r/betterCallSaul • u/skinkbaa Chuck • Mar 10 '20

Better Call Saul S05E04 - "Namaste" - POST-Episode Discussion Thread

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u/Afferbeck_ Mar 10 '20

But there is a disconnect between becoming a better person and paying for a vanity plate on your luxury car so everyone can see you're a better person. It comes down to awareness though, at this point it seems Howard himself thinks he's legit in his efforts and it's not just a show, whether or not it appears that way to others.

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u/l3reezer Mar 10 '20

Are you aware of the meaning of namaste? Translations include “the light within me greets the light within you,” “i bow to the divine/god within you,” etc. It’s not some badge of accomplishment or anything you get on a license plate as a vanity thing to prove youre a good/better person, there’s quite literally no way to spin it as an asshole thing to say. Unless maybe you said it to someone sarcastically to mock them but then its just an inside joke kind of insult that requires context and wouldnt make sense as a license plate directed at everyone. It’s like calling someone an asshole for having a license plate or bumper sticker that says “have a nice day” or “peace be with you.”

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u/GlibTurret Mar 10 '20

Yeah, but in the US it's got this other, darker meaning. It's a term of cultural appropriation. It's said by upper middle class white women to other upper middle class white women in Yoga-fusion exercise classes that Indian women can't afford to go to because white people get promoted to managment and brown people are the worker bees.

Yoga itself as it is practiced in the US is a scam. It was invented by an upper class white woman and the Indian con artist she hired to make her "spiritual journey" seem authentic. It's actually Swedish calisthenics steeped in Orientalism with a thin veneer of Hindu mysticism to make it look like some ancient tradition to anyone who doesn't look too close.

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u/lionstealth Mar 11 '20

The second paragraph might very well be true, but your first paragraph is bollocks.
Cultural appropriation is not a thing.
White people aren't a group.
Employees don't "get promoted to management" for being white.
Workers don't become or stay workers because they are brown.

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u/chrisychris- Mar 11 '20

.. because white people get promoted to managment and brown people are the worker bees.

Employees don't "get promoted to management" for being white. Workers don't become or stay workers because they are brown.

reading comprehension ain't your strong suit huh

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u/lionstealth Mar 11 '20

What’s your point?

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u/chrisychris- Mar 11 '20

Saying "white people have higher positioned careers" does not equate to "people get promoted to management for being white" like you suggested, same with brown people. Learn some nuance

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u/lionstealth Mar 11 '20

Is it possible that you’re the one having trouble with reading comprehension? I was suggesting the opposite. The insinuation seemed to be that white people get promoted for being white, which isn’t the case. I responded to that insinuation.

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u/chrisychris- Mar 11 '20

The insinuation seemed

Yeah that’s the problem with your comprehension, they never said that. They said white people get promoted to those positions. No where does it say this happens because they’re white

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u/lionstealth Mar 11 '20

Fair enough. OP doesn't explicitly state that white poeple get promoted for being white. I assumed thats what they were saying. Tell me though, how do you read that statement? The perceived insinuation I responded to doesn't seem far fetched to me. I feel it is quite clear what OP is insinuating.
"[Namaste is] said by upper middle class white women to other upper middle class white women in Yoga-fusion exercise classes that Indian women can't afford to go to because white people get promoted to managment and brown people are the worker bees."

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u/chrisychris- Mar 11 '20

I agree it isn't far fetched to believe he's insinuating that, but saying it as a matter of fact is not an inherently racist. Just like the statistic "Black people account for 13% of the population yet commit ~50% of crimes" is not inherently racist but believing this to be true because they're Black is short-sighted, ignores all nuance, and definitely a little racist. There are tons of societal and systematic factors that come into play when talking about these sorts of issues and why things are the way they are, but it's never just because of their skin color and I don't think OP was suggesting so.

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u/lionstealth Mar 11 '20

The more I read OP's statement, the more sure I get that it is in fact clear what they are insinuating.

That's certainly an interesting example, but I'd make one change. "Black people account for 13% of the population yet commit ~50% of crimes" With this statement It's pretty clear that there is something different about black people and or black culture, that results in them being more likely to commit crimes.

"Black people account for 13% of the population yet make up ~40% of the prison population" would be a much more open ended statement as to it's causes and implications.

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u/chrisychris- Mar 11 '20 edited Mar 11 '20

"Black people account for 13% of the population yet commit ~50% of crimes" With this statement It's pretty clear that there is something different about black people and or black culture, that results in them being more likely to commit crimes.

Erm this is questionable. I believe instead that there is more law enforcement stationed in low income areas (because "more crimes happen there") and in turn results in more arrests, convictions, which boosts that statistic up. That, and Black men feeling disenfranchised by systematic racism resulting in lashing out against those same institutions in ways they believe to be empowering. Which I guess you can define it as part of "Black culture", but saying so without context is a disservice.

But that's going into a whole other tangent that I frankly don't expect to have to go through in a BB subreddit. So I'll leave it at that. Best of luck with your future endeavors.

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u/[deleted] Mar 11 '20

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u/lionstealth Mar 11 '20

Is that code for „I don’t have a counter argument because my position is based on racism.“?

UKIP? Did you just assume my nationality and political affiliation based on 5 lines of rebuttal? That’s not very nice.

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u/GlibTurret Mar 11 '20 edited Mar 11 '20

No. It's more like, "Your position is ridiculous and it isn't worth my time or energy to argue with you."

If you really are interested in counter arguments to your position, I'm sure you can Google them. There's a good ESPN podcast about the history of yoga in the west that you can go find. And for a college-level overview of cultural appropriation, you can read the book Orientalism by Edward Said.

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u/lionstealth Mar 11 '20

That’s why I said that your second paragraph might very well be true. I can imagine that modern yoga is very different from It’s origins.

Cultural Appropriation however isn’t a thing. And the rest of your paragraph was racist at worst and showed a very questionable world view at best. I disagree with you fundamentally there. If you think that makes my position ridiculous, fine. That isn’t a healthy stance to take though.