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Malyse · Feb 22, 2016

Hey, prewarning. This one is pretty upsetting so discretion is advised.

As the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom officially celebrate Black History Month we flashback to never forget yesteryear. It is not too long ago when a popular game was played at carnivals across the United States. That game was known by many names including Hit The Nigger Baby. Sometimes the popular Dunk Tank game also took on similar names.

To be clear, some of this stuff was only 50 years ago.

There is so much more at the link.

(H/T to Massive Duck, C.M.)

Dai101 · Feb 22, 2016

Heritage!!

Good thing TWD is on so i can rage against that instead of punching the wall.

andthebeatgoeson · Feb 22, 2016

But everyone was saying it. That makes it okay.

theignoramus · Feb 22, 2016

That one newspaper clipping saying the one public concern with "hit the nigger baby" was "speculating" or gambling whilst that game was played.
If it wasnt so vulgar it would almost be laughable.

Matsukaze · Feb 22, 2016

That game was known by many names including “Hit The Nigger Baby”

.
"But it was a different time!" came the cry of a thousand assholes.

sphagnum · Feb 22, 2016

Usually I'm not surprised by this sort of thing but for some reason this one made think to myself "Really???" It's just so outlandishly ridiculously racist that it almost seems like a parody.

marzlapin · Feb 22, 2016

Malyse said:
To be clear, some of this stuff was only 50 years ago.

So basically, warm childhood memories for the Tea Party demographic.

Dai101 · Feb 22, 2016

marzlapin said:
So basically, warm childhood memories for the Tea Party demographic.

Exactly. This is the "good ol' days". The america that once was GREAT.

Gordon Shumway · Feb 22, 2016

sphagnum said:
Usually I'm not surprised by this sort of thing but for some reason this one made think to myself "Really???" It's just so outlandishly ridiculously racist that it almost seems like a parody.

Yet, it was just another day in America..bananas.

commedieu · Feb 22, 2016

Keep it going.

Edit:

These reminders. Not the...

You know what I mean

PeskyToaster · Feb 22, 2016

are these the "good ol' days"?

Gordon Shumway · Feb 22, 2016

commedieu said:
Keep it going.

Edit:

These reminders. Not the...

You know what I mean

We got you.

PeskyToaster said:
are these the "good ol' days"?

Now that you mention it..

Enzom21 · Feb 22, 2016

Fun for the whole family!
The Jim Crow Museum has a section dedicated to black people as targets
https://youtu.be/l4oCL99mrRk?list=UUZT_fgdJ4NYvu70ZDTSm-Jg

http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/
Everyone should spend sometime looking through the Jim Crow Museum... Good ol' USA!

PeskyToaster said:
are these the "good ol' days"?

That's what they mean when they say "Make America great again!"

theignoramus · Feb 22, 2016

sphagnum said:
Usually I'm not surprised by this sort of thing but for some reason this one made think to myself "Really???" It's just so outlandishly ridiculously racist that it almost seems like a parody.

Yeah I scoffed out loud at how cartoonishly racist it was. Throw baseballs at a black guy to try and hit him like some kind of "pin the tail on the donkey"?

Secret Fawful · Feb 22, 2016

Most of my white relatives who are old enough to remember these days brush it off by saying "Oh, I didn't understand what was happening at the time."

Yet they still long for those days of their childhood. "Things were so much better then," they say wistfully.

I no longer believe people don't know about these things. I think they purposefully blinded themselves to it, but they remember. They just don't care.

n64coder · Feb 22, 2016

I'm not sure that I understand the "Hit the N Baby" game. What are they trying to do? Hit a black doll with a baseball? I decided to answer my own question by using google and found this article

It turns out they actually used real people.

There may be no better example of the pervasiveness and brutality of the African Dodger game in American society than an advertisement in the Providence News on September 11, 1924.

Wants African Dodger to Face Balls at Club Fair
Do you want to earn a few precious dollars on the evening of September 19 and 20?

If you do and if you are not at all particular as to what happens to your head why apply at Room 10 in the building at 144 Pine street. Ask for Charlie and tell him you "saw his ad in the paper". Charlie is looking for a lion-hearted and hard-headed young man who will act as an African dodger at the big carnival to be staged by the West Barrington Community Club. The reward? That is a little matter that you can adjust with Charlie. He will treat you fairly and will see that you reach the Rhode Island Hospital safely in the event that that [sic] one of the baseballs comes in contact with your head.

We beg your pardon for not detailing the duties of an African dodger. He just puts his head through a hole in a big piece of canvass and permits the aforesaid head to be used as a target by young men who toss baseballs.

One day last week an African dodger was killed in Elizabeth, N.J., and the week before a dodger was killed in Hackensack, but don't permit these deaths to influence you. ("Wants African Dodger", 1924).

What a terrible game.

Massive Duck. C.M. · Feb 22, 2016

"don't permit these deaths to influence you" sounds like it's been working for the last century, although not on the intended audience.

Parallax · Feb 22, 2016

that fucking ad.

Toxi · Feb 22, 2016

Remember when people complained the racism shown at the beginning of Bioshock Infinite was too cartoonish and unrealistic?

Shard · Feb 22, 2016

Toxi said:
Remember when people complained the racism shown at the beginning of Bioshock Infinite was too cartoonish and unrealistic?

Reality is unrealistic.

Gordon Shumway · Feb 22, 2016

Toxi said:
Remember when people complained the racism shown at the beginning of Bioshock Infinite was too cartoonish and unrealistic?

Heh..

Shard said:
Reality is unrealistic.

HA..you ain't wrong there, partner..

theignoramus · Feb 22, 2016

n64coder said:
I'm not sure that I understand the "Hit the N Baby" game. What are they trying to do? Hit a black doll with a baseball? I decided to answer my own question by using google and found this article

It turns out they actually used real people.

