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Hey, what's with all the misspelled words?
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racist.
Totally racist and unfortunate. I thought you guys were cool.
racist?! omg, if this is the worst racism you’ve seen recently, you’ve got it good…tune in to the news or somthing. but mostly, don’t throw the term “racist” around like it applies to this innocent shit k?
*psst* this is a site full of cat pix. censored. * sigh*
Cute, regardless of complaints. Used to have a cat that looked exactly like that one.
Sure, it’s a racist stereotype. But it’s not really a bad one, as they go…
—an Asian
“Everyone’s a little bit racist, today….”
Heck yes.
“If we all could just admit, that we are racist, a little bit, and everyone stop being so PC, maybe we could live in harmony.”
Avenue Q rocks my socks.
Racism is binary, something either is or is not. Given that, if something is racist — and this is — then it is by definition not positive or acceptable. “It’s not bad” is exactly the kind of apologist language that has allowed offensive stereotypes like this to persist, and being an apologist when it’s your heritage that’s being denigrated and mocked is simply inexcusable.
Or maybe, Dreama, some people simply don’t feel the need to take offense to anything and everything that could be considered offensive. People are happier when they’re not insisting that absolutely everything they see on television or (gasp) the internet is G-rated. Is it racist? Sure. Does that give -you- the right to put someone down for NOT taking offense? No.
But I don’t expect you to understand that; you’re probably blacking out from the lack of oxygen up there on your pedestal.
well said jesse… but more likely lack of oxygen from head up thier own ass.
Wow. That’s ugly.
I didn’t think the cat was Asian – I thought he just drank some bad lemonade.
“Inexcusable” “offensive stereotypes”.. that neither of the people here whom this stereotype is aimed at are offended by.. imagine that.
This cat pic is evil! This is just as offensive as Ling-Ling on Drawn Together looking at a bottle of Prell and exclaiming: “Oh Plerr, why must you make hair so full of shine and body and leave soul so full of shame and embarrassment?” If any of us thought this pic was cute on any level, we must now cut our heads off in shame after donating everything we own to some ultra-liberal thought-policing organiza.. I mean charity. Everyone else who viewed it but didn’t think it was cute will now have to be lobotomized as a precaution.
Perhaps because I am an Atheist living in the southern US, and I haven’t gone out on a spree of bashing peoples’ heads in for trying to convert me, (and believe me, people have tried) I’m a filthy apologist for religious intolerance and I should feel ashamed for my inexcusable tolerance for their intolerance? I mean, I suppose that is just as inexcusable (maybe more so! Yeah! Get pumped UP about it! Rage against the dying of the light and all that crap! ARR!) as Asians not being up in arms over a simple picture playing on commonly-perceived errors in pronunciation.
It used to be important to me that I was part Native American.. I used to rail at the injustices done to them on the part of “the Man”. Now I’m beginning to realize that all this “race” and culture crap is little more than an excuse for people to separate themselves off from one another and pretend to be superior about it.. and I feel a little silly about making a stink about things in the first place. The people most up in arms about “racial intolerance” seem to be the people with the most to gain from it. Or maybe a few people are just looking for more reasons to be offended.. who knows?
Thank you, Dreama. After spending the last few months trying to reconcile my growing contempt for humanity with my continued participation in it, I can say you’ve done your part to push me towards wanting to stick around to see it (the human race, that is) perish in a huge colorful fireball. Where’s a state-sized asteroid when you need one..?
http://plerr.ytmnd.com/
(bonus points if you can call me a hick or a redneck or whatever, without a hint of irony, just because I used “liberal” in a mocking tone and admitted to living in the South.. because of course you’d be doing the exact thing you’re complaining about.. but since when has that ever stopped anyone from attempting to insult someone else?)
Anyway, to the site owner(s): Thanks for the laughs.. I was really enjoying this site until I was stupid enough to start reading the comments. Between this one and the “absorption” argument a few pics back, I’ve come to the realization that the only way I’ll continue to enjoy this site is if I exercise the willpower to avoid clicking on the comment links.
Hey angry atheist-Southern-partial-native-american-but-most-likely-just-a-white-dude(Ben), if this were a picture of a black cat bugging his eyes out and sticking out his tongue with the caption, ‘I sho hope massah gives me some watahmelon!’ – not only would it not be posted here on this 99% awesome site, if it had, no one would be defending its right to be here.
Well guess what? It’s the same exact thing. If you think that the deaths of white and black people for civil rights, the imprisonment of the Japanese in American internment camps, and the mistreatment of the Chinese and Africans whose labor built this country are all trite issues people are overly sensitive about, I can only guess that you are: 1) Uneducated. Displaying a total lack of historical knowledge as it relates to contemporary culture, 2) An example of your own condemnations, ie “superior” via the notion that you ‘get it’ and those who care about race do not, or 3) Young and will probably change your mind once you live a bit.
Now what do I have to gain from pointing the racism of this picture out? Nothing according to your logic. I’m white.
Signed,
Angrier than you, agnostic, Southern, partial Native American, but really just a white dude (Jimmy).
old quote, and maybe someone else are pointed this out (got tired of reading that many comments), but here goes….
Jeez, Ben. Who went pee-pee in YOUR Coke?
LOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!
“Racism is binary, something either is or is not.”
That, Dreama and other folks, is precisely, exactly the opposite of true. It would be a lot easier to know to whom you are morally superior, if it was true. But it isn’t! solly
I found it FUCKIN’ hilarious!!!
Hey, how about we rant on for days about something that has the importance of a dead mouse in a bowl of tofu? Oh wait… that’s already been done? Ah… good then!
Seriously. People who are so uptight that they can’t laugh need a laxative and maybe a suppository. SURPRISE BUTTSECHS!!
Instead of ranting on a kitten website… how about going out and fighting REAL injustice. Or would you rather be a recliner activist? Oh the second one? Good then, I guess.
-Herr Kub
It’s a joke guys. get over it.
@Dreama- go change your f***ing name into f***ing Drama
@Krautkub- JAWOHL!
Wait, what? Jimmy, darling, how on Earth did you get from “Asian tendecy to mispronounce L and R due to the sounds being virtually the same in their native language” to “Imprisonment of the Japanese in American internment camps”?
I mean, really, everybody’s complaining about racist stereotypes here, but where’s the racism here? Who’s saying that a certain race is ultimately inferior to another? Who’s advocating discrimination based on race? Who’s insulting and badmouthing people simply for having parents of a certain descent?
Take a chill pill, dudes and dudettes.
“Hey angry atheist-Southern-partial-native-american-but-most-likely-just-a-white-dude(Ben), if this were a picture of a black cat bugging his eyes out and sticking out his tongue with the caption, ‘I sho hope massah gives me some watahmelon!’ – not only would it not be posted here on this 99% awesome site, if it had, no one would be defending its right to be here.”
Not really angry so much as fed up.. and waiting for that asteroid to come and kill the rest of you. (or for you all to kill each other over stupid crap like race and religion and nationality) Sure, I’ll die with you most likely, but hey.. the Earth will be given a fresh start at least, minus the plague of humanity. You might think to reply with something witty like “so if it’s so awful, why don’t you start by killing yourself?”.. but really, I want to stick around to see the rest of you go down in flames. If so many people out there can obsess over one dead idiot like Anna Nicole, why can’t I obsess over a few billion hopefully-soon-to-be-dead idiots like the human race?
“Well guess what? It’s the same exact thing. If you think that the deaths of white and black people for civil rights, the imprisonment of the Japanese in American internment camps, and the mistreatment of the Chinese and Africans whose labor built this country are all trite issues people are overly sensitive about, I can only guess that you are: 1) Uneducated. Displaying a total lack of historical knowledge as it relates to contemporary culture, 2) An example of your own condemnations, ie “superior” via the notion that you ‘get it’ and those who care about race do not, or 3) Young and will probably change your mind once you live a bit.”
…he says to the guy who just admitted he was an atheist.. something that would get me killed in many parts of the world (probably even some parts a little too close to home for my liking, if the local yokels thought they could get away with it) for even admitting to.. even, I’m guessing, by some of the people whose “cause” you are championing. Check out some of the articles on this site if you think atheists are unfamiliar with prejudice and discrimination: http://www.positiveatheism.org/ But hey, even though it could get me killed on sight in a decent chunk of the world, and even though people like Bush Sr. have said things like: “I don’t know that atheists should be considered as citizens” ( http://www.positiveatheism.org/writ/ghwbush.htm ) I’m not here to complain about it. I just muddle through life, mostly keeping my head down, (or trying to, except for days like today) until such time as I can retire to some quiet and relatively uninhabited little corner of the world where I can hopefully watch the big explosion and enjoy it for a few seconds longer than the rest of you.
Yep, totally “unedumacated”.. curse those public schools of the 1970s and 80s. They were so boring, once I finished high school I decided I had had quite enough of school in general. Taught myself my own trade (computer repair) once, and I’m in the process of doing it again. (programming)
35 years is enough living for me to have changed my mind already. As I pointed out, I used to give a damn about the injustice of it all.. now I’m starting to wonder if the human race thrives off these idiotic injustices. Causing them.. suffering them.. complaining about them. Does that make me superior? No, it makes me tired of all the nonsense.
“Now what do I have to gain from pointing the racism of this picture out? Nothing according to your logic. I’m white.”
Everyone has something to gain.. even if it’s the so-called “moral high ground” for an argument on the Internet.
Signed,
Angrier than you, agnostic, Southern, partial Native American, but really just a white dude (Jimmy).”
“Angrier than me”? Is that supposed to make you.. superior..?
Oh, and while I’m thinking about it: You might be wondering why I’d make so much noise about religious beliefs in a thread about a racist picture. Well those beliefs had a big hand in coming to my decision to want to see the human race http://www.icanhascheezburger.com/2007/02/26/f-a-i-l/ fail. For some time I sat and thought, trying to find ways that I could maybe find a few people like myself (atheists, mainly) and separate ourselves from the rest of the species and go off somewhere to be left alone and do our own thing. But then I realized that that would never work. If a group of non-believers went off somewhere, I’m sure some evangelical bible-thumper-type would just try to follow us thinking we were in need of “saving”. No matter where humanity is capable of going, some part of it will always be capable of going there to screw things up. That led to thoughts of “why?”.. which led to ponderings on the apparent compulsion of humans to screw things up for other humans.. which, because I’m already tired of typing all this, is what we’ll use to bring this screwed-up post to a close.
