Amaros
Posts: 1363
Joined: 7/25/2005
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I got kicked off a website once for quoting an anti-PC argument that used the N word, adn the argument, as I've maintained all along, is simply a dispute over common courtesy vs. habitual speech patterns - the argument this guy made was that to expect him to refrain from labelling people he didn't know in slanderous and defamatory terms was "immature" - don't know how he was raised, but inthe world I grew up in, name calling was not considered definitive of mature behavior.
I also got in trouble once for using the word "Negress", which actually has kind of erotic connotations for me, and I wasnt' aware it was on the banned list - "negro" simply being the Latin word for "Black".
For the record, "nigger" is the noun for of the Old English word, "nig", which means to scratch and scrape (to earn a living), i.e., to nig, from whence we also get the word "niggle", to haggle or harrass in a petty way. It's a name that White Appalachian farmers referred to themselves by, and was originally applied to African Americans as a token of solidarity, since in the beginning, Black slaves and poor whites, many indentured servants, were in the same boat - racisim had to be invented in order to head off the increasingly common bi-racial rioting that was occuring in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth centuries. The "peculiar institution" consequently became peculiar indeed, as historically, American slavery was unique in it's need to reduce human beings to the status of inhuman animals, both linguistically and physically, in order to justify itself.
The whole thing is the result of an economic imbalance - there were many more have nots than haves, and the haves were nervous about beign outnumbered - divide and conquer - it worked, and is still working in many cases.
It would be nice if some of these words were defused, this one is largely defused amongst the hip-hop generation, but there are still people around who have witnessed family members arbitraily mob lynched, and worse - it's still an open wound, and it's worst excesses are not beyond the reach of living memory.
As used among African Americans, amongst the older generation, it retains some of it's original meaning, albeit in the perjorative sense, either connoting a base "hustler", or petty selfishness, while in the younger generation, it's mostly a figure of speech.
In short, a little understanding can go a long way - good communication requires some effort, and semiotic sloth is not a virtue, you're just being lazy.
Not every politically incorrect statement is intended to do harm, but you need to find some way of communicating that, it's a simple matter of common courtesy and respect - I'm sorry, everyone is sensitive to being pigeonholed or summarily dismissed, it's a form of social death, and there are real actual stresses involved, that are empirically and demonstratively damaging to mental and physical health - it's a risk we're all gonna have to dance around for a while.
PC disclaimer: Anyone offended by my quote of the N word is entitled to a free shot, spit it out, don't be shy - stressing anyone is not my intent.
< Message edited by Amaros -- 10/7/2006 10:33:25 AM >
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RE: Sick of PC - 
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