Can I call the AI uppity?
ME: The person who wrote the paragraph about the statue asks if he can call you “uppity.”
AI: I am an artificial intelligence, I do not have emotions or the ability to feel offended. However, as I mentioned earlier, the term “uppity” is considered a racial slur and it is not appropriate to use. It is used to describe a person, typically a person of color, who is perceived as arrogant or acting above their perceived social status. It has been used to demean and denigrate people of color and it’s considered offensive and disrespectful. It’s important to be aware of the language we use and the impact it can have on others.
I wanted to revisit this assertion. Do you feel the same way about the word “pretentious”?
This isn’t a “gotcha” attempt, I’m genuinely curious.
I think this illustrates the underlying idea in the OP.
“Grandfathered” is a fraught word? “Master Bedroom/bath”? “Cakewalk?” I could easily see myself stepping on those landmines.
Yup, many of us could.
What would be your response next time if you unwittingly step on one and offend others? Apologize and move on, or argue again?
I apologized in the other thread.
And, I think this discussion has been worthwhile.
YMMV
The Fish speaks well! (he’s been helping me out a lot today, so extra credit).
The advantage here is that everyone is familiar with you as a poster, and your body of work. We can look back and evaluate you in light of such, which makes it easier to consider what your intent was.
Elsewhere on the great sea of the internet, they may lack this advantage, and you may well be judged on your choice of words.
Thus the link. And as pointed out by our valuable non-US posters, they are much more likely to not have the social cues to understand the problematic language.
Thank you for that, I hadn’t seen it. Sincerely.
Agreed. I think it has for everyone, no need to include the disclaimer.
Moderator Warning
You quoted the entire OP just to add a “~George Carlin” attribute. You have been around here long enough to know that anything inside a quote box is sacrosanct.
You have also been around here long enough to know that ATMB is for resolving issues. It is not for your entertainment. I issue very few warnings in ATMB, because I want people to feel like they can express themselves without fear of warnings. But that does not apply to posts where someone intentionally comes into ATMB to stir things up or to insult other posters.
People often come into ATMB angry, and often they have a good reason to be angry. I can forgive someone loosing their cool and insulting someone in the heat of the moment. But if you only come in here to belittle another user or their posts, or to insult them by comparing their post to something George Carlin would say, that will get you a warning.
This is an official warning. Do not do this again.
By sheer coincidence, I happen to reading a book on the Roman Republic by a British author who regularly applies the word uppity to strivers for power. It takes me out every time, pondering the differences between British English and American English.
I’m astonished that we have so many people in this thread claiming they had never heard the racist usage. For the entire eight years of Obama’s presidency, people associated any criticism of him with the word uppity. Ngrams shows the usage peaks during his presidency. And the etymology of the word is fraught.
1880, American English, from up + -ity; originally used by blacks of other blacks felt to be too self-assertive (first recorded use is in “Uncle Remus”).
Whites soon took it up. Any time blacks stood up for their rights they became uppity, and the usages go back a century.
True, the word can be used in other ways. Uppity woman or women also rises hugely over the last twenty years on Ngrams. Who it’s hurled at no longer makes a difference. No use of it can be less than an insult. I certainly sympathize with those who are blindsided by the way usage has changed some common neutral terms in recent years. Uppity isn’t one of those words, though.
The SDMB doesn’t need a “banned words list” any more than society itself needs one. You fucked up, you got smacked down by your societal peers, and now (one would hope) you know better.
Literally working as intended.
Just as a data point, this American in Florida has never heard “uppity” used in a racist context. But also I don’t hear much anything as overt as “uppity n*****” in general.
I only associate “uppity” with sentences like “Don’t mind the cat, he just gets a little uppity around strangers”.
I guess that’s one more faux-pas I’ll avoid.
As for this topic, I fully agree with Johnny Bravo’s post above mine.
~Max
Add “and younger Half-Asians” to where I said “middle-aged White Americans” in the very next sentence, I guess? We’ve already established in other threads that you don’t talk to Black people about racism or politics, so this ignorance gap is as understandable for you as it is for them.
Pretentious to me doesn’t relay anything about a person’s perceived social status. A king can be considered pretentious as much as someone of lesser means.
It has just as much to do with it as “uppity” though, more so even. “Pretentious” means exaggerating your importance or stature. If anything, it is even more closely tied than “uppity”, which can just mean general arrogance.
To me the main difference is that it isn’t traditionally used in a racial connotation.
It seems that both my husband and I are privileged and neither of us were aware of the racial overtones of “uppity”, even though we are both very aware of “master/slave”. I asked how he would use “uppity” and he said he would use it to describe people who get upset by women wearing short skirts and pride parades.
That “peanut gallery” is a problem is new to me, especially as my parents both grew up with Howdy Doody, and used it quite often in the past few decades.
My grandmother used “uppity” to talk about people at her church, or relatives she wasn’t pleased with. She also used other words for non-whites, which I would not repeat here (never starting with n, but there were plenty of others).
It’s not a word that either of us use every day. And now I’ll notice if I hear it. I’ve learned something.
But it’s usually used to refer to exaggerating your knowledge, or the importance of some specialized bit of your knowledge, not your social status. One might talk about a pretentious wine snob. That person isn’t pretending to have a higher social standing than they have, they are making a fuss over wine.
I missed this. What’s the problem with peanut gallery? My only association with the word is Howdy Doody.
Maybe - no one would refer to someone displaying their specialized knowledge of NASCAR or Thomas Kinkade as pretentious.
Hmm, i think someone could be pretentious about NASCAR.