What a terrible game.

Jesus

BitStyle · Feb 22, 2016

Well that got me quite heated

PeskyToaster said:
are these the "good ol' days"?

It's why the "Good ol' days" will always be bullshit

Enzom21 · Feb 22, 2016

Let's not forget "Alligator bait"

Mizerman · Feb 22, 2016

Wow...

I shouldn't be surprised at this, but I surpassed my own expectations. I'm also kinda pissed off now.

Avixph · Feb 22, 2016

Enzom21 said:
Let's not forget "Alligator bait"

What?

Team Jones · Feb 22, 2016

Enzom21 said:

This is despicable and depressing.

No words can truly express my disgust.

NYCmetsfan · Feb 22, 2016

Enzom21 said:
Let's not forget "Alligator bait"

God that last photo. It just hits home. Children were dehumanized in such a way. How many lives were just disregarded? Its so damn depressing

Fuck... :/

LucidMomentum · Feb 22, 2016

Avixph said:
What?

The part of American history they don't teach you in school.

Gordon Shumway · Feb 22, 2016

LucidMomentum said:
The part of American history they don't teach you in school.

Why would you want to purposefully divide us by bringing up the past? Shit is, like..hundreds of years ago.

hypernima · Feb 22, 2016

this is just...

PopeReal · Feb 22, 2016

The good old days are so embarrassing.

theignoramus · Feb 22, 2016

Okay that last picture with the crying babies is too damn much

MightyHedgehog · Feb 22, 2016

PopeReal said:
The good old days are so embarrassing.

It may now be the case that there are far less blatant shows of dehumanization of entire swathes of the population of fellow human beings, but modern times aren't all that much different when it comes to racism and general bigotry when they're just more subtly ingrained into our very systems of law and order and have become far more insidious in the way they've been retooled to exist within our entertainment media, news reporting, mainstream politics, and education systems. We're really not that far away from those days today as public shaming and more vocal and organized criticism only get at what's on the surface.

Toxi · Feb 22, 2016

Jesus fucking Christ the "alligator bait" stuff really happened

The horrors of America's racism know no bounds.

Gordon Shumway · Feb 22, 2016

Geo said:
50 years ago.

Indeed..

A Link to the Past · Feb 22, 2016

Geo said:
50 years ago.

Umm?? That's more like 51 years ago. I could see if it was 1966, but 1965 was like an eternity ago.

Massive Duck. C.M. · Feb 22, 2016

Sarcastic posts feel like a waste of time with this

Dereck · Feb 22, 2016

Toxi said:
Jesus fucking Christ the "alligator bait" stuff really happened

The horrors of America's racism know no bounds.

Holy fuck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oxt8A7FGMPA

Timedog · Feb 22, 2016

Geo said:
50 years ago.

lol

Volimar · Feb 22, 2016

Yay, a carnival post. I bet an african american invented the merry go round or someth....oh....oh God...this is horrible.

Gordon Shumway · Feb 22, 2016

Massive Duck said:
Sarcastic posts feel like a waste of time with this

A little angry about hearing the same shit over again, but you aren't wrong..very sorry.

A Link to the Past · Feb 22, 2016

Gordon Shumway said:
A little angry about hearing the same shit over again, but you aren't wrong..very sorry.

Same :v I don't wanna seem like I'm being flip, or make the thread uncomfortable for anyone.

victreeb3l · Feb 22, 2016

To think shit like this happened only 50 years ago. What a disgrace.

That African Dodger game. What the fuck.

Mumei · Feb 22, 2016

Thanks for posting the topic. I wasn't aware of this phenomenon.

NYCmetsfan said:
God that last photo. It just hits home. Children were dehumanized in such a way. How many lives were just disregarded? Its so damn depressing

Fuck... :/

From Dorothy Roberts' Killing the Black Body:

Records reveal that season of birth made little difference on plantations with exceedingly high mortality rates: on the Ball rice plantation, for example, nearly half of all infants died before their first birthday, no matter when they were born. But on the Gaillard cotton plantation, "children born during the summer, when their mother's labor was in highest demand, suffered nearly twice the level of infant morality as those born after the harvest." Data collected by economist Richard Steckel from three large South Carolin and Alabama cotton plantations confirm this finding: Steckel discovered that the average probability of infant death from February to April (the plowing and planting season) and from September to November (harvest) was 40.6 percent - nearly four times greater than neonatal losses in other months. In the conflict between slave women's service as producers and as reproducers, children ended up the losers.

It's staggering to think about.

Dai101 · Feb 22, 2016

A Link to the Past said:
Same :v I don't wanna seem like I'm being flip, or make the thread uncomfortable for anyone.

Is not as if the thread alone wasn't...

Massive Duck. C.M. · Feb 22, 2016

Gordon Shumway said:
A little angry about hearing the same shit over again, but you aren't wrong..very sorry.

A Link to the Past said:
Same :v I don't wanna seem like I'm being flip, or make the thread uncomfortable for anyone.

No foul, just think sometimes it's best to let a topic breathe, and I doubt even the worst of the worst would act up with something this undeniably reprehensible.

Gordon Shumway · Feb 22, 2016

Massive Duck said:
No foul, just think sometimes it's best to let a topic breathe, and I doubt even the worst of the worst would act up with something this undeniably reprehensible.

For sure, brother. Just coming off watching a string of YouTube videos on history. Was a tad emotional..

Massive Duck. C.M. · Feb 22, 2016

Geo said:
A five minute video on the topic: "Blacks as Targets"

That's a rough one

EdibleKnife · Feb 22, 2016

Geo said:
A five minute video on the topic: "Blacks as Targets"

Reminds me of that PD that used black mugshots for target practice. Shit hasn't changed, just hidden better

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