I was talking with a square dance caller recently about feedback. He’s a great caller, and entertains lots of people. But of COURSE there are a couple of negative comments, too. And he says that’s what he sees, and they just make a lot more impact on him than the positive comments. It’s a hard trap to avoid.
Don’t let the bastards get you down. Revel in the positive feedback. You know, even if you got as much negative feedback as positive (and I sincerely doubt that, since I watched a couple of your videos and they were awesome) it doesn’t fucking matter. The people who left positive comments – you are entertaining them. And the others are free to find entertainment they prefer. Every positive comment means someone really appreciated what you did, and you brought joy to the world.
I answered “Jewish, please don’t,” because if it were “Jew’s nose” it would be an obvious slur, but I don’t know of any offensive stereotypes related to Jews’ ears. But naming anything in the natural world for a minority group is an archaic practice and has the potential for enforcing stereotypes, whether overtly offensive or not.
Yeah, I think we are evolved to prioritise attention to perceived threat (which makes sense when the threat was sabre tooth cats, but less so when it’s some idiot with a loud voice).
While obviously not problematic in the same way as “jewfish”, I’ve disliked the name “grouper” ever since I learned that it was a variation of the Portuguese and possibly native term, and that the fish do not, in fact, typically congregate in groups.
I don’t think this label is entirely harmless, to the extent that a word can have connotations, since if you do think that their schools are so large that they are named after them, you might think that their numbers are larger than they actually are, conservationism-wise. Or you might assume that since they are in groups, they are lower in the trophic chain and thus have less biomagnification of poisons than they do from their role as a higher-order predator.
Plant names that seem to have offensive connotations aren’t always so.
A vining plant grown in the South is Trachelospermum jasminoides, popularly known as Confederate jasmine. That name actually refers to the Federation of Malay States, where the plant is native.
Somewhere between it’s a slur and not but please don’t. Mildly offensive not enough to make a deal about but would prefer Jelly ear or such.
Not on the scale of “Jewing him down” or such, but I’d accept ignorance rather than malintent for that one and certainly would not assume offense was intent regarding the fungus.
It probably means a LOT of people appreciated it but are content to enjoy and remain silent. It’s the nay-sayers that get all combative and have to tell people their feelings.
Thanks everyone who voted in the poll - I think even with this fairly small sample, the sensible choice is pretty clear. I did find it particularly interesting that ‘I am not Jewish; No, it’s not a problem at all’ outnumbers ‘I am Jewish; I consider it a slur’, but I see that as a possible microcosm of the issue of treatment of minorities.
I see it as “a lot more non-Jews than Jews voted”. But I note that 8 of the 25 non-Jews thought it was fine, and none of the 9 Jews thought so. (Plus one voter whose vote doesn’t reveal their Jewishness.)
Yeah, I sort of think that one Jewish vote for ‘it’s a slur against Jews’ should be regarded to outweigh quite a lot of non-Jewish votes for ‘No it’s not, it’s fine!’.
Just to show great minds think alike, there is a Jewish Purim pastry some wag thought it would be a good idea to call “Haman’s ears”, and it is indeed known by that name in a couple of languages, though IMHO it is questionable and I would avoid it even if some might argue it is not meant as an anti-Iranian slur any more than Judas’s Ears are meant to be anti-Semitic.
Haman isn’t considered to be Iranian, nor Persian. He’s considered to be part of the tribe of Amalekites, whom, in one of the uglier bits of Judaism, Jews are commanded to commit genocide against. Fortunately for modern Jews, there is no modern ethnic group associated with the Amalekites.
