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GameRager: While his post was a bit insensitive & it could have been worded better it did illustrate the point very well though about the double standard of how racism can be handled in america........ex: Black beats up white & it's a normal crime usually with not much outcry about any possible racial implications from most people beyond conservatives/etc......but white guy beats up black guy and suddenly it's a "hate crime" and anyone and everyone(including the ones I mentioned above) is calling it a tragedy and bemoaning how it could happen in today's society.
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klaymen: It is not only in America. The same goes for gypsies here, even though many of them just leech on our (and other countries') social system. And if you dare to say something about it, you get marked as a racist. Even when they run to other country (GB, Denmark, I think even Belgium too) to leech some more, they cry about how they are oppressed here and EU slaps us for being racist. Double standards indeed.
Indeed. One of the problems IMO as to why racism is still apparent in the world today is that very double standard. We are taught to respect every person, regardless of creed/race/nationality/etc, and then see some getting preferential treatment BECAUSE of what race they are.....in how race crimes are identified/handled & other things. Because of this some people who wouldn't normally hold any ill will against minorities suddenly see the double standards and they mistakenly direct their anger towards them(When they should be mad at the one writing the laws and others.) in error, causing more racial division.
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hedwards: Personally, I've found Occam's Razor to be quite helpful in cases like this and the simplest explanation with the fewest parts would be that the teacher is racist. At very least the teacher isn't particularly understanding of the needs of the students if he or she is using an example like that. It's hardly a stretch to go from racially insensitive to racist.
Actually the simplest explanation would be that the teacher is bad in his work. Without additional evidence racism or "racial insensitivity" is not a supported accusation. Never mind equalising the two. In practise you did exactly what Occam's Razor principle suggests *not* to do. Amusing.
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hedwards: Personally, I've found Occam's Razor to be quite helpful in cases like this and the simplest explanation with the fewest parts would be that the teacher is racist. At very least the teacher isn't particularly understanding of the needs of the students if he or she is using an example like that. It's hardly a stretch to go from racially insensitive to racist.
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AndyBuzz: Actually the simplest explanation would be that the teacher is bad in his work. Without additional evidence racism or "racial insensitivity" is not a supported accusation. Never mind equalising the two. In practise you did exactly what Occam's Razor principle suggests *not* to do. Amusing.
Um, this is happening in the deep south, and being a bad teacher isn't really any sort of explanation to the problem. Occam's Razor requires that it be an explanation. Being a bad teacher is as much an explanation as the fact that the teacher is probably white.

The bottom line is that in the US being a bad teacher really doesn't provide any explanatory power at all for this sort of racist question. Slavery is well known to be a hot button issue and it's not something that's typically going to just slip onto a test by anybody that isn't racist. At very least this demonstrates a shocking lack of awareness about racism that they're supposed to be trained against.

Plus, it's Georgia, they aren't exactly known for being racially sensitive down in that part of the country. I hope that's changing more than I think it is, but a racist southerner is hardly something that's unusual. Hell a lot of them still think that they won the Civil War and downplay the significance that slavery had on their prosperity.
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hedwards: Um, this is happening in the deep south, and being a bad teacher isn't really any sort of explanation to the problem. Occam's Razor requires that it be an explanation. Being a bad teacher is as much an explanation as the fact that the teacher is probably white.

The bottom line is that in the US being a bad teacher really doesn't provide any explanatory power at all for this sort of racist question. Slavery is well known to be a hot button issue and it's not something that's typically going to just slip onto a test by anybody that isn't racist. At very least this demonstrates a shocking lack of awareness about racism that they're supposed to be trained against.

Plus, it's Georgia, they aren't exactly known for being racially sensitive down in that part of the country. I hope that's changing more than I think it is, but a racist southerner is hardly something that's unusual. Hell a lot of them still think that they won the Civil War and downplay the significance that slavery had on their prosperity.
Well your argument seems to be most georgians are racist, the shool is in georgia so this is totally racist. and fail to see how this is a better or more correct argument than the teacher is bad.

Furthermore these questions were part of a history crosslesson, so they didn't just "slip by" or a prank by made by a racist teacher.

My theory is they were made by a teacher who thought the whole crosslesson thing is utter bullshit and so did an halfarsed job because he couldn't be bothered anyways, but had to show the principal that he was doing some "progressive teaching" or how it's called.
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hedwards: Occam's Razor requires that it be an explanation. Being a bad teacher is as much an explanation as the fact that the teacher is probably white.
Occam's Razor principle doesn't "require" anything. It's just a general recommendation, a practical rule of thumb that suggests if many explanations are given for a theory, given everything else equal, we should tend to the simper one, but not so in the expense of accuracy. Your explanation is inserting your prejudice about the expected behaviour of the teacher in order to draw the conclusion you came about.

In a neutral observer's viewpoint there not racism in the question itself. It's just idiotic. You have to add speculation to end up with the racism conclusion. And you might be right about it, too. But it would still be speculation. At least with whatever is mentioned in this thread. I can't be bothered to look for more info.

Otherwise WBGhiro's theory above, does sound just as compelling (if not more imo) as yours.
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hedwards: Occam's Razor requires that it be an explanation. Being a bad teacher is as much an explanation as the fact that the teacher is probably white.
You're parsing the location of the event and using it to assume certain 'facts' about individuals with no supporting evidence, at most you've provided anecdotal evidence that Georgians are by default are racist. Others are just remaining more objective.