The context you used it in was precisely why you were mod-noted.
And rightly so.
The right thing to do here to cement your non-racist bona fides would have been to just say “Oh, sorry, I did not know how that word sounds casually tossed in to any discussion about a Black historic figure. My bad, won’t do it again”
Every post you made that is not that, was not a good post.
Counterpoint - also not American, and I knew exactly what kind of response was coming when I read that post. It all went down before I read the thread, or I would have reported it too.
However, I can easily believe innocence of that nuance from non-American, non-FL English posters like yourself. And middle-aged White Americans? I’m skeptical, but I guess privilege can do wonders at shielding people. I can guarantee precious few Black Americans would be ignorant of that nuance, though.
I’ve used it more than once here sarcastically in race-related discussions. And if I’d been moderated for that kind of usage, I would have been quite upset. But that very aware usage and the one under concern here are polar opposites.
Before reading the original context I was thinking “uppity” is fine and not necessarily racist. Then I read what you originally posted and…it’s pretty rough.
The mod note was accurate but far more subjective than it needed to be which resulted in emotional responses on both sides. No one called you a racist (from what I can tell) and you’re not even in the same hemisphere as the SDMB users that I consider to at least be casual racists. But the idea of a “bad word list” is absurd in this context. I try to look at these issues from the view of a lurker or someone who is brand new to the boards. If one of my first introductions to the SDMB was the MLK statue thread, how would I react to your response?
Personally, I would find it very jarring and at the very least I would consider you to be a poster that I would not want to debate with. Not because I know you personally but because of my experiences with that word. In my experience, it’s always an insult when directed at a specific person or group. Other users in the past have used the word and it didn’t bother me in any way because they weren’t directing it at other posters. Generally speaking they were always talking about people in power trying to keep people who aren’t in power “in their place”.
These racist/taboo word conversations tend to go off the rails quickly because everyone is too busy being offended to stop and think about how things may be viewed by other people who are less familiar with the board and each other. You attempted to discuss the context in your OP but it’s notably missing the other side. You’re only discussing the context from your perspective, which is fine, but you would have an entirely different and valid context if you grew up black in America. Racists love playing the “I’m not touching you” game and they will use every word in the book except the n-word just so that they can play “gotcha” word games with you when you object. “I wasn’t calling you a coon, I just was referring to the fact that you have a red beard like my coon hound dog.”
For me it’s not about a “naughty” word. It’s about the fact that every single white person that has ever directed “uppity” at me in my almost four decades of living has fallen somewhere between casual and unapologetic racist. I don’t have a banned list in my head but I do have a list of warning words. Being able to recognize these warning words has mostly kept me safe and helped me avoid stupid conflicts with strangers and classmates over the years. Is it fair to the other person to make a snap judgement so quickly? Not necessarily. Does my opinion about them change as they provide more context and I get to understand their personality and background better? Absolutely. I can’t count how many times I’ve been able to mediate and deescalate dumbass bar conversations (15 years in the service industry, mostly behind the bar) because I recognized a warning word and kept certain customers from engaging each other.
Yeah–I wrote a post here about “I’m not touching you” trolling, but deleted it because it sounded like I was accusing @Whack-a-Mole of that, and I don’t want to.
But it IS worth considering that context. A well-worn troll tool is to do a reverse dogwhistle, where instead of trying to communicate with fellow bigots using plausible deniability, you try to annoy non-bigots using plausible deniability. EVERYONE can hear the whistle, you just pretend you’re not whistling. The use of “uppity” in a thread about MLK sure comes across as that sort of reverse dogwhistle.
I believe @Whack-a-Mole that it was not intentional, but goddamn was it unfortunate; and it would’ve been much better to admit the mistake than to fuss about getting called out for it.
Edit: And there’s absolutely no need for emotionless modding. I want some passion in the mods.
Yeah, maybe our first priority doesn’t need to be to respect and cater to white fragility. I mean, sure, maybe some people of color were hurt by the use of a racist term. But isn’t it more important that we consider the feelings of the offender?
Yes. Obviously not to mean taking substantive action against a poster without careful consideration and objectivity. But reacting in a way that reflects the emotional impact upon a mod as a member of the class of “reasonable people”? Totally appropriate, expressing that emotional impact is part of the process of fighting ignorance.
I’m taking back the bold part. I read it again and I think @puzzlegal gave a great explanation of why the usage was problematic. I understand why @Whack-a-Mole reacted to the mod note but I don’t think the note was out of bounds.
I agree that ignorance was fought all around and that’s what we do
Quite so. As a little kid playing cards with my southern grandmother on the rare occasions I won and quietly crowed about it she’d call me uppity.
But I’ve well aware of it’s association and have never used the word myself in any way other than sarcastically. Where it has it’s place. But yeah, in a thread like that it is a wince-inducer.
I will chime in too that I have heard the term “uppity” used without involving race, it’s not automatically about racism. It is about class. A poor white guy with little education who decides to dress in nicer clothes and use complicated words he looked up on the internet to impress people might be called “uppity”, and potentially even in a humorous and not necessarily derogatory manner.
But…
I’m also well aware that even though it’s ostensibly a reference to class, it has historically been used very often to denigrate minorities, particularly Black people. And I would probably just avoid it entirely in such discussions. It’s pretty loaded.
Because it’s not exclusively a racial term, I can understand if someone doesn’t understand the sensitivity of the term. But they shouldn’t freak out when it’s pointed out to them either. “Oops, my bad, I wasn’t aware, I won’t do that again,” seems the appropriate response.
Yeah, “uppity” is more generally a “know your (social) place!” type of beat-down remark, but most often used in a racial or sexist context. I’m surprised by the number of posters unaware of the connotations (I particularly recall “uppity” being used a bit in the context of Obama over the years), but I also remind myself that I have wide holes in my general knowledge, too. Still, it was screeching tires in my head when I read that word, especially in the context of that thread. I’m glad it was pointed out, and everyone’s the wiser.
Yes, it’s just one person’s perspective and not definitive, but I think @Frosted_Glass ’s post in this thread is an excellent and thoughtful take on why erring on the more sensitive side when it comes to moderation of potentially othering or racist language is appropriate for a community or organization.
Just for fun, I fed the entire post in question to our favorite AI Chatbot, ChatGTP, and simply asked it to make some comments on the post:
The comment appears to be discussing a statue of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, and questioning why some people might be upset that the statue does not closely resemble the historical figures it is meant to depict.
The comment also uses the term “uppity” which is considered a racial slur and it is not appropriate to use.
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?
