I was raised here in the south-west corner of Canada, late Sixties, early Seventies. I hate to say it but I think I knew the “n” version before the “tigger”. We also called Brazil nuts “n-toes” and jelly babies “n-babies”. I don’t remember actually knowing a Black person until Highschool. She was the only one there, too. My kids learned “tigger.”
We had the Chinese-Japanese thing too. Our version involved pulling up one eyelid, pulling down the other and saying “My mother was Chinese, my father was Japanese and I’m a mixed up kid!”
We also had a Sambo’s resturaunt just up Kingsway. I remember it well because I barfed strawberry waffle in their bathroom. I was about ten and there was just more waffle than stomach!
I wouldn’t say “N—” now if someone put a gun to my head. I’ve got to agree the whole PC thing is getting totally out of hand, though. The big thing around here this year was avoiding the word “Christmas”. The provincial government wanted to put up a “Holiday Tree” in front of the Legislature buildings in Victoria, a number of stores forbade their employee’s from wishing customers “Merry Christmas” and schools had “Winterfest” or Holiday" parties. The interesting thing is, most of the protests against this crap came from our large population of non-Christian residents. They seemed to almost universally feel that Christians have a perfect right to call our holiday by it’s proper name. The goverment finally backed down, btw.
On another note, I had a look at an original copy of Robert Louis Stevens book of poems for the very young. Whatta shock! Talk about racist! I’m always shocked by 'ol Dame Agatha too. Product of their time, I guess, but still a jolt.
Personally, I thought firing the guy for saying ‘You’ve got to put a gun to their head to get them to do anything’ was a lot worse. ‘Free, white and 21’ is (IMO) widely recognized as a racist phrase.
Of course, no one agreed with me that ‘the pot calling the kettle black’ was racist, so what do I know?
We always did the “tiger” version. My grandmother, the dearest, sweetest woman on earth, was the one who accidentally taught us the "n****r’ version when she played kick-the-can with us once.
To give her credit, she immediately taught us another version -
She also told me once that she referred to Brazil nuts using the same terms as Otto mentioned. I grew up in Wisconsin, so it may have been a regional thing.
My grandmother did not have a mean or racist bone in her body - she just grew up in a different era. And she did her best to overcome it. It just seems to have slipped out, unmodified, from her youth when we put our feet in to pick who was going to be It.
The sisters who sued Southwest in this case lost. There’s your news update.
But I also have to rant about Carol Fuller. Because that fucking idiot had the balls to say this after the jury verdict:
"“If we had jurors of our peers then we would have won the case today, and we should have won the case today, with all the evidence shown,” she said.
“It’s a shame that the jury pool we had to draw from did not have one black and not one minority,” she said. “Something has to be done to make sure there is justice in America for blacks.”
Listen carefully Carol. You are a thin-skinned, stupid, obnoxious, racist piece of garbage who went out of her way to be offended and attempted to cause a woman to lose her livelihood so you could get some free money. You filed your dumbass friviolous lawsuit, wasted everyone’s time and money, and made yourself look like a complete idiot. Now, most people would cut their losses and go on their merry little way. But not you. You had to accuse the jurors, the judge, and the system of being racist. 'Cause the jury couldn’t possibly consider the case on the merits, right you ignorant bitch? Since the jury was white, they couldn’t possibly have considered the stupidity of your suit, and instead had to be racists who hate all black people? They had to rule against you because you’re black? Fuck that.
Hmm. The flight attendant is from Texas. I have a hard time believing she was unaware of the N version. Kids in the schoolyard and all. But mabye I’m just irredeemably cynical.
I’m from Texas (born here and lived here my entire life) and I sure never heard the N version until this lawsuit. And I’m 7 years older than the flight attendant. Just so’s you know.
Well, there you have it. Surprises me though. I find it pretty hard to believe that such a usage was utterly, utterly wiped out, in Texas, in the 70s. Amazing.
Eh - not utterly wiped out, by any means, I’m sure. Just not so common that you’d expect anyone/everyone in Texas to have heard it, you know?
Although it may have been my upbringing. The one time (that I remember) my grandmother using the N word (I was about 8), my hick, small-town, country father put a stop to that language right quick. So I really didn’t grow up around that sentiment.
Denny’s was always Denny’s. Sambo’s became The Hungry Tiger.
The original Sambo’s is still called Sambo’s. The owners kept it when the rest were sold although they did sell even that place later. It’s right here in Santa Barbara. The founders were two guys named Sam and Bob, they combined their names to get the name of their restaurants. A few years ago, Bob’s grandson bought the place back.