Well, sheesh, you Americans sure make a fuss about such issues. Guess it’s kind of like we Germans do about our more recent history…
Anyways, I think this can be seen as an issue of linguistics, not necessarily of race. After all, “Prell” IS a terrible word to pronounce for most speakers of an Asian primary language (and a quite amusing case as well, I may say).
I didn’t even think that it was racist in anyway. I just thought it was a cute kitty who had some sour lemonade… and this is coming from a South African. And we are supposed be from the racist capital of the world. These americans do love to take things way out of context, don’t they?
Damn
calm down will you?
It’s only a picture of a cat, and I’m sure loads of people find it funny.
Who shoved the stick up your butt, hm?
hahaha
I am white, I live in New York, and the majority of my friends are non-white (so-called “minorities”), including Blacks, Asians, Hispanics, etc, etc, and we’re constantly fucking with racial stereotypes. We say things to each other that in a different context would get our asses kicked, and rightly so, but amongst us it’s OK because we know we are not racists.
This doesn’t offend me, but I won’t go so far as to say that it’s not offensive to others – I’m not Asian so I’m probably not “qualified” to make that statement. If it does offend you, well hey, sorry you feel that way, man, just try to remember that you’re looking at a website with stupid cat pics, and I would encourage you to try to have a sense of humor about it. While racism still exists on this planet, I see nothing wrong with poking fun at it. IMO.
To summarize: this shit if fucking FUNNY.
To all you saying ‘lighten up’ Once again – if it were a black cat saying something about ‘massah’ and ‘watahmelon’, no one would be arguing for it at all.
How about you all open your eyes up and see that what’s been stated is actually offensive. I realize you’d all rather write it off to ‘humor’ and ‘people taking things too seriously’ and hereby exclude yourself from actually using your heads about the issue. When you allow this sort of thing, you’re giving the concept an inch and then it will take a mile, ie you’re allowing people who don’t know any better to think this sort of thing is ok.
Pope lulz, yeah genius, it all all goes back to those big issues. Where the f*ck do you think it comes from? Doy.
Ben,
“…he says to the guy who just admitted he was an atheist.. something that would get me killed in many parts of the world (probably even some parts a little too close to home for my liking, if the local yokels thought they could get away with it) for even admitting to.. even, I’m guessing, by some of the people whose “cause” you are championing.”
Are you seriously comparing moral disposition to race? You realize that people can’t actually SEE that you’re an atheist right?
Nevertheless, after reading everything that you’ve written, I can see that these posts aren’t so much about getting to the truth of a race matter, but instead we are witnessing a therapy session via internet discourse. With your misanthropic views, your ‘woe is me, I’m a discriminated against white computer repair guy’ attitude combined with your shocking age I just have to say one thing: It’s never too late for suicide.
kthxbai.
erm, why not just photoshop the caption and avoid the entire debate?
No thanks, I’d rather stick around to see whiners like you perish in flames.
Therapy session? That would require me valuing your input.
My age is “shocking”? What, do you think the Internet is only usable by mouthy teenagers who say idiotic things like “kthxbai”? I’ve forwarded this site to several people now, none of whom are younger than 23. Shocking.. adults use the Internet!
I think we’re done here, son. Nothing you can say at this point will turn this into any sort of meaningful discussion. You’re the “angry white guy” championing the cause of people who have already said they’re not offended by what offends you. Way to impose those beliefs on others! Hooray for liberal guilt!
People that get upset over something that is a tiny bit of race based humor need to settle the hell down.
Its a funny picture, if you dont like it, then go on to the next one instead of being all WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA about it
I didn’t find this racist at all. when one drinks sour lemonade the face that is made is similar to that of the cat. the resulting “sour face” can cause one to speak a little differently. if you truly find this racist then do as zomg said to do and move on.
Ok…i’m half asian and i think that’s HILARIOUS! It’s hanging up in my cube as we speak…take a joke people…
How about a modicum of proportion in all of this?
In a world where terrorists bomb others because of perceived racial, national and religious differences, how offensive is that caption, really?
I’ve worked with Japanese people and have as much respect for them as any other race and I’d like to think that if they didn’t find it funny they’d just ignore it.
What is insulting is all this white, middle class crusading on behalf of people quite capable of holding their own.
If you’re that stirred up about injustice, go and do something that’ll count – not whine about it on a webpage full of cute cat pictures.
It is a matter of linguistics. To simplify the whole matter, the issue of L’s and R’s is language acquisition FACT. It’s just what happens when those who spoke Asian languages first in life learn/speak English later on. It is unavoidable quirk of the language. If it were a lie, if things were not pronounced in that way, it would indeed be defamation and might potentially be considered intolerant. But for christssake, get off your moral high horses and realize that certain things in life are indeed funny and not nobody gots killeded. Getting offended by racial/lifestyle stereotypes (nigger, kyke, faggot, chink, dyke and so on..) only heightens the stigma of the word/stereotype, making even more powerful in the hands of those who do hate and discriminate (especially if you the offended do not actually belong to said maligned group). I know taking things lightly might not be your saucer of milk, but there is a time and place for outrage and this one was certainly misplaced.
“No thanks, I’d rather stick around to see whiners like you perish in flames.”
Says the whiner: ‘Lookitme! I’m an atheist in the South and everyone is so much more stupid than me!’ You’re living in a state of perish.
“My age is “shocking”? What, do you think the Internet is only usable by mouthy teenagers who say idiotic things like “kthxbai”? I’ve forwarded this site to several people now, none of whom are younger than 23. Shocking.. adults use the Internet!”
I’m older than you. Welcome to l33t.
“I think we’re done here, son. Nothing you can say at this point will turn this into any sort of meaningful discussion. You’re the “angry white guy” championing the cause of people who have already said they’re not offended by what offends you. Way to impose those beliefs on others! Hooray for liberal guilt!”
Of course we’re done here ‘Dad’(?). Your shallow thoughts at 35 years of age are clearly not going to be remedied by discussing this matter with someone smarter than you. Have fun living in the South loving being bitter. If you were smart and really wanted to solve your problems in life, like me, you’d have left.
Yes, that’s right, continue to focus on me while everyone else tells you to get over it.
Can please get white redneck lolcat – I is offended mys race is not represented.
Or please with a feather headdress cus I gets the native mericans inside me tooz.
KTHXBAI
“Yes, that’s right, continue to focus on me while everyone else tells you to get over it.”
you r teh verbose iz why.
“You’re the “angry white guy” championing the cause of people who have already said they’re not offended by what offends you. Way to impose those beliefs on others! Hooray for liberal guilt!”
I’m of Japanese descent and am very offended by this image w/caption. In addition to myself, I have shown this specific image to several other Asians who also find it repulsive. I think it’s safe to say that there will be more of us out there offended by this imagery. I’m sick and tired of ppl thinking it’s OK to make fun of Asians racially & culturally and assume that we are “cool” with it.
I wish I had the luxury to just laugh this off, but in reality I know what it’s like to have people assume that just because I LOOK the way I do – or have a non-Anglo name, I’m not capaple of speaking English fluently. I’m not talking about the Nazi skinheads that shot pellets at us screaming things like, “oh, i rike lice!” but sadly, by co-workers in prominent positions, store/service clerks, police etc.. So, yeah… my first reaction is anger/frustration versus laughing at this.
It’s the idiotic steroetypes portrayed in this imagery and everyone’s attitude to go with the popular vote, that makes me have to work a little harder. Dreama is right and you probably disagree because you’re not Asian and don’t care for equal treatment of people or just never experienced racism/discrimination in an extreme situation. If you have, you probably just don’t care and have accepted the discriminating treatment to you as being deserved.
Ben, I think Jimmy was shocked that you are 35 and hold these views and not that you are 35 and on the internet. I too am atheist but to be honest, this factor has never been an issue in the way that being Asian has. My life has never been threatened because of my atheist beliefs by a complete stranger in the way that being Asian has.
Are you kidding? First of all, racial jokes are made about EVERYONE, you self-righteous ignoramus. Second of all I am Chinese, having moved here when i was 17 (I am now 42). None of my asian friends think this is offensive. Big fat hairy deal – as Garfield would say. There are too many people without a sense of humor out there – and a lot of fun is spoiled by them. Remember the old cartoons from the 1940’s? You know, the ones that were banned? Of course you don’t, because someone had to be offended by them, or file a lawsuit, or some other crap. Geez people GET OVER YOURSELVES!
OMFG. IT IS A JOKE. GTFOI.
It’s not my fault you are offended, but since you have shown signs of offense, I must thank you, for now I have even more ammo with which to mock you.
i didn’t even get that it was racist at all…i had to look at it a couple times.
still it’s not that bad…
OK LOOK. The cat in question is a Siamese kitten. This site contains captions imagining what kitties might say if they could talk. So in this case if we know this is an Asian kitten and we consider that it may be native to a country where the r vs l issue is a reality of English as a second language, we can then construe that this is in fact an accurate representation of how said Asian kittie would speak this particular sentence.
And yes the r vs l thing is real. I had to give my old boss an email alias of Froyd because that’s how his Asian contacts would spell his name (Floyd).
Oh PUHLEASE. Stop going on with your “These people went through hard times” PC bullshit. In case you haven’t noticed, LOTS of groups of people suffer discrimination on a daily basis. Blacks, Jews, Asians, Atheists, women, even whites. And I can’t stand when they bitch and moan about it, even when I am 3 of the above mentioned. I am discriminated against, maybe not daily, but it still happens. And guess what? SHIT HAPPENS.
He has a right to post whatever the hell he wants, it’s up to YOU to read it.
As the great Penn Gilette once said: NO ONE has the right NOT to be offended.
So go cry somewhere else about it, where someone actually gives a damn.
I love how in America there is only type of “white”. Don’t you maybe think it’s a bit culturally insensitive to be considering people of Italian, Irish, Spanish, Scottish, Welsh, English, French and so on as exactly the same?
Yet I see posts here automatically discounting any “white” person’s opinion because they aren’t Asian.
