FARK.com: (7740633) Were you entertained by that video clip yesterday of Charles Ramsey? Congratulations, you're a condescending racist

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		Were you entertained by that video clip yesterday of Charles Ramsey? Congratulations, you're a condescending racist ( npr.org)		58
		More: Obvious, video clips, Internet celebrity, Antoine Dodson, Gina DeJesus

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6266 clicks; posted to Main » on 08 May 2013 at 8:48 AM (4 years ago) | Favorite | share:

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HotWingConspiracy

2013-05-08 08:55:03 AM

10 votes:

On the face of it, the memes, the Auto-Tune remixes and the laughing seem purely celebratory. But what feels like celebration can also carry with it the undertone of condescension. Amid the hood backdrop - the gnarled teeth, the dirty white tee, the slang, the shout-out to McDonald's - we miss the fact that Charles Ramsey is perfectly lucid and intelligent.

We who? I didn't miss that.

In fact, being lucid and intelligent and rocking a dirty white tee, spitting slang and eating McD's is what makes him awesome.

CtrlAltDelete

2013-05-08 08:52:07 AM

7 votes:

Dude helped save three people and he told a good story.

Yes he did mention race at the end of the interview. Yes. So why not discuss what he said about race rather than discuss whatever reasons why you might guess people may have enjoyed the video. No matter what you think about that subject, the internet is a big place and I'm sure you can find a quote that will vindicate your position. But it isn't helpful to scold ourselves for liking the guy.

We are talking about the reaction to the video first and the substance second.

What I took from the video is a very Cleveland guy giving a very Cleveland interview. That tragic bit of self-hatred at the end is as local as a Bertman's mustard stain on a WMMS t-shirt on dollar dog night.

People see Antoine Dodson in this guy. I don't.

I see Harvey Pekar.

Worldwalker

2013-05-08 09:34:05 AM

6 votes:

Summa cum loudly: Firemen, policemen, soldiers and pediatric brain surgeons are heroes.

But are they?

They're doing the job they signed up to do. They knew what it entailed when they started. While what a pediatric brain surgeon does, for example, takes an enormous amount of training and experience, it's still what he or she set out to do on a daily basis. That's being a good person. Being a hero, in my mind, requires going above and beyond one's normal life. Carnegie medals are not given to brain surgeons, even if those brain surgeons save lives daily; they're given to ordinary people who do the extraordinary.

So on that basis, Charles Ramsey is a hero. He could have done what numerous other people, in numerous other situations like this, have done over and over again for years: told themselves "it's not my problem" or "someone else will do something" or even "the bad guy might hurt me." He didn't. He acted. He was an ordinary person who did something that most ordinary people, history sadly tells us, would not do.

JDawgNJ

2013-05-08 09:01:56 AM

6 votes:

I don't think people mean to mock Mr. Ramsey. Instead, the laughter comes from the genuineness of his animated words and storytelling. In today's world, television and media personalities are watered down, homogenized, and void of anything considered unique, because they're trying to pin the status-quo meter, pretty much taking personality and color (pun not intended) out of things. What Mr. Ramsey did was be himself and get caught up in the moment, and it proved funny in a way that is undeniable. We laugh with him, not at him. If his reaction was manufactured in any way, we'd dismiss it. But it's real, and through that realness (and uniqueness), we all enjoyed it.

Jerkwater

2013-05-08 08:53:38 AM

6 votes:

Nonsense. He's legitimately funny and a great storyteller.

Garaba

2013-05-08 08:58:51 AM

5 votes:

Seriously

I can tell you what exactly went through my head when listening to him.

Hes a hero so I am going to listen to what he has to say
Hes a good story teller
Hes really funny

corronchilejano

2013-05-08 08:58:04 AM

5 votes:

" Amid the hood backdrop - the gnarled teeth, the dirty white tee, the slang, the shout-out to McDonald's - we miss the fact that Charles Ramsey is perfectly lucid and intelligent."

