# CNN reporter calls black man "boy" **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 20, 2008, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-reporter-calls-black-man-boy/434252 "2008-01-20T12:22:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2008, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-reporter-calls-black-man-boy/434252/82 "2008-01-20T21:52:55Z")
[QUOTE=monstro] Respectfully or not, your response was to deny that I had a right to be offended. [/quote] Not true. I even believe **liberal** has the right to be offended in this thread. > [@](#): > > Whether **Imus** is racist is besides the point. It was blatantly clear that he had said some racially offensive things. Yet there were many, including you, arguing otherwise. I didn’t argue that particular point. In fact I supported it in my opening statement in that thread. I argued whether or not Imus was motivated by a racist heart and how it was possible for him to misunderstand the import of his words. I never argued that blacks were wrong to be offended. I did appeal for understanding though. > [@](#): > > I have no doubt that if I posted what **Liberal** was looking for, you would NOT be on the list of Dopers jumping in on my side. You’d be the main one telling me to stop being so hypersensitive. Am I right or wrong? Right I haven’t jumped to **Libs** side or defense on this issue so why should I jump to yours? Wrong. Did I suggest you were hypersensitive or anything like that in the other thread ? ---
**Author:** ![ArizonaTeach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/45deac/32.png) [@ArizonaTeach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArizonaTeach)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2008, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-reporter-calls-black-man-boy/434252/83 "2008-01-20T21:59:18Z")
I heard Mr. **Lib** talk about us. I heard ol’ **Lib** put us down. Well I hope **Liberal** will remember That a southern boy don’t need him around anyhow. I was sure **Liberal** was playing with us, too. Ah well. Life goes on. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Badger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dead\_Badger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Badger)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2008, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-reporter-calls-black-man-boy/434252/84 "2008-01-20T22:06:06Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] Okay then, nevermind. [/QUOTE] While this may be enough for **John Mace** , forgiving type that he is, you frankly owe everyone else an apology. You’ve started with a false major premise, a false minor premise, and are nonetheless acting as if your conclusion is sound. A fan of logic such as yourself ought to be considerably more embarrassed than you’re currently acting. Perhaps you’re rather too eager to reach the conclusion you desire. ---
**Author:** ![vison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e47774/32.png) [@vison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vison)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2008, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-reporter-calls-black-man-boy/434252/85 "2008-01-20T22:26:06Z")
[QUOTE=jayjay] Well, like I wrote, I can’t dictate what words anyone uses. But even if I could, I wouldn’t. The “rescue” of derogatory epithets by the affected groups just makes me uncomfortable, nothing more than that. It’s entirely a personal quirk. 🙂 [/QUOTE] It’s a quirk I share wholeheartedly. However, I get the distinct impression we are very much in the minority. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2008, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-reporter-calls-black-man-boy/434252/86 "2008-01-20T22:47:52Z")
[QUOTE=Fear Itself] “Sorry Guv’na, it was posted as the OP in this very thread, just this mornin’!” [/QUOTE] Win. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2008, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-reporter-calls-black-man-boy/434252/87 "2008-01-20T22:57:56Z")
Why bother blaming you for what you have actually done when the things that you _will do_ in my speculations are so much more egregious? Take that, **Mr. Dutchman**! Did anyone notice a sportscaster using the expression “Chinese fire drill” during a football game recently? I hope someone had a little talk with her later about the use of the phrase. It certainly set my teeth on edge. Couldn’t believe that she had said it. _Dumb_ “Good ole boy” doesn’t have pleasant connotations for me and I live in the South. Here in Nashville it’s usually a reference to the system or network that keeps certain insiders on the road to promotion and the outsiders are out of luck no matter how accomplished they are. For a long time it kept women from being promoted and it kept some really inefficient people in positions of authority. “Country boy” and “redneck” or “red neck” are different in their connotations. A redneck is usually a wisecracking, hard drinking, pickup truck driving, dog owning, hell-raising, porch-sitting rural dwelling human stereotype. A “country boy” is someone brought up in a rural area with a generally peaceful result. These are just my take on the connotations of these words. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Nader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Darth\_Nader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Nader)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2008, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-reporter-calls-black-man-boy/434252/88 "2008-01-21T00:12:13Z")
Is it still okay to call something a Mongolian Clusterfuck? ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2008, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-reporter-calls-black-man-boy/434252/89 "2008-01-21T00:42:48Z")
Foghorn Leghorn to **Liberal** : Boy. Boy! I’m pitchin’ but you’re not catchin’, boy! Foghorn Leghorn turns to the Pit: Boy’s about as sharp as a bowlin’ ball. ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2008, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-reporter-calls-black-man-boy/434252/90 "2008-01-21T00:43:52Z")
[QUOTE=Hentor the Barbarian] Wow, this is twice in as many months that morons have come in here all up in arms because one African American called another African American “boy.” [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=9238107&postcount=302](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=9238107&postcount=302) Dumbassery appears to be sharply on the rise. [/QUOTE] Boy, it sure is (or, in keeping with the thread theme, “It sure is boy”). Would you care to point out-exactly, by quoting-where in my post that you linked that I am “up in arms”? If you can’t, then it’s obvious who the dumbass is. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2008, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-reporter-calls-black-man-boy/434252/91 "2008-01-21T02:50:07Z")
[QUOTE=Weirddave] Boy, it sure is (or, in keeping with the thread theme, “It sure is boy”). Would you care to point out-exactly, by quoting-where in my post that you linked that I am “up in arms”? If you can’t, then it’s obvious who the dumbass is. [/QUOTE] Here’s you arguably up in arms in post [317](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=9239522&postcount=317). > [@Weirddave](#): > > “Calling a black man boy is a term of extreme disrespect, whether the person doing the name calling is white or black.” If you want to take this down the rabbit hole of semantics regarding what “up in arms” really means, I for one am not going to follow. It’s clear enough to me that you were doing exactly the same thing that **Liberal** was doing here. I suggest that you don’t go listening to any Ray Charles music, because [whisper]sometimes he calls people “boy” in it![/whisper]Gasp! Maybe, like Samari Rolle, TJ “the black anchor” should consider bringing suit against Suzanne Malveaux. Sheesh, with a name like Malveaux, you just knew she would be bad! ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Nader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Darth\_Nader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Nader)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2008, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-reporter-calls-black-man-boy/434252/92 "2008-01-21T03:18:35Z")
