OMG, during The Two Towers? They had what, an entire year of FotR to get used to Sean Astin as Sam Gamgee NOT!rUDY and they STILL yelled, "Rudy"?

Idiots!

(Now, I'm feeling very lucky in the audiences I've had for all the LotR films.)

I just had sushi.

Robin, that's a toughie. I think the thing that gets me about that statement would particularly be the "the rest of us" bit, as it belongs to the same group as "those people," particularly as it posits talkers as the "other" and non-talky people as the default "us".

On the other hand, I find myself thinking, well, if by "those people" you mean people who are talking in the movie, I get irritated by them too. And it doesn't matter what the ethnicity of the talker is, but it is true that there's a cultural divide there. And, er, now I'm all turned around and confused. Cause I would find lots of talking extremely annoying. But that quoted comment makes me uncomfortable too.

Also, honestly, I do believe there are people who use "Jew down" without ever thinking about it having anything to do with, you know, Jews. I know it sounds absurd, but when you grow up with something you often never question it like that.

I mean, not that it's an excuse for people to go on using it. Just saying. I've known some people who've said some just awful things without, seriously, any awareness that it's offensive or intention to be offensive.

Also, honestly, I do believe there are people who use "Jew down" without ever thinking about it having anything to do with, you know, Jews.

I can't wrap my head around that. I don't really want to.

Joo? Gew? Djue?

Chew. That is, that's what I'd always thought I'd heard, until someone said it in front of me, and then someone else commented how bigoted it was, and then I said, "Oh, it's so not 'chew' is it?" I didn't hear the expression until I was in college, though.

Ditto, "That's mighty white of you." Granted, I had heard of that one, but I'd never heard it spoken aloud, until someone I'd never thought of as a bigot said it. We were close enough, that I asked her straight out if she knew what she was saying. It turns out she hadn't known--had never given it a thought, and was completely humiliated.

Ditto, "That's mighty white of you."

Oh yeah, that was a shocker the first time I heard it actually said.

Oh, lord -- my friend's father said, after we finally got furniture in our apartment after a summer of sitting on the floor, "Now you're living like white people!" Um, OK.

I also discovered this weekend that my friend's fiance is racist, which was kind of dispiriting. Especially since she's not white. He had a problem with the woman at the desk and extrapolated to black women in general. I just said, "Well, there are a lot of crappy people in service jobs in general..." and kind of left it at that, but UGH. I am with you, Robin.

I don't think I've ever heard "that's mighty white of you."

"That's mighty big of you" or "that's might nice of you" but never "that's might white of you."

Unless someone said it and my brain interperted it as "mighty nice of you" keeping me from going ballistic on the person who said it.

I love "that's mighty white of you," but never have encountered it used unsarcastically IRL.

Robin, without knowing the guy I can't say if he meant the two things separately. Because if I recognise that talking back at the screen is a cultural thing for some people, and therefore don't want to make them stop, so somewhere for those who are doing it as a cultural thing and those who are doing it just because why the fuck not -- I'm down with it. As long as all black people don't have to watch movies there, and white folk aren't barred.

Sometimes I hate going to the movies where no one is reacting, and sometimes I hate going to the movies where everyone is talking back. And those things definitely aren't 100% racially correllated.