Would a picture of a cat with bagpipes with some poorly written stereotypical Scottish accented text be offensive to anyone? Or maybe a kittie with a bottle of whiskey passed out on a coffin with a badly rendered Irish brogue caption referencing Joyce? Judging by most of the reactions to the controversial “remonade” image, it should be.
‘Would a picture of a cat with bagpipes with some poorly written stereotypical Scottish accented text be offensive to anyone?……………… Judging by most of the reactions to the controversial “remonade” image, it should be.’
It’s a tough one.
Here in the UK we have a MOBO awards show – MOBO being “Music of Black Origin”.
There’s no way they’d ever have a MOWO………….
Why is that?
Is it only OK to praise the achievements of a minority?
Or is there something else going on here?
Politically Correct Cat Approves Of Censorhip.
Whoa….guys..it’s just a picture. It’s a KITTEN..with CAPTIONS!
Lords, you act like we went all Kramer on the asian populas for a moment there. Come on now..
On another note…Teehee…I find this to be kinda cute. Makes me thing of my siamese kitten I had a few years back. *shrugs* Maybe I’m just able to see that it’s just a damn picture? Like all the rest here?
Yeah, it is just a cute kitten but where does the stereo typing end? I visit sites like these feeling confident that I don’t have to encounter racist stereotypes. I stay away from certain forums b/c it’s typical that they tend to bandwagon and rally against people that are offended by blatant racist material and actually encourage racist remarks with, “but you know how black ppl … or you know how middle easterners …”.
How about this: we all agree that those of you that believe this image is just funny, too petty for discussion and not offensive, are ALL racist.
I’m totally cool with assuming that…wait what? You’re not a racist? Not even a latent one? But I can’t tell..ooohhhh.
I wouldn’t really think that. But I do believe if any of you were faced with not getting a job or ppl thinking you have a poor grasp of the English (or any) language – let’s say based on hair color or even age, you would definitely have something to say. If not, you probably like to tolerate abuse?
Take a chill pill. What snuf says is correct.
Coming from someone who studied an oriental language, the r/l thing is true. There really isn’t an ‘l’ sound in some tongues.
“or ppl thinking you have a poor grasp of the English (or any) language – let’s say based on hair color or even age, you would definitely have something to say.”
Actually people think I can’t speak all manner of languages simply based on my skin color. Chinese speakers assume I can’t speak Mandarin or Cantonese. Japanese speakers assume I can’t speak Japanese.
Now I know white people who can speak those languages. If a native speaker assumes that they cannot because they are white – is this racist?
Oh and I would ask you, is it OK for non-white comedians to use the term “cracker” or “honky”? Is that racist?
What about the negative depiction of Scots in English humor (see Monty Python)? Is that racist?
I’m just interested in seeing exactly where your line of political correctness is.
“I do believe if any of you were faced with not getting a job or ppl thinking you have a poor grasp of the English (or any) language – let’s say based on hair color or even age, you would definitely have something to say. If not, you probably like to tolerate abuse?”
I’m faced with not getting a job every day. I’m faced with people assuming I’m a child molester every day. Why? Because I’m a homosexual. But I tough it out. I’ve lost count of the number of jobs I’ve been denied because of that one small fact about, and I’m not even flamboyant. I do speak up, I hate the ‘abuse’ but ya know, you can’t change everyone’s minds. And I’ve spoken up here. as snuf said: “OK LOOK. The cat in question is a Siamese kitten. This site contains captions imagining what kitties might say if they could talk. So in this case if we know this is an Asian kitten and we consider that it may be native to a country where the r vs l issue is a reality of English as a second language, we can then construe that this is in fact an accurate representation of how said Asian kittie would speak this particular sentence.”
Now…can we please just accept that its a cute kitten with a caption? If you’re going to make an outcry about one PERCEIVED racial slur, why not get all worked up for the other pics on here that could be PERCEIVED as racist or biased in some way? It SEEMS to me like many of you are hypocrites and should go educate yourselves or balance your views or look at everything before passing your ‘holier than thou’ judgements.
Highlander, yes it is racist if these people make an assumption about you based on your race. It is offensive when they automatically assume that you are an idiot and have no grasp of their language based on what you look like.
Memories, I haven’t had a chance to review all images on here. I’m sure I’ll come across another offensive image, especially in the category titled, “Gay.” Btw, not everyone I fwd’ed this image to was aware that this was a siamese kitten. Just out of curiosity, do they question your sexual orientation during job interviews in your country?
Anyway, I prefer to take the non-cowardly route and speak up before I should have to “tough” it out. Actually, I prefer it if all of you would have a face to face confrontation with me rather than trying to assert yourselves online. I can fuck you all up and it would be worth it.
Wow! Why take life so seriously?
“It is offensive when they automatically assume that you are an idiot and have no grasp of their language based on what you look like.”
I don’t think assuming someone can’t speak your language means they think you are an idiot. I live in a vary diverse community where language differences are dealt with on a daily basis. I don’t think someone is an idiot because they can’t speak English well. It doesn’t matter if they are an American citizen or a tourist.
I’ve been laughed at by native Japanese speakers for mispronouncing the name of a type of sushi. Hell, I laughed too and next time I knew how to say it correctly.
If I took offense every time someone made an assumption about my knowledge of their language I would be a pretty pissed off person. I also spent 4 years working in the translation industry and have seen all kinds of gaffs arise from language issues but almost without exception this never resulted in one person thinking the other was an idiot (well except the debates over HOW to translate something but I digress…).
I understand your position and truly stereotypes can be used in a degrading manner. I just don’t feel this is a case to get bent out of shape over.
“I can fuck you all up and it would be worth it.”
Of course you can.
You’re Asian.
Therefore you know Kung-Fu.
nice!!
sgaKUGb ! LOLOLOL, that was the coolest way ever to respond to her pity-me-but-I’m-also-a-bad-ass bullshit! You are my momentary hero.
Stereotypes are funny.
Alright, this has gotten really stupid.
1) It’s ok to laugh at this. It’s funny.
2) Asians have seen this, and either shrugged.. or laughed. So if they’re not offended, what’s the problem?
3) A few posts back someone claimed it’s ‘culturally insensitive’ to treat everyone who can be classified as ‘caucasian’ as exactly the same. I don’t see a problem with that, honestly. In fact, the ‘minorities’ are consistently wanted to be treated the same as well.. so why the hell not just treat each person equally? I’m German, and I don’t mind being called ‘White’.
4) Every time you people whine about lolcat captions, a Terrorists Win.
This thread is made of eternity and epic.
Michi, I’m not going to confront you in person over a damn lolcats misunderstanding. That is ridiculous, if you’re serious about that you need some therapy.
Michi, I’m not going to confront you in person over a damn lolcats misunderstanding. That is ridiculous, if you’re serious about that……wow, just…wow.
n4cht: Actually I completely agree with you. I don’t care if people just refer to me as “white”. I certainly don’t expect people to be able to instantly recognize my heritage at a glance.
The only point I was trying to make is that we see and laugh at stereotypes of various white cultures all the time and yet no one seems to make a stink about it. I certainly have laughed at these depictions myself and I it doesn’t offend me if the if the stereotype is related to my own race.
I’ve also watched a lot of Asian cinema and laughed at how whites are sometimes stereotyped in those films.
Deliberately hateful racist stereotypes are one thing – but I don’t think hate is always the intent especially not in terms of light comedy such as lolcats.
I’m so ronery
So ronery
So ronery and sadry arone
There’s no one
Just me onry
Sitting on my rittle throne
I work very hard and make up great prans
But nobody ristens, no one understands
Seems that no one takes me serirousry
And so I’m ronery
A little ronery
Poor rittre me
There’s nobody
I can rerate to
Feer rike a bird in a cage
It’s kinda sihry
But not rearry
Because it’s fihring my body with rage
I work rearry hard and I’m physicarry fit
But nobody here seems to rearize that
When I rure the world maybe they’rr notice me
But untir then I’rr just be ronery
Rittre ronery, poor rittre me
I’m so ronery
I’m so ronery
Some people are comparing this to posting an image of a cat pretending to be a black slave. It’s not the same. There’s nothing wrong with pretending a cat is Japanese human. And there’s nothing wrong with pretending the cat is a black human. If the cat was calling you nizzle, vanilla face, or G you wouldn’t be offended. That’s a stereotype too.
The reason a joke about black slaves is offensive is because slavery was a terrible crime, and not something to treat in a disrespectful tone.
Japanese people drinking lemonade, however, is not a terrible crime. It may be a little off colour to type ‘remonade’, but it’s not exactly joking about the holocaust. Would anyone get upset about a French stereotype? Is it not racism to pick and choose which race can and can’t be made fun of?
It’s amazing what we can waste our time with (i.e. this argument) when we are the small percent of people in this world that don’t have to worry about those things that the great majority of people have to worry about – like will I be able to get the food or medicine I need today to keep myself or my child from dying tomorrow?? Hmmm… I wonder?
All you high horsers who are pissed off about this being racists, you’ve got some issues to deal with. Either you are not Human beings or you are total hypocrites with some serious internal instinct conflicting dilemmas.
Human beings find amusement in other people’s/creature’s folly & misfortune – it’s instinct – it’s fact (I could go into a long bit here on why creatures of this earth have such instincts — especially pack animals which in part humans are).
If you say you have never chuckled at the expense or misfortune of someone else you are damn liar, and you certainly take offense to every TV show on the air, every comedian, etc.
That’s what this picture is. A chuckle at other people’s mispronunciation of the American English language — that’s all. Same thing as all those “American funniest home videos” shows or any time anyone ever laughed at someone tripping over a crack in the side walk. I’d like to see you properly pronounce Japanese and have it not be funny. (of course, all Japanese speaking people excluded from that statement — but then I don’t think any Asians were actually in the group of those offended…)
If you want to say it’s wrong for humans to laugh at such things, then well, maybe it is, but then you are also saying it’s wrong for any of us to be alive because that’s what humans are.
So grow up and accept what we are. Why do we always have to be fighting what we really are. Do you all know that when male lions take over a pride, one of the first things they do is find all the cute little fuzzy lion cubs and mash their teeth into the cubs little necks and brutally murder them ALL. Then the new males and the mothers of those cute little cubs that the new males just murdered spend the next days f@#$’ing 50 times a day or so.
