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Surely her word that she finds it offensive should be enough?
I don't think he's looking to argue with her about it, just asking why she feels how she does. One thing to remember with him is that he's going to ask questions in a discussion like this, he's going to ask you to defend your stance. It doesn't mean he's trying to be condescending or anything, he's just looking for clarification and sometimes it forces you to think more about the topic than you would have otherwise, and everyone walks away having learned something.
Yeah but saying something like that can come across as annoying.
In this kind of situation, though, it often comes down to misinterpretation. I have the same problem, I'll make a comment and someone takes it as a challenge and gets all upset and defensive while I'm sitting here thinking I was having a perfectly normal and calm discussion. It's this damn internet, makes the tone of your words difficult to convey at times.
I believe her that she finds it offensive. The question is why.
That doesn't answer the question. That's just killing the messenger, so you don't have to think about why.
See, I would say that announcing that no one should be offended by the word 'nigger' is being snotty, intentional or not. Posting a video of some beardiod rambling in his cellar as proof just maks it even more snotty.
The word is an ethnic slur. You don't get to decide whether or not people find it offensive. Fucks sake, the word has it's roots in slavery. That's why people are offended by it. It's used to dehumanise or reduce the status of the race it slurs.
And yes, the combination of letters that make up the word have no power themselves. The word, in fact and word put in a linguistic vacuum with no context means nothing. Of course it means nothing. But that's something that never happens. There is no way to divorce the word from the stench of racism that hangs over it.
And no, the word does not have its roots in slavery. If you watched the entire video, you'd know that. It was used in slavery, yes, but where it stems from is entirely different.
True, it can be used to objectify someone's hatred of another race (though, I don't quite understand what's to be offended over by someone hating you as my motto toward someone hating me tends to be "Okay, peace", but wutevz), but the word itself should not be offensive. The fact that black people use the word is a paragon to that point.
No word can reduce the status of a human being, unless you let it. I will once again point out the fact that I am Italian. Should someone refer to me as "ginny", I am not in the least bit offended because:
1. The word, itself, is empty.
2. If it is a message of their hate for me, I could care less about their opinion of me.
"But, Chief! Blacks were slaves! Italians we--"
Actually, the largest mass lynching in American history was perpetrated against Italians. Italians, for a long period of time, were not even considered white in America (see Sacco and Vanzetti). Enter the mob.
Point is: If you take pride in yourself, no word can devalue you.
Edit: Eh, this is just going to go round and round. We're just going to have to agree to disagree.
But you're wrong and I'm right.
The fact that you cant accept this is very annoying to me.
So you are saying you find it ludicrous that someone can take offence to what is widely regarded and accepted as a racist term?
chuckle
Its back :yippe:
I fail to see how in a social animal, where language is one of the main methods of communication, something as menial as a word wouldn't alter your mood. That's the whole point of language, isn't it? If it wasn't, then pretty much every literature writer, or political speech writer, or tabloid journalist in the world would be out of a job.
Take everything with a grain of salt. I know that I personally tend to pass everything I read or hear through a mental filter thinking "Who's saying this?" "What are their goals" "Why should I care?" before I react to it.
Would it effect my mood? Yes it would. I would temporarily go from whatever I was to being slightly confused.
And words convey an idea, but in the absence of any ability to climb in the mind of the person using the word, where does our knowledge of what they meant come from? It comes from the common usage of the word within culture, which is why letting a foreigner loose with a thesaurus can be quite funny, because they don't quite get the subtleties of certain words, and end up using things that are technically correct, but culturally, just wrong for what they're trying to say.
Take a specific example. What is the difference between the word promiscuous and the word slut? In terms of meaning, they both refer to someone who has a lot of sexual partners. Yet in reality, anyone who is native in English knows that the latter of the two comes with all sorts of connotations that the former doesn't, and it is therefore people will assume that you intended those connotations when you used the word.
Again, I'm not saying you should go around being rude to people. Far from it. What I'm saying is that the recipients of words should not let words harm them. Sticks and stones.
If some random person came up to YOU on the street and said that, what would you do?
Because I think most people would either be confused or amused. Both of which are 'changing your mood', though not necessarily letting it bother them. Confused =/= bothered.
I was walking with my girfriend of the time through Bond Street about 10 years ago and two skinheads were walking past in the other direction and the older guy looked at me and my spikey hair and snapped, "your hair looks fucking shit" quite angrily with a snarl.
Yes it did bother me.
My GF was half Somalian/half Arabic and they looked like your typical racists so i dont know if that had something to do with it but yeah it played on my mind and pissed me off, i was about 17 and they were in their 30's so it was a bit worrying!
Im sure if someone looked at you and said "C##T" as they walked past you might do more than just hear it and immediatly dismiss it. You might even process it through your brain and think about "why" did he call me a "C##T"
Getting upset for being called a nigger is no less understandable for being upset for being called fat (if your fat) or skinny (if your skinny) or faggot (if your gay) in my opinion.