Burly guys at the polls

By adamg on Tue, 11/07/2006 - 2:09pm

Karl always feels intimidated when he goes to his North End polling place:

... At both the primary and the regular elections, there are always these burly working-class Italian types loitering outside. They're not holding signs for candidates ... they're just lingering and talking loudly in MAJOR Boston accents. I'm sure their goal isn't to harm or intimidate ... but I do find it intimidating. I've never noticed this in other polling areas where I've lived. Maybe that's the reason for low voter turn-out? Narrow street surrounded by brick apartment houses and not much natural light with 20 or more rough men congregating in the middle of the road? ...

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Comments

-isms abound!

By eeka on Tue, 11/07/2006 - 2:24pm.

Ooooh, how long til someone says that Karl is ethnicist or classist or accentist or sexist or sizeist or volumeist or loiterist or neighborhoodist?

Never mind that he's just describing the folks pretty objectively and reporting on his personal reaction to them. Someone clearly needs to let him know that this constitutes somethingism. In the process of making said comment, they need to be sure to make some big generalization about him and everyone else on this site, something like "you liberals think you can just..."

Oh, and of course, this needs to be posted anonymously.

HA. I BEAT YOU TO IT. SUCKER.

http://1smootshort.blogspot.com

I'll admit it

By LaDivina on Tue, 11/07/2006 - 2:49pm.

I'm loiterist.

*shame*

Stupendous!

By Rhea on Tue, 11/07/2006 - 3:07pm.

Eeka, you cracked me up. You're right: Someone will be lodging a complaint soon. Stocky Eastern Europeans perambulating around the streets of the North End. It really is like that. And not just on Election Day.

Eastern Europeans

By adamg on Tue, 11/07/2006 - 3:26pm.

I believe they loiter ominously in Brighton, not the North End, although many of them tend to be elderly, so you could probably outrun them in a pinch.

Ooooh, how long til someone

By Mr. Weebles on Tue, 11/07/2006 - 4:05pm.

Ooooh, how long til someone says that Karl is ethnicist or classist or accentist or sexist or sizeist or volumeist or loiterist or neighborhoodist?

I wouldn't say he's any of those things, but I would say he's a huge pussy.

Why is he intimidated by some working class Italians?

Is he afraid they'll beat him up and take his lunch money?

Ya know, I'm sick of the

By Jam on Thu, 11/09/2006 - 12:24am.

Ya know, I'm sick of the stereotype that working class people with accents are stupid racists and homophobes and conservatives. It could not be farther from the truth, it's insulting to all the white guys who don't fit the stereotype and all the women, African Americans, Latinos who are working class but never get considered, and it's a myth that's perpetuated by all sides of the political spectrum, conservatives want to claim us as theirs (check out Kerry's commerical with the track suit clad moron rube runner) and liberals want to run away from us screaming.

If you're terrified of people with MAJOR BOSTON ACCENTS, has it ever occured to you that maybe you picked the wrong place to live? Just sayin'.

Was anyone perpetuating that?

By eeka on Thu, 11/09/2006 - 8:08am.

Believe me, I'm the first one to jump on people who would never make sexist or racist comments, but who seem to think there are "acceptable" groups to stereotype and degrade (construction workers, southerners, people with addictions, people in rural areas, people with mental illness...).

But I don't think that's what was necessarily going on here. It seems that the person described the people objectively and was examining his/her own reaction to them. I don't feel like they were being judged.

It's just like how, if you've been conditioned (by the media, by others' comments, whatever) to get nervous when you see a group of urban Black youth congregating on a corner, this is something to discuss and examine. Not something to not say.

Big difference between "gee, those ____s really need to stop hanging out on the corner driving everyone away" and "hey, I'm noticing that I reacted strongly to the group of ____s and I wonder if other people have the same reaction and where I might have learned to react in such a way."