# May I explain my user name? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [March 28, 2007, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-i-explain-my-user-name/397906 "2007-03-28T23:34:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-i-explain-my-user-name/397906/41 "2007-03-29T17:16:27Z")
**MrDibble** , IMO, has done a fine job of fighting ignorance here, including mine. I don’t see why **VH** wouldn’t choose to change it now. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-i-explain-my-user-name/397906/42 "2007-03-29T17:55:19Z")
[QUOTE=MrDibble] It’s an offensive word regardless of who uses it. [/QUOTE] Are there any other words like that? Words that are offensive regardless of the context? Or is hottentot the only one that you know of? Is your complaint specific or general? In other words, would you support any other poster who is offended by a certain slur, or is your umbrage limited to yourself, and what you deem inappropriate? ---
**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:** [March 29, 2007, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-i-explain-my-user-name/397906/43 "2007-03-29T18:36:05Z")
[QUOTE=Contrapuntal] Are there any other words like that? [/QUOTE] And if we clean up all of them, will the board be spic and span? ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-i-explain-my-user-name/397906/44 "2007-03-29T18:45:10Z")
Only if we aren’t niggardly with our efforts. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-i-explain-my-user-name/397906/45 "2007-03-29T18:55:54Z")
So if a police officer from Manchester, England posted that [the term “Dibble” was a perjorative term used to refer to policemen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_slang_terms_for_police_officers), would we have to ban that word in a user name as well? ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-i-explain-my-user-name/397906/46 "2007-03-29T19:55:19Z")
[QUOTE=Fear Itself] So if a police officer from Manchester, England posted that [the term “Dibble” was a perjorative term used to refer to policemen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_slang_terms_for_police_officers), would we have to ban that word in a user name as well? [/QUOTE] Is it perjorative or just slang? Your cite doesn’t indicate if that word is considered a negative. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-i-explain-my-user-name/397906/47 "2007-03-29T20:00:46Z")
[QUOTE=Fear Itself] So if a police officer from Manchester, England posted that [the term “Dibble” was a perjorative term used to refer to policemen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_slang_terms_for_police_officers), would we have to ban that word in a user name as well? [/QUOTE] So are you suggesting that a slang term is the equivalent to a ethnic slur seeped in racial oppression? I’m not sure why people want to characterize this a such an all or nothing situation. No one is suggesting that any word that someone may find objectionable will be automatically banned. There are shades of grey and these types of issues will be decided on a case by case basis, after being brought to the attention of the mods. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-i-explain-my-user-name/397906/48 "2007-03-29T20:12:55Z")
[QUOTE=Contrapuntal] Or **Tio Gringo**? [/QUOTE] We’ve been through this before, and you should know quite well by now that the word “gringo” is not remotely comparable to “nigger” or “hottentot.” It is not, by its nature, a pejorative. While it can be used as in insult, in most of Latin America it is not used that way. Here in Panama it’s used freely in conversation by Americans and Panamanians alike as a simple descriptive for someone from the US. I know a number of American owned places here and elsewhere in Latin America with names like “Gringo Bill’s.” In general, no offense is meant and none is taken. A much more apt comparison for “gringo” would be “yankee” rather than “nigger.” There would be very few people, I think, who would regard “yankee” as intrinsically pejorative, even though it can be used that way, especially in places in the southern US. In fact, in Latin America I would say that _yanqui_ is much more apt to be used as an insult than _gringo_. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-i-explain-my-user-name/397906/49 "2007-03-29T20:17:41Z")
[QUOTE=Contrapuntal] Are there any other words like that? Words that are offensive regardless of the context? Or is hottentot the only one that you know of? [/quote] Do you, personally, think that a username like **Nigger Jim** or **Shylock the Kike** would be acceptable here, even if the people in question were black or Jewish respectively? ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-i-explain-my-user-name/397906/50 "2007-03-29T20:33:05Z")
