WTmotherF

I just watched the video of their performance. I hate world music. 

Sure it was a stupid costume idea, but getting all angry and saying it was super insulting to the aboriginal culture is about as rational as getting angry about the two non-american teams that dressed up like cowboys and danced to shitty country music. Come to think of it, that did enrage me slightly, but country music tends to have that effect on me. 

I think it's a little silly to be saying it isn't an authentic representation of Australian aboriginal dance, because for one, they're on fucking ice skates.

I think far worse are the sub standard aboriginal dancers here. When it's done well it is incredibly powerful, when done badly it looks like pre school kids pretending to be animals 

The best part was the pair that ice danced to Linkin Park. Or maybe the multiple pairs who danced to the requiem for a dream song.

Ice dancing is a joke. 

lol sensitivity 

Figure skating is not a sport. 

facepalm. sensitivity only means talking to a consultant who'll be like "hell no." 

LOL people who talk shit about winter olympic sports. Welcome to life, Bryant Gumble. 

HowCanSheFap said:

...is about as rational as getting angry about the two non-american teams that dressed up like cowboys and danced to shitty country music.

People who make this kind of argument have missed a historical point. (White) Americans have not been oppressed for hundreds of years and subjected to prolonged and systematic abuse which only ended, as in the case of indigenous Australians, a few decades ago. Given these circumstances it is not suprising that they are sensitive to the appropriation of their culture seeing as it recently came within a hair's breadth of being wiped out. 

yeah, like people making it rich cooking Cajun food on TV.
bastards 

I know absolutely nothing about the aboriginals. That said, it's not like anyone's going to mistake those russians in halloween costumes for actual aboriginals. I'm fine with them saying that it was not authentic at all, but getting all bent out of shape about it... like someone else said earlier, they are on ice skates, nobody was judged on authenticity. Taking that into consideration, I personally think the whole theme was stupid; if they aren't judged on authenticity, people are bound to get insulted, they shouldn't be having anybody dressing up as a culture they are not a part of anyway. I blame the people who picked the theme more than the team who seems to know just as much about the aboriginals as I do. 

This is unforgivable. 

HowCanSheFap said:

I know absolutely nothing about the aboriginals. That said, it's not like anyone's going to mistake those russians in halloween costumes for actual aboriginals. I'm fine with them saying that it was not authentic at all, but getting all bent out of shape about it... like someone else said earlier, they are on ice skates, nobody was judged on authenticity. Taking that into consideration, I personally think the whole theme was stupid; if they aren't judged on authenticity, people are bound to get insulted, they shouldn't be having anybody dressing up as a culture they are not a part of anyway. I blame the people who picked the theme more than the team who seems to know just as much about the aboriginals as I do.

I see this as a lame attempt (by the event organizers) to "bring awareness" of other cultures. The Russians, being as sensitive, extroverted, and aware of the rest of the world as a martini glass, said "Aboriginals! Let's do it!". They're execution (obviously) was lacking, but they were playing by the rules of the event. They might have found more success if they stuck to wearing fuzzy hats, banging shoes on podiums, and drinking vodka. 

why is blackface such a bad thing? The Wayans brothers made a career out of dressing whiteface 

Boomer Wang - lol 

blackface is bad because it reminds us of a time when blackface was like the most offensive thing you could have. horrible stereotypes and treating black people like they were savage african crazy people.

however, this routine wasn't as offensive as it was ... just kinda stupid... i dunno, all this ducking under eachother's legs, pulling eachother's hair... i dont even think it was particularly good 

HowCanSheFap said:

I know absolutely nothing about the aboriginals. That said, it's not like anyone's going to mistake those russians in halloween costumes for actual aboriginals. I'm fine with them saying that it was not authentic at all, but getting all bent out of shape about it...

