Is this racist? (Something contained in today's Slate.com email)

[journalist3072]

So, I receive the daily newsletter from Slate.com.

This morning, Slate's email newsletter contained this:

http://imageshack.us>

This seems racist to me, saying "how drug dealers, prostitutes, and the homeless pay for their groceries" and then showing this picture that has people of color in it.

Am I overreaching here?

[Redstone]

1. Strikes me as pretty sleazy.

Redstone

[BuyingThyme]

2. Looks like six different colors.

[Kagemusha]

3. I'm not sure you're overreaching or not...

I don't really regard Slate as having great taste for things but, regardless, I think it's more whether or not this book is exploitative, or actually an intelligent look at a poorly covered subject that is nonetheless a component of the world in which we live. I can't tell either way from a Slate blurb and an image. It's a big difference. A serious look at the subject is something I'd cheer as a contribution to our understanding of civilization. It might be far from the sort.

[msongs]

4. people of color? do you know any people without color?

I see two people in this image that are lighter than me.


Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

[silverojo]

5. You're not overreacting

But you are overlooking something...the use of the word "ghetto" is specifically aimed at black people. So, yeah, it's racist. :mad:

[The Gunslinger]

6. it has people of lots of colors on the cover

It seems to be about ghetto living, not a particular race,

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

9. If it were about the "Suburb Economy"

and the caption read "how to deal with drug users, child molestors, and tax frauds" do you suspect they'd have so many minorities in the picture?

[treestar]

7. I dunno, the term "ghetto" implies black, and there are a

disproportionate number of blacks in the picture, but there are disproportionate numbers of blacks among the poor. "Drug dealers, prostitues and the homeless" are more likely to be poor, but that would include whites and Latinos. Well, there is one white person in the picutre, mabye 2 or 3.

I would give them a pass on this one, and say it is just about how the poor survive, with some recognition that African Americans are disproportionately poor, which is the result of racism, but this doesn't seem to be saying it's not. Depends on what is in the book, I suppose.

[uppityperson]

8. I see lots of colors.

Did you know we all are colored somehow, except for the Invisible Man.