Recent comments in /f/nottheonion

Ape_001 t1_j5hqg3a wrote

Reply to comment by Mitthrawnuruo in Man Calls Police After Hearing A Woman Screaming In NYPD Precinct Parking Lot, Turns Out It Was Two Officers Having Sex by nimobo

If that was the case for civilians they would be arrested for disorderly conduct, resisting arrest without violence, and obstruction.

That's assuming that upon being discovered by police they complied with all directions. If they didn't immediately comply they would be met with potentially lethal violence.

The police will not care if you are off duty and in a privately owned car.

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Pessimist2020 OP t1_j5ho8cs wrote

Reply to Girl asks police to run DNA test on Christmas cookie for evidence of Santa Claus by Pessimist2020

>The young girl asked the police to run a DNA test on a partially eaten cookie and carrot remains presumably consumed by Santa Claus and some of his nine reindeer on Christmas Eve. "This young lady obviously has a keen sense for truth and the investigative process and did a tremendous job packaging her evidence for submission," Cumberland's police chief, Matthew J. Benson, said in the release. The Cumberland Police Department responded to the young girl with "some already uncovered evidence in support of Santa Claus' presence in her neighborhood" on Christmas Eve, a photo of what appeared to be a deer with antlers.

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bdubdub t1_j5hl7zb wrote

Reply to comment by dwkeith in Norwegian government funds research to find out if white paint is racist by EntertainmentNo2044

And a Snopes fact check about the study.

>The project does not seek to find evidence that the present day use of white paint is racist, but to investigate the possibility that the invention and commercial success of titanium white paint contributed to socially toxic views around race. To that point, Halland describes archival research showing "advertising posters from the 20s that connect the color white to human purity, and thus also to skin colour."

Seems like a legitimate study that explores the intersection of racism, marketing, and art history. This is how academia works, folks: people explore ideas and write papers about them. It furthers our understanding of the world and how things are related.

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crispy1989 t1_j5hha81 wrote

Reply to comment by dwkeith in Norwegian government funds research to find out if white paint is racist by EntertainmentNo2044

Honestly, after reading that description of the study, it really doesn't seem much more nuanced to me. Maybe just a little. As much as I hate to say it, Fox's take seems mostly accurate. The study description at the link is highly repetitive and full of filler words, but here's essentially what I got out of it:

>The research project [...] studies [...] white pigment [...] in a historical, aesthetic, and critical lens — focusing on how the pigment transformed surfaces in art, architecture, and design

At this point, I wasn't really sure where it was going. White pigment transforms surfaces by making them white, right? Maybe some art history study kind of thing?

>The primary research question is: What are the cultural and aesthetic changes instigated by titanium white

Aesthetic changes? Again ... it's white paint, it makes things white. Cultural changes? Still not really sure where this is going.

>NorWhite connects challenging topics - whiteness, technological innovation, and mass-exploitation of natural resources - in a single case study

Definitely getting weird vibes at this point. The first claim seems to indicate that it's some kind of art history study. Then the second claim ties in some sort of nonspecific "cultural changes" with the aesthetics initially mentioned. And now, we've gone from "focusing on how the pigment transformed surfaces in art" to "whiteness, technological innovation, and mass-exploitation of natural resources". At this point, the term "whiteness" could potentially still be being used to refer to the pigment; but we've definitely taken a different direction.

>Whiteness is one of today’s key societal and political concerns [...] seek to cope with our racial past

Ah, they've clarified that they do indeed use "whiteness" specifically to refer to race.

>It was not until the Norwegian chemist Dr. Peder Farup (1875 – 1934) together with chemist and industrialist Dr. Gustav Jebsen (1861 – 1923) discovered an advanced chemical method [... full paragraph about the pigment chemistry]

Oh I see, there's a scientific aspect as well.

>By weaving together historical, critical, aesthetic, and artistic methods

Oh ... I guess not. That was just a description of the discovery; the actual study seems to exclude anything science-related.

Picking apart all the filler, the only things that it seems to clearly reference as aims of the study are a) some kind of nonspecific aesthetic study on the color white? and b) the impact of white paint on racism. So Fox's characterization of the study "finding out if white paint is racist" isn't precisely accurate, it's pretty clear that the study is focused on drawing connections between race and white paint.

I initially thought that this was funded through tax dollars, which I'd classify as a misuse of funds. But what I find odd is that it actually seems to be funded by companies that manufacture the pigment. From this perspective it makes sense for the study to be primarily motivated by marketing purposes, but I can't figure out why a paint company would want to tie their product to racism. My best guess is that the lack of cohesiveness in the study's aims arises from this; it's possible that the sponsoring companies wanted the study to be a PR piece focusing on the history and aesthetics of their product, but someone else involved (government perhaps? not sure) also wanted to tie "racial whiteness" into it.

Regardless, it looks to be a terribly non-cohesive study, seemingly without any defined objective or purpose. Just something about the aesthetics of white paint, and something about how white paint ties to race.

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