Being rude when under threat.

Great Debates
1

Linked to the other current thread on racist language and violence.

When threatened, ever physically or emotionally, it is common for people to respond with rudeness, even if the threat has just recently abated. For instance if someone cuts you off in trafic, or pushes past you in a line.

Such rudeness often takes the form of unplesant personal remarks said under ones breath, or even non vocalised and just thought.

I submit that such remarks when made are made with the reason of causing maximum distress to the other person if they were to hear it, and not simply to state the remark makers feelings about that person. Such that a non-sexist person might when feeling threatened say 'Stupid bitch, not looking where the fuck she is going" or “Dumb bastard, thinking with his prick, bloody jock”. In both cases the use of sexist terms not being because the speaker considers people using such sexist ideas, but because they feel that such terms would be more cutting if heard by the protagonist.

Getting to more sensitive grounds, as an English White Male I lived in a society where the word Paki had similar connotations whne applied to someone of Indian or Pakistani herritage as would the worde Niger in the USA if applied to an African American.
Now having lived amongst Indian and Pakistani folks for most my life, I have personally grown to feel that in most of the ways my heritage differs from theirs, that theirs is the better. The Indian subcontinent herritage seems to value honesty, politeness, and education quite a bit higher than my southern English herritage did. Sikh’s especially I found to be great people, through those I had met.

I would never think of such a person or such people as Pakis. I also knew some people who didn’t like the culture, who did think of such people in general terms as Pakis (in the rude sense).

Dispite this I have on being hit by a member of that group, and on being threatened by a member of that group thought or said “Stop that you fucking paki”. I contend that such thoughts were not racist per-se but instead the use of the word was simply to cause maximum offence to the other person.

Do you agree or disagree with this feeling of using otherwise ‘forbidden’ words?

2

Just guessing here, but maybe when faced with a threat, the human body makes a quick decision in evaluating what the threat is. It reduces it to man/female/ethnic group/… and even in the relief that the threat is over spits out a synopsis of what it found when scanning?

I am sorry to say that I too will think in this shorthand when expressing something that I would never say out loud. I don’t know if both of us are trying to justify this in some way.

3

You never answer simple little words with violence. By muttering those things to yourself afterwards, you’re fighting the same battle, except you’re doing it away from them. Exorcise such things from your being.