That's tells a lot of the authors character.

ghiabug99

2013-05-08 09:14:01 AM

4 votes:

He's not the fringe of society that the internet laughs at because they are incredibly odd or a walking stereotype.

This guy has great comedic timing, hilarious choice of words fantastic interaction with the reporter/crowd. This guy is a comedian. He just so happens to live where he lives and looks like he looks.

The difference between him and other blacksploitation youtube videos is that almost anyone watching it would say "I wish I could do an interview like that and be that funny." as opposed to "I wouldn't want to do that and be laughed at."

Valiente

2013-05-08 09:06:27 AM

4 votes:

Not once did I feel like celebrating this guy's deeds with a burning cross on his lawn, soooooo...no.

One of the benefits of being both of Irish/Welsh descent and a first-generation immigrant to North America is I generally don't have "white guilt". When Ramsey's ancestors were being bought and sold in, I imagine, the U.S. South, mine were having their non-English languages beaten out of them and/or starving in famines. I'm not saying it's equivalent, but I am saying I don't personally feel bad about societal situations (slavery, racism or the treatment of natives). I feel responsible for my own reactions and impulses. To take on "collective guilt" for the entirety of one's race is in its own way as pernicious a form of racism as is the usual "I consider people unlike me in the albedo scale to be inferior" sort of racism.

Dude was funny, a side porch raconteur type. Yes, and very Cleveland, from what I know of the barren, half-abandoned place.

Worldwalker

2013-05-08 09:03:35 AM

4 votes:

If liking that video is racism, what is watching Honey Boo Boo?

jdoncbus2

2013-05-08 09:09:10 AM

3 votes:

......I love outraged, white Liberals who have to tell everyone how they should feel. Must everything be race related?

HotWingConspiracy

2013-05-08 09:09:06 AM

3 votes:

Valiente: One of the benefits of being both of Irish/Welsh descent and a first-generation immigrant to North America is I generally don't have "white guilt".

Nobody has white guilt, it's a term employed by racists that can't comprehend why everyone isn't racist.

Egoy3k

2013-05-08 09:07:53 AM

3 votes:

I didn't see the videos yesterday so I went and watched a couple.

I can't see why anybody would be laughing at him. This guy is just real. We appreciate him because he is a genuine person. We like to see ordinary people doing good things and Charles Ramsey is an ordinary guy who happens to have a gift for storytelling and is pretty entertaining to boot. Good for him.

TheOriginalEd

2013-05-08 08:57:31 AM

3 votes:

This just in, author outs self as condescending racist by assuming everyone else is. More at 11.

Pants full of macaroni!!

2013-05-08 08:52:19 AM

3 votes:

IronTechV1

2013-05-08 09:24:07 PM

2 votes:

Glad to see there are a few sensible people here.

I was starting to think I was the only person who just thought Charles interviewed like a friend or neighbor.

Charles seems the kind of guy I would hang out with. Maybe I grew up in a different type of neighborhood than the "I wear my self-inflicted racist shame as a crown" crowd.

And, as far as people building up their "I'm sorry I'm a racist" cred by outing themselves as having guilty laughter at his comment about "a little pretty white girl ran into a black man's arms", I wonder how many of these same people think it's just fine that some guys make good money with comedy just like that on stages and screens all over America.

Seriously, I thought that just about every average American probably had a friend or acquaintance with a personality like Charles, but apparently I'm wrong. That's sad. The Charles-es of the world are great personalities to buoy one's spirits. It's a shame some people have minimized him to be a racial concern.

extroverted_suicide

2013-05-08 01:45:42 PM

2 votes:

JDawgNJ: I don't think people mean to mock Mr. Ramsey. Instead, the laughter comes from the genuineness of his animated words and storytelling. In today's world, television and media personalities are watered down, homogenized, and void of anything considered unique, because they're trying to pin the status-quo meter, pretty much taking personality and color (pun not intended) out of things. What Mr. Ramsey did was be himself and get caught up in the moment, and it proved funny in a way that is undeniable. We laugh with him, not at him. If his reaction was manufactured in any way, we'd dismiss it. But it's real, and through that realness (and uniqueness), we all enjoyed it.

