When the president of the union for the transportation workers in New York was speaking at a news conference during the negotiations I told one of my sons he sounded just like a “thug”. Now to my generation a thug is like a gangster out of those 1940’s movies; kind of uneducated and knowing only one way to solve things: by violence or threats. It has absolutely nothing to do with race.
Now, the union is accusing the mayor of bringing up race when he was angry and subsequently used the word “thugishly”. To me, this just shows to what lengths some of those attorneys are willing to go to force more concessions for the union.
This is about as far from a racist comment as I can imagine, but I guess they are hoping some younger people won’t know that. The whole thing is disgraceful; I admire the mayor and agree with him.
Thug as a slang term to describe scary-looking African American males is absolutely standard at the high school I teach at. It connotes pants around the thighs, tall Tee down to the knees, glowy LED belt, gold teeth, tatoos, and a sort of hulking physical menance. So the word is in use with racist connotations. Doesn’t mean the speaker in question knew this: I didn’t know until I started teaching high school. But it is out there.
Hmmm, geographic differences. Thugs are, in my mind, white. And not the weedy drunken white kids that you’re likely to encounter, but a more unpleasant and altogether more violent creature. Of course they were once ubiquitous in football crowds, but now they’re a minority even among the worst teams.
The best way to find the football ones is in pubs near to football grounds, where you’ll find those banned from attending games.
I always said I admired teachers and here is yet another reason… going into that environment every day to try to teach. Are these “thugs” seriously intimidating or just dressed in intimidating costumes?
Thugs are those individuals who use their size, their demeanor, and/or their dress to obtain what they want via threat of violence, or actual violence.
I’d estimate a good third of my patients are thugs.
Admire teachers, but not for that. And I don’t TRY to teach. Most kids everywhere are decent kids. Many kids, at times, everywhere, try and find a way to make the adults around them nervous and uncomfortable. Pretty emo chicks kiss each other with tongue; ESL kids stay in thier native language; African American kids skulk. Are some “thug” type kids (and I hate the term) really, actually scary? Sure. But in about the same ratio as any other group.
I don’t know why you would hate a term like “thug.” It isn’t going to be applied to just anybody–there are plenty of ways to avoid being called a thug. As I’ve heard it a thug is sort of an advanced bully, not usually operating as part of a group. I suppose you could insult a non-thug by intimating that s/he looked like or dressed like a thug.
I’ve never heard a racial connotation to it, although my understanding of the usage of the term wouldn’t rule out any particular group (i.e., I’ve known of thug girls, they were the ones with knives).
Interestingly enough, of those known as thugs in my high school (long ago), a certain percentage went on to the penitentiary. The rest became cops. (Yep, a generalization–probably there are some who just disappeared from the radar and became actuaries or something.)
I always thought of thugs as meaning violent street criminals and “muscle”; you know, low level enforcers. Race never came into it. If the KKK beat up a black guy, I’d likely refer to “those KKK thugs”. If some black guys wandered into a shop and made comments about how the shop owner should pay them money, and how “it would be a shame if something happened” to the place, those are thugs too IMHO.
Funny, I kind of saw it the opposite way, that a thug was a sort of rudimentary bully, one that had to rely only on violence or threats of violence, rather than being able to use the more advanced forms of verbal intimidation that bullies who reach positions of authority usually need to master. A thug to me is a bully with no personality.
The only race I’ve ever associated thugs with are Indians, because of the origins of the term. Most of the thugs I knew growing up were white (and more likely to be football players than football fans), but that’s because I lived in a 98% white neighborhood. Since then, I’ve encountered a sufficient number of thugs of all races.
While the term “thug” itself carries no racial overtones to my generation (early Gen-X), the term probably takes on that connotation from “thug life,” popularized by 2pac Shakur.
A thug is someone -almost always male- who is intentionally menacing; the type of guys who lurk at night looking for someone to harass just for entertainment. Generally I tend to think of them as white since I’ve met more white thugs. (this despite having lived 13 years as a city-dweller).