And so the "code words" begin.

[Drain Bead]

Georgia Congressman refers to Obama as "uppity."

I'm just waiting for the day someone slips up and uses the N-word at this point.

[askeptic]

Originally Posted by Drain Bead

Georgia Congressman refers to Obama as "uppity."

I'm just waiting for the day someone slips up and uses the N-word at this point.

Referring to a black guy as uppity is not exactly code, it is blatantly racist.

It gets even better.

Originally Posted by the article linked in OP

At an April 12 event in his district, Kentucky Rep. Geoff Davis (R) said of Obama: “I’m going to tell you something: That boy’s finger does not need to be on the button. He could not make a decision in that simulation that related to a nuclear threat to this country.”

[Marley23]

Originally Posted by askeptic

Referring to a black guy as uppity is not exactly code, it is blatantly racist.

Yup. Seconded.

[levdrakon]

Yeah, I'm cool with the big O. It's his followers who are uppity.

[ArizonaTeach]

Yes, I happen to agree that is was vastly inappropriate and not code at all (no snark - being serious).

Saying Sarah Palin should stay home with her kids - now that's code (that was a little snarky).

[askeptic]

Originally Posted by ArizonaTeach

Saying Sarah Palin should stay home with her kids - now that's code (that was a little snarky).

Has anyone in the Obama camp or Elected Democrat said that? No? Fuck off.

[JonScribe]

Originally Posted by ArizonaTeach

Saying Sarah Palin should stay home with her kids - now that's code (that was a little snarky).

No, that's uppity.

[Shayna]

Well they've finally gotten the "Angry Black Man" out there, so nothing surprises me anymore.

[Ephemera]

Originally Posted by askeptic

Has anyone in the Obama camp or Elected Democrat said that? No? Fuck off.

Where did ArizonaTeach imply anyone had?

[silenus]

Originally Posted by Drain Bead

Georgia Congressman refers to Obama as "uppity."

I'm just waiting for the day someone slips up and uses the N-word at this point.

I'm praying it's McCain. Just let the debates get a little heated.........

[descamisado]

Originally Posted by Shayna

Well they've finally gotten the "Angry Black Man" out there, so nothing surprises me anymore.

I sure called that one in early May.

[Naturally Oblivious]

There's nothing racist about the word uppity. Spend enough time around southern folk, and you'll hear it applied to members of all races, and backgrounds. Hell, a little old lady called me uppity the other day, and I'm whiter than Casper.

The same goes for the boy quote posted by askeptic. Boy's just a word southern folk use to refer to someone they think hasn't experienced enough, whether it's life, politics, religion, medicine, booze, or what not. Same goes for girl when referring to a member of the fairer sex.

[OtakuLoki]

I agree with the others who are saying that's not coded at all.

Originally Posted by askeptic

It gets even better.

And I'm disappointed to find that I'm more shocked to hear of a representative misusing 'simulation' for 'situation,' than I am to hear that the same representative is using such blatantly racist terms as "uppity" or "boy" to refer to a black man.

ETA: Naturally Oblivious, during my time in the military and the South I never heard "uppity" or "boy" used to describe anyone who was not, shall we say, at risk for a Vitamin D deficiency in a temperate or cooler climate. YMMV, of course, but that's my experience.

[Jenaroph]

Originally Posted by ArizonaTeach

Saying Sarah Palin should stay home with her kids - now that's code (that was a little snarky).

My mother, who is acceptingly in Obama's camp now that Hillary is out, who played college basketball before Title IX and taught me by example not to let a man do things for me that I could do myself, feels that she shouldn't be running for veep. "She has a handicapped four-month-old...what in the world is she doing?"

I said "There's a famous photo of Kennedy working in the Oval Office with John-John playing under the desk. There have been presidents with very young children. She's not running for president, she's running for VP, her husband's a stay-at-home dad, how does this not come across as sexist?"

She shrugs and says "It's different. It just is." I don't understand it, really.

It may even be a more common sentiment than I realize. But I'll eat my hat if anyone in any kind of official position dares to say it out loud.

[Naturally Oblivious]

Originally Posted by OtakuLoki

ETA: Naturally Oblivious, during my time in the military and the South I never heard "uppity" or "boy" used to describe anyone who was not, shall we say, at risk for a Vitamin D deficiency in a temperate or cooler climate. YMMV, of course, but that's my experience.

