rick

This is related to racism...

Is it more appropriate to say;

"Black & White" or "Dark & Light"?

"Illegal Alien" or "Under Priviledged Citizen"?

If you were describing a sun spot or a amnesty march?

If you were describing an American without papers or a homeless person?

Words a bad - too easily twisted to mean the wrong thing by someone with a different mind set.

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Higher Logic

I don't think the terms black or white and immigrant or illegal alien have anything to do with racism. It just depends on if you want to be politically correct or not. I have a problem with people calling blacks African-Americans, because (a) they most likely aren't from Africa, and have probably never stepped foot there and (b) there are white people in Africa too, so you can have a white African-American. I don't want to be called a European-American or a Caucasian. Now if I immigrated here from Africa, or Australia, or Italy, or anywhere else, then feel free to tag on the prefix to distinguish where I come from, but if I'm born here, I'm American and I'm white.

I think being politically correct is just a way of being sensitive towards others. Some people take offense to being called an illegal alien, others don't. I'm not really sure how I feel about the whole issue though...

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2point4

rick,

Black and White are fine. HL makes a great point on the Afrifcan-American term. I've dated a few black girls, and one in particular, was special to me. Anyway, I asked her about 'adjectives' once. Black is fine, with dark-skinned and light-skinned being sub-categories. Surprisingly, there is a bit of racism in the black community, as well. So she claimed, even black men are more attracted to the light-skinned black girls. Take orphans for example(I don't even know if orphan is the politically-correct term anymore). Usually, white girls are adopted first, then white boys, then light-skinned black girls, dark-skinned black girls, then dark-skinned black boys(not taking into account other races). This is what she claimed, and I had no reason not to believe her.

As far as the politically correct words to use, the n-word and colored are good examples of what NEVER to use. Stick to black and white and you'll never hear and argument.

dedbr

I guess you meant "Words are bad...", huh?

I like 'em myself. Of course, about everybody knows that. Your right tho Rick, they can be twisted. But is it the word thats twisted, or the person?

But then again, it's only twisted I think if you don't agree with the way it's being used, huh?

I noticed at the onset of the Iraq war, the term "sand n*gger" became prevalent. Of course it was meant in a derogatory way, but the strange thing to me was that black people,( excuse me, I'm from the sixties ) were using the term just as fervently as anyone else!

So, here we have an example of an extremely dreogatory term being used against another ethnic group, by a group that it was used against, with no regret's. Twisted.


I like words, Rick. Just sometimes can't stand the way there used.......

Somewhere in Ded Land......dotting the tee's...

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1tokeovertheline

If you would have noticed sooner, it has been used since I (and you) was a kid. I didn't like it then and I don't like it now.

dedbr

it wasn't in use, I said it became more "prevalent." Meaning of more frequent use, or ascendent.

( geez, it's like being around a bunch of little kids.... )


Somewhere in Ded Land.....

1tokeovertheline

Well even little kids don't like the N-word. Even if it does have the word sand in front of it. I know we have had our differences, but I seriously don't think MJ.com is the place for racial slurs. Actually I don't think there is a place for it. Apparently you think it is an adult thing for you to say. Little kids would know better, so call me a little kid if racial slurs are an adult thing. Also you didn't say "more" prevalent, just prevelant. Which shows that if you would preview your post, maybe you wouldn't say only about half as much as you do. I have a dictionary and don't need you to give me the meaning of a word. I didn't see anywhere any reference that it meant acceptable. Thanks anyway.

I like words,ded. Just sometimes can't stand the way they're used......

dedbr

it would help if you would read the whole post, but since you have a case of "Dedbr has problems, doesn't anyone see this but me," I'm just going to ignore you and let you fade away into the distance.


Bye bye.......

Until you can stick to the topic and knock off the bull, your officially a non-entity, old son. Enjoy....

goodgirl

"Words a bad - too easily twisted to mean the wrong thing by someone with a different mind set."

Even to people with the same mind set they can apparently be twisted if 1toke's response to dedbr is any indication

I get a little crazed sometimes while trying to negotiate around the mine field of political correctness. I usually just try to say what I mean the best I can and hope that my intent comes through without someone getting hung up on what exact words I used.

When I saw the title to this post I actually thought it was about the show that recently aired titled "Black. White." Very interesting show, gave me a lot to think about.

I think that it has become much too easy to be offended these days; as a result I think that it has also become too easy to dismiss every case of offense as an over reaction.

As frustrating as it is however to live in times where we often feel as if we constantly have to watch every word we say I think that this is where we need to be right now. To go back to times where racial slurs and the like were commonplace and wouldn't raise any eyebrows might have been easier but it wouldn't be better.

I kind of see the struggles that we go through now as a stepping stone to getting to a place where someday it won't be necessary to watch what we say. At least when we are forced to stop a minute and wonder whether we are giving offense unintentionally we are also forced to admit that prejudice is offensive. We are raising our awareness to an almost hypersensitive pitch and while it is not easy it is a step in the right direction. Eventually perhaps we will be far enough removed from the racial, and social inequalities that there won't be as much punch packed by a few words; but until that happens we have to muck through the best we can.

Society is evolving and we just happen to be stuck in the awkward, "still have fins but live