OK let's put it another way. Let's say the Eskimos invaded America, conquered it, declared the inhabitants sub-human, wiped out 90% of the population, brutalised the survivors, set about re-educating them and forcing them to adopt the Eskimo way of life. Let's say they then took American children from their homes and either sent them to live with Eskimo families or into slavery, gave them Eskimo names and told them that their parents were dead, thus attempting to obliterate all traces of American society. After about two hundred years of this they then say "oops, sorry" and very slowly start to give the few remaining Americans some freedom to rediscover their own culture and give them some rights. Now how would you feel about someone representing you in a crudely stereotypical way having done little or no research and demonstrating complete disinterest in your culture or history? 

It would've been fine if they did their routine to Midnight Oil. 

jimmy lasers said:

Now how would you feel about someone representing you in a crudely stereotypical way having done little or no research and demonstrating complete disinterest in your culture or history?

If someone is an Eskimo, angry. And if someone isn't, like I need to put on my big boy pants. 

either way, those costumes were fucking lame and that dude just pissed me off with his whole face. 

jimmy lasers said:

People who make this kind of argument have missed a historical point. (White) Americans have not been oppressed for hundreds of years and subjected to prolonged and systematic abuse which only ended, as in the case of indigenous Australians, a few decades ago. Given these circumstances it is not suprising that they are sensitive to the appropriation of their culture seeing as it recently came within a hair's breadth of being wiped out.

But isn't it just as insensitive to assume all white people are the same? Last I checked, Russians had nothing at all to do with the subjugation of the Aboriginal people. Isn't lumping them together with the British just as racist?

(PS: Not defending the routine, just trying to make a point) 

Enohead said:

It would've been fine if they did their routine to Midnight Oil.

I couldn't beeeelieeeve... I couldn't believe the Stars of Warburton were waiting for meee...

SparkyTWP said:

But isn't it just as insensitive to assume all white people are the same? Last I checked, Russians had nothing at all to do with the subjugation of the Aboriginal people. Isn't lumping them together with the British just as racist?

If you get kicked in the nuts, and then someone else laughs at you, I think you have the right to give that person the finger. 

Has anyone mentioned or care about the slight "Neanderthal / head hunter / cannibal" part of the dance where he grabs her hair? Am I seeing this wrong? 

jimmy lasers said:

OK let's put it another way. Let's say the Eskimos invaded America, conquered it, declared the inhabitants sub-human, wiped out 90% of the population, brutalised the survivors, set about re-educating them and forcing them to adopt the Eskimo way of life. Let's say they then took American children from their homes and either sent them to live with Eskimo families or into slavery, gave them Eskimo names and told them that their parents were dead, thus attempting to obliterate all traces of American society. After about two hundred years of this they then say "oops, sorry" and very slowly start to give the few remaining Americans some freedom to rediscover their own culture and give them some rights. Now how would you feel about someone representing you in a crudely stereotypical way having done little or no research and demonstrating complete disinterest in your culture or history?

This. 

I think a key point here is that the Russians (likely) didn't intend to offend, nor did they intend to wipe the Aboriginals out. They just either didn't do enough research to know how to do the dance properly, or they added their own ideas to the dance (with the ice skating factor this obviously couldn't be truly Aboriginal). As such, to make drastic assumptions about how racist they are seems out of place.

The dance had nothing to do with what tragedies befell them, and as such shouldn't be viewed in such a light. Instead, it should be just noted as a bad dance that didn't reflect the culture it intended to very well.

As for crude stereotypes, how could you not produce a crude stereotype with a task like "take a cultural dance and turn into skating"? If we forced competitors to only use dances from their own culture, that to me seems much more racist than risking that they screw up someone else's dance. 

Evolve or Parish 

I don't know what the argument between evolutionists and creationists has to do with this, Paul. 

The leaves make me laugh a little.

oogah! oogah! 

PaulStephen said:

Evolve or Parish

That's so fucking funny on so many different levels. 

I can see 2 levels...maybe a 3rd. 

If you get kicked in the nuts, and then someone else laughs at you, I think you have the right to give that person the finger.

But see, you could apply this to just about any culture you can imagine. Pretty much every culture was brutalized at some point by another one. Yet no one complains when there's stereotypes of polish, or germans, or arabs, or whatever even though they were just as clearly brutalized or deported from their lands.