It may just be the part of Ga I live in. Uppity isn't used often, but it does get used here from time to time. Most times it's in reference to elected officials or other figures of authority abusing their power. Or by little old ladies when they think folks are being know it alls, which was what happened with me.

Boy on the other hand is. Usually by older men in reference to younger folks, or their friends who are being naive about something. I've heard it from white and black folks alike.

Now, in these particular instances, it may have very well been racially motivated. I didn't hear it first hand, and only have media reports of it, so I can't judge one way or another. I just wanted to point out that when those words are being used, especially in the south, it isn't always racist.

[Ephemera]

I was born, raised, and have spent all but two years in Tennessee and Alabama and am not used to hearing "uppity" used to describe people, but it definitely brings to mind someone black when I hear it. On the other hand, "boy" is a very common term for any male younger than you, and I'm often called that by my cousin who's only four years older than me and something of a good ol' boy himself.

We're both white.

[Derleth]

He may be uppity, but is he well-spoken? There is very little that surprises me about Republican campaign tactics at this point, and this is why: They do officially what the most annoying Democrats get berated for doing unofficially.

[elfkin477]

Originally Posted by Naturally Oblivious

The same goes for the boy quote posted by askeptic. Boy's just a word southern folk use to refer to someone they think hasn't experienced enough, whether it's life, politics, religion, medicine, booze, or what not. Same goes for girl when referring to a member of the fairer sex.

Even if it's not racist, it's unbelievably condescending which is little better.

[Paul in Qatar]

Gosh darn it. I like the word 'boy,' in a Foghorn Leghorn sort of way. I guess I will have to train myself out of using it.

[eleanorigby]

Originally Posted by Naturally Oblivious

There's nothing racist about the word uppity. Spend enough time around southern folk, and you'll hear it applied to members of all races, and backgrounds. Hell, a little old lady called me uppity the other day, and I'm whiter than Casper.

The same goes for the boy quote posted by askeptic. Boy's just a word southern folk use to refer to someone they think hasn't experienced enough, whether it's life, politics, religion, medicine, booze, or what not. Same goes for girl when referring to a member of the fairer sex.

Well, you're well named, bless your heart.

Even if the term is not technically racist, to call a black man either uppity or boy IS. I have never heard uppity used except in relation to race--when it applies to whites, people tend to say, "s/he's getting too big for her/his britches." Boy to a black man is ridiculous in any context--I don't care if you're Foghorn Leghorn himself.

[askeptic]

Originally Posted by eleanorigby

Well, you're well named, bless your heart.

Beat me to it.

I know a fun experiment. Naturally Oblivious, why don't you run out to a black neighborhood and call the first adult black man you see "Boy", for bonus points after he gets done kicking the shit out of your oblivious ass, tell him he is being "uppity".

Askeptic-born in Bessemer, Alabama.

[descamisado]

Originally Posted by askeptic

Beat me to it.

I know a fun experiment. Naturally Oblivious, why don't you run out to a black neighborhood and call the first adult black man you see "Boy", for bonus points after he gets done kicking the shit out of your oblivious ass, tell him he is being "uppity".

Askeptic-born in Bessemer, Alabama.

Co-sign.

5-4-Fighting,
Black, born and raised in MS and knows how to avoid ass-kickin's every day in Crown Heights, NY.

[Ensign Edison]

This is the Dope, where people once argued that spraying a black person with toxic bugkiller while screaming "nigger" was not necessarily a racist act. Of course someone showed up to defend this within the first few posts.

[Bosstone]

"Watch that 'boy' shit, redneck. You're talkin' to the Senator of Illinois."

[levdrakon]

I realize "uppity, boy, darlin" and "honey" can all be something-ist, and I also realize 99.9% of adjectives can't be used with regard to certain "uppity" people who should, in order to be politically correct, remain completely adjective-free, with the remaining allowable adjectives being "strong," and "intelligent." Even then you have to be careful you're not being patronizing. Goodness forbid you say Obama is "well-spoken," or "articulate." We all know what you meant by that.

