Ooooh, snap!
“People have the right to think you are…” So what? No one should care what other people think about them, they’ll always think something anyway.
Also any word can be used in a demeaning way. I don’t like a black person calling me “white boy” as it’s used often in a demeaning and racist way.
Are you under the impression those are anywhere near the same level of offense?
Offense is to be judged by whom? There is no objective offense-o-meter.
This incident makes me snigger. Wish I could still watch Maher’s show, but these days I’m too niggardly to pay for HBO.
It’s all about context. People who refuse to look at these words in context are intellectually lazy. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how the historical context of “nigger” or “white boy” impacts the likely damage of using either word. Be offended or not, be a critical thinker or not, just don’t be surprised when you’re judged accordingly. (You = general you.)
Unless Bill was thinking of the book line. The movie has the line as “… We’re house workers.”
Ok, I can see how this joke might be considered unfunny or not in good taste but what exactly is offensive or bigoted about it? Is it simply that the word “nigger” passed through his lips? Is that the reason it’s being criticized? Is the idea that no one anywhere, at any time or under any circumstances, can say the word other than black people? He wasn’t denigrating anyone, he wasn’t displaying racism towards anyone, he simply said a word. Context matters here and I can’t see a justification for a “!bigot!” judgment.
Well now…this is just wrong.
If you listen, the word “workers” has a kind of hitch. I’m pretty sure the N word was in there when the movie was released. I’m almost positive I heard it that way the first time I saw GWTW in a theatre, in 1976. I know the “workers” version kind of caught my attention when I heard it, as in “oh, they cleaned that up.”
Do we have any lip readers who could have a look? Whoops, this is turning into a slight hijack!
I don’t really care whether he’s a bigot or not (he definitely is toward Muslims though.) He is the Bill O’Reilly of the left. He is a dishonest asshole who loves to piss people off. A white guy makes light of slavery and the history of racial oppression in a country that is super sensitive about that stuff right now. Of course people will be offended. It’s possible I’d go less hard on him if I didn’t already hate him, but who can say?
If ever it was appropriate to use the word on this board it was for this thread and this title. Sure, I could have written house n-word but its such a ham-fisted and ludicrous construction that I would have found it impossible to write it with a straight face. And simply using n-word was just as inappropriate. Bill Maher drops the n-word bomb. See the problem with that? It’s possible of course for me to have found another way to convey the information. But life is too damn short for such needless foolery. And JFTR no, I don’t pepper my posts with needless n-words (there, see, the euphemism is totally appropriate in this sentence). Oh and this is in CS because it’s appropriate for CS.
I’m a conservative, that’s true, but an English one and believe me I’ve recently learned the difference between that and the US version. I like Bill Maher and though I disagree with him on many things I respect his integrity, honesty and frankness. I wish there were more liberals like him, which is something of a paradox because if there were I think the liberals would be winning elections rather than losing them.
I see that Sasse has quickly kowtowed to the twitterati.
The respect I expressed for him has now withered on the vine.
I think “Bill Maher drops the N-bomb” makes the most sense. Alternatively, “Bill Maher calls himself a house nigger.” FWIW, I barely noticed the title.
N-bomb is perfectly expressive and even sounds right.
“Makes light of slavery”? What, is it “too soon?” 
It’s specifically because our country is super sensitive about racial matters that Bill said what he said. He’s a shock comedian. And he was saying what he said on a late-night HBO show. I’d think most people watching him wouldn’t be the ones who raised high hell. And anyways, why cant he make light of slavery in a joke?
aldiboronti, it really seems to me you think people using the word ‘‘nigger’’ for any reason (other than as a direct racial slur) is objectively good. For one thing, I’m not sure you really understand, as an Englishman, the power that word has and what it means to people on a visceral level. I was raised to never say that word, which might be the opposite extreme in a not-good way, but it should tell you something about the social context we’re dealing with. Where I grew up, in the rural Midwest, the only people who ever used that word were racist shitheads. White people using that word just screams ‘‘I am a racist shithead’’ to a fairly large contingent of white people. My grandparents are racist and fuck as even they won’t use that word. I’m only comfortable using that word in conversation after years of studying stuff like that in an academic context, and I still won’t say it out loud. Almost never.
I am not saying Bill Maher is an anti-black shithead. He might just be a regular old shithead. But anyone with any sense knows what the connotation is.
[QUOTE=Ambivalid]
And anyways, why cant he make light of slavery in a joke?
[/QUOTE]
Who says he can’t? I just said he’s an asshole for doing so, in that particular way, in that particular context. I don’t care for his shock comedy, or his pseudo-intellectual political analysis, or anything he does or says. He is the lowest common denominator of humor, posing as someone with something meaningful to say. I could go on but I think you get the gist.
Richard Pryor used the word ‘honky’ without restraint.
I’m sure all of you looking to sanction Maher felt the same outrage about Pryor’s word choices back in the day.
Right?
mmm
Is there anyone here looking to sanction Maher? I think ‘‘wow, what an asshole’’ is an appropriate punishment for this and similar offenses. If his people want to fire him, that’s their own business.
Ok, maybe not you personally but a lot of the critics in this situation are calling for Maher to be fired. Disagreeing/taking issue with the content of a show is one thing. I am not commenting on whether or not it was a poor decision on his part or if it reflects on him as a comedian or person. I just don’t follow the outrage at all. I do not understand the offensiveness of this joke.