This right here. I saw the dude for the first time this morning, on his "exclusive" interview with Anderson Cooper. Cooper had no idea how to deal with him or how to react to him. It was glorious. Cooper was asking the stupid, banal, predictable questions, and Ramsey was responding with the obvious answers, albeit in a very engaging and energetic fashion. I loved it. Not because I am a closeted racist, but because he was giving awesome answers to stupid questions.

RedT

2013-05-08 12:20:02 PM

2 votes:

Summa cum loudly: Jeeez....get real people. Firemen, policemen, soldiers and pediatric brain surgeons are heroes. I am not taking anything away from this dude, he seems cool and he helped the girl and all....but that is what practically ANY human being ~~would~~ should have done in the same circumstances. Maybe rather then talking about segregation and racial issues we ought to talk about why just doing what you are supposed to do, like answer screams for help, is regarded by our culture as being heroic.

FTFY

The problem is NO ONE else did what he did. When you read articles about the police being called years ago for a woman with an infant banging on a boarded up window trying to get out, and naked women on leashes in the back yard, and the dude who even went over to the house with Mr Ramsey, you will see that although anyone should have done what Ramsey did, no one did.

And the lack of action in situations in which common humans with decency would be expected to act is not new.

How is a cop who is paid to act a hero, but a citizen who just acts is not?

a61sun

2013-05-08 12:10:18 PM

2 votes:

The part where he basically say "had I known this a year ago, well this would be a VERY different interview, ya feel me?"

Very REAL kinda guy, would love to tip a beer and swap stories with him sometime!

shabu

2013-05-08 10:57:31 AM

2 votes:

Summa cum loudly: Worldwalker: Summa cum loudly: Firemen, policemen, soldiers and pediatric brain surgeons are heroes.

But are they?

Yes. They are...exactly because they signed up to do things you or I can't or won't do.

So on that basis, Charles Ramsey is a hero. He could have done what numerous other people, in numerous other situations like this, have done over and over again for years: told themselves "it's not my problem" or "someone else will do something" or even "the bad guy might hurt me." He didn't. He acted. He was an ordinary person who did something that most ordinary people, history sadly tells us, would not do.

Sorry, I disagree. Doing what you are supposed to do does not make you a hero unless you live in a society that is so depraved that doing nothing is the norm. Oh, wait a minute......

I've seen articles referencing Ramsey quotes that he feels a certain levl of shame for not having acted earlier and for not being suspicous enough while people were suffering in his own neighborhood. I don't know if that is a rational conclusion, but I think it allows a greater level of admiration from me. I can respect someone who focuses on what they could have done better rather than wallowing in momentary hype and shallow praise.

Dear Jerk

2013-05-08 10:56:25 AM

2 votes:

The white person who falls well within the boundries of average doesn't like angry black people and doesn't believe black people have a legitimate reason to be angry. Not every average white person thinks that, but it is common enough to be an average mindset.

Ramsey is undeniable black and he's likable. It's kind of a relief to white people.

In real life, white people and black people would like a guy like Ramsey. On film, white people like him, black people are uneasy because he comes across as a stereotype.

White people are amused by the stereotypical parts, but what they admire is his selflessness* and sense of unity.*

*ironically, not exactly core republican values in this era.

So the clip points to how easy it would be to fix the racial problem in the USA. White people-admit that you are oppressors, especially by indifference. Black people-stop being so angry and confrontational.

shabu

2013-05-08 10:50:57 AM

2 votes:

I think the central issue, if one exists at all, is classism, as oppossed to racism. We're talking about people who consider themselves on a higher plane, either socially, economically, or technologically, who are concerned with why other people find a third individual to be interesting or worth paying attention to. The story is fascinating. The narrative is delivered in the same voice my neighobors have used to talk about car accidents, local crime, the birth of grandchildren, and password problems accessing their network. Mr. Ramsey is telling the story in a very excited way that anyone could identify with after having a day like that. I would think that anyone assigning a uniform reason for all caucasians (or is it all non black people?) could be viewed as racist. Though it might bring less heat to the discussion if we simply considered anyone with an assumption that they knows why people view the video to be rather egotistical.

