It seems there is an awful lot of time spent here discussing racial slurs. I really don’t see the point as the use or non use of racial slurs doesn’t change ones point of view on the subject. Example:
A friend of mine was born, and lives in Mississippi. She is racist and will confess if you ask. However, being aware of the political climate that surrounds the usual slurs, she, and her circle of friends, have taken to refering to black people as “twos”. This is taken from institutional and government forms in which the second selection is generally black. My point being that the attempt to assault the slurs does nothing to discourage the thoughts behind the slurs. Remove the word or make it unacceptable in polite company and people will find another word to convey the same thoughts, polite as it may sound. The actual slur only exist in the mind of the person using it or the mind of the person offended by it. So if I use “Two” as a slur and the people as objects of the slur aren’t in on it and are not offended, does this make the situation any better? Should we also have Webster redefine the word “two”?
Good question. Another variation on this is that the words employed to replace the offensive words become offensive themselves and soon need replacing by yet more words. A good example is the word moron. In days gone by the word moron was an acceptable term used to describe the mentally retarded. Then it took on offensive connotations and was replaced by the word retarded, which in turn took on offensive connotations and was replaced in popular usage by terms like ‘backwards’ and ‘disabled’. Now if memory serves me correctly there was a discussion in this very forum about whether the word ‘disabled’ should be considered insulting because people can use it as an insult. at the moment it is more en vogue to use the word challenged as in Mentally challenged. How long will it be before that term is replaced? In this instance The underlying derogatory sentiment remains, no matter which words are used.
An excellent example of what happens when we let political correctness overtake common sense. We may soon see the day when the word “black” is disallowed because of an ambiguous potential reference to a minority race. Let the word “two” gain common acceptance as a replacement and it too may go the way of the dodo bird.
Imagine the confustion when we remove all 2s from our mathematics, essentially becoming a base 9 numbering system. And let’s make sure that three consecutive 6s, the number of the antichrist, cannot occur. The unlucky number 13, having already been removed by most hotels, apartments, airliners, etc., leaves us a curious ambiguity, too.
Perhaps we should just count in binary – zeros and ones. Then we can assign everybody a single digit. (You count and you don’t???)
Yes, encouraging people to exercise the barest modicum of politeness when speaking and writing will not magically eradicate racism.
That does not mean that people shouldn’t insist on polite speech and it does not mean that we shouldn’t call people out when they use a slur.
Now just get over your bad selves. Sheesh!
And Southern Style, your post is particularly filled with ignorance. If “two” does in fact gain significance as a word that bigots use for black people, yes, we will insist that people stop using it in polite company. But to offer that that will somehow magically remove the number from the number set is intentionally stupid. Just stop.
Manhattan I must point out that Southern Style provides a reference to the possibility that the use of “two” as a racial slur could have a huge affect on its use as a number. He points out that due to a minority of superstitious people you can find numerous examples of numbering schemes that avoid the number thirteen for fear that it may offend the superstitious. I kinda like having thirteeen inbetween twelve and fourteen. My apologies to the superstitious.
And I must point out that the very idea that a cabal of “Politically Correct” types and superstitious idiots will join forces to remove the numbers 2 and 13 from mathematics is so stupid as to defy description.
I’ll leave it to you whether you want to associate yourself with such an idea.
To be perfectly frank I’m convinced that if the word did become extremely widespread as a racial slur (on par with nigger) then there will certainly be people who would try. They’d fail, and they’d fail miserably but they’d probably try.
Manhattan, the number thirteen has already been removed from lots of “numbering schemes” not mathematics. I don’t think it could be removed from mathematics. However, in the interest of superstitious people, thirteen has ALREADY been removed from lots of numbering schemes already meantioned. (hotel rooms, airliners, highrise building numbers, etc.) Now just as some folks believe thirteen to be unlucky, offensive and yes, evil, some folks believe thirteen to be lucky on religious grounds. So who is right? What gives with the superstitious imposing fear of the number thirteen in MY everyday life, not to mention folks who consider thirteen lucky and would prefer to sit in aisle thirteen, only aisle thirteen doesn’t exist on account of the superstions that I don’t believe in.
I went to a Mets game with a German friend, and he saw “SS” for Ordonez’ position on the scoreboard lineup. He said in germany you never see two esses together like that. Maybe in the middle of the word, but not like that.
One word for you – “sarcasm”. I’ll save you the time of looking it up in the dictionary.
sarcasm sar-ka-zm, noun : a sharp and often satirical or ironic utterance. manhattan, I’ve been off the boards for about 6 months, but I do recall that your posts lack a tolerance for those that don’t agree with you and resort to personal attack to those that don’t share your thought process.
Get over yourself. Get a life. Get laid. Get something. But mostly, get a clue.
And yet it happens… Extremly Religious, Orthodox Jews will not use a + in arithmetic, because of its conotations of the Cross, and instead use a T shape…
Manhattan, I’ve got to agree with SouthernStyle regarding his earlier post, which screamed irony from the rafters of this forum.
Furthermore, to accuse SouthernStyle of stupidity just because you didn’t appreciate his wit (yes, it *was witty) does not reflect well upon your good self.
Yours Very Surprised
Dude, you were being sarcastic? I got whooshed and I apologize. An apology so deep that Robert Ballard doesn’t have a submarine for it yet.
In a weak defense of my own ignorance here, I can only say that I have seen such arguments made seriously by some from the real “I’m so not P.C., aren’t I a rebel” crowd. Including, I hope you’ll note, in this very thread.