So should we go out and exterminate all the lions? What about all those other creatures out there that do the same kind of things that have been deemed “unacceptable” and “awful” (i.e. human beings).
Oh, and for another twist — If you are NOT an Asian person who grew up speaking an Asian dialect and you are saying this picture is bad because it’s racists — they YOU are a racist because you’re assuming that all Asian people will be offended by this picture. You are making an assumption based on race.
Do you know how many people out there on our planet Earth lived in extreme poverty and DIED today so you could have your nice computer to write about being pissed off because of a picture of a CAT with a stereotype remark that might possibly hurt someone’s poor little feelings? I’ll give you a hint – it’s more than one!
Now will someone please reply and tell me to get off my high horse for going on complaining about people being stupid? I mean, what right do I have to tell someone they shouldn’t be stupid?
I wouldn’t consider this discussion is a waste of time. I think some post (not very many granted) express interesting ideas regarding what is offensive/racist and whats humor. And in such a multicultural country like the USA, and and ever shrinking world its important. The problem with racist humor is that while some can take it as a joke, its when it passes from humor to accepted preconceived notions. Jokes about Jews being obsessed with money can be funny, but when people start believing this and acting on it it becomes a problem, and the hard part is that these changes are subtle and develop slowly over time. Anyway, I think there is a lot that can be said about racism/humor etc. and I think its all important.
“That’s what this picture is. A chuckle at other people’s mispronunciation of the American English language — that’s all”
*American* English? Can Brits and Aussies not pronounce ‘L’s either then?
I see.
ENGRISH!! CALM-A down peoples. It’s supose to be a joke—
it’s hillarious, and fukt…and yeah offensive~
…I also think it’s messed up when my mom speaks engrish because she doesn’t want to deal with americans.
Lesha.. you know what happens when you talk about your mom. I bet your phone started ringing right away, didn’t it? “Leeshahh.. Why you never call meeee?”
Crazy Asian mothers.
lol its funny because its racist
oh my god, this thread is totally hilarious. oddly enough, funnier than the picture.
snuf, Ben, let’s have an illegal, polyamorous, furry love affair.
You know, if it was a black cat talking about watermelon, I’d laugh my black ass off. Funny is funny, and offensive is in the eye of the beholder. Quit trying to push your liberal guilt on others.
Obligatory disclaimer that I’m Asian and thought it was hilarious.
How come a cat not riking remonade is omg so offensive, but there’s not a flamewar about trivialising rape everytime a surprise buttsecks picture gets posted?
is funny cuz cat looks azn yes?
Oh sweet Jebus, the stupid is strong in this thread. I’ll say what someone posted in another thread: “If we can’t laugh at ourselves, we are doomed.”
Actually the hilarious thing is that to even see the picture, you have to look at the subject line that clearly shows what the caption is and click on the link that says it’s offensive. My GOD people, if you don’t want to see offensive things about Asians (and it’s clear that it’s an Asian thing from the caption), DON’T CLICK.
I think people are very desperate to cry about “racism” at any given opportunity, and it’s sad. Were you to make an amusing comment based on a white stereotype people would laugh, but since it’s a minority, suddenly you’re a hitler heiling cross burning bush loving racist.
I think people just TRY to be offended sometimes. It’s obviously a joke, let’s get over it. After all, it’s just the internet.
I don’t even get why this is supposed to be racist at all. The cat’s face is puckered up because it just drank lemonade. And the r’s are just as weird as a bunch of the other intentional misspelled captions on this site.
People have already talked way too much about this on this thread, so I won’t say much more. Suffice it to say that I’m Asian, and even if this were meant as a racial jab, I’m a big enough person to just move on and not write a 3-page rant about social injustice on what’s supposed to be just about the most light-hearted site on the web.
get over it, its a freaking cat macro ktx
car macros are supposed to be funny and guess what boys and girls? funny sometimes= offensive.
for the record i am not some mindless 15-year-old and i happen to love asian culture. plus i have asian friend omgz!! and i found this funny. go figure
go find something better to do than to write boring speeches that no one cares about. that comment was totally for dreama
So silly. Hate to bust your bubble, paranoids, but the “l” sound IS in fact very difficult for native Japanese people to pronounce. Know why? BECAUSE THERE IS NO “L” IN THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE! No language in the world includes every sound the human mouth can possibly make. Don’t believe me? Can you pronounce “hl” corectly? What about the glottal stops of the !Kung language? If you’re brought up with a language that doesn’t include a certain sound, it’s damn hard to do so if you try after a certain age. The mouth becomes accustomed to making certain shapes, and doesn’t learn new ones easily past a certain point. That’s just the way it is. So suck it up and stop with the OH NOEZ RASIST!!! silliness.
I lol’d moar at the wank than the pic.
Whats the most epic thread on this site? Someone getting into a lame racism debate.
Hi, I just saw this and was wondering about it.
Being from Denmark and not having extensive knowledge of all racist terms in english, I just don’t understand the racist bit.
I’m not denying it’s there, I just don’t have the info to see it. Could someone explain, please?
Perhaps I could find this offensive if I didn’t hear, “Rabatt Brue?Ok!” everytime my ex-boyfriend ordered a beer at a Chinese restarant.
Not all people have problems saying the L’s and R’s, but many of them do.
Its a freaking language barrier, not a race card. I’m half Irish, Half native american, and if I had been raised in China or Japan, I’d probably have the same freaking problem.
PC Thugs. Lighten up. It’s a site with cat pictures and wacky captions. This is the age old reflogging of a somewhat tired racial epithet, and I do not think it was placed here to offend you. It’s not shocking, it’s not inciting anyone to take any action, it’s a picture of a cat with asian ancestory making a face which looks slightly asian, captioned with a mild asian stereotype. Either chuckle because you think it’s funny mor MOVE ON. Why does some Sheila Broflovski always have to try to tell everyone else what is appropriate to laugh at?
Wow guys. It’s just a lolcat pic.
Not some crazy metaphorical racist bull.
Get over it and laugh.
It’s funny.
If you’re getting offended by all of this…Don’t come here. There are worse things…
okay for a start, all you people going OMGZ RACIST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! need to calm the heck down.
its only an asian stereotype, and as I think I’ve read in these comments before, funny DOES equal offensive sometimes.
if someone had posted something like “LOL *insert racist name here*” then that would be different, but thats what still makes it funny. Dont pretend you wouldnt laugh at someone else who got called nigga or something cos they were black, or if they had red hair they’d get insulted, or cos they were short or tall or fat or thin.
its only a joke and its a website full of cat pictures.
get over it, yer?
I’m trying to find something offensive about this pic. I can’t. I emailed the pic to my friend who is Japanese and she laughed at it.
If racism is binary, what is The Black Miss America Pageant? I’d have to assume a “White Miss American Pageant” would be racist?
It’s a freaking funny picture of a freaking cat on a site that made me spit water all over my monitor the first time I came here and I’ve been laughing ever since.
For 47 years I’ve been seeing people freak out over things they see as “racist” when they don’t even know the meaning of the word. Those very same people are _ALWAYS_ the very same people who think minorities, etc. can’t make it in the world without a little help.
It’s absurd.
I didn’t think it was racist, i saw it and thought Scooby-Doo aint a cat…
me too andy!
Are you people fucking serious??
All these PC people make me sick. If you get offended by this, it’s YOUR problem. I can’t believe all the fuss over this.
Oh my GOD people. IT’S A SITE ABOUT CATS AND MISSPELLED WORDS. GET OVER YOURSELVES.
It’s hilarious.
I luuuurve this picture, it made me laugh. I don’t care if it’s hilarious. Cheezborger – post some with white kitties looking for grey poupon and/or living in a trailer, that should clear everything up heeheehee
I am against racist materials. I am a member of Anti-Racist Action. I have protested KKK gatherings in person.
I think this cat is cute.
Don’t take EVERYTHING overly seriously…
Laugh more.
Besides this is more offensive anyways…
http://www.icanhascheezburger.com/category/harble/
As a white land owner, I think you people are too high strung.
Now why are my fields not being tended to?
haha! asians r funny!
Look up the word racist in a dictionary before you all throw it around.
1. Is this picture expressing intolerance towards Asians, and/or:
2. Is this picture expressing one race is superior over another?
It’s obviously not the latter. If you disagree go download netnanny and shelter yourself because you can’t handle the internet.
The only fuzzy line here is the use of the word “intolerance”. It’s such a broad word, but guess what–another Asian has already laughed at this picture themselves. But some people, regardless of race, find this offensive. Intolerance is therefore relative, and so is perception of racism.
So if you find it offensive just GO TO A DIFFERENT PICTURE AND STOP COMPLAINING. Other people find it funny, and it’s harmless.
NO ASIANS WERE HARMED IN THE POSTING OF THIS PICTURE.
you all are stupid. cats don’t talk, and they don’t drink lemonaide. you are looking at a website full of humanization of cats. If cats could talk, I think they’d be offended by this site because they would not want to be associated with a bunch of idiots such as yourselves who can’t take a joke and must associate a funny picture with some deeper social undertones when you can’t grasp the concept. personally I’m offended by all the fat cats on here because I’m really fat myself, and I have “diabeetus” too. so what do you have to say about that? I’m lying. anyway. hope you guys stop arguing about stupid things. I’m offended by cat balls too. oh man. I better make my cat wear pants from now on so I’m not offended any more. once again, they’re cats. not people. you can put words in cats mouths and it’s funny. and if you don’t like it don’t come here and look at them because your social maturity level is not up to par. go back to the tidepool or the trees or whatever rock you crawled out of. ever think that the way you act twords other people may possibly be the reason why they don’t like you?
oh yeah.. also, why are native accents a negative thing? sounds pretty racist of you to say that.
ok… i have stuff to say. you people all have sand up your pussies. race is a joke. I have a chinese friend at school-we rip on him for bein’ asian all the time. every time we do that, he just laughs and calls us fat lazy americans. no one is offended, everythings cool. i am italian american 14 year-old boy. every time i see an italian stereotye on tv or internet, i dont go and write a billion-word comment on how offensive it is.(Ben, cough cough.) And finally, its just a picture of a cat making a funny face, not a racial slurr.
calm down, you over-dramatic fags.