/I'll admit I had similar thoughts that made me a little uneasy
//until I said to myself, 'Self, quit thinking you have any idea of what motivates the viral phenomenom! You aren't so damn bright.'
///slashies for peace.

BizarreMan

2013-05-08 09:10:08 AM

2 votes:

citizenj: I'm calling shenanigans. My friends of African descent thought this dude was great just as my friends of European descent did.

He's a farking hero, plain and simple.

This! I was discussing it at work yesterday and everybody thought he was great.

Worldwalker: If liking that video is racism, what is watching Honey Boo Boo?

A sign of no intelligence.

NutWrench

2013-05-08 09:04:29 AM

2 votes:

corronchilejano: " Amid the hood backdrop - the gnarled teeth, the dirty white tee, the slang, the shout-out to McDonald's - we miss the fact that Charles Ramsey is perfectly lucid and intelligent."

That's tells a lot of the authors character.

Yup. It's almost as if he's making general assumptions about the guy based on the color of his skin.

trekkiecougar

2013-05-08 09:04:27 AM

2 votes:

I thought his interview was hilarious and to the point. In no way did I consider him unintelligent. He was for real and I'd really like to buy him a drink!!!!

citizenj

2013-05-08 09:02:50 AM

2 votes:

I'm calling shenanigans. My friends of African descent thought this dude was great just as my friends of European descent did.

He's a farking hero, plain and simple.

Uranus Is Huge!

2013-05-08 09:00:08 AM

2 votes:

I'd like to see him next as a panelist on Real Time with Bill Maher, sitting between Tucker Carlson and Jon Huntsman's smokin hot daughter (the one that plays pundit on the cable news shows).

/his pic should be in the dictionary under "keepin' it real."

someonelse

2013-05-08 08:56:52 AM

2 votes:

Most of pop culture right now is designed to make us laugh at people who are poorer and trashier than ourselves, so it's no surprise that people reacted that way to varying degrees with this guy.

funk_soul_bubby

2013-05-08 08:56:40 AM

2 votes:

Amid the hood backdrop - the gnarled teeth, the dirty white tee, the slang, the shout-out to McDonald's - we miss the fact that Charles Ramsey is perfectly lucid and intelligent.

Look, I know there are plenty of idiots on the Internet - I read Fark - but we can't assume that everybody online is not lucid and intelligent.

gunga galunga

2013-05-08 08:52:39 AM

2 votes:

I'm surprised it took this long before some smug asshole got on that soapbox.

demarke

2013-05-08 04:21:53 PM

1 vote:

abfalter: My wife is black (I'm white). She laughed at the video harder than I did.

Your wife's racist!

/kidding... hopefully obviously :)

IRQ12

2013-05-08 03:07:14 PM

1 vote:

Look there, the "PC police" a real thing.

While I'm sure some people were laughing at him I think most were laughing with him at his brash demeanor and his complete lack of a filter. His color or intelligence never really came to mind aside from the absolutely hilarious assertion about a pretty white girl running into a black mans arms.

stryed

2013-05-08 02:47:45 PM

1 vote:

Wow! Bullshiat... Even liveleakers hailed him as a cool heroic dude which actually says a hell of a lot considering the amount of sickening racial comments you can find there.
I'm not even going to read an article that has such a retarded title, and only paints in black the only good thing about this whole kidnapping story.

Rurouni

2013-05-08 02:35:54 PM

1 vote:

Leave it to NPR to play the race card first.

