# The SDMB needs to have a banned words list **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [January 20, 2023, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-needs-to-have-a-banned-words-list/978494 "2023-01-20T04:55:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Steven\_Maven](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steven_maven/32/3272_2.png) [@Steven\_Maven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steven_Maven)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2023, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-needs-to-have-a-banned-words-list/978494/61 "2023-01-20T22:38:52Z")
Rather than a list of “banned” words, perhaps it should be a list of “fraught” words which some naive people might not know are offensive. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2023, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-needs-to-have-a-banned-words-list/978494/62 "2023-01-20T22:41:27Z")
This is something you could begin. Anyone could add to it whenever an issue arose. It’s not, after all, a list of banned words that the board endorses and will act on, but just an informative list. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2023, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-needs-to-have-a-banned-words-list/978494/63 "2023-01-20T22:45:59Z")
> [@Steven\_Maven](#): > > For anyone who innocently doesn’t know that “uppity” is a racist code-word, have you ever heard it in any other context than being applied to black people who stand up for themselves? As a matter of fact, I have. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2023, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-needs-to-have-a-banned-words-list/978494/64 "2023-01-20T22:49:01Z")
Absolutely but I am not going to run around searching for non-racist usage. Some earlier in this thread have noted other usages of the word. I think a distinction can be made with words like the “n-word” which were only ever derogatory and words like “uppity” or “retarded” which started life as perfectly normal words with an inoffensive definition that were later co-opted and used so often in a derogatory manner that the connotation changed. They lend themselves to this because their definitions, by their very nature, have a derogatory bent to them (e.g. snob or stupid). As such, I expect there is no shortage of non-racist usage even if recent usage has been largely racist. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2023, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-needs-to-have-a-banned-words-list/978494/65 "2023-01-20T22:54:37Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > words like “uppity” or “retarded” which started life as perfectly normal words with an inoffensive definition Again, even if it wasn’t racist, I find it hard to believe that there ever was significant usage of _uppity_ that was not derogatory. Even in your own post that started this whole thing, you used it in a derogatory manner. _Uppity_-ness is an inherently derogatory concept. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2023, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-needs-to-have-a-banned-words-list/978494/66 "2023-01-20T22:55:23Z")
Sure. Are you suggesting we should never use derogatory language? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2023, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-needs-to-have-a-banned-words-list/978494/67 "2023-01-20T22:56:53Z")
A derogatory word—whether racist or not—can’t be _inoffensive_. It is by definition intended to be offensive. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2023, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-needs-to-have-a-banned-words-list/978494/68 "2023-01-20T23:02:27Z")
Is there _anybody_ who warrants the label “uppity”? Disparaging someone for aspiring above their station is obscene in an egalitarian society. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2023, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-needs-to-have-a-banned-words-list/978494/69 "2023-01-20T23:07:12Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Is there _anybody_ who warrants the label “uppity”? An AI posing as a moderator? ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2023, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-needs-to-have-a-banned-words-list/978494/70 "2023-01-20T23:14:05Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > A derogatory word—whether racist or not—can’t be _inoffensive_. It is by definition intended to be offensive. The construction that @Whack-a-Mole used was along the lines of “Surely I wouldn’t be uppity to think X…” In that construction, another derogatory word without the racist baggage would have been fine “Surely I wouldn’t be a jerk to think X…” ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2023, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-needs-to-have-a-banned-words-list/978494/71 "2023-01-20T23:15:08Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Disparaging someone for aspiring above their station is obscene in an egalitarian society. Well, there is the arrogance of those who are quite well out of the zone of their expertise who insist their opinion is at least as good as an expert’s. Such as those who do their ‘research’ on the internet arguing against global warming or for a flat earth. I’d be inclined to use the term ‘uppity’ there, save for the fact that it has become a term too associated with unfair discriminatory practices for me to choose to do so. But those are the types of folks whom may fairly be discriminated against. I opt for terms such as “self deluded dolt who is unaware of their own incompetence”. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2023, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-needs-to-have-a-banned-words-list/978494/72 "2023-01-20T23:16:50Z")
