Very sad to see this. Mattison is a good guy

  • NoStressyJessie@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    33
    ·
    1 year ago

    A lot of Minnesotans are “friendly racist“. You know, the “He’s not like most black people” kinda racist.

    My chosen name when I lived there was not a traditional Christian name and everyone always told me they thought I was black because my partner was a bigger lady and the name “sounded African”.

    A lot of the older folks thought Rick Astley was black because of his voice.

    Just really weird living there.

    • Bimbus@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      1 year ago

      That’s a lot of Wisconsin too which sucks.

      Being alienated from family is not a great feeling.

    • phillaholic@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      A lot of the older folks thought Rick Astley was black because of his voice.

      Did you see him before hearing him? His vocal style is most similar to Black singers of the era before him, so it’s not racist to assume he’s black. If they only listened to him because he was white, then that’s racist.

      • NoStressyJessie@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        There is a difference between being overtly racist (I won’t listen unless he’s white) and incidentally racist (There is no way this guy is white). It is still racist to make assumptions on people’s skin color based on how deep their voice is, and it’s frankly weird, like phrenology level weird.

        • phillaholic@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          7
          ·
          1 year ago

          I don’t think those kind of micro-assumptions need to be flagged that way. We make assumptions constantly. It’s how we interact with the world and learn. The problematic part is what we do after making those internal assumptions. It’s innocuous if it’s “oh wow he’s white.” If it’s more common than one guy the assumption won’t happen anymore.