OH MY GOD
Not sure if i’m finding this funny or not!! There sure are some weird people out there. . . looked at this thread to see how many people were saying what a cute little kittycat!!
then found it really funny. . then it went to far and people got too personal and it all became a bit too UNfunny!
So come on. . . . if you think it was cute just say so
Be happy what ever your colour. . .we all have hearts that beat the same
To be honest, I thought it was partly a joke at the way Scooby Doo talked.
Way to read too deeply into something people! Anyway, it’s cute and funny in my opinion =)
I know this is probably an exercise in futility, but:
Instead of a cat picture with a racist insult directed at Asians, imagine the picture had one directed at YOUR ethnic group. Yes, that’s right, YOURS, whoever you are, reading this. Imagine too that others, including the people who made the insult, are all going “Oh, hee hee, it’s funny and if anyone reacts otherwise they’re just overreacting.”
Hopefully that makes a difference to your gut response. (If it doesn’t right away, keep thinking about it and trying – it eventually will, and you’ll ‘get it’ then.)
And to Silas: over-dramatic ‘fags’? Nice one! The homophobia really makes the rest of your diatribe look good!
You know… I just thought it was pretty funny. Yeah, l’s and r’s generally get switched around when you’re first learning the language. Yeah… slanty eyes. But the picture isn’t saying anything demeaning about my heritage and even if it was… It is a cat! Cat! I like cats! (No, I don’t eat them. I like them as pets.) I can’t imagine an Asian joke here that would make me angry because …it’s not racism. It’s a joke. It’s sort of the difference between a story and a lie. They’re the same thing, but lies are made maliciously and stories innocently. These jokes are innocent.
JD, I think your post was best! LOL!
HOMOPHOBIA!!!??? U f***in’ ASSHOLE!!! DID U EVEN READ MY POST!!?? ‘FAGS’ refers to guys looking girly because they get soooo oversensitive about a picture, and i might add, a FUNNY-ASS picture of a cat!!! If you, ItsRacist, get so damn offended by the word ‘fag’, you are probably some kinda fag yourself.
sooo….. GET F***ING BENT, ITS RACIST!!!
p.s~if u dont like fag, hows ‘pussy?’
jeez, can you ban this buttsmear? capitals? what a dick.
WOW GTFO MY INTERWEBZ PLZ
I live in texas. I proudly can say, even as an italian druid immigrant, there isn’t much that offends me. do i have an accent? yes. do i have the italian look? of course. America is supposed to be free. u guyz saying…’censor it!’ and ‘ remove it!’ r wrong whoever posted this had a right to and whoever did, i strongly reccomend that u do not censor this pic. its okay if some of u think racism and stereotypes is a big deal, but think about the more important issues!!!
on another hand, americans have the right to bitch about something they dont like…
I am conflicted…
What the hell is the huge fuss over a picture of a cat? so you jump to the conclusion it’s a asian stereo-type, well, have you ever watched star-wars? the way it’s spelled out could very easily be how yoda spoke, or hell, jar-jar whatever his name was, and the physical part could very well be a play on either, so isn’t it “racist” of you to assume that? cause I mean, you mind would have to work a certain way to understand it. I’m asian, and I deal with racisim just about every day on some level, and I do get offended by things, but I’m not offended by this in the least. I’d rather save my big words and 384792374 online essays for important things like britney spears being bald. (for those of you with no sense of humor that was sarcasm). All it is would be a picture of a CAT with r’s for l’s. big whoop, I have a feeling the people up there like ben are the ones who would bitch that their ice cream was too cold. Life is too short to spend so long on debating on something so pointless.
get out, breath some fresh air and call your mother.
If you’re so offended by this Michi, then I should be just as offended about this picture since I’m a large white American:
http://www.icanhascheezburger.com/2007/02/06/american-cat/#comments
Which, by the way, I’m not offended by this picture at all. I think it’s hilarious because of the fact it’s true.
And just for a quick fact, the cat in this link was posted way before this “remonade” cat. Equal opportunity offenders I’d say.
Don’t forget: “Everyone’s a little bit racist” Go watch Avenue Q and maybe you’ll understand this.
It seems like you’re being racist yourself by bringing up all your “shortcomings” to us. You’re trying to prove yourself to people who don’t feel the need to put emphasis on racism and even find racism to themselves amusing.
You know what’s keeping racism alive? People like you that are so sensitive they cannot take a joke about themselves. I laugh at a white jokes and white American jokes (such as the cat I posted the link to). If I went to another country and I didn’t speak their language very well I’d laugh at myself when they made fun of the way I spoke, and I’d probably come back with some witty, possibly racist, comment toward them out of jest, as they most certainly have done about my speech.
BTW, Carlos Mencia is hilarious.
I would not mind it in the least if somebody made a funny irish joke. in fact I have a feeling somebody will come st. patrick’s day. will Irish people threaten to blow up buildings or start a holy war? no. will they be out in the streets whoopin’ it up with everybody else? hell yeah.
Unfortunately, one of the things keeping racism alive is people who think it doesn’t really exist. Another one of the things is people who try to project the blame for it onto its targets – usually for being ‘too sensitive.’
As I suggested above, imagine it happening to you. Take it far outside the context of this discussion – imagine it coming out of the blue one day. You’re just living your life, doing your thing, and someone suddenly insults you based on your ethnicity. You don’t have time to put your defenses up, claiming that it’s “hilarious” or that you don’t “mind it in the least.”
I don’t expect you to understand it now, with this thread fresh in your mind, but I do ask that you think about it. One day, outside this thread, outside defensiveness, perhaps a long time off, it’ll come to you. I guarantee it.
It has happened to me before. And racism isn’t the only thing that we’re talking about here either. This falls in the genre of making fun of people for how they look, and no matter if you’re white or black or asian, fat, skinny, or whatever people make fun of others for looks wise. I have, and I’ve grown to rise above those trying to make me angry and just laugh it off, or better yet come back with something witty about themselves that I can stereotype.
You don’t know me and don’t know what I’ve gone through in my life. I’m not telling people to not be so sensitive about it because everyone will respond to this differently, but at some point they should learn to shut up, no matter how they feel, and move along. If you actually acknowledge it, you only feed the fire, which is where the comment you addressed comes from.
This is causing such a conflict. It’s just a cat… a little torward the asian steryotype, but the point is, everyone should be able to take a joke, even if it’s a bit offensive. No reason to start a goddamn race war over something intended to be funny. ITSRACIST, you have arisen a good point–imagine it directed at you-but i am, and i imagine me laughing my ass off at it…
i mean, a fat mustatchioed pizza guy with a heavy accent, saying ‘that’s a spicy meatball!!’ does not offend me. see the guy on the simpsons? pure italian steryotype. the simpsons is still one of my favorite shows!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
michi, get off the interwebs nau ktx
Wise man once said…
WhEN LIfE GIVES YOU REMMONS, MAKE REMMONADE!
you need to get rasek surgery for eyes, call dr. wong. he do good job.
ok. personally the only racial comments that piss me off are ones from people who get offended when you turn it back around on them. I think racism is stupid in general, and I think stupid things are funny. cave men had reason to differentiate themselves. We as modern day humans do not really. get over your differences, and laugh at them if you would care to, but damn. your skin is different than mine, and my eyes aren’t as slanty.
I had no idea the picture had anything to do with Asians until I read the comments.
Isn’t it implying that Asians dislike lemonade? Why not make your anti-racist rants about THAT?
This thread = totally ridicurous.
If jokes can only be made to offend nobody, there won’t be any left. Even this site is probably seen by animal-rights activists as “cruel and unusual manipulation of a sovereign species” or something. So if you’re enjoying this site, your a “species-ist”, just as bad as a “racist”. Every living human practices injustice in some way, if you choose not to partake in some of it that’s admirable. Hateful, racist actions are of course banned by law, as they should be to maintain a safe society. However, this joke threatens nobody in particular, and therefore censoring this is anti-free speech, and furthermore those who call it offensive are probably hypocrites somehow.
Of course, there are mind-police who will tell me that we must also eliminate racist attitudes. I think racism can only be debunked through education and experience; any attempt at tolerance through censure will only make things worse.
hahaha, jesus.
Consider something for a minute, guys. Is this image an EFFECTIVE ASSAULT on the Asian race? If someone was TRYING to do harm, do you think this is how they’d do it? Clearly not; it’s a picture of a cat and it’s the oldest joke in the book. No one is going to take this as a serious criticism. Now, if it ISN’T an attack on the asian race… what is it? What is the source of its comedic value? Could it be that the reason this is funny is because it makes fun of the act of stereotyping by race itself?
“Unfortunately, one of the things keeping racism alive is people who think it doesn’t really exist. Another one of the things is people who try to project the blame for it onto its targets – usually for being ‘too sensitive.’”
I think you left one out. I think that ANOTHER thing keeping racism alive is people who perpetuate the taboo of racial humor by having mental breakdowns at even the most slight, outdated racial joke. There’s no denying that this is an EXTREMELY TAME bit of cultural humor, and meeting it with this level of unyielding vindication not only prevents the stereotype from exhausting its own power, but makes your whole movement look ridiculous, uptight, and unreasonable–weakening future arguments against serious racial discrimination. I would strongly reconsider crying wolf over a picture of a squinting cat and a couple of misplaced “R”s.
And Michi, let me tell you something. This picture does not offend me and it does not provoke in me any ill will or condescending thoughts towards any Asian people. I would gladly defend aforedescribed watermelon cat, too. I do have the Shoop Da Whoop blackface painted on my drawing mannequin after all. What DOES bring up unfortunate memories of isolationist asian nations past is when I see things like this:
“it’s unfortunate that some of you know asians that aren’t offended. but then again, they associate themselves with the likes of you…”
“I prefer it if all of you would have a face to face confrontation with me rather than trying to assert yourselves online. I can fuck you all up and it would be worth it.”
Asians who don’t think like other asians? Unthinkable. They’re asian! WTF! Time to whack some of these mofos. Hello fucking communist china.
I thought of that based on YOUR post. YOU thrust this image into my mind. Not a picture of a cat, or the white and black guys chuckling lightheartedly at it: YOUR anti-racism tirade.
“How about this: we all agree that those of you that believe this image is just funny, too petty for discussion and not offensive, are ALL racist.”
