against segregation, but are Cynthia’s clothes discolored in the process?
On “All In The Family”, Archie Bunker did the laundry and everything came out the wrong color.
Mike said, “I can’t believe that Archie Bunker didn’t separate the whites from the coloreds!”
Do people say “coloreds”? I always said “colors”.
Woozy. For laundry people say “colors.” But for race people refer to (or at least used to refer to) “colored” people. Now it’s “people of color,” though.
Maybe it’s regional, but I’ve always said “colored” (from clothing).
My dad used to own a paint store, and he would joke that he kept the white and colored paint in different cans.
I was talking of laundry. I am an American (and not a young one) and am familiar with of the terminologies (past and present) for race. I thought using the word “colored” might seem forced. Unless there are regions where they actually do say “coloreds” which does seem like it could be a regionalism.
“Maybe it’s regional, but I’ve always said “colored” (from clothing).”
For laundry, I separate into white, medium, and dark.
She’s being kind to her mentally defective child.
Somewhere at Harvard University (I heard this second-hand, I wasn’t there) there were two bins for recycling paper marked “White paper” and “Colored paper” respectively. One day the second bin had a hand-lettered sign “Paper of Color”. There was a big to-do and massive hunt for the evildoer who was never found, as far as I know.
@ Brian – We separate a fourth category in our house: red.
I don’t separate my laundry into whites and colours. I separate it into white and coloured clothes. (But I don’t see that entirely leading to the phrasing in the comic either.)
For what it’s worth, I’m with Brian: whites and darks, but I skip the medium. If it isn’t white/off-white, it ain’t getting in…light blue, light green, light yellow, nothing. It’s all ‘dark’ to me.
However, back to the comic…isn’t this just poor parenting? It seems like Mrs. Pillsbury has let a very teachable moment pass her by. Cynthia has made a classic mistake of logic by conflating two situations which share some characteristics. But unfortunately, she has ignored the significant differences, and this has resulted in undesirable consequences. A common result with conflation.
Gone unchecked, this kind of thinking could lead to a slippery slope of conflating other things like, oh let’s see, immigration and terrorism, or tax reform and tax cuts, or ‘fake news’ and news one simply doesn’t like. Dangerous stuff.
Cynthia here may end up becoming the first woman president of America, but if Mrs. P. doesn’t step in soon, would we really want that kind of person in office?
@ Stan – Not sure if you’re being serious or sarcastic, but I think Cynthia’s mother likes the conflation.
Pretty serious, I guess. I realise that she likes this conflation as the intention is good (anti-segregation, all are equal, etc.), but in reality the two situations have nothing to do with each other whatsoever. In this scenario, separating ‘whites and coloureds’ is not a bad thing and has absolutely nothing to do with politics or human decency. As Cynthia has failed to see this significant difference, all of her clothes are now ruined.
A good parent might use this as an opportunity to develop her daughter’s critical thinking skills so in future terrible results might not arise out of very tenuously connected circumstances.
I get that a discussion over the follies of conflation wouldn’t make for a feel-good final panel or drive home the political commentary the artist was going for, but still, considering the situation we’re in now, raising awareness of this issue couldn’t hurt.
It really would be terrible for a child in a comic strip not to develop critical thinking skills. That’s far more important than whether the strip is funny.
Well, considering that this strip wasn’t funny, if you don’t buy the schlocky after-school-special life lesson it offers in its stead, as Stan doesn’t, then you really don’t have anything left.
Doing the laundry right now. With the exception of reenacting white clothing and any new items in red, I don’t sort by color. I sort by what the items are – load of general clothing, load of jeans (not weekly), load of towels, load of bed “linens”, sweatshirts (in winter, also not weekly), reenacting general clothes (as needed), reenacting white clothes (after most events), and if we buy something new in red, I will do a load of red items with one pair of white cotton something just to make sure that the new item does not run.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Yup.
Maybe not apartheid, but segregation at least.
