# And so the "code words" begin.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-the-code-words-begin/462066
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [September 4, 2008, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-the-code-words-begin/462066 "2008-09-04T22:11:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2008, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-the-code-words-begin/462066/61 "2008-09-05T13:00:26Z")
> [@Shodan](#):
>
> I think I agree with this, I think. Westmoreland seems to be using “uppity” as a synonym for “superior”.
>
> Plus, how can you be a member of an individual?
>
> Regards,
> Shodan
Actually, I agree with you on this- he didn’t say the Obamas were uppity, he said “they think they’re uppity”. So he’s a moron, not a bigot.
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### Author:  [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2008, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-the-code-words-begin/462066/62 "2008-09-05T15:05:35Z")
[ ](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41SFC0YQSPL._SL160_AA115_.jpg)
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### Author:  [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2008, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-the-code-words-begin/462066/63 "2008-09-05T15:21:05Z")
> [@Daithi\_Lacha](#):
>
> Off the subject, but a telling story all the same – the foreman needed some Riggers to go up in the cat-walks, so he was calling out for volunteers: “Riggers! Riggers! Riggers!” One of the rednecks on the crew admonished him, saying “They don’t like being called that! Say ‘Regroes’ instead!” That got a big laugh, even from the African-Americans – but not for long.
Shouldn’t that be Rafican-Ramericans, or is that too Scooby-Doo?
There was a parody of a Joan Baez song on an old National Lampoon album about shooting cops, entitled “Pull the Tregroes, Negroes”. It took me a while to figure it out.
Regards,
Shodan
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### Author:  [@cowgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cowgirl)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2008, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-the-code-words-begin/462066/64 "2008-09-05T16:00:56Z")
There were folks at the Republican convention wearing hats that cleverly represented Obama being eaten by an alligator. It didn’t make sense to me until I realized that [alligator bait](http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2008/09/obama-racismmuslimunpatrioticscary.html) has a long and racist history.
Ben Stein called Obama an [angry black man](http://www.newshounds.us/2008/08/30/fox_says_it_first_barack_obama_is_an_angry_black_man.php) on Fox, another phrase with a long and racist history.
To me this is blatant racism of the kind I naively thought this continent had outgrown. The failure of the Republicans to publicly deplore this sort of thing gives lie to their alleged dismay at all the sexism being directed towards the Palins. They are quite publicly getting their panties in a wad because of a little misogyny (which, at its worst, does not come anywhere close to what was directed at Hillary) while totally ignoring this shit.
> [@Otto](#):
>
> > [@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.
>
> Um…cite?
[It wasn’t racially motivated unless your race is “dumb”](http://boardstest.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=351628&) - altho friend **Ensign** was mistaken in that it was the OP who felt that it wasn’t necessarily a racist act.
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### Author:  [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2008, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-the-code-words-begin/462066/65 "2008-09-05T16:14:25Z")
> [@bdgr](#):
>
> 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.
I learned about the ‘coon’ as racist term right here on the Dope. There’s always something new to learn.
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### Author:  [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2008, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-the-code-words-begin/462066/66 "2008-09-05T16:28:43Z")
> [@Shodan](#):
>
> Plus, how can you be a member of an individual?
It’s code! You know what they say about black men’s members!
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### Author:  [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2008, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-the-code-words-begin/462066/67 "2008-09-05T16:30:14Z")
> [@Cosmic Relief](#):
>
> Calling a black man “boy” regardless of his age has a long history of being a term of racial condescension in the south.
>
> “Uppity” is a term of southern racial condescension in the same way that y’all" or “you all” refers to a person in the singular… in other words, it doesn’t, but the misconception has now spread so far and wide that you can’t correct a northerner on it once they’ve decided they know what you _really_ mean by it.
Speaking as someone who’s born and bred in the south. I have never, ever heard the term “uppity” without the word “nigger” right behind it. “Uppity” isn’t code. It’s shorthand.
“Boy”, on the other hand, has some wiggle room… as long as you’re addressing a child.
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### Author:  [@Ensign\_Edison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ensign_Edison)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2008, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-the-code-words-begin/462066/68 "2008-09-05T16:36:41Z")
> [@Otto](#):
>
> Um…cite?
This is what happens when I try to search:
> [@](#):
>
> Your submission could not be processed because a security token was missing.