How about you consider the possibility that maybe we are simply so accepting of everyone else that this kind of crap doesn’t bother us anymore? Finding this image funny doesn’t mean we hate Asians or think they’re stupid or whatever the hell else you assume. That’s not the only potential for humor here. There’s clearly something funny here which everyone gets but you, but it’s not “man, those gooks are so crazy”. Consider that you might be thinking about this on too basic a level.
You guys have fun lookin at sum catz.
…guess everyone will just have to develop a sense of humor.
ben and jimmy need to go make out with each other.
or have buttsechs.
they can take turns “offending” each other.
lmaorotflnmpgasoh.
xo
-A
The picture is cute but racist and here’s why:
The cat is supposed to be Asian, trying to speak English. The Asian can’t pronounce the “L” sound correctly, and doesn’t like the taste of lemonade, probably b/c he didn’t drink it growing up in his native country.
This perpetuates the notion that Asians in America are always foreign and therefore unable to assimilate into American culture, despite the fact that there are plenty of Asian Americans who can pronounce “L” and enjoy drinking lemonade. That’s why it’s racist, any critical race theory class will tell you that.
But I’m still not offended, even though I’m Asian. Why? B/c this site is about cats and full of nonsense anyway.
Wait… what? Oh.
Sour face = lemons, lemons = lemonade, sour face = no like lemonade, how to make “I don’t like lemonade” a funny sentence? Add a speech impediment. Oh, look, kitteh looks like he has slanty eyes, let’s make him Asian.
=
“me no rike remonade”
=
LOLZ!
OMG I know dr. wong!!!!! he is my eye doctor!! small world, or a lotta eye docters named wong….
Marsy McMarsington: Absolutely fantastic. Agreed 100%
[quote comment="457"]racist.[/quote]
is that an asian cat? i was unaware
Racism is funny. When its another ethnicity, its horrible. You dont see me complaining about polish, hillbilly, or gay jokes. The best part about people getting upset is a joke about a cat.
Why was this immediately thought to be racist, or that the cat was to represent a minority? It had some strong lemonade, puckered up, and thus couldn’t speak properly.
i didnt find this cat asain at all
looks like it ate a leamon whole though lol
Hahahaha… something that was supposed to be a funny picture of a kitty with a slight variation in caption pronunciation now has an ad for Asian American Dating tagged to it because people are so hung up someone possibly being offended by everything. If I went to France and tried to speak the little bit of French I know, I am positive that at some point, I would get laughed at for sounding ridiculous. And I’d be fine with that. Because French isn’t my first language. It happens. Just like someone from California might tell me my accent is funny because I happen to be from the northern midwest, and yes we DO say Minnesooooooota. We can’t help it. But we recognize it as a fact, and we laugh about it.
The cat is still friggin hillarious, though.
Don’t mention the war.
Hallo? Vhat are you sinking about? Oh mein got! Eef you can not handle people making fun of zee vay you zpeak… don’t go to France! If you can’t handle ztereotypes don’t vatch TV… or zinema… or drama on ztage!
Dude… eet eez an aczent. Zee zang about aczentz is…. everybody has one! Zome people even type wit zem! My good friend at work cannot say ‘R’. He iz a genius and he iz brilliant… but he cannot say ‘R’. Zometimes, he will make zhings zhat should be plural into zingular. He doez this vhen he typez too. Zo vhat?
You know, even Einztein had an acczent! Zo did Freud! And people make jokes viff zhem all zee time!
I vhon’t zay you are too zenzative… but you should probably chooze your battlez a bit better.
Zo, to zum up. If zomeone eez making fun of your aczent in order to belittle you or provoke you to fight… kick zher azz! If zomeone eez uzing a ztereotypical aczent on zee internetz to make a funny. Let eet go.
But… don’t lizen to me. “I know nuzink!”
All this over a pic of a kitten. Armchair warriors against everything – UNITE!! Let us make mountains out of almost discernible molehills that we might do battle where it will do the least good! Why should we take ourselves out into the real world and actually PERFORM deeds when we may simply fling our noble fingers against a keyboard over a non-existent issue? Let us sally forth to ignote war over nothing that we have the feeling of accomplishing something – TO THE BAT-KEYBOARD!!
And cheezburger, das a funny kitty!
It’s a damn pic get over it. Wow, some people are just so weak willed. “Oh no a little cat pic has hurt my feelings!” go cry into your pillow & get over it.
AAAAHHH-CHOOO!!
Um…this wasn’t even offensive. It was cute and innocent. Get-over-it-nao-plz-k-thx-bai.
I remember watching Excel Saga (amusing anime, go watch plz). The main characters of the series went to America, and (I was watching it in Japanese, mind you.) The only thing the ‘Americans’ dipicted in the show did was swear…I’m serious. I wasn’t offended, we do tend to have a lot of cursing in our language.
One of my closest friends is Japanese, and he finds the term ‘Engrish’ hilarious.
My point is…there’s nothing wrong with a little humour of this scale. This isn’t even insulting.
I love how people can say that this isn’t offensive as if it were a fact.
Obviously some people are offended by it, enough so that this comment section is bloated to over 100 comments about it being offensive or how it’s not offensive. It may not offend everyone but it clearly offends a good deal of people.
And I love how people say things like “I have an asian friend who doesn’t find this offensive” or “I’m half asian and I don’t find this offensive”. LOL. As if one person can speak for an entire ethnic group.
Surely you can at least understand how it could be offensive to some people? Is that even too much to ask?
-”As if one person can speak for an entire ethnic group.”-
Exactly. Which is why people who are complaining at how offensive it is should shut up, too. Because obviously not everyone is offended, either.
I can see how this picture can be offensive. If I couldn’t pronounce my L’s, I’d be embarrassed, at least. But I’d stay quiet about it. Because I don’t see the point of throwing a fit about people bringing up speech impediments.
Thing is, everyone is racist toward other people, even if only in a minuscule sense. People should learn to laugh at themselves. These offended people are the only ones taking this seriously, as if it was a terrible hate crime, which, it’s not. It’s a kitten with an accent.
A PHOTO.
OF A KITTEN.
SUBTITLED TO HAVE AN ACCENT.
An accent that is pretty wide-spread. It’d be one thing if it wasn’t true. This doesn’t say that all Asians can’t pronounce their L’s. This says that this kitty can’t pronounce its L’s.
SERIOUSLY YOU GUYS.
You guys. Seriously.
Those who are offended and choose to throw a pissy fit are the ones that fail.
Imitating Scooby Doo is racist? guess we gotta be more careful & have less fun.
Wow, seriously? I guess I’m a little confused. The only thing that was “stereotypically” Asian was the accent. AN ACCENT, nothing else was assumed. I don’t understand why having, or commenting on an accent, is a bad thing. I work in a very diverse environment, everyday I am surrounded by French, Northern African, Southern, British, and (gasp) Asian accents. I think they are beautiful. I know when I speak outside my native tongue, I have an accent and I’m proud of it! It says “look at me, I speak two languages!” Maybe we should try looking at our differences with pride instead of trying to whitewash everything… or get some perspective cuz it is just a picture of a kitty.
Someone needz to get Ben sum chopstix. And a gong. And tell him fur sum reezun, everytime teh cat eets, is hungree an hour latr. Liten up, dewd.
The people who are saying everyone needs to lighten up has the right to do so.
The people who are offended have the right to be so.
we all r can be leeving at this, yes?
I’M OFFENDED THAT THERE IS NO PROPER CAPITALIZATION OR PUNCTUATION. THIS IS A BLATANT MISUSE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE HAS RIGHTS. WHY YOU ARE DO THIS? D:
That’s really not very nice.
I laughed my ass off.
I… didn’t even think of the stereotype when I saw this… I just thought it was a cute kitten pronouncing worse wrong because of the taste of the lemonade. Seemed fitting with the rest of the site. CAAAAALM DOOOWN
Who sed dis kitteh iz Asian?
I didn’t.
You are racistz! lolz!
Wait, I don’t get why this is racist. It sounds like a Scooby Doo accent. That’s how I read it anyway. Those of you who think this is totally offensive need to stop looking so far into things.
“Wait, I don’t get why this is racist. It sounds like a Scooby Doo accent. That’s how I read it anyway.”
That’s exactly what I thought too! I literally sat here for a minute wondering “What’s racist about Scooby Doo? Species-ist against dogs maybe but otherwise….” XD
Maybe I’m just slow…
Yeah, this really isn’t a big deal. Asians have narrow eyes and generally have trouble with the letter l, the same as American’s have a hard time pronouncing other languages. That’s not a racist statement; it’s just how it is. There’s lots and lots of pics on here about ‘diabeetus’ and about fat people and fat animals. Obesity is a major problem within America; are those pictures racist against Americans because they poke fun at our physical appearance?
Just wondering…. if this is racist…. is this site also racist? http://engrish.com/
We make jokes about children who cannot pronounce words and/or use grammer correctly, as we are doing with every cat (if a cat could talk) on this site, so why not a person not native to the english language? If we don’t laugh at ourselves and others, we would all be very very depressed.
What fun is life then?
LOL… That site is hilarious.
My sister-in-law is Japanese, only been in the U.S. for a few years. We joke about her “Engrish” skills all the time, she jokes about American oddities. No one is offended.
Folks should save their ire for racist actions that actually hurt people, and stop crying wolf. By taking offense at everything, you end up trivializing actual racism. We are all different, some are just WAYYY more sensitive than others.
I wonder how many asian people were actually offended by this.
Anyone offended by a stereotype should be shot.
pfft, I don’t care who you are, that’s FUNNY. I never thought of the asian stereotype before you mentioned it. I just think it’s funny cuz the cat drank some lemonade and now he talks funny cuz it was sour.
DUR
Its not racist, geez. Its just how a lot of japanese speak trying to do english. Quite common on japanese tv. Don’t see the big deal, its a decent laugh.
well me do like remonaid. I mean lemonaid
looks like a mouse/ca tlol
Ok… there’s too much arguing going on about this…
I’m very anti-racist–you can ask anyone who knows me, they’ll agree. In a science class I almost beat the shit out of some kid for saying Jap one too many times. I hate racism–it’s the stupidest thing on earth. Humans are humans, it doesn’t matter if we’re ghosty white, blacker than the night sky, have a weird slant to our eyes or say our r’s funny–we’re all the same.
