Velez

is a staff writer who dabbles in food, parenting, news, entertainment, molecular biology, and anything else that that pops into her head. She lives with her elementary school-aged son in Brooklyn, land of urban farms and artisan everything.  

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Racist ‘Asian Girlz’ Video Should Get Group Shamed Out of the Music Industry Forever (VIDEO)

donderdag 1 augustus 2013

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Most of the time, I think our vigilantly PC culture can be pretty annoying. Political correctness gets people riled up over the silliest things, creating tension and causing folks to read way too much into/be offended by certain issues. Plus, sometimes we could all use a dose of non-PC humor. Our differences can actually be funny! But then you go and watch something like Day Above Ground's music video, "Asian Girlz," and you realize there are things we shouldn't lighten up or shut up about.

It's insulting to Asians. It's insulting to women. It's insulting to music in general. There's always a fine line between posting something like this, thus bringing it awareness and clicks, and needing an outlet to unleash one's rage. My rage won this round.

I even hate to post the video, but hopefully the backlash this band will receive will ensure they'll never make headlines (or a dime) again.

This is probably one of the most NSFW videos ever. There's some skin, some swearing, and of course the whole thing is just disgusting. You have been warned:

Forgive my overuse of quotation marks for the rest of this post, but COME ON. As you can see, while the band is trapped in a bird cage, an Asian model strips down while the "singers" unleash every single Asian stereotype ever in their "song." Every member of the band goes out with an Asian girl, which you can see in Polaroid photos. The model proceeds to pick up the bird cage, draws a bath, then lets the mini idiots swim around in her bath water. OMG, how the hell was something like this even made?

Here are some of the worst "lyrics":

I love your sticky rice
Butt f*cking all night
Korean barbecue
B*tch I love you

I love your creamy yellow thighs
Ooh your slanted eyes

Your momma's so pretty
Best nails in the city
Pushing your daddy's Mercedes

And you age so well
I can barely tell
17 or 23?
Baby doesn't matter to me

Then the whole last verse is a list of gems that include "flied lice," "Sailor Moon," and to top it all off, "fa ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra." 

It'd be one thing if this were clever or funny or satirical. I love me a good Asian joke and am never hesitant to poke fun of myself. That scene in A Christmas Story was freakin' hilarious. But this "song" is really so vile and nasty, so unoriginal and degrading, I felt depressed for all of humanity after watching this video. I'm not so naive that I don't think some men have an "Asian fetish", but please don't tell me this is actually a "compliment" for Asian women, that this video shows they're desirable. It's the exact opposite, and it in fact made me feel really terrible about myself.

Levy Tran, the "Asian Girl" in the video, said she regretted participating in this ridiculousness on Twitter: "I sincerely apologize to all who feels that I set Asian women back 50 yrs. I know I lost respect from a lot of ppl. It wasn't my intention."

Of course, the band doesn't think so. They told Dlisted, "WE ARE NOT RACIST, HAHA! I mean, look at our band, it’s multicultural!! The guy in the bow-tie, our cutie bass player, was born in Indonesia, and he steals the show!! Please don’t take this tongue-in-cheek tribute to some of the most gorgeous women on the planet too seriously!!"

Band, we've heard more than enough from you. Seriously, it's amazing how I've gone through my entire life listening to taunts and jokes about these stereotypes due to my ethnicity, stereotypes I've constantly tried to fight against and dispel, and here they all are, listed for me in all their glory in one "song." Thanks, guys. I really needed that today.

Do you think this "music video" goes too far? Do you think the band is racist?

Image via DAYABOVEGROUND/YouTube

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Amazing Kids Make Racist Cheerios Commercial Commenters Look Like Idiots (VIDEO)

woensdag 17 juli 2013

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

I believe the children are our future ... teach them well and yada, yada, yada ... no, but really. What with all the crazy, less-than-inspiring things going on in the world right now, it's tough to believe -- as a parent or simply as a human being -- that there are SOME people out there who are trying to raise kickass kids on a daily basis, but you know what? Those people do exist, and this video is proof. 

Here's the deal: Remember that racist Cheerios commercial? (Of course you do, because the backlash is neverending, so it's not like you've had a chance to forget.) Well, the Fine Bros. decided to devote an episode of their YouTube series "Kids React" to the disheartening debacle, and the result will -- no joke -- actually rekindle some hope in the dark recesses of your jaded soul for the future of mankind. 

Out of the mouths of babes, y'know? You've really got to see this one for yourself, but just in case you're not convinced yet, here are a few of my favorite quotes:

On whether or not the commercial is, in fact, worthy of controversy:

"That's it? That's just a Cheerios commercial!"

On racism in general:

"That's just the color of their skin, what matters is if they're nice or mean."

"As long as it's a person, it's a person."

On people's outrage over the depiction of a mixed-race family:

"That's messed up!"

On personal experiences with racism:

"It's annoying when people say, 'Uh, you're Asian, that's not fair, of course you're gonna ace that test.'"

On the multitude of mean comments:

"It's that mob mentality ... they see everybody else do it, so they do it. Monkey see, monkey do."

The wisdom is sort of staggering, isn't it? What happens to human beings as we grow older? How do we get LESS smart?! 

Watch the rest of this video; I promise you won't be sorry:

Truly and profoundly inspiring, right? (Go ahead, watch it again.)

What was your favorite part of this video?

Image via TheFineBros/YouTube

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