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Why Fruits and Veggies Are So Cheap in Chinatown

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Re: Why Fruits and Veggies Are So Cheap in Chinatown

#231

Post by dalke »

nommm-nommm wrote: post #228
dalke wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A Google Book search finds only a 2002 Weekly World News opinion piece by "Ed Anger" and a 2009 book "Stealing Ganymede: A Novel". There are ~150 hits in DDG for "Indian" plus any of the four combination of order and choice of {"and", "or", or "not"}. There are 94 hits in Google for "dots or feathers" and 120 "dots and feathers". This includes "polka dots and feathers." Almost every single one referring to people use…

Correct, I never, ever, ever said it was appropriate, it is decidedly not. If you look up a couple posts I highlighted the problems with using it on HN ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11985794 ). I don't expect that it would be in written word to often either. Point is its common enough that I've heard it several times over many years from several different people. Perhaps you don't talk to too many casually r…

I see I was wrong. I found a better phrase to search in Google to find many more examples of existing use. One is the movie "Not a Feather, but a Dot", with a trailer at http://morristowngreen.com/2013/05/28/meet-director-of-movie... and the movie site at http://www.notafeather.com .

I still don't think it's common, though I agree it's not rare. I provided counter-evidence that my observations are not solely biased by the people I know nor the regions I've lived in. To flip your question around, perhaps you are in the one region of the US where people do that?

The other part of my response was because I didn't like the wriggle room in your paragraph describing how being 'casually racist in informal conversation is still a "thing" in the United States' and that such uses are 'very inappropriate in most cases and should be avoided especially in formal communication.'

HN is full of informal conversation. Is HN casual enough that it's one of the few places where this "thing" is appropriate? I don't think that's what you meant. I wanted to make a more firm statement which removes that possible interpretation.

Re: Why Fruits and Veggies Are So Cheap in Chinatown

#232

Post by jedberg »

gkop wrote: post #186
jedberg wrote: post #7

I live in the south bay, but whenever I have a business meeting in SF it's requested that I stop in Chinatown for veggies and meat, because it's so much cheaper and better than what we can get even here just 45 miles away.

Which Chinatown?

SF

Re: Why Fruits and Veggies Are So Cheap in Chinatown

#233

Post by jedberg »

HelloNurse wrote: post #221
jedberg wrote: post #7

I live in the south bay, but whenever I have a business meeting in SF it's requested that I stop in Chinatown for veggies and meat, because it's so much cheaper and better than what we can get even here just 45 miles away.

"Just 45 miles away"? Why doesn't anybody sell good food where you live? It's California, not Greenland; everything should be plentiful.

They do, we get plenty of good food here. It's just better in SF Chinatown.

Re: Why Fruits and Veggies Are So Cheap in Chinatown

#234

Post by panglott »

e12e wrote: post #225
panglott wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the American speakers who use it don't have a history of discriminating and abusing Roma people? There are barely any Roma people in America to abuse. Certainly in much of Europe Roma people have been treated very badly. It's certainly true that many portrayals of black people in continental Europe often look very odd or offensive to American eyes.

I'm not sure that makes much sense. By that logic I should be fine using "indian" rather than Native American or First Nation, because it's been a thousand years since Norwegian Vikings first killed Native Americans? (Which makes doubly no sense, as there were a number of Norwegians in the early settlements of the west, and I'm sure there are a few tales of horrors to be told about some of their exploits). As for Rom…

To clarify, I didn't mean that the discrimination/abuse of the Roma happened a long time ago. I meant that most discrimination/abuse of the Roma has happened in Europe, not in the US. Anti-Roma racism in Europe is obvious, ugly, and contemporary. In Europe, Roma people are a coherent social group of millions of people; in the US, without mass immigration, they are a scattered minority so small that the only thing most Americans "know" about them comes from "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". With nothing to refer to, the word has been bleached of reference to Roma people in American use.

