Maybe it’s because I’m white… not sure why that’d make me special in any way, but I think it’s funny when people try to offend me by calling me names. I’ve heard just about everything… snow white, Ali B, albino, Albin, cracker, cracker jack, hick, red neck, haole, white trash, trailer park, trailer trash, white powder, white power, gringo, honky, whitey… you name it… I’ve heard it. I just can’t take offense to it.
Do racial slurs towards you really push your buttons?
You don’t have the socio-political history of having to drink from separate drinking fountains so that decent people don’t have to risk getting your filthy germs near them. Add a history of nasty behaviour and things get a helluva lot more personal and offensive.
I doesn’t mean jack shit to me if anyone calls me a “cracker” but in highschool, I got in plenty of fist-fights defending my lesbian sister’s honor from a variety of slurs.
Yes, because even if the current speaker is just an impotent jerk, slurs directed toward me and mine (I’m black) have a history of violence and discrimination behind them.
In that spirit, I’m offended by extension for other oppressed groups.
And yes, I am also offended by slurs toward non-oppressed groups, because I’m offended by rudeness.
Well, yes, of course. If someone calls me a sandnigger or makes reference to a turban or calls me a Paki it tells me they have looked no further than my color, especially since I am none of those. If they bitch about Indians stealing their jobs I want to tell them - do you even know what India is like? Do you know why my parents brought me here? I have a story, too.
If people flinch when I get on planes - which has happened once or twice - that offends me too.
There’s another thing, too. People don’t talk about this much. It’s always “pride in what you are”. Well, sure, I’m proud, but I’ll tell you, the first reaction is of shame. No matter what.
I had an incident a year or two back at a pizza store, and as it became clear what was happening - that everyone else was getting served and taken care of except for the one Chinese & Indian couple - I was angry, but I was also just a tiny bit ashamed. No matter how old you get I think that’s the first thing you feel. It’s humiliating.
Honestly I think the Internet is the best thing ever. For the first time we can talk to people anywhere and we realize they are just human, too, with jobs and families and dogs and cats and worries that they can’t put food on the table…it’s bringing us together.
I knew this was coming… I know first hand the black community takes racial slurs very personal, but it just doesn’t make any sense to me. The black community has made it so common to refer to themselves as “n”… but take so much offense to it when the word is used by others… I mean, it just wouldn’t make sense to say “Hey, what’s up my cracka!”… or "Hey, what’s up chinky! (should you be Chinese)…
If the black community takes so much offense to this word, why do you constantly address fellow A.M. as “n”? and why does it surprise you that others use the word? I don’t understand it.
Why shame? Why not just laugh at their attempt… joke about it some. When someone asks for a flashlight I’m usually the first one to lift up my shirt. You know, I’m white, so I’m bright… Gets some laughs, whatever. Be PROUD of what you are, not ASHAMED… The more you take offense to it… the more people are going to discriminate against you.
Because as with any slur, the intent behind it means something. Most minority groups have adopted slurs internally as a way of taking back the word, or maybe just to be shocking. Doing so doesn’t justify evil intent from others. Do’t beleive me?
My wife’s friends cheerfully call each other bitches, but woe to a stranger who walked up and asid the word. Gays call each other “fag”, but it’s not appreciated when directed at them by the likes of Fred Phelps. I even see bumperstickers that say “Jesus Freak”, which sounds to me like Christians adopting their own slur and turning it around.
As for me personally? Well, I’m a fat white guy, so not terribly persecuted historically. I’m comfortable with my weight and joke about it, but it’s still hurtful when others make mean-spirited comments about it.
Of course. Even the post is disturbing. I’m trying to take you at face value when you say you don’t understand and not infer that you mean people shouldn’t just because you don’t.
Oh wait, then there’s post #5.
If I am referring to myself as a bitch, does that give someone else permission to call me one as well? Think about it.
This reminds me of a post from a good blog I read:
It goes on to say
Who’s ashamed? How, in your mind, does taking offense mean you are ashamed?
What’s this “you” shit? I’m not the “black community,” and I am not the “black community’s” spokesperson. I’m an individual black person, and I foolishly assumed you were asking for personal opinions. I am personally offended by slurs, and I don’t use them, at all, not even in the way you describe.
I’m speaking of RACIAL slurs… not just any old slur. I may take offense of someone called me a fag, but that is completely off topic here.
I find racial slurs very offensive against any group but whites. The only thing lamer than attempted slurs against white people is white people who get offended by them.
And slurs due to your race are different than those based on sexual orientation…how?
Which is good. You shouldn’t. I don’t understand it one bit. But it’s becoming really common for a lot of blacks to use the term, as if it’s a fad or something. It’s stupid… which is why I wanted some insight.
I’m curious though, and I’m in no way trying to imply hypocrisy with this question, I strictly want your outlook on this issue. Should you be hosting a party, or bbq, and another A.M. come up to you, someone who frequently uses the term to address other A.M. friends or acquaintances, and he say’s “Yo, my n, can I get drink?”… Would you take offense to this? I have several friends who are fully against the term, or anything relative, but some people, even those who don’t use it, are not completely offended by it, if used in a case like this…
I don’t know why. It’s only a split second and then it’s gone, but it just is there.
I don’t think you can understand, honestly, being white. I don’t say this in a mean way at all but you have always run the world. It’s different being any other color, and living here, it really is. I’m always the minority, wherever I go. And I always will be.
And I’d like to add, also, that I am not the Indian spokesperson. This is all just my personal opinion. But I have read many great men and women also speak of the split second of shame, so I know I am not alone.
The slurs in general are similar in a sense, yes, but I’m not asking about slurs regarding religious beliefs, sexual orientation, disabilities, etc… If you want to start a thread on those go ahead, but I’m trying to speak strictly of race.
And “attempted slurs” are different from actual “slurs” because… ?
Let me guess. Because a slur is not really a slur when you, the white person, are the target, because you can never actually be slurred because you are so obviously so superior and white.
Why do you consider this to be off-topic? Why is someone calling me a midget without knowing anything about me other than me being short any less wrong than someone calling me a nigger because they see I’m black?
And yes, racist comments really do offend me. Even when levied against others. I recently stopped being friends with someone I ride the train with because she off-handedly referred to an old acquaintance of hers as being “the only beaner on campus.”
Who are you to decide whether black people “should” or “shouldn’t” use the n-word? That’s rather condescending on your part. Who asked you?