Basically I'm saying that something is only deemed "insensitive" when it is only applied to those cultures that don't happen to be "white" or of European descent, even though I can easily list several European cultures that have suffered similar abuses. 

I don't know why the hell everyone is making a big deal out of this.
Everyone knows that Russians are stupid, ignorant borscht gobblers.

There, feel better now? 

1,500 cultures and 6,500 languages worldwide. thats all I'm saying. 

Is it weird that i thought the dumbest thing was the leaves? 

sticks and stones wont break my bones.. but costumes will always hurt me.

I think I'd just be happy that i was part of the 10% that didn't get wiped out.

It drives me absolutely crazy that people try to make me feel guilty for shit my "ancestors" did or didn't do. I've never oppressed anyone. I've never advocated oppression.

And on portraying cultural stereotypes. Seriously.. How is this offensive to anyone anymore? Basically every television show is some sort of cultural stereotype.

I guess all I'm saying is people need to stop going out of their way to find shit to be offended by and need to stop trying to find someone to blame for their problems. bah! 

Finally someone posted my link after 4 years!!!! 

SparkyTWP said:

Yet no one complains when there's stereotypes of polish, or germans, or arabs, or whatever even though they were just as clearly brutalized or deported from their lands.

Except... they do??

"I'm not offended so therefore no one should be!" 

I hate world music.

this 

jinks said:

It drives me absolutely crazy that people try to make me feel guilty for shit my "ancestors" did or didn't do. I've never oppressed anyone. I've never advocated oppression.

There are people who just want to point fingers out of context, but I think it's important to remember that we live in a world shaped to a significant degree by people who did oppress.

Economic, political, and cultural power on a global scale shifts slowly over centuries; the current distribution of that power still rests on many structures that were built on assumptions of racial and ethnic hierarchies. 

The sooner people are over this overly sensitive phase the better. The routine wasn't done to offend anyone, and intent should be the major factor to consider before labeling something as "offensive"

Now how would you feel about someone representing you in a crudely stereotypical way having done little or no research and demonstrating complete disinterest in your culture or history?

Well, I'd consider the fact we had a half Eskimo-American as president of the free world and realize that no matter what not everyone is going to get along. Are you offended that the taliban probably assumes horrible things and spreads misinformation about you and your way of life? no, because they're the taliban who gives a shit what they think.

It must be pretty hard living day to day when you need to over-analyze everything for the slightest bit of something offensive 

Nooooo nonononononono, no way, nuh-uh - I aint going anywhere near this one. 

Ice Skating Aboriginals, WTF???

Considering there is only one decent frozen lake in the entire of Oz in the dead of winter, this was really just lame choice of culture. The costumes were the second lame choice. 

my buddy from australia calls em Abbo's 

It's lucky they went for this rather than their original " Jew Dance" 

HOW CAN YOU SLEEP WHEN THE BEDS ARE BURNING 

banderos said:

Ice Skating Aboriginals, WTF???

Considering there is only one decent frozen lake in the entire of Oz in the dead of winter, this was really just lame choice of culture. The costumes were the second lame choice.

There used to be more but us white folk drank all the water. 

airdrummer said:

either way, those costumes were fucking lame and that dude just pissed me off with his whole face.

And I agree with airdrummer. That guy's got a face only Celine Dion could love. 

uffda said:

Well, I'd consider the fact we had a half Eskimo-American as president of the free world

Ummm, I think you missed the point there.

uffda said:

Are you offended that the taliban probably assumes horrible things and spreads misinformation about you and your way of life?

Sigh. of course not, because I haven't spent the last 200 years being enslaved by them.

uffda said:

It must be pretty hard living day to day when you need to over-analyze everything for the slightest bit of something offensive

Again, you've missed the point. I'm not saying I'm offended by this routine, I'm saying that I can understand why Aborigines would be offended by it. 

OhSnapDragons said:

why is blackface such a bad thing? The Wayans brothers made a career out of dressing whiteface

LMAO One horrible movie = a career? 

Tropic Thunder was awesome.