[Lance Turbo]

Originally Posted by OtakuLoki

And I'm disappointed to find that I'm more shocked to hear of a representative misusing 'simulation' for 'situation,' than I am to hear that the same representative is using such blatantly racist terms as "uppity" or "boy" to refer to a black man.

I won't defend another thing the representative said and might not ever, but his use of simulation was correct. Obama was taking part in some sort of war game simulation at the time.

[Ensign Edison]

Yeah, that damn political correctness. Why, I bet 99% of the complaints the FCC receives and uses to regulate our freedom of speech probably come...from...the left...wait...damn.

[eldowan]

Maybe I'm just stupid, but someone please tell me how uppity and boy are "blatantly racist"

I don't care about if its talking down to someone, condescending, or anything of that sore.

Racist. How?

[Evil Captor]

Originally Posted by eldowan

Maybe I'm just stupid, but someone please tell me how uppity and boy are "blatantly racist"

I don't care about if its talking down to someone, condescending, or anything of that sore.

Racist. How?

Well, because for a very long time whites used the term "uppity nigger" to refer to black people who didn't know their place, i.e., who weren't Uncle Toms. They also used the term "boy" to refer to adult black males, because no black male could be a man.

I'll tell you something else. Any Georgia elected official (I'm from Georgia, and I've worked for elected officials here) who says he doesn't know that the terms "uppity" and "boy" when used to refer to a black man are racist, is lying his fucking ass off. (His apologists may merely be mistaken, but, um, probably not.)

[lissener]

Originally Posted by eldowan

Maybe I'm just stupid, but someone please tell me how uppity and boy are "blatantly racist"

I don't care about if its talking down to someone, condescending, or anything of that sore.

Racist. How?

Words have history an context. BOTH of those words have historically been used by racists to belittle black people. So exclusively, in fact, that their use can have no other possible interpretation.

[Nancarrow]

Originally Posted by Ensign Edison

This is the Dope, where people once argued that spraying a black person with toxic bugkiller while screaming "nigger" was not necessarily a racist act. Of course someone showed up to defend this within the first few posts.

Couldn't it just be performance art?

[ArizonaTeach]

Originally Posted by askeptic

Has anyone in the Obama camp or Elected Democrat said that? No? Fuck off.

Fuck yourself sideways with a cactus, asshole.

Was that code enough for you?

I didn't realize that the OP only applied to Elected Officials, just not actually saying it or anything. On the other hand, your incredibly sourced rebuttal of my basic point that the sexism is flying fast and furious (much moreso than the racism) has caused me to curl up into a fetal position and cry, cry, cry my life away. Oh, how I wish my mother had stayed at home and raised me instead of helping to support my family! Oh, how it burns, knowing her selfishness has caused me to hurt askeptic's feelings. What a bad, bad mother she is for having a career.

Oh wait, you're just full of shit and have absolutely nothing to say.

Your mother must have been awful.

[Really Not All That Bright]

Originally Posted by Ensign Edison

Yeah, that damn political correctness. Why, I bet 99% of the complaints the FCC receives and uses to regulate our freedom of speech probably come...from...the left...wait...damn.

Well, to be fair, 99% of FCC complaints come from the Parents' Television Council. Although it's a conservative organization, it's not exactly representative of conservatives in general, most of whom can't be bothered to complain to the FCC any more than the rest of us.

[Ensign Edison]

Originally Posted by Really Not All That Bright

Well, to be fair, 99% of FCC complaints come from the Parents' Television Council. Although it's a conservative organization, it's not exactly representative of conservatives in general, most of whom can't be bothered to complain to the FCC any more than the rest of us.

The point is that it's completely absurd to whine about "PC" being "out of hand" when even a fringe righty group like that can have such an iron grip on what we are allowed to say where.

[eldowan]

Originally Posted by Evil Captor

Well, because for a very long time whites used the term "uppity nigger" to refer to black people who didn't know their place, i.e., who weren't Uncle Toms. They also used the term "boy" to refer to adult black males, because no black male could be a man.

I'll tell you something else. Any Georgia elected official (I'm from Georgia, and I've worked for elected officials here) who says he doesn't know that the terms "uppity" and "boy" when used to refer to a black man are racist, is lying his fucking ass off. (His apologists may merely be mistaken, but, um, probably not.)

Originally Posted by lissener

Words have history an context. BOTH of those words have historically been used by racists to belittle black people. So exclusively, in fact, that their use can have no other possible interpretation.

