I was one of the first to respond to the post on that blog. And I see how it could be offensive, and *yes* I understand it's not much better than industrial waste pretending to be a caffeinated beverage.
The thing is, we 'middle aged white men' can say "Nigger", today. Not all the time, and it depends on context. And mostly because the listener understands we're not really racists and by using it, we're most likely trying to be funny.
But 20 years ago, we couldn't. No way, no how, end-of-story, The End.
Even if it might have been humorous.
Nigger, Nigger, Nigger, Kike, faggot, Gook, Spic. Hey, there; lookit that. I wrote bad names.
Right now, we have to wait to use 'Arab' and 'gun' in the same sentence if we're trying to be amusing -- even if we're not trying to make the associations that rednecks currently make (and how's that for a 'loaded' name?). We may have to wait another 30 years for people to start disassociating 'Arab' from 'Terrorist'. And it's a sad thing, because I *don't* associate the two in my head -- but I know many others do.
And until things settle down in a decade or three... social discourse might just have to dance around this issue for a while. Just to keep things calm for the time being.
Time will pass
I was one of the first to respond to the post on that blog. And I see how it could be offensive, and *yes* I understand it's not much better than industrial waste pretending to be a caffeinated beverage.
The thing is, we 'middle aged white men' can say "Nigger", today. Not all the time, and it depends on context. And mostly because the listener understands we're not really racists and by using it, we're most likely trying to be funny.
But 20 years ago, we couldn't. No way, no how, end-of-story, The End.
Even if it might have been humorous.
Nigger, Nigger, Nigger, Kike, faggot, Gook, Spic. Hey, there; lookit that. I wrote bad names.
Right now, we have to wait to use 'Arab' and 'gun' in the same sentence if we're trying to be amusing -- even if we're not trying to make the associations that rednecks currently make (and how's that for a 'loaded' name?). We may have to wait another 30 years for people to start disassociating 'Arab' from 'Terrorist'. And it's a sad thing, because I *don't* associate the two in my head -- but I know many others do.
And until things settle down in a decade or three... social discourse might just have to dance around this issue for a while. Just to keep things calm for the time being.
Just my $0.02