I think she is going on a combination of (not unjustified) raw hatred of the Trump administration and being a tad into the crackpot end of the dial.
Meanwhile, I’m seeing the phrase from a wide range of cultures in Google books:
“Ghetto”.
- I’d need to see an argument that supports the idea that it’s racist before I could venture an opinion on the subject.
- Kelly is at best recklessly cavalier with the truth, and at worst a goddamned liar. The fact that he’s not issued an apology yet puts him either as a goddamned liar or as a goddamned coward unwilling to face up to his errors.
- “Empty barrel” is a great metaphor.
- FOR KELLY’S FUCKING BOSS
Apparently it’s a classical reference. It appears in Shakespeare and Plato. So while it’s an insult, I personally I don’t think it’s a racist insult.
And I think it should also be noted that Kelly was lying. Wilson did not say anything like what Kelly claimed.
Why dangling modifiers are problematic.
Right, but why would Barbara complain to the press about it?
Not that I’m aware of.
In that scenario, the press couldn’t be expected to carry that story. But if Barbara is complaining to the same social circles that they all run in, what difference does it make if the statements are made to the press or to all of one’s friends and family?
Empty barrel –> Cracker Barrel –> RACIST —> a bill becomes a law, I dunno.
If someone calls it racist, I presume they have a reason for doing so. It is true that lying in headlines is a thing now, but I would hope they wouldn’t try this without a stated reason. Otherwise I would assume they just wrote it for the controversy, because controversy gets clicks.
So can anyone who has already checked out these articles post some quotes about why they called it racist?
Kelly was not telling the truth it appears but “empty barrel” is not a racist term. That is just a lame appeal.
What isn’t racist might make a shorter list.
How do you know what it means, if you don’t mind me asking? I’ve never heard the expression before. I don’t see how it’s racist but I also don’t see how it indicates that a person is a loudmouth. A barrel doesn’t have a mouth and it is full of air but so is an empty hat or an empty suit.
Take a look at some of the 11 instances I put in post #21.
Ah thanks. So the idea is that wind blowing over an empty barrel makes more noise than it would over a full barrel. I see.
If you’ve got to look up a term in a dictionary to try determine if it’s racist or not…then you’re really stretching.
There is plenty to criticize John Kelly about. But one is opening up “fake news” claims with the racist call IMHO.
Ditto that Ms Wilson needs to lose that Dolly Parton hat she’s sporting. Maybe it’s just my prejudice speaking, but I can’t take anyone seriously with a hat like that. Sheesh, let me put it this way, even Princedidn’t wear a hat like that
I like her hats better than Trump’s hair.
It seems to me if you knock on an empty barrel, it would make more noise than a full barrel because the air would conduct sound waves better. A full barrel would have less air in it and the sound would be considerably dampened when it’s knocked on. Think of a set of drums. They make a lot of noise precisely because they’re hollow with a thin skin stretched out over one end.
The term itself isn’t racist, but the context in which it is used might still possibly leave open the possibility that it could have been used in a racist manner. It’s already clear that Kelly’s ‘recollection’ of the facts is so far wrong that it could even be construed as an intentional falsehood. Additionally, Kelly also said a few things that are being overlooked here, such as his waxing nostalgic for the good ole 1950s. That might have been a time of Norman Rockwell paintings for someone like Kelly, but in Frederica Wilson’s 1950s Florida, that was a time of sitting in the back of the bus and eating in the back colored-only rooms of restaurants. So the term itself might not have been racist, but Kelly opened himself up to the possibility that he might have been behaving like a racist. And in any case, anyone who knowingly and voluntarily works for a demonstrably racist administration opens themselves up to such charges.
The key word that keeps getting slung is “dehumanize”. Which means, I suppose, that any number of other sayings – calling someone an empty suit or a broken record or a stopped clock that’s right twice a day – would, by that reasoning, be just as racist.
By contrast, though, saying she’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer – well, that’d presumably be a different kettle of fish.
From Henry V, Act 4, Scene 4 -
Boy
I did never know so full a voice issue from so
empty a heart: but the saying is true ‘The empty
vessel makes the greatest sound.’ Bardolph and Nym
had ten times more valour than this roaring devil i’
the old play, that every one may pare his nails with
a wooden dagger; and they are both hanged; and so
would this be, if he durst steal any thing
adventurously. I must stay with the lackeys, with
the luggage of our camp: the French might have a
good prey of us, if he knew of it; for there is
none to guard it but boys.
The Boy is Falstaff's page. Falstaff is dead by this point, and Boy has taken up with Bardolph, Pistol & Nym. Boy is speaking of Pistol.
"Boy" is Christain Bale's character in Brannagh's Henry V, by the by. He's called Robin in that film.
So - not a racist term. But since we don't know what dictionary Frederica Wilson used as a source, we can't say if she's lying or mistaken.
OTOH, I don't think it's any coincidence that the Whitehouse decided to attack the black congresswoman with lies (while lecturing us about how women are sacred, no less) rather than just apologizing for misspeaking in the phone call.