Like I indicated above I’ve heard it used in a sexist context, but not exclusively so. Perhaps its use and rarity is regional? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2023, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-needs-to-have-a-banned-words-list/978494/73 "2023-01-20T23:21:24Z")
If you search on google, “uppity site:boards.straightdope.com” you get an interesting set of threads where uppity actually is not even commented upon. One thread title asks if Tucker Carlson is an “uppity prick” back from 2003. I wonder if the racist connotations have come more to the forefront in recent years, or just nobody cared back then. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2023, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-needs-to-have-a-banned-words-list/978494/74 "2023-01-20T23:25:00Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I wonder if the racist connotations have come more to the forefront in recent years, or just nobody cared back then. I recall the term ‘uppity’ being directed at people of color back in the 1960’s. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Librarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_librarian/32/402_2.png) [@The\_Librarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Librarian)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2023, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-needs-to-have-a-banned-words-list/978494/75 "2023-01-20T23:25:12Z")
I feel that the claim that it was used in ignorance is so extraordinary it needs a cite, please provide a link to any publication of a writer/journalist/whatever that you respect were that word is used. It is even more unlikely you weren’t aware of it’s racist connotations when you consider the subject of the thread you were in. You are an adult, raised in the US, interested in something involving MLK and you don’t know that “uppity” is especially problematic in this context? I don’t buy it. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2023, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-needs-to-have-a-banned-words-list/978494/76 "2023-01-20T23:32:10Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > One thread title asks if Tucker Carlson is an “uppity prick” back from 2003. I wonder if the racist connotations have come more to the forefront in recent years, or just nobody cared back then. I think it’s only strongly taboo in a racial context, and that isn’t a recent development. On SDMB I’d think its use in a misogynistic context or more broadly punching down would be deprecated more now than 20 years ago, but that’s probably more a change in SDMB than any change in attitude to this specific word. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2023, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-needs-to-have-a-banned-words-list/978494/77 "2023-01-20T23:46:36Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Any time the word “uppity” is used in any kind of context that includes MLK, it’s going to seem intentionally provocative to almost anyone. Pleading (inexplicable) ignorance is the only possible excuse. This, so much this. It is possible, although I too am horrified to learn this, to not know the connotation of the word in usage towards disenfranchised classes/races (I’ve seen it most applied to african-americans, women, and ‘lower status’ individuals [(the help’s getting uppity]), but wow, that combo of thread/verbiage looked _terrible_. I also agree that we don’t want bright lines, but it could be valuable to non-American posters, so I’m linking a CNN article that lists several. And yes, ‘uppity’ is very clearly listed. [https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/06/us/racism-words-phrases-slavery-trnd/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/06/us/racism-words-phrases-slavery-trnd/index.html) Should help some posters dodge a few others, although again, context matters. ETA - this is by no means an exhaustive list, in my search I came across a dozen similar lists of words with racist history/overtones, but figured it would be a good start. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2023, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-needs-to-have-a-banned-words-list/978494/78 "2023-01-21T00:05:49Z")
Oh of that I have no doubt. The racial connotations have been known to me since at least my teen years. It’s a word, though, that now is probably never use in any context, whereas I feel twenty years ago, I wouldn’t necessarily always connote it with the racist descriptor. It could just be my journey with language. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2023, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-needs-to-have-a-banned-words-list/978494/79 "2023-01-21T00:07:17Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Is there _anybody_ who warrants the label “uppity”? I’ve used it jokingly to self-mock when I feel like a fish out of water. I very rarely wear a suit and tie, and I’ve called myself “uppity” when doing so. It’s not a phrase I use all the time, probably no more than a few times in my life to be honest. It’s not part of my regular vocabulary. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2023, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-needs-to-have-a-banned-words-list/978494/80 "2023-01-21T00:30:23Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > > [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > > > Is there _anybody_ who warrants the label “uppity”? > > An AI posing as a moderator? I dunno, man, that ai was doing a decent job… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-needs-to-have-a-banned-words-list/978494.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-needs-to-have-a-banned-words-list/978494.md?page=5)