[SnorkleCat]

You accuse me of racism, of close-mindedness, of having no contact or feeling with other races, while you know nothing at all of me, except that I find a cartoon funny. Don't jump to conclusions please.

So let me get this straight...if I were to find a cartoon showing Jews being burnt and Hitler roasting marshmallows over their bodies funny...you wouldn't be allowed to draw conclusions as to my personality? There's no "conclusion jumping" here. The very fact that you find something like that ridiculous cartoon funny immediately tells me that we may as well be from different planets, and we can never, ever hope to understand one another. You can laugh at anything you want...racist jokes, sexist jokes, you can laugh at very small people, make fun of gays...laugh at people with no arms...whatever blows your skirt up, dude. I'm not saying you can't. But if you do, don't blame me because you look like an insensitive bigot. That's your fault, not mine.

By the way, I'm not a guy.

[SnorkleCat]

Good for you. That is your right. If you don't like it, turn away or ignore it. It is also my right to find it funny. And that opinion is apparently shared by a large audience, as the author is very popular and also does tv commercials.

Oh and another thing...since when is 'popularity' synonymous with 'right'?

is it really your intention to represent the majority of Belgians in this unflattering light? This is the third time you've stressed the fact...

Turn away and ignore things that offend me? Not a chance. Am I supposed to just turn away and ignore other nasty facts of life too.. like child pornography or animal abuse? If you bring something like this into a public forum, I'm going to respond to you and that's all there is to it. If you don't like that, then you need to enjoy your racist stuff in secret.

[undeaf]

Originally Posted by ATMachine

South Africa, as SnorkleCat points out, is similarly sensitive to racial stereotyping, due to its own history. I don't think I really need to elaborate.

Right, as if it's inconceivable that that could have something to do with them watching themselves because of being surrounded by blacks?

Originally Posted by ATMachine

Now consider Europe. The Europeans, being sensible, did not have to fight a war to get rid of the cruelty of slavery.

Uh, yeah they did.

Keep in mind that the concept of slavery in Europe (and AFAIK outside of America in general) is different, by other standards America wouldn't even be considered to have had much slavery. In Europe, if you treated captives well enough for them to survive and to put up with it on a large scale, then it was serfdom.

Europe also had a bunch of wars to get rid of serfdom.

Originally Posted by ATMachine

the latent stereotypes that remain in the minority's minds from the days of empire.

Are you saying that only people from countries that had empires can be racist?

Originally Posted by ATMachine

But the fact remains that their society has been wracked by race issues far less often, and thus is perhaps less ready to confront the issue and denounce the perpetrators of stereotypes when it comes up.

Far less? Bullshit... WW1, WW2, Swedish occupation of Finland, ETA, Corsican seperatists, northern Italian seperatists, Balkan wars, English occupation of Ireland(for some reason the English had a special hatred of the Irish), the Anhialation of Prussia, enslaving people from non christian regions - espatially for export to the middle east, need I go on?