[QUOTE=Cervaise] And if we clean up all of them, will the board be spic and span? [/QUOTE] There may be no need. It could be a unique situation. Can you advise me? [QUOTE=Colibri] We’ve been through this before, and you should know quite well by now that the word “gringo” is not remotely comparable to “nigger” or “hottentot.” It is not, by its nature, a pejorative. [/QUOTE] Are there words that are _by their nature_ pejorative? I have been told over and over by TPTB around here that context is _crucial_ to the parsing of meaning. Are they wrong? > [@](#): > > Do you, personally, think that a username like Nigger Jim or Shylock the Kike would be acceptable here, even if the people in question were black or Jewish respectively? Rather than answer that right now, may we table it? I will answer, but would like to make the point that what I personally think is offensive has fuck all to do with how things are done around here. That point has been driven home on more than one occasion. ---
**Author:** ![Ferd\_Burfel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@Ferd\_Burfel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferd_Burfel)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-i-explain-my-user-name/397906/51 "2007-03-29T20:46:50Z")
I don’t have a dog in this fight and purely out of intellectual curiosity what sort of discussion would the usernames **Gypsy Rose Lee** and **Injun Joe** bring? ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-i-explain-my-user-name/397906/52 "2007-03-29T20:54:30Z")
[QUOTE=Contrapuntal] [Quote=Cervaise] And if we clean up all of them, will the board be **spic** and span? [/quote] There may be no need. It could be a unique situation. Can you advise me? [/quote] Oh, man, did you ever get whooshed. 😉 Bolding added to assist de-whooshing ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-i-explain-my-user-name/397906/53 "2007-03-29T20:54:38Z")
[QUOTE=Ferd Burfel] I don’t have a dog in this fight and purely out of intellectual curiosity what sort of discussion would the usernames **Gypsy Rose Lee** and **Injun Joe** bring? [/QUOTE] Generally what happens is, if you lodge a complaint, and you happen to self-identify as belonging to certain groups, your complaint is acted upon, even if your voice is the only one complaining. If you belong to certain other groups, no number of voices is large enough for action. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-i-explain-my-user-name/397906/54 "2007-03-29T21:00:57Z")
[QUOTE=Q.E.D.] Oh, man, did you ever get whooshed. 😉 Bolding added to assist de-whooshing [/QUOTE] SON of a BITCH! DAMMIT! I hate it when my ire interrupts my intellect. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-i-explain-my-user-name/397906/55 "2007-03-29T21:06:31Z")
[QUOTE=Quiddity Glomfuster] And mine was that the least one could do before complaining about a specific username would be to consult the user in question to ask why the person would pick the name. In this case, it’s a tribute to the lady named. So a new poster who picked the name for no nefarious reason sees her username complained about. All I’m saying is that before you’re going to single someone out, at least communicate with the person first, especially when she doesn’t seem to be a troublesome element. [/QUOTE] As people attempted to explain to you in the other thread, over and over and over, Venus Hottentot’s motives were not in question. No one thought she was deliberately attempting to insult any ethnic group. No one suggested that. No one so much as hinted that it might be the case. I doubt me attempting to explain it to you yet again will help, but I’m giving it a try. Perhaps you don’t understand why some words can be very hurtful in themselves and open up fresh wounds for minorities. Perhaps you just don’t care. Either way, I’m not sure why you’re repeating this refrain. Do you have difficulty following a message board conversation? Or is it some sort of subtle dig at MrDibble? It’s not unreasonable for a person not to want to be confronted with a word like that, particularly given that the end of Apartheid and the beginning of equality in South Africa happened only 13 years ago. Even the word “nigger” is probably not comparable, given that it’s been far longer since black Americans (except perhaps in a very few parts of the South) suffered discrimination even remotely comparable with what happened in South Africa. I know how I feel when the word “faggot” is directed my way; I can only guess at how much worse it must be for a South African to have racial slurs hurled at them. I wish I felt a bit more surprise that so many people around here apparently have no idea what the word “Hottentot” means or who the people are who it refers to. > [@Venus Hottentot](#): > > I am not. But I would guess that the slur is meant to