2970: Kentucky by Choice w/ Vicky Kuperman

[Keith]

megabat's deleted posts, which came right after, of all things, a white Kentucky couple winning first place in a Halloween contest by painting themselves black.

1:

Hey Chemda and Keith, I'm another long-time listener (9 years) who feels compelled to weigh in on the Kentucky "debate."

I grew up in NYC but married a man from Kentucky and lived there for 7 years. During 5 of those years, I worked toward a Ph.D. in toxicology. Since then I've gotten divorced and I found a job at a laboratory in Georgia, but I loved living in Kentucky. Granted, I was living in a bit of a STEM bubble at my university, but I got around quite a bit and saw a lot of what the state had to offer.

I guess what bothers me about your dismissal of the entire state of Kentucky is that many of its problems can be traced to extreme poverty - so the "HURR DURR KENTUCKY" jokes, in addition to not being particularly original or funny, are also a form of poverty-shaming, and therefore not consistent with Chemda's (and sometimes Keith's) progressive ideology. In addition, your assessment of racial tensions in Kentucky isn't even accurate. Is Kentucky racist? It's in the United States, so it is absolutely racist. But the statistics don't back up your criticism. According to a 2017 FBI report (https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2016/tables/table-12), the coastal states of Massachussetts and Washington have greater rates of hate crime than Kentucky. Also, New York City has experienced a massive spike in hate crimes since the 2016 election (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...b086432b07fed8), so the problem is hardly localized to the mid-South. Racism is an American problem, not just a Kentucky problem. When you set up Kentucky as a punching bag, you're artificially distancing yourself from a problem for which we all need to take ownership.

Very respectfully,

R.H.

2:

You totally missed my point, my dude.

3:

No, he absolutely did miss my point. To recap: to single out KY as a cheap laugh both ignores serious economic differences between states and lets blue state racists off the hook. I never said that I didn't understand why black people may not feel uniformly safe in the south.But it is a huge mistake to pretend that you are somehow above the issue by living somewhere else, particularly when racism (and in NY, institutionalized police racism) is still plaguing us.

4:

Old enough to realize that you have to have the last word no matter what, even if it means willfully misinterpreting my comments. Thanks for an intellectually stimulating exchange.


My turn:

Not only can't you acknowledge your state's horrible history and horrible present, you can't even take ownership of your own posts that you typed over a period of 3 short hours.

I have to have the last word no matter what? You started this... discussion. Do you remember that? Do you understand that you're as dopey as Yannie?

1st, let's agree Yannie is extremely dopey so that we can continue. Now, do you understand you're the exact same person?

We were all supposed to just agree with your smug comments and not write anything back?

Let me guess, you normally aren't a prude and you have a great sense of humor as well.

Go fuck yourself, you fake shit.


With absolutely no respect whatsoever,

K.M.

[xerxes]

I grew up in the crime infested city that is New York City. Yeah there's crime however I have never felt like I was in danger because of the way I look or dress in my city. I walk around openly being a person of color and doing drugs. If you look at my phone I bet its gonna be another person of color on it singing some hip-hop. Iv done that in Washington and in Massachusetts without hesitation. Granted im a bit uneducated on the state because its one of the few iv avoided in my travels. I also don't go to a bad part of town in the middle of the night and walk down a dark alley. I see Kentucky as that bad part of town that yes people live in however I know to avoid it if I want to walk out the other end with all my shit still in my pocket. Everyone says always so I wonder if there is any truth to it?

Stereotypes comes from somewhere. They might be misinformed and generalized but seem to have some truth to them.

Also im not going to the the math but the FBI numbers quoted was the difference in population taken into account. Because if it was maybe Kentucky is not that safe looking.

Also yes I know im always wrong about everything and DID not read everything or fully paid attention to what I heard. I am very misinformed on this subject.

[SpareBen]

Remember Kim Davis? Kentucky did something right.

[Keith]

Yannie and megabat can brag about this for the next 20 years.