GoddessMine -> RE: Racial Slurs on the CM Boards (11/16/2007 7:57:04 PM)
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: CuriousLord A couple of notes. -Free speech is not on CM. (Perhaps most clearly explemified in the ToS and the consistent issue of trying not to offend the delicate sensibilities of some posters and moderators.) -"Nigger" isn't a word that we're supposed to say here, I think. I'm not entirely sure. It keeps changing. Seems that, in the gentlest of contexts, it changes. Also, if you're black, it's normally okay, regardless of context, so long as it's not blantantly malicious. -"Cracker" is a term I've never seen one criticized for using. -I think the whole thing's stupid. Nigger, cracker, whatever the hell other racial slurs are.. bah. People need to grow up and stop taking words so seriously. I've seen degenerates get in major fights over a couple of stupid, meaningless words that any sensible individual wouldn't have even paid attention to long enough to give half a damn. -To be fair, I tend to find people as overly emotional and prone to mellow drama. Therefore, I'm unsure as to how many share my personal view on the irrelevance of racial slurs. I suppose those that feel that the words actually have meaning will be far more prone to care about the words. PS- -Doesn't it strike anyone else as utterly patronizing to call it "the 'N' word"? It strikes me as sort of like saying, "Well, you're so senstive to a word, that I'm going to refer to it like I'm talking to children as to not risk hurting your easily bruised skin." After all, what better way to show someone that you respect someone than to refer to words around them in the most patronizing manner possible? Some quick thoughts to your post: I, and many others around Me, criticize the usage of "cracker" when used in a hurtful manner. But that's just it - hurtful. Very rarely (in fact, none) do I feel violence reverberated with 'cracker' as opposed to 'nigger'. I agree with you on a certain level - words are just ink on paper, on a screen. Barthes teaches us to see the beauty in just that. But it's human nature to attach symbols and significance to words, and though we can actively ascribe meaning to words on our own, and in our own way, that won't change how words are universally understood. Nigger is a word - but people have been denied housing - have been killed - because of this word. I feel that saying "n-word" isn't patronizing. It recognizes the painful history that is attached to the actual word. It's also a way of gauging what others are comfortable with. I suppose one can argue that that kind of logic is constricting on our freedom of speech, but it's My choice to be sensitive to the histories of other communities of color. Was that patronizing? Love, GM
|
|
|
|