Daeva

2013-05-08 02:18:33 PM

1 vote:

by your own logic, the people being paid to do it are doing what they are supposed to be doing by ana greement saying give me X and ill do Y or ill get fired for not doign wht im supposed to be doing, and therefore are not heroes... good job.

zenobia

2013-05-08 01:37:56 PM

1 vote:

Summa cum loudly: Jeeez....get real people. Firemen, policemen, soldiers and pediatric brain surgeons are heroes. I am not taking anything away from this dude, he seems cool and he helped the girl and all....but that is what practically ANY human being would have done in the same circumstances. Maybe rather then talking about segregation and racial issues we ought to talk about why just doing what you are supposed to do, like answer screams for help, is regarded by our culture as being heroic.

No. The first guy didn't do it. And if you think long and hard about being in the same situation for real, you may find yourself awfully close to "not getting involved."

RenownedCurator

2013-05-08 01:23:30 PM

1 vote:

gunga galunga: ghiabug99: He's not the fringe of society that the internet laughs at because they are incredibly odd or a walking stereotype.

This guy has great comedic timing, hilarious choice of words fantastic interaction with the reporter/crowd. This guy is a comedian. He just so happens to live where he lives and looks like he looks.

The difference between him and other blacksploitation youtube videos is that almost anyone watching it would say "I wish I could do an interview like that and be that funny." as opposed to "I wouldn't want to do that and be laughed at."

This.

"When a pretty, young white girl runs into the arms of a black man, you know there's a problem" was said with perfect comic timing.

His timing was dead on. "I mean, there was NOTHING exciting about this guy! [beat] Until today." Come on, anyone of any colour could have said that and it would have had people laughing.

Chainsaw Turd Elf

2013-05-08 01:17:59 PM

1 vote:

How does Zebra guy feel about this?

master_dman

2013-05-08 01:02:57 PM

1 vote:

Everything any white person does is racist.

radiovox

2013-05-08 10:58:25 AM

1 vote:

Well, that didn't take long.

gunga galunga

2013-05-08 10:47:35 AM

1 vote:

ghiabug99: He's not the fringe of society that the internet laughs at because they are incredibly odd or a walking stereotype.

This guy has great comedic timing, hilarious choice of words fantastic interaction with the reporter/crowd. This guy is a comedian. He just so happens to live where he lives and looks like he looks.

The difference between him and other blacksploitation youtube videos is that almost anyone watching it would say "I wish I could do an interview like that and be that funny." as opposed to "I wouldn't want to do that and be laughed at."

This.

"When a pretty, young white girl runs into the arms of a black man, you know there's a problem" was said with perfect comic timing.

busy chillin'

2013-05-08 10:44:40 AM

1 vote:

did = did not

/sheeeeeeesh

StrangeQ

2013-05-08 10:19:03 AM

1 vote:

They were poor. They were black. Their hair was kind of a mess. And they were unashamed. That's still weird and chuckle-worthy.

No, no it wasn't.

Garaba: Seriously

I can tell you what exactly went through my head when listening to him.

Hes a hero so I am going to listen to what he has to say
Hes a good story teller
Hes really funny

This.

Seriously, fark off, NPR. Not everything is an ACLU worthy crime against minorities. There were exactly two things going through my mind after watching that interview. First, I wanted to give that man a hug, because he is farking awesome. And second, I want to buy him a beer.

Mr Guy

2013-05-08 09:39:10 AM

1 vote:

Does it count if I assumed people were laughing AT him, but after people's reaction today, I went back and watched it, and it's pretty obvious he's trying to entertain. He's enjoying the heck out of being himself, and telling the story like he was telling it to his buddies over a beer, and it's a great story that he tells in a great way.

So I may not be racist, but I assumed other people probably were.

ferretman

2013-05-08 09:31:55 AM

1 vote:

So when will Obama use this man as a prop? That would be racist.

tamsnod27

2013-05-08 09:25:38 AM

1 vote:

This just in, many people that write for and speak on public radio wouldn't know a sense of humor if it hit them in the face with a rubber chicken
/However, I think the 'wait, wait, don't tell me' folks are very funny
//I even enjoy "Click and Clack" when I stumble on them
///slashies!

jdoncbus2

2013-05-08 09:24:31 AM

1 vote:

