i'm not defending trudeau, exactly. i don't want to give him another false majority. and, i understand that this is how a logician thinks, and it's not how most people think. they've done studies that demonstrate that homo economicus is essentially only applicable to economics students; maybe there's a similar idea for homo mathematicus that only applies to logicians.

but, careful thinking is important, too.

the aladdin thing doesn't bother me at all - it was over the top, but you need to ask the woman in the photo. maybe she even thought it was hot. i dunno.

the dancing thing is more questionable, but i'd have to see it to know if it was racist. it's an open question. i'm leaning towards it probably not being so good.

but, that just demonstrates the point - it's about the context of the situation, not the action itself. again, maybe i'm just being eurocentric in insisting on mens rea, but i'm not going to change, and i don't want to.

so, if we have a situation where it's harmless and a situation where it's hurtful, let's take this to it's logical conclusion and try a thought experiment. imagine this...

suppose that we have a film where a white actor portrays martin luther king, and that actor does a phenomenal, over the top job. in fact, let's even say it's the best character actor of our time - let's say it's jim carrey. in order to do the job, he would have to wear blackface, right? let's ignore questions about affirmative action here, for brevity. now, if the portrayal is heart-wrenching and brilliant and absolutely respectful, is that racist? or is it just good acting?

i'm just throwing it out there.

again - i suspect the dancing video was probably pretty crude. but, can we all be subtle thinkers, here, and recognize that the racism isn't in the wardrobe, exactly?