OK, I didn't realize the history behind those words.

However, because I didn't know the context and meaning behind those words, completely refutes your statement that they "can have no other possible interpretation". They absoluetly can, and do have other possible intrepretations, and to say otherwise is to tell me what my interpretation has to be.

However they may be out of line to use, the terms aren't inherently racist. People I know call each other 'boy' and don't mean 'nigger'. How do I know? because it was being said from one white 'boy' to another.

[FriarTed]

Originally Posted by nancarrow

couldn't it just be performance art?

you freakin' win!

[Jodi]

Originally Posted by askeptic

Referring to a black guy as uppity is not exactly code, it is blatantly racist.

I'm not saying this is wrong, but if true, I genuinely didn't know it. So ISTM that accusations of blatant racism may be overstated, if ignorance can be blamed instead.

What struck me from the article was the second step -- not asserting that "uppity" is code, but asserting that "elitist" is also code: code for "uppity." Does that mean all black people are immune from accusations of elitism, because those accusations cannot be divorced from racism? Elitist = uppity, uppity = racist. Mind you, I don't think Obama is particularly elitist, but I certainly think he could be, and I don't see what his race has to do with it.

Not everything is code, and not everything is code to everybody.

[Beadalin]

Originally Posted by eldowan

However, because I didn't know the context and meaning behind those words, completely refutes your statement that they "can have no other possible interpretation". They absoluetly can, and do have other possible intrepretations, and to say otherwise is to tell me what my interpretation has to be.

That would be a valid point if you were an elected official in Geogia.

[lissener]

Originally Posted by eldowan

However, because I didn't know the context and meaning behind those words, completely refutes your statement that they "can have no other possible interpretation". They absoluetly can, and do have other possible intrepretations, and to say otherwise is to tell me what my interpretation has to be.

Dude, that's like arguing that since you, yourself, don't speak French, then calling someone a nigger crack whore, or whatever, in French . . . . whatever, done pissing into the ignorant wind.

[Nancarrow]

Originally Posted by FriarTed

you freakin' win!

Thankyou. And you know, I rather agree.

[Jodi]

Originally Posted by lissener

Dude, that's like arguing that since you, yourself, don't speak French, then calling someone a nigger crack whore, or whatever, in French . . . . whatever, done pissing into the ignorant wind.

The problem with saying something is "code" is that implicit in the whole concept of a code is that some people will not understand it. If the term admitted of only one meaning, clear to everyone and undeniable, it wouldn't be a "code," it would be a just a word, a synonym for the offensive term it's standing in for.

So if you're going to assert that something is "code" for something else, you must admit that some people genuinely will not get the coded message. And if you admit, as you must, that some people will neither see nor understand the code, then you really can't insist that everybody knows what it means. Not everybody knows what it means, that's the point: that's what makes it "code."

[nd_n8]

Hell, I've just given up and started using a word I swore I would never use. As an Obama man in a red state I feel the need to face some of my more um... rednecked... neighbors with language they understand.

Red: "Is that an Obama sticker on your car?"

N8: "Um... yeah."

Red: "But you know he's one of 'them' right?"

N8: "What do you mean?"

Red: "He's not like us, none of 'them' are. Look, they've already taken over the whole town, you can't shake a stick without hittin' one of 'em. They've already got the Black Expo, what do you think will happen when one of 'them' gets in the whitehouse?"

N8: "Um... people will have to start looking at people for who they are and what they believe instead of what color they see?"

Red: "Dude, you just don't understand how 'they' are, they'll just take over the place."

N8 (doing best fake southern accent with thumbs in fake suspenders while bobbing his head.): "Well, all I knows is I'm votin' for me a nigger for president cuz alls the white peoples done fucked dis shit up and if you'ens got any brains you'll vote for him too."

Red: (looks very confused, shocked to hear that come out of N8's mouth, walks away muttering "They just ain't like us you know." / Red never brings up the subject again.)

Lord I wish this conversation was fictional. Heartfelt apologies to any african-americans offended by my use of this word. I'm just tired of the ignorance.

[askeptic]

Originally Posted by ArizonaTeach

Fuck yourself sideways with a cactus, asshole.

Was that code enough for you?