The original article linked tells me how I should think and here her is another: http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/05/07/charles_ramsey_amanda_ b erry_rescuer_becomes_internet_meme_video.html

Listen, I am fully aware that conservatives and liberals play these games but the politically correct bullshiat is so over the top. Look, I don't think most people care what race Mr. Ramsey is, during a time of tragedy he was able to bring a smile to peoples' faces. The guy is simply funny but oh no, you should feel guilty and re-examine the motives behind your laughter. I went to college in the early/mid-90s and I was more then guilty of playing the race-card and being overly politically correct, it's been in the liberal playbook for decades. Feel free to think I am full of shiat and no, I am not a Republican.

lolpix

2013-05-08 09:21:45 AM

1 vote:

The author had to go out of his way not to mention Kai and his smashing hatchet.

musicmanboston

2013-05-08 09:21:29 AM

1 vote:

let's see, i am white. i thought it was funny. so i'm a racist? meanwhile, i work with several black guys, who thought it was funny, so that makes them....???

/guarantee that it was a white person who brought this up

give me doughnuts

2013-05-08 09:17:43 AM

1 vote:

Headso: But race and class seemed to be central to the celebrity of all these people.

Not true douche, just a few months ago it was that white hippy dude Kai. It was almost the exact same scenario guy does something heroic but is actually a bit eccentric and is funny on camera when telling the story.

Don't forget Double-Rainbow Guy.

give me doughnuts

2013-05-08 09:15:41 AM

1 vote:

Valiente: Not once did I feel like celebrating this guy's deeds with a burning cross on his lawn, soooooo...no.

One of the benefits of being both of Irish/Welsh descent and a first-generation immigrant to North America is I generally don't have "white guilt". When Ramsey's ancestors were being bought and sold in, I imagine, the U.S. South, mine were having their non-English languages beaten out of them and/or starving in famines. I'm not saying it's equivalent, but I am saying I don't personally feel bad about societal situations (slavery, racism or the treatment of natives). I feel responsible for my own reactions and impulses. To take on "collective guilt" for the entirety of one's race is in its own way as pernicious a form of racism as is the usual "I consider people unlike me in the albedo scale to be inferior" sort of racism.

Dude was funny, a side porch raconteur type. Yes, and very Cleveland, from what I know of the barren, half-abandoned place.

The Irish were getting sold as slaves in the American and Caribbean British colonies, just like Africans were. Cromwell sold political prisoners (and their families) by the thousands

Headso

2013-05-08 09:13:39 AM

1 vote:

But race and class seemed to be central to the celebrity of all these people.

Not true douche, just a few months ago it was that white hippy dude Kai. It was almost the exact same scenario guy does something heroic but is actually a bit eccentric and is funny on camera when telling the story.

thisisyourbrainonFark

2013-05-08 09:08:54 AM

1 vote:

Worldwalker: If liking that video is racism, what is watching Honey Boo Boo?

Masochism.

give me doughnuts

2013-05-08 09:06:53 AM

1 vote:

Worldwalker: If liking that video is racism, what is watching Honey Boo Boo?

Something you need to be slapped for doing.

FredRogers

2013-05-08 08:59:15 AM

1 vote:

I watched an interview he had this morning with George ~~Snuffalufagus~~ Stephanopoulos. George asked him how he's getting through all of this attention. Ramsey just took a can of Red Bull and put it in front of the camera. This guy's real and hilarious.

Rapmaster2000

2013-05-08 08:56:44 AM

1 vote:

Am I reading a different article? I read "it's interesting how people at the margins come into the fore every once in a while."

If you're feeling like the article is calling you a racist for enjoying Ted Williams or Antioine Dodson, that's on you.

What's your problem?

NutWrench

2013-05-08 08:54:05 AM

1 vote:

Were you entertained by that video clip yesterday of Charles Ramsey?

Yes.

Congratulations, you're a condescending racist

No.

/Inigio Montoya.jpg

here to help

2013-05-08 08:49:41 AM

1 vote:

Oh, cripes. Not this again.

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