demean blacks…not just Khoi. And I am black. Still, I must confess that is just a guess. I am not as up on my South African culture as I would like to be. > > I am not certain I am willing to part with the name easily. Not that I can’t be persuaded. Just that I’m not quite convinced to part with it right now. > > I always considered all black Africans to be my brothers and sisters. I thought we blacks in America were sort of the ‘brothers and sisters’ across the water. I didn’t take the time to consider carefully if blacks in South Africa would think that something I said may be a slur against them. The Khoi are not Black Africans. The Khoi are as genetically distant from Black Africans as they are from every other ethnic group outside the Khoisan peoples - which is to say, quite distant. Culturally, the Khoisan peoples speak a family of languages not known to be related to any other language family on earth. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-i-explain-my-user-name/397906/56 "2007-03-29T21:07:54Z")
[QUOTE=MrDibble] If this is a response to me explaining to **VH** that she has no right to appropriate my heritage [/QUOTE] It’s not. I’m merely trying to understand your position. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-i-explain-my-user-name/397906/57 "2007-03-29T21:26:51Z")
[QUOTE=Contrapuntal] Are there any other words like that? Words that are offensive regardless of the context? Or is hottentot the only one that you know of? [/QUOTE] Yes, I would say there are a whole slew of them - some are South African-specific, like _kaffir_, _'staban_ or _munt_, others are more widespred - nigger, kike, dago, wop, raghead, paddy. Yes, a _degree_ of context is neccessary to know that you aren’t speaking about e.g. a rice field, but once it’s clear you’re referring to a person, then yes, there are a lot of offensive words. [QUOTE=Contrapuntal] Is your complaint specific or general? In other words, would you support any other poster who is offended by a certain slur, or is your umbrage limited to yourself, and what you deem inappropriate? [/QUOTE] \* My\* complaint is specific, but I would sympathise with e.g. a Rom who wanted any **xxxGypsy** usernames changed. If a thread arose, I’d probably chime in in a supportive way. As to whether Dibble is a pejorative, if a Mancunian police officer joined and objected, and could show that the words was indeed an offensive slur, yes, I’d change it. I’m not so invested in my username that I’d want to cause anyone undue distress in the use of it. Of cause, it would need more than that Wiki cite, which clearly states that not all the words listed are offensive, and doesn’t indicate that Dibble is. Also, like ITD said, there’s a difference between a racist slur and an occupational pejorative - or at least, that’s how I see it. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-i-explain-my-user-name/397906/58 "2007-03-29T21:31:44Z")
[QUOTE=Priceguy] It’s not. I’m merely trying to understand your position. [/QUOTE] I hope my explanation sufficed, then. [QUOTE=Contrapuntal] Generally what happens is, if you lodge a complaint, and you happen to self-identify as belonging to certain groups, your complaint is acted upon, even if your voice is the only one complaining. If you belong to certain other groups, no number of voices is large enough for action. [/QUOTE] This sounds like you have some specific examples in mind. Perhaps you would be better served if you were less obscure. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-i-explain-my-user-name/397906/59 "2007-03-29T21:40:22Z")
[QUOTE=MrDibble] I hope my explanation sufficed, then. This sounds like you have some specific examples in mind. Perhaps you would be better served if you were less obscure. [/QUOTE] Specifically, I have been informed that the term “white trash” is not and can never be considered offensive enough to be deemed hateful. I, and several other posters, disagree. Will you join us? ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-i-explain-my-user-name/397906/60 "2007-03-29T22:51:28Z")
I will change my username, as I really have no choice. I would like to say that I am learning an awful lot of information! I expected to from this board, but not so much, so fast. I am shocked that the Khoi are not black Africans. I didn’t know that, and it does make me look at the situation differently. I would also like to say that I identified with Saartjie as a black woman, built like me, (although an exagerated version) and there were some other details about her that I related to as well. I am now learning that she was not a Black African. I didn’t realize that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-i-explain-my-user-name/397906.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-i-explain-my-user-name/397906.md?page=4)