Reclaiming Offensive Words

[Flyndaran]

Another example of such hypocrisy are minority-only benefits and clubs and groups etc, especially within schools. I mean, if someone made a "Whites-only after school activities group" can you imagine the fucking drama? However, they have something similar for Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders only etc.

This sends a message of segregation to both groups.

That makes sense as long as whites are an equivilently small minority as those getting assistance.
But otherwise I agree that things like affirmative action are inherently racist.

[Nyoibo]

Here's a list of the ethnicities in Australia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demogra...ia#Ethnicities

I'm going to highlight:

British Australian
Greek Australian
Italian Australian
European Australian
Macedonian Australian


Notice something about these groups? They're all primarily White yet it would be silly to lump their cultures together. Yet, that's what you want to do. Do you know why there would be drama because of it? Because it's racist to act as though all White people have a shared culture regardless of where they/their ancestors immigrated from.

And no, it is not segregation to have an extracurricular group to celebrate one's ethnic heritage.

Ok, want to go and see how many different Aboriginal groups there are now?

[RecoveringKinkoid]

If you're going to use the word yourself, then no, you don't get a pass to be offended when someone else uses it in the same context.

If the word is offensive, then it is offensive when EVERYONE uses it.

.

I agree. Especially in the case of the enn word. It gets thrown around casually, then some idiot like Don Imus uses it and everyone goes beserk. Than he is able, and rightly so, to claim it's not offensive if blacks can use it.

It's an incredibly lame argument, but then, people like Imus are incredibly lame.

You throw around offensive words, you kind of weaken your argument that the word is offensive.

Decent people do not use the word "nigger." I don't care what ethnicity they are.

[Kalli]

Here's a list of the ethnicities in Australia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demogra...ia#Ethnicities

I'm going to highlight:

British Australian
Greek Australian
Italian Australian
European Australian
Macedonian Australian


Notice something about these groups? They're all primarily White yet it would be silly to lump their cultures together. Yet, that's what you want to do. Do you know why there would be drama because of it? Because it's racist to act as though all White people have a shared culture regardless of where they/their ancestors immigrated from.

And no, it is not segregation to have an extracurricular group to celebrate one's ethnic heritage.

This is just nitpicking.

I didn't say all whites had a shared culture. I said if a majority formed a group that excluded anyone based on race, they would be labeled racist. However if a minority forms a group based on race, it's called liberation.

You took my example and blew it completely out of context AND proportion. If I wanted to be absolutely technically correct with what I meant when I said "whites only", I would have been. It wasn't necessary to illustrate my point.

[Rapscallion]

Ah, one of my pet peeves. There are many who think highly of Oprah, but I'll never forget the time she insisted that if she used the word 'nigger' when talking to black friends and relations, but that a white person using it was automatically racist. No idea if I could find the Youtube link, but if people are interested then I'll try and find it.

The word 'nigger' has always been used to segregate between groups, and not in a nice way. Although the word 'geek' mentioned above made me think hard about my position, geekdom is something that has proved to have distinct abilities that have created technological benefits due to the nature of the people. Being black is a matter of heritage and not of differing abilities - there are geeks of differing skin colours.

I'm firmly of the opinion that the word needs to be laid to rest by everyone for a long time until it becomes a footnote in history without the emotion.

However, I also know that human nature will always find a new term to use to offend against a group - the sheer number of times the terms for a physical handicap has been redefined is testament to this. I also know that if a group of one group tries to reclaim a word for themselves when it had been used against them, another group of that group will refuse to do so.

People (not the people here) make this sort of debate moot. Someone's going to try and reclaim a word, others are going to be offended, some are going to use it offensively, and the government is pretty much going to be powerless to work out what people actually want.

Rapscallion

[Flyndaran]

I agree. Especially in the case of the enn word. It gets thrown around casually, then some idiot like Don Imus uses it and everyone goes beserk. Than he is able, and rightly so, to claim it's not offensive if blacks can use it.
...

I thought Imus got in trouble for referring to a group of female black athletes as nappy headed, not the real "N" word.

Ah, one of my pet peeves. There are many who think highly of Oprah, ...

Oprah is an ignorance spewing gullible douche.
She has promoted so freaking many urban legends as true that I would pop a blood vessel is I was forced to watch her.

[BroomJockey]

Oprah is an ignorance spewing gullible douche.

Case in point: When 4chan tricked Oprah in to saying the phrase "over 9000 penises."

[Flyndaran]

Case in point: When 4chan tricked Oprah in to saying the phrase "over 9000 penises."

Or when she promoted the nonsense that vaccinations cause autism.

[DesignFox]

Or when she promoted the nonsense that vaccinations cause autism.

And plenty of people are still paranoid about this...

[Flyndaran]

And plenty of people are still paranoid about this...

Far be it from me to call idiots bad names, but...

[Peppergirl]

Oprah is an ignorance spewing gullible douche.
She has promoted so freaking many urban legends as true that I would pop a blood vessel is I was forced to watch her.

One of the rare times we actually agree on something! She's a hypocrite too. Can't stand her.

[kokopuff3]

Speaking as a black woman, the word "nigger" is not a word I would reclaim...to me, that word is demeaning, and I would be equally offended if a fellow black person used that word in my presence as if a person from another race used it. While some people may believe that words only have as much power as people allow them to have (not talking to anyone in particular), it is beyond comprehension to me why ANYBODY would want to reclaim a word that has been used to demean, for centuries. Just my thoughts, hopefully it makes sense.

[Rapscallion]

I'm with you on this one.

Rapscallion

[jackfaire]

As I recall didn't that word come from the word Ignorant?

[KnitShoni]

Speaking as a black woman, the word "nigger" is not a word I would reclaim...to me, that word is demeaning, and I would be equally offended if a fellow black person used that word in my presence as if a person from another race used it. While some people may believe that words only have as much power as people allow them to have (not talking to anyone in particular), it is beyond comprehension to me why ANYBODY would want to reclaim a word that has been used to demean, for centuries. Just my thoughts, hopefully it makes sense.

I feel the exact same way. Problem is, the loudest, most visible Blacks are "reclaiming" a word none of the rest of us want.