Reclaiming Offensive Words

[kokopuff3]

@ KnitShoni: Yes, that's the sad truth..and it will continue until more of us speak out against it.

@ jackfaire: I honestly don't know what the source of the word is. It's just not something I would ever want to reclaim, as if it were a source of pride/something to be proud of.

[Cat]

I haven't read through the whole thread yet (I'll do that at work...heehee)

But can I take back "Yank," "Yankee," and "Nutmeger?" Never got why they were insults.....

[McDreidel09]

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

That is exactly right. Slaves were called (I hate using this word, but this is for educational purposes) niggers because they were "ignorant". The lower class white people were called that. It just evolved into a word that referred to black people in a derogatory way.

[Rebel]

I haven't read through the whole thread yet (I'll do that at work...heehee)

But can I take back "Yank," "Yankee," and "Nutmeger?" Never got why they were insults.....

I have to admit that in my part of Aussie land we sometimes use Yank or Yankee as an insult. But usually as a good natured insult/ribbing. We sometimes also call you a Seppo or Septic (usually more British populated areas) coz rhyming slang is fun.

Some offensive words that are being reclaimed in Australia;
-Wog --> an southern eastern European immigrant or an Australian of southern eastern European ancestory (eg. Italians, Greek, Croatians, Serbians, etc).
-Pom/Pohm --> Property of Her Magesty. People from England. Ususally referred to as Whinging Pom's coz they're always thought to be whining about the hot weather.
-Bogan/Ocker --> Person considered to be of lower class and poor education.

Most of the time the people use them in jest towards themselves. The words just lose their power when the people it's aimed towards enjoy the use of it as well.
That being said, there are still some words that should never be used (Abo, Towelhead, Paki, Boong, Coon - unless in reference to the cheese). Those words are still highly offensive and should just not ever be uttered.

[jackfaire]

That is exactly right. .

Yays my edumacation was gud


On topic I don't like the words Faggot or Queer yet so many are wanting to reclaim them honestly I feel everytime one of us uses them it makes us sound stupid.

Question how is it reclaiming a word as in taking it back if the word was never used by your group in the first place?

[Fryk]

Shows what I know. I always thought "that word" came from southerners who couldn't say "negro" right.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

My son ran afoul of the reclamation of words. He was raised in New England where there are few African-Americans and the ones that you do see aren't a part of the urban culture that frequently uses the word Nigger.

Also, we did a very good job at making our children see past the differences of skin and to look at the people within. So he wasn't prepared for the racial tensions commonly found in the urban culture. This was our failing and he paid the price.

So when we had to move to Maryland and a school district where he was in a very distinct minority (out of 600 students, he was one of 20 white children) and he heard the phrase "What's up my nigga?" bounced around as a greeting that was as common as "Dude! 'sup!" was in the school he came from...he did the unthinkable. He uttered "What's up my nigga?" to a friend that he had made a week prior.

In the end he had a broken nose, a missing pair of teeth (thank god they were baby teeth) a five-day suspension and a hearing to consider if he would be expelled from the school.

We fought the school board for that area on that issue. I had recorded the sounds of the hallway on a digital voice recorder while waiting on the hearing and pointed out the misunderstanding caused by our lessons on acceptance and the fact that if all variations of the word "nigger" were verboten, then they need to stand out in the halls and start chucking the students out of the facility in droves. Then I played my voice recorder.

We won, but we were glad that he only had that one year in Elementary School before he could go to a different school. The school personnel was less than helpful towards my son at best and at worst was openly hostile.

[jackfaire]

Yeah that is definitly another side of reclamation you can't reclaim a word as a now positive thing and then when others not of your tribe use it in that positive way treat it like it's still the most offensive thing you have ever heard.