That being said, I’ll break this easy: I have no problem with this picture. There’s a difference between being funny and sincerely trying to offend someone when it comes to jokes like this. Look at Mencia–he’s racist even about his own people. He’s not doing it to be an ass–he’s doing it to be funny, he’s a comedian. I’m not saying everyone should not be offended; if you are, fine. Go ahead, leave your comment and low rating–then leave it at that. Don’t keep ranting on and f–king on (coughcoughbencough) about how much humanity sucks for stuff like this. Trust me, humankind sucks for thing much, much more serious than this. I mean, sheesh, I have a Korean friend who would find this funny. Why? He’s smart. He realizes people aren’t all assholes.
It’s a picture, people. Yeah, pictures can be harmful; argue the downfalls of racism on some KKK picture or something, ’cause this isn’t it. If you’re offended, well, I apologize–just try looking at this as a cute little kitty who just ate something sour. Gotta admit, it’s pretty adorable…
Pssssssssssst.
Mencia isn’t Mexican. His name isn’t Carlos Mencia, either. Carlos Mencia is actually half-Honduran and half-German; in fact, his real name is not even ‘Carlos Mencia,’ it’s Ned Holness!
Larry the cable guy? is actually a guy named Dan Whitney making fun of the stupid rednecks who love him, but are too stupid to get that he’s making fun of them.
Use teh internets to find out the truth.
But you won’t; your mind’s already made up, so don’t bother with any facts.
Mencia doesn’t just rag on Mexicans.. he rags on all hispanics (usually blanketing them as “beaners”), and has mentioned that he’s from Honduras numerous times in his commentary on Racism, primarily in his bit on “You’re White, anywhere you go. In the southwest I’m a Mexican, in Florida I’m Cuban, in New York, I’m (audience shouts with him) Porta Rican” while he isn’t ANY of those.
Half-German? I honestly didn’t know that, but hey, he fucks with whitey too (the day he went out yelling at unemployed white 20-somethings hanging out in luxury in the middle of the day left me rolling.. even tho I’m white, in my 20s and doing my best to work as little as possible for the remainder of my life.. yes, I’m an American, and that’s my dream /gg). Go Figure.
He follows that up by having his production company being named Ned’los, tipping the hat to his real name. Like he was the first comedian to use a stage name and make it big, lol.
Dreama said it best:
“Racism is binary, something either is or is not. Given that, if something is racist — and this is — then it is by definition not positive or acceptable. “It’s not bad” is exactly the kind of apologist language that has allowed offensive stereotypes like this to persist, and being an apologist when it’s your heritage that’s being denigrated and mocked is simply inexcusable.”
I’m ashamed that this thread turned out this way. You were all so damn busy trying to prove your point, and arguing that you forgot that this site is about cute animals with cute captions. Neither Cheezeburger nor Tofuburger are promoting racist stereotypes. (They’re probably appalled by that accusation.)
It’s supposed to be a cat that just drank lemonade, and was talking funny. It’s mocking that it’s tightened mouth, and squinted eyes are the face one makes after drinking something sour.
Everyone needs to get off their moral high horse, and LAUGH!!! That’s what this site is about.
Excuse me while I climb off my soapbox, and go on living my life!
I’m not going to say anyone should or should not be offended by this image, or that everyone should just laugh and move on. I could try to back up the reality of the l/r pronunciation issue between certain languages, but no one seems to be listening.
But I will say that when I was in my Intro to Japanese class a few years back, struggling with pitch and pronunciation (because, as a native English speaker, it’s hard for me to pick up some of those sounds and nuances), my sensei (a native Japanese woman in her mid 20s) sought me out after class one day to tell me “You rearry, rearry need to work on your pronunciation”.
It’s all a matter of perspective.
Haha, I have a major case of the bemused smiles.
The only thing I find even vaguely offensive in this whole conversation is the twerp saying the frustrated people have “sand up their pussies.” Hello, my pint-sized sexism-desensitised ignoramus! And not to forget ‘fags’ being the new definition of effeminate or sensitive men. Hello, my little culturally apathetic ragamuffin!
Good times.
That said, I actually find that breed of kitty horribly ugly.
Oops, have I just revealed my inner racist?
it’s funny, it’s cute, but you’ve totally ruined it with your over-analyzation. “me no rike remonade” somehow does not imply that asians are inferior and don’t deserve jobs and is not advocating the abuse of asians… this reaction is kind of ridiculous really…
white people can squint too, but i suppose thats racist too because im not bothering to list EVERY kind of person out there. maybe you’re trying to hard to be PC???
Not meaning to seriously offend anyone, but if this offends you, i think maybe you have too thin a skin or some insecurities that you need to work out…
it’s a cat in a funny situation talking funny, thats pretty much the whole site really…
racist…. refinately racist
Wow! I can’t tell what’s funnier, the picture or this flaming thread! I do know that I kinda want the past few minutes I spent skimming through the thread back.
It’s a joke, jokes are meant to be funny. If you don’t laugh, you didn’t get the humor. Don’t be a hater too.
I thought it was funny. “Remonade” heheheh.
If anyone is keeping track of the demographics, though, I’m a young 30’s 1/2 caucasian 1/2 ABC (american born chinese) atheist living in the midwest.
Getting upset about race is like getting upset about hair color. We all still bleed red and poop brown. On good days. Or is it the other way around?
“I’m not prejudiced, I hate everyone.”
It would be great if everyone in the world was “human” and the same. That would be fantastic, and it’s a great ideal. But people aren’t the same, so I see no harm in poking a little fun at our differences. I have a Jewish, black, and white friends, and we poke fun at each other all the time without anyone getting hurt.
If this is hurtful to an asian (who isn’t a prick), then perhaps it should be censored.
Of course, if this makes people laugh and have a better day, then maybe it shouldn’t.
You lot are the racists, I never saw it as a racist joke until I saw it pointed out. Forget racism for a moment and take a look at it.. couldn’t the cat just’ve had some bad lemonade?
because this thread is “made of epic and eternity” I’m choosing to add to it.
Some people are offended, some are not – ok, established fact.
Some people believe this is the beginning of a slippery slope and that letting it slide without protesting is the first step in compaicency, some believe it’s a pic of a cat with a caption they may or may not find funny – ok, established fact.
Some people feel their beliefs (this is racist or this is not racist) Very strongly (so much so that they are willing to call people holding a different belief stupid, masochists, useless or tell them they can them up in person), some are asking people to move along (officer barbrady fashion? or just crowd control?) – ok, established fact.
How about we all put our heads (and the fingers on our keyboards) together and say, “you know what? we disagree… and some of us feel REALLY strongly about our views. How about we have an intelligent and intelligible conversation (maybe even a debate –> point, counter point)? In this way, we might actually come to understand why some of us find this (and things similar) so offensive and others of us find it mildly (or uproariously) amusing and why it’s OK either way.”
People are allowed to voice their opinions and beliefs. Maybe it’s even healthy for our global-society-at-large-to hear those opposing viewpoints. But maybe, just maybe, it’s best to (try to effect change in others and our world by not assuming we’re right and others are wrong but instead) listen to the views of others without assigning emotion, derision, defamation or derogatory slants to them but rather, try to remove our filters for a second to hear exactly what people mean, not what we think/assume they mean… And maybe, just maybe, we (as a community) can try to approach perceived issues without an agenda of our own and without animosity, insults, aggression or condescension.
The best way to understand yourself can sometimes be to explain yourself to others… The same can hold true of understanding other people and thereby other portions of humanity. Just listen to each other before pouncing…
We’re all kittehs at heart and I’ve never met someone who wasn’t a lolKitteh at heart – maybe that person/those people are out there, but I think we all have the capacity to purr, pounce, power nap and play together.
Well, does this mean that Scooby-Doo is racist, seeing how he talks?
I thought this was about Scooby-Doo at first, before i read these tediously long rants about racism.
Yes, I am Chinese and I found this picture funny.
I’ll refrain from using lolzchat for the sake of typing, as I’m not very good at it anyway. I refused to continue reading all the arguing this picture has created after a very short amount, and here’s why. I think it’s funny. No random person has the RIGHT or the KNOWLEDGE to judge me racist, because I know I’m not. The picture is also not “racist” because there was no malicious intent in posting it. Racism requires some form of action, or perhaps through inaction an effect of belittling ethnic groups. Unless you have a dim view of the conscious effort made by the moderators here and thus the site itself, and wish to claim yourself the JUDGE of all that is right and PC, stop thinking this picture or this thread meant any insult to anyone.
Such hoopla over the politically correctness of a CAT picture? Oy! Efforts are better spent elsewhere…
Siam is Thailand. Thai people don’t speak that way.
I live in Singapore, and I’m Chinese, Indian, Portuguese, Thai, and English.
I get discriminated by the Chinese, they think I’m an Indian and thus I often get referred to as ‘black’ in a very insulting manner, 90% of the job ads in Singapore request for Mandarin speaking individuals.
I get stereotyped by the Americans who came to the Tony Roma’s where I worked, they always assumed I can’t speak English and explain things really slowly to me till I start talking and prove I know the language, probably a lot better than they do.
I get stereotyped by pretty much every race that pops up in my country, because I’m not like anyone else. I have been called black, yellow, mongrel, pariah, shit coloured, gook, chink, gaijin, red haired monkey (it’s an insulting term for a white) in my country and I’ve developed a severe dislike for all things racist, and get pretty easily pissed off by things I deem racist that may add to existing stereotypes about any race.
I’ve had guys I dated eventually tell me, “I think it’s not gonna work out because I’ll never be with someone of a different race,” I’ve had tonnes of experiences where people of other races gossip about me in their language thinking I can’t understand what they’re saying, and these things usually strike a nerve with me..
I didn’t realise this was racist. I’d heard about the controversy from some other post, but when I came to the picture I thought, “Oh, this one.. wait.. what’s the problem with it?”
I don’t think they meant to be racist with it, I think it was just meant to be a cute mispronunciation of the word while spluttering after tasting the horrifying lemonade.
I can understand how it feels to be constantly stereotyped, I’ve gotten it from all sides and will probably get it wherever I go because I’ll never actually fit into a category. I’m a skinhead’s worse nightmare.