Or, you know, America
against segregation, but are Cynthia’s clothes discolored in the process?
On “All In The Family”, Archie Bunker did the laundry and everything came out the wrong color.
Mike said, “I can’t believe that Archie Bunker didn’t separate the whites from the coloreds!”
Do people say “coloreds”? I always said “colors”.
Woozy. For laundry people say “colors.” But for race people refer to (or at least used to refer to) “colored” people. Now it’s “people of color,” though.
Maybe it’s regional, but I’ve always said “colored” (from clothing).
My dad used to own a paint store, and he would joke that he kept the white and colored paint in different cans.
I was talking of laundry. I am an American (and not a young one) and am familiar with of the terminologies (past and present) for race. I thought using the word “colored” might seem forced. Unless there are regions where they actually do say “coloreds” which does seem like it could be a regionalism.
“Maybe it’s regional, but I’ve always said “colored” (from clothing).”
Also a regionalism. “from something” ?
On the subject of “separating colors”, there was this Bloom County (28-Aug-1988):
For laundry, I separate into white, medium, and dark.
She’s being kind to her mentally defective child.
Somewhere at Harvard University (I heard this second-hand, I wasn’t there) there were two bins for recycling paper marked “White paper” and “Colored paper” respectively. One day the second bin had a hand-lettered sign “Paper of Color”. There was a big to-do and massive hunt for the evildoer who was never found, as far as I know.
@ Brian – We separate a fourth category in our house: red.
I don’t separate my laundry into whites and colours. I separate it into white and coloured clothes. (But I don’t see that entirely leading to the phrasing in the comic either.)
For what it’s worth, I’m with Brian: whites and darks, but I skip the medium. If it isn’t white/off-white, it ain’t getting in…light blue, light green, light yellow, nothing. It’s all ‘dark’ to me.
However, back to the comic…isn’t this just poor parenting? It seems like Mrs. Pillsbury has let a very teachable moment pass her by. Cynthia has made a classic mistake of logic by conflating two situations which share some characteristics. But unfortunately, she has ignored the significant differences, and this has resulted in undesirable consequences. A common result with conflation.
Gone unchecked, this kind of thinking could lead to a slippery slope of conflating other things like, oh let’s see, immigration and terrorism, or tax reform and tax cuts, or ‘fake news’ and news one simply doesn’t like. Dangerous stuff.
Cynthia here may end up becoming the first woman president of America, but if Mrs. P. doesn’t step in soon, would we really want that kind of person in office?
@ Stan – Not sure if you’re being serious or sarcastic, but I think Cynthia’s mother likes the conflation.
Pretty serious, I guess. I realise that she likes this conflation as the intention is good (anti-segregation, all are equal, etc.), but in reality the two situations have nothing to do with each other whatsoever. In this scenario, separating ‘whites and coloureds’ is not a bad thing and has absolutely nothing to do with politics or human decency. As Cynthia has failed to see this significant difference, all of her clothes are now ruined.
A good parent might use this as an opportunity to develop her daughter’s critical thinking skills so in future terrible results might not arise out of very tenuously connected circumstances.
I get that a discussion over the follies of conflation wouldn’t make for a feel-good final panel or drive home the political commentary the artist was going for, but still, considering the situation we’re in now, raising awareness of this issue couldn’t hurt.
It really would be terrible for a child in a comic strip not to develop critical thinking skills. That’s far more important than whether the strip is funny.
Well, considering that this strip wasn’t funny, if you don’t buy the schlocky after-school-special life lesson it offers in its stead, as Stan doesn’t, then you really don’t have anything left.
Doing the laundry right now. With the exception of reenacting white clothing and any new items in red, I don’t sort by color. I sort by what the items are – load of general clothing, load of jeans (not weekly), load of towels, load of bed “linens”, sweatshirts (in winter, also not weekly), reenacting general clothes (as needed), reenacting white clothes (after most events), and if we buy something new in red, I will do a load of red items with one pair of white cotton something just to make sure that the new item does not run.