Okay, so how can you say, “It’s not your call” to someone?
You did? From who?
Because it’s no single person’s call. Many people believe that the use of the phrase “Negro dialect” is quite racist.
I don’t recall saying anybody WAS an authority. I’m asking what makes Cochran’s take credible. So far the answer is nothing. It was a rhetorical tactic, and my impression at the time was that not a lot of people took it seriously. There are some accents that sound distinctively black. Not 100 percent of black people have them by any stretch and there are probably some white people who have them, but it I think the point stands. And it’s not racist regardless, even if it’s inaccurate.
People did say that, including some people here. It was really stupid.
Who said it?
Is racism a matter of popular opinion?
In the thread about that debate, (page 5) a few posters compared it to “you people,” but I’ll admit they may have been talking about how the comment was going to be interpreted. I don’t think the search engine is going to help me find anything else about “that one.”
Of course it is. How could it not be? It varies from time to time and from place to place. How is that anything but popular opinion?
Hafta agree with Nars at least on that point.
Even if you squint, how did Harry Reid express a racist sentiment?
Btw, taken from blogs: "McCain calling Senator Obama “that one” smacks, smells, stinks, reeks of racism in every regard. " "The comment just rings of a racist disrespect. He effectively called Obama “that boy.” I’m not attributing this to large numbers of people, but some did see racism in it, and it was absurd.
IMHO (and that’s all it is and all it’s worth), he used a racist phrase to describe a non-racist sentiment. Aside from this discussion, when was the last time that you used Negro as an adjective?
I don’t think I ever have, but it’s not racist, just outdated. I’m old enough to remember that being considered the polite word.
[Snotty, pedantic sniff] Its a noun, actually. [/s,ps]
I remeber this now. At first I thought you guys were talking about that “The One” commercial that hinted that Obama was the Antichrist, but I didn’t remember any accusations of racism. I had completely forgotten about “that one” in the debates, but I still don’t think very many people seriously thought it was racist, just kind of belittling. It certainly wasn’t any kind of major scandal. I think Obama supporters were more amused than offended.
And a pretty standard one too, up until the early seventies.
Black Power only really started to hit the mainstream consciousness after the 1968 Olympics.
Eventually we all got around to calling folks ‘blacks’ or ‘African Americans’ instead of negros. A few years later, we stopped using the word ‘groovy’ quite so much, but that still pops up in ordinary conversation once in a while too.
I assumed that the Negro in “Negro dialect” modified dialect and was therefore an adjective.
OK, make that “snooty, pedantic, and stupid.”
This. It seemed as if McCain so despised Obama that he couldn’t bring himself to say the man’s name, is how it came across to me; that’s what was so offensive about it, without any overtone of racism.
I’ve still got a sweatshirt that proudly proclaims: I’m voting for “That One.”
Or it could have been a “senior moment” and he simply forgot Obama’s name for a second.