I didn't realize that the OP only applied to Elected Officials, just not actually saying it or anything. On the other hand, your incredibly sourced rebuttal of my basic point that the sexism is flying fast and furious (much moreso than the racism) has caused me to curl up into a fetal position and cry, cry, cry my life away. Oh, how I wish my mother had stayed at home and raised me instead of helping to support my family! Oh, how it burns, knowing her selfishness has caused me to hurt askeptic's feelings. What a bad, bad mother she is for having a career.

Oh wait, you're just full of shit and have absolutely nothing to say.

Your mother must have been awful.

It really scares me that you might actually be involved in the education system. My mother was terrible by the way not that it has anything to do with anything. I am getting tired of you tighty righties screaming sexism, the fact that Palin is unqualified has nothing to do with her gender and just because someone criticizes a woman does not make them sexist and just because you can find some dumbass saying some dumb shit is not the same as an elected representative of a party saying something incredibly stupid. If you weren't dumber than dirt you would know these things.

[silenus]

Originally Posted by nd_n8

Lord I wish this conversation was fictional. Heartfelt apologies to any african-americans offended by my use of this word. I'm just tired of the ignorance.

I am so stealing this. My town is so conservative you wouldn't believe it. I've already had parents calling the school about the "balance" of my Government classes because I dared say that Obama was a better speaker than McCain.

[pbbth]

Some people are not familiar with the history of words. I was out to dinner with my ex-roommate some months ago and she used the term "porch monkey" in conversation. I gasped and shushed her, explaining that using racial slurs in any context when we are both so white you can practically see through us would get both of our asses kicked and she should never, ever use that term again. She freaked out, having no idea that it was a racial slur. I bought a copy of Clerks 2 on the way home that night so that she could better understand the situation.

I know that sometimes people don't know they are saying racist things. However, I seriously doubt an elected official in a southern state is not aware of the racial overtones of what he said.

[Boyo Jim]

Here is the exact quote from the OP link, and I find it very interesting:

"Just from what little I’ve seen of her and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they're a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they're uppity," Westmoreland said.

I don't think this guy even knows what the word means. They think they're uppity?? They think they are acting above their station? I always thought the term meant you are acting as if you belong to a "higher level" station than the person commenting thinks you're entitled to. People demonstrating upity behavior, I thought, did it more or less unconsciously. Except in pretty rare circonstances, like me going to a Porsche dealership and wasting a saleperson's time when we both know I couln't afford one in a million years.

Does this guy think the Obamas are acting like, er -- educated and articulate -- simply to annoy people like him?

[Koxinga]

Originally Posted by lissener

Words have history an context.

Kind of like if Obama were on a train and somebody called him "George".

[askeptic]

Originally Posted by Koxinga

Kind of like if Obama were on a train and somebody called him "George".

You're showing your age. That, or you're an old movie buff...

[Koxinga]

Originally Posted by Jodi

The problem with saying something is "code" is that implicit in the whole concept of a code is that some people will not understand it. If the term admitted of only one meaning, clear to everyone and undeniable, it wouldn't be a "code," it would be a just a word, a synonym for the offensive term it's standing in for.

I think if you were in the same room with a certain kind of racist and heard firsthand the inflections and emphases used with certain words, there's no way you could *not* get the message loud and clear.

"That . . . [significant pause] boy does not need to have his finger on the button."

"What I don't like about the Obamas is they're just a bit . . .[pauses, nods head a bit and look at you over his glasses] uppity."

There's more to communication than just what's written down on a page, though what's written down can lend plausible deniability. That's what I think of as "code".

[bdgr]

Originally Posted by Naturally Oblivious

There's nothing racist about the word uppity. Spend enough time around southern folk, and you'll hear it applied to members of all races, and backgrounds. Hell, a little old lady called me uppity the other day, and I'm whiter than Casper.

The same goes for the boy quote posted by askeptic. Boy's just a word southern folk use to refer to someone they think hasn't experienced enough, whether it's life, politics, religion, medicine, booze, or what not. Same goes for girl when referring to a member of the fairer sex.

Yeah, and coon is just a shortened word for a raccoon.

I've grown up in the south...call a white person a boy and you are just reffering to someone younger than you. Call a black person boy, even a a child, and you are making a racial slur.