So I can’t link. But I’m sure others remember the thread, since it was a massive Pitwreck. The story was about a customer in a grocery store angry that the guy bagging his groceries did it wrong, so he picked up a can of toxic bug spray, sprayed at at the guy, and called him a “nigger”. The argument went on and on about how this was not necessarily a racist act or the act of a racist.
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2008, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-the-code-words-begin/462066/69 "2008-09-05T16:40:03Z")
I just read it, and it’s the stupidest OP I’ve ever seen that wasn’t one of **2.5"**.
Or the S\*\*\*\*Front guys who were around a few years back.
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### Author:  [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2008, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-the-code-words-begin/462066/70 "2008-09-05T16:48:45Z")
> [@NurseCarmen](#):
>
> It’s code! You know what they say about black men’s members!
So Michelle Obama thinks Barack’s member is uppity? And that this makes him superior to white folks?
Well, I guess she would know better than I do. And I would _hope_ better than Lynne Westmoreland.
Now, if it were Larry Craig…
Regards,
Shodan
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2008, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-the-code-words-begin/462066/71 "2008-09-05T16:57:48Z")
> [@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.
Isn’t assuming that the reaction by that black man would be criminal violence racist in of itself?
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### Author:  [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2008, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-the-code-words-begin/462066/72 "2008-09-05T16:59:18Z")
There’s not code implied or meant when you call a black man uppity in the western world as far as I’m concerned. It’s a racist statement through and through. The guy was even asked if he meant uppity and he replied that he did.
You can dance around this all you want but in context the guy’s statement is pretty fucking clear.
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### Author:  [@askeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/askeptic)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2008, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-the-code-words-begin/462066/73 "2008-09-05T17:25:55Z")
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> Isn’t assuming that the reaction by that black man would be criminal violence racist in of itself?
It’s called hyperbole, maybe you’ve heard of it. Besides it would not be criminal violence, it would be justifiable asskicking in the fight against ignorance. Thanks for playing though…
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### Author:  [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2008, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-the-code-words-begin/462066/74 "2008-09-05T17:55:50Z")
> [@Ensign\_Edison](#):
>
> Your submission could not be processed because a security token was missing.
Token?! That’s _racist!_
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2008, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-the-code-words-begin/462066/75 "2008-09-05T18:14:07Z")
> [@askeptic](#):
>
> It’s called hyperbole, maybe you’ve heard of it. Besides it would not be criminal violence, it would be justifiable asskicking in the fight against ignorance. Thanks for playing though…
Who cares about “justifiable”, what we’re talking about is your racist assumption that a black man would respond by violence.
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### Author:  [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2008, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-the-code-words-begin/462066/76 "2008-09-05T18:15:27Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#):
>
> What is the “code word” for “unqualified”? 😕
“Georgia Congressman”
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### Author:  [@askeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/askeptic)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2008, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-the-code-words-begin/462066/77 "2008-09-05T18:19:39Z")
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> Who cares about “justifiable”, what we’re talking about is your racist assumption that a black man would respond by violence.
Keep yapping Fido, again look up “hyperbole” while you’re at it look up “moron”.
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### Author:  [@askeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/askeptic)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2008, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-the-code-words-begin/462066/78 "2008-09-05T18:37:42Z")
Speaking of misspeaking and code words, apparently the republicans nominated Sara Pawlenty as VP Candidate.
[owch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJuiRnP1Fuk)
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2008, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-the-code-words-begin/462066/79 "2008-09-05T18:42:43Z")
> [@askeptic](#):
>
> Keep yapping Fido, again look up “hyperbole” while you’re at it look up “moron”.
It ain’t hyperbole if that’s really the way your mind words. So, prove that you’re not a racist. After all, _you_ made a stereotypical racist statement.
After all, if saying the word “uppity” makes one a racist, saying that all black men can only respond by violence must be racist, right?
(Of course, I don’t think **askeptic** is really a racist. He just mispoke in a way that could be easily construed as being racist. Thus, perhaps the source of the Op’s ire might have also just mispoke?)
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### Author:  [@askeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/askeptic)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2008, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-the-code-words-begin/462066/80 "2008-09-05T18:47:51Z")
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> It ain’t hyperbole if that’s really the way your mind words. So, prove that you’re not a racist. After all, _you_ made a stereotypical racist statement.
>
> After all, if saying the word “uppity” makes one a racist, saying that all black men can only respond by violence must be racist, right?
>
> (Of course, I don’t think **askeptic** is really a racist. He just mispoke in a way that could be easily construed as being racist. Thus, perhaps the source of the Op’s ire might have also just mispoke?)
Bored now…
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