Re: easy cowboy

My my my, what a hornet's nest I've stirred up by my reaction to yet another racist bigot. I don't have the time to respond to every point made in the flurry of posts that ensued, even if I had the inclination, so I'll just confine myself to a couple of salient points raised in yours, if that's ok with you.

The Freeman Quote

So basically, ignore it, and the problem disappears in a puff of smoke? It's all in the mind, or simply a matter of perception. Is that it? This from the country that gave us a civil war over slavery, the kkk and lynch mobs, Little Rock and the LA Watts Riots, an industrial prison complex that disproportionately incarcerates black criminals compared to their white counterparts on a like for like basis, the unspoken declaration of open season on blacks by virtually every police force across the country, and a POTUS who  equivocates over the murder of a human rights activist by a racist thug in Charlottesville.

So yeah, I'm really not surprised that trapper, anti-semite in chief, finds succour in this quote from a black actor who made good in Hollywood. But I think you'll find that the propensity to make light of the issue is inversely proportional to the degree that one is either a racist oneself, or else living in splendid isolation from its sphere of malign influence.

No, I'm afraid I have to wonder if the excellent Mr Freeman would be so dismissive of the issue if he had the life experience of, say, one of his own:

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/sammy-davis-jr-90th-birthday-1201656058/

and:

https://www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/473145/Secret-torment-of-Rat-Pack-le...

While he was the butt of their unrelenting racist jibes, he displayed more dignity in his little finger than all of them put together. Our own Bruce Forsyth (who idolised him) showed him more love and respect in just two hours than he received in an entire lifetime from his so-called ratpack buddies, and while you may well argue that he belongs to a less enlightened era, I'm not at all convinced that attitudes have changed that much since then.

I find it very telling that my own response to a racist bigot is dismissed as offensive posturing while you simultaneously belittle its corrosive effects - not so much on me - but much more so on the perpetrator himself. It dehumanises both parties, but I would argue that tomi is himself by far a greater unwitting victim of his own bigotry than I will ever be. The last time I experienced such racist abuse was in junior school, but I have long since abandoned tomi and his kind in that schoolyard to wallow in a hell of their own making.

This isn't a question of developing a thicker skin. It's a question of basic standards of common decency and respect for others regardless of race, creed, colour, gender or sexual orientation. If I have inadvertantly offended my black neighbour, I would much rather apologise to him than tell him to grow a thicker skin. But then, that's just me. Either we learn to love one another and live peaceably together, or we get the world we deserve, which is quite possibly not that far removed from the one we now share.

As for being impervious to any views other than my own, that shot is a 2-way street. Are you any more amenable to the views I have expressed above?

I could say much more, but I elect to quit while I'm ahead, and before this turns into a PhD thesis.