Re: Why Fruits and Veggies Are So Cheap in Chinatown

#235

Post by kpil »

developer2 wrote: post #207
ams6110 wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Makes sense to me. I get moldy strawberries so often at the local supermarket that I absolutely open the container and rumage around before I buy. If they bothered to remove the moldy ones for me, I'd appreciate it. What's the alternative? Should they be throwing away the entire container?

Mould is not like dirt that can just be rubbed off the product. If a package of strawberries has some mouldy berries in it, then that mould has already spread to its neighbours without being visible. All they're doing is repackaging the berries that don't have any visible mould on them, and that mould will grow very quickly. If you buy a supposedly "mould-free" bundle that was repackaged from a mouldy bundle, the ent…

The mould is most likely growing because a few strawberries where damaged and the rest got strawberry juice on them.

The mould is already there, just not visible, on all strawberries, waiting for some sugar and water...

Re: Why Fruits and Veggies Are So Cheap in Chinatown

#236

Post by forgetsusername »

dalke wrote: post #227
nommm-nommm wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I am from the US. "Dots and feathers" is not a common way in the US. I am from the US, I have heard people say things like "I picked up some Indian artwork this weekend, dots not feathers." I've also been asked "dots or feathers?" when I was talking about something Indian. I've also been asked in gestures, pointing to the forehead to represent a bindi then saying "or" and covering and uncovering the mouth while maki…

A Google Book search finds only a 2002 Weekly World News opinion piece by "Ed Anger" and a 2009 book "Stealing Ganymede: A Novel". There are ~150 hits in DDG for "Indian" plus any of the four combination of order and choice of {"and", "or", or "not"}. There are 94 hits in Google for "dots or feathers" and 120 "dots and feathers". This includes "polka dots and feathers." Almost every single one referring to people use…

>Almost every single one referring to people uses that phrase in a derogatory way.

Well, a famous movie that won an Oscar has said line in it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CqeOU5V47w

I wouldn't claim that the phrase is PC, and it is indeed lazy in written form, but people need to get over being so easily offended on behalf of others.

Re: Why Fruits and Veggies Are So Cheap in Chinatown

#238

Post by dalke »

forgetsusername wrote: post #236
dalke wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A Google Book search finds only a 2002 Weekly World News opinion piece by "Ed Anger" and a 2009 book "Stealing Ganymede: A Novel". There are ~150 hits in DDG for "Indian" plus any of the four combination of order and choice of {"and", "or", or "not"}. There are 94 hits in Google for "dots or feathers" and 120 "dots and feathers". This includes "polka dots and feathers." Almost every single one referring to people use…

> Almost every single one referring to people uses that phrase in a derogatory way. Well, a famous movie that won an Oscar has said line in it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CqeOU5V47w I wouldn't claim that the phrase is PC, and it is indeed lazy in written form, but people need to get over being so easily offended on behalf of others.

Yes, it seems that phrase is more common than I originally assumed. That said, movies use derogatory terms, even Oscar winning movies.

People need to get over the word "PC". It's a nearly meaningless term because it comes with the pejorative assumption that the reasoning behind it is always excessive.

Do you have any word for "politically correct but not excessively so, so I think I'll change my language"? Or is every such suggestion inherently based on offense and therefore easily dismissed?

Because my statement above was to show pictures of Puebloans in Santa Fe from now and from 100 years ago, and argue that "feather" makes about as much sense as calling a 6th generation true son of Georgia a Yankee.

Are you going to go to the South and start calling everyone Yankees? Or would that not be politically correct?

Re: Why Fruits and Veggies Are So Cheap in Chinatown

#239

Post by wutbrodo »

nommm-nommm wrote: post #220
panglott wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Common? I've never heard this.

Pretty common, I've heard it from several casually racist people several different times throughout my life. Perhaps it is regional. Casual racism (especially outside of talking to friends/family) isn't super common anymore but still a "thing."

Do you mind if I ask what region? I only ask because I had never heard it spending my entire life in a couple different parts of California
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