Geez, just lighten up. Pictures of kitten mispronouncing things and you wanna beat up everyone here?
I suppose you do beat up the skinheads in real life when they insult you, right, since you have no problems with beating any of us up? What makes you so morally superior anyway?
I don’t ‘know an Asian who is not offended’, I AM an Asian who is not offended, because I’ve been through enough insulting racist crap to realise that this had no malice intended!
astatine, u sound likes amayzin purrson.
i knowes dis iz late in da fredd on dis pic. wen i furst sawded da pic, i fot it were funneh. still finks iz funneh. kitteh iz a sour puss. nobuddy gotted DAT joke?? sour… puss… lol. omg. cant hep it. iz keywt.
everbuddy:
totally majer glad i dint reed dis wen i furst sawded da pic coupla months agow. i wudda fot dere iz onlee agressive peepel here. sum gotz waaaay 2 srius bout dis – 2 da point of calling eesh uvver aowt!!! yoikes.
prolly nobuddy mutch gonna comed back here an reed dis, but i still gonna say it: i gives u awl a hug. {{{{{HUG}}}}} i meens it. ebry wun ov u getz a big, sqwuooshy warm hug. if u meen an angreh, u getz a hug. if u offended – u getz a hug 2. in fakt, if u angreh or offended, u prolly needs moar dan wun hug. k – i gibes u moar!! i nebber runz owt ov hugs cause i can jus made moar!! so if u athies, protters- prodes… *hm, lemme start dat agin* if u athies, chrishin, budist, hindu, fatt, skinneh, old, yung, pritty, ugleh, pore, ritch, amerrikan, inglish, chineze, sauddi = = u r a hyooming been. meh 2!! i gonna gibes u a hug.
wai? 1) u needs a hug. it will made u feel bettr. 2) i needs a hug. it will made me feel bettr. 3) iz 2 hard 2 fite wen sumbuddy r huggin u.
dis bee da way 2 whirrled peas.
Funneh how hardly eneh of uzual lolfrenz made commints heer – fink dey red some stuff and finks omg….stoopy pepple tri rewning mai happi place…kitteh look of disdain an go to next pic qwik!
Gives {{{hug}}} to IBK coz she so bigg heartz
*hmm…whirrled peas…nom nom nom*
Dude.
I myself am asian, and I didn’t find this offensive.
I think it’s pretty damned funny.
This whole ‘everything has to be politically correct’ pisses me off.
To me, if it’s not meant in a malicious way then it doesn’t really bother me.
=/
This is ridiculous. I understand if someone is Asian and wants to make a fuss about it- but why does it seem like more white people are pissed off about it than Asians? Look, it’s a joke people, I am by no means racist- but there are times and places where ‘jokes’ can be acceptable. I know this may come as a shock to some of you– but some people know how to laugh at themselves!! I know! It surprised me too! Hell, I’m a fat chick and you don’t see me getting all pissed off at the countless fat jokes there are out there (and my god there are so many! even on this site!!!). Sometimes (as my mother would say) you gotta be a duck and just let it roll off your back. Otherwise you’re gonna wind up some crotchety old person with a buncha cats and no friends. =^.^= to close- I’d also like to mention that I’ve got several Asian friends who often -tell- jokes like this to me. Is it only okay when they’re the ones saying it? Kind of like the ‘N’ word and Afrikan Americans (and if you don’t understand what I mean about this- go listen to some rapp)? Think about it.
to ben, you must truly live a sad and pathetic life to go surfing the net just to find ‘rike remonade.’ your tirade to try and end racism is not much better than the people who watch disney movies looking for more penises and sex words, or the people who listen to music and the movies to see if they synchronize at any point… in short
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Wot dis picshur at end of Z post mena be?
Fink is borked like awl da peppls commintin heer…
This is racist….but frikin hilarious
To those who were offended by this pic, I’m curious: if you saw a pic that was supposed to be of a Russian cat (there are a couple of “babushka cat” pics on this site), and she was mispronouncing all of her ws as vs (maybe a caption like “DO NOT VANT!”), would you be complaining that it was offensive or racist?
OH GOD THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SAYING THAT.
(I typed out a long rant… and then decided that this argument really isn’t worth that much time. Sorry, kids, if you’re offended by this.)
I actually saw this picture and part of the hoopla when it first came out earlier this year. I didn’t find the picture offensive (still don’t), though it didn’t make me choke on my own saliva laughing or anything.
I’m just an ordinary white girl who happens to be lucky enough to have travelled and made friends in various cultures. I have been a stranger-in-a-strange-land, discriminated against because of my race, mocked for my speech, presumed idiotic because I was white, presumed *American* because I was white (I’m not. American, that is). I’ve even had my life threatened for it. I’ve not had to grow up in this sort of difficulty, but I’ve gone through a little bit, enough to let me experience a bit of what it’s like to be a visible minority.
It’s been my albeit limited experience that racism stems from a) ignorance and b) deliberation. Some people make racist comments out of being sheer @$$holes. Some might make a comment because it wouldn’t occur to them that it was racist–but never intended to hurt anyone.
If there is no intent to belittle or harm, it seems to me that the best course of action for anyone who’s insulted or offended is to *inform*. Tell the person “hey, I didn’t like that, and here’s why”. Screaming at someone for something that was not intended to cause harm is going to leave that person with a bad taste in the mouth and a negative perception of you–and of any group with which you’re associated, be it visible/racial or social. You’re doing more harm than good with your righteous indignation.
In the case of this kitten photo–really, is it worth screaming about? I think not. I can see easily where someone might be offended; I can see that a lot of people chose to laugh it off. The text is a little silly, and perhaps the old-fashioned stereotype of the grinning Hop-Sing-alike coolie should have been avoided, but certainly the intent was not to belittle anyone, nor to cause any harm.
Mention that you dislike it; move on. Life’s going with or without you, so you might as well not miss out. Is all.
-ophelia
it’s funny how people react to racism in the US, it only seems to work for the populations that are represented widely enough in this country. Think of all the french bashing for instance, no one seems to find it as offensive (and it can go much further than that simple mispronunciation stereotype.)
To tell you the truth, relating to the pic of the black cat, I would find it halarious, as I would this one, as I would a white one… Just find everything funny, it leaves much less arguing… Besides, if we had to cencor racial steriotypes, it would take up all the time we use to track down people who look iranian and search them at random.
–; The arguments here are humiliating. There is no letter ‘L’ in Japanese. The letter ‘L’ is often pronounced like an ‘R’ in Japanese. THAT’S IT! The intention of this pic was NOT to:
1) Offend Asians or anyone of Asian descent
2) Put down others and make themselves look better
3) HURT ANYONE!
-___-; It’s a cute little cat with a dumb caption. It’s not like it’s mocking some horrific event, some horrible event in history, or putting down anyone.
Every culture has cultural differences, and if no one can gently poke fun at it, even with a picture of a little kitty that in no way was made with a hidden agenda, then we’ve REALLY taken a step backwards, and I find THAT a million times more offensive than anything I’ve seen on Lolcats.
This post-war is just ridiculous. Stereotyping does not equal racism. This in no way implies that any person of Asian origin is inferior. It’s no different to the stereotype of Welsh people being miners, carrying leeks and daffodils around all day, being able to sing and coming out with idiotic Wenglish phrases such as ‘Whose coat is that jacket. Now, then boyo’ etc.
Before I get the ‘you’re an evil racist for not seeing the RACISM’, I actually figure if someone speaks English with a foreign accent, there’s a fair chance they’re able to speak more than one language and that = cool in my book. Now, not being able to converse in Welsh, in Wales…is that racist?
You kids are all silly. “OHMAIGAH iz racist!!!” Get over it, geez. Big freakin’ deal. Its not the end of the freakin’ world. How about you go rant about something worthwhile, not a picture of a kitty with a caption. The person who posted this is not some racist bigot who would shoot an asian on sight; If he was you would have an argument, but this person did this all in good fun, not because they we’re deeply driven by pure-evil.
Kiddies, you’re on a website called “I Can Has Cheezburger” What part of that says “take everything seriously” to you? Bahumbug, get a girlfriend. Alla yaz.
I finks is funneh… =-D I <3 teh Kittehs… me wants da kitteh… and we will go on strike against lemon-filled concoctions…
By the way, I’m just a teenager who lives in the great land of Canada, with a mother who isn’t able to get a job because she has a “disability”… for some people, her not being able to hear, aka deaf, is enough to make her less of a person… I’ve been there… no, I haven’t been threatened as atrociously as some of the previous posters, but I do know that when I hear of people who think that deaf people are dumb cuz they can’t speak proper grammar, it kills me… But, seriously, whoever felt this was offensive, I apologize that I think it’s funny… now, to the litterbox with you, kitteh..
*blink*
srsly u guys. I didn’t even think of racism when I saw this, and I grew up in a white, racist, redneck family living on the Mexican border. I thought the kitty was talking funny because he just drank some REALLY sour lemonade. Is hard to pronounce when your mouth is all puckered up. Methinks people who look at things and automatically think of race are generally the most intolerant of all. Might as well point out that the improper grammar structure and misspellings that are common on this site are offensive to the poorly educated, often poverty stricken people of this country. But, that would take all the fun out of it. Maybe we should just add some sugar and water to this kitty’s drink so he can speak more clearly.
Guys…it’s not racist. It’s an accent that gets made fun of too much. Most asian languages don’t have a letter “L”, though that doesn’t mean that every asian can’t pronounce that sound with practice.
As for why the person who made this decided to make it an asian cat…does the fact that it’s a siamese shed any light on your minds?
Siamese cats were bred in southeast asia. Look it up. And pull the sticks out of your ass. =/
In reply to Michi:
I am white and was born and raised in Japan and am unable to pronounce the L sound accurately. I speak as a Japanese born and raised individual but do not look the part. Language acquisition is independent of genetic racial characteristics, and your genetic differences as determined by the race of your parents neither influence, nor are influenced by language acquisition. The caption is NOT racist – it indicates the differences in acquisition of specific language related synapses due to the dominant language in which children are raised with. You are refusing to see that this is the case simply because other people have acted in an inappropriate and/or racist manner towards you in completely unrelated circumstances.