For those of us at home, could you spell it more like “Bo-ahh”, or something? “Boy-eee!” is spelled the same way, but, well, sounds a bit different. Maybe we could get Flava Flav and the corpse of Malcom X to duke it out. Seriously, of all the awful shit in this world, this weekend, this is what we get? > [@](#): > > I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. > > Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. > > But 100 years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. > > In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men - yes, black men as well as white men - would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. > > It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check that has come back marked “insufficient funds.” > > But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and security of justice. We have also come to his hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children. > > It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end but a beginning. Those who hoped that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. > > But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone. > > And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating “for whites only.” We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. > > I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. > > Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. > > Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today my friends - so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. > > I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” > > I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. > > I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. > > I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. > > I have a dream today. > > I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification - one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. > > I have a dream today. > > I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. > > This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. > > This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning “My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my father’s died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!” > > And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. > > Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. > > But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. > > Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. > > Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi - from every mountainside. > > Let freedom ring. And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring - when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children - black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics - will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!” Now go to bed. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2008, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-reporter-calls-black-man-boy/434252/93 "2008-01-21T03:25:46Z")
Nothing really to add except to brag that Suzanne was my counselor one summer at camp. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2008, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-reporter-calls-black-man-boy/434252/94 "2008-01-21T06:22:51Z")
[QUOTE=Green Bean] Nothing really to add except to brag that Suzanne was my counselor one summer at camp. 🙂 [/QUOTE] Did she call you “girl”? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2008, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-reporter-calls-black-man-boy/434252/95 "2008-01-21T07:14:16Z")
[QUOTE=Hentor the Barbarian] It’s clear enough to me that you were doing exactly the same thing that **Liberal** was doing here. [/QUOTE] No Hentor, actually I’m not, and what’s pathetic is that you don’t even seem to have a clue that YOU’RE the one making the mistake Liberal made in starting this thread. Liberal’s mistake was equating calling a black man “boy” with calling him “a nice southern boy”. The entire point of the disdain directed his way in this thread is that the two terms aren’t remotely similar, and here you come trying to say that my saying “Calling a black man boy is a term of extreme disrespect, whether the person doing the name calling is white or black.” is the same thing. How in the bleeding fuck could you be so goddamned ignorant so as to miss (and in fact reverse) the entire point of a three page thread is beyond me, but that’s exactly what you are doing here. Just admit you were wrong and move on. It doesn’t kill you, believe me, I know, I’ve been wrong lots of times. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2008, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-reporter-calls-black-man-boy/434252/96 "2008-01-21T07:38:45Z")
Oh Hentor, is hitting all the important points how we antagonize? ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2008, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-reporter-calls-black-man-boy/434252/97 "2008-01-21T11:22:42Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] So I look foolish because she doesn’t look black? The left really needs to update its manual. You guys are so hard to follow. Is it okay for her to say, “Nigga please”? [/QUOTE] Is it OK for her to ask Barack Obama, “Are you _black_ enough?” ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2008, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-reporter-calls-black-man-boy/434252/98 "2008-01-22T02:48:25Z")
[QUOTE=EddyTeddyFreddy] Did she call you “girl”? 😉 [/QUOTE] If she did, it would have been entirely appropriate, as I was only about 14 at the time. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2008, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-reporter-calls-black-man-boy/434252/99 "2008-01-22T02:57:45Z")
[QUOTE=EddyTeddyFreddy] Did she call you “girl”? 😉 [/QUOTE] Just wanted to say that this had me cracking up all day. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2008, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-reporter-calls-black-man-boy/434252/100 "2008-01-22T06:01:26Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] I’d be happy if people, especially Dopers, applied principles equitably. I honestly had no idea when I opened this thread that the CNNness of the event would trump all else. [/quote] It appears to me that the CNNness of the event trumped all else _for you_, (you are the one who tried to say the event is relevant to the correct characterization of CNN) but had almost no relevance for anyone else in this thread. -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2008, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-reporter-calls-black-man-boy/434252/101 "2008-01-22T10:48:41Z")
> [@](#): > > Is it OK for her to ask Barack Obama, “Are you _black_ enough?” Actually, Suzanne Malveaux posed that question to Hillary Clinton. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-reporter-calls-black-man-boy/434252.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-reporter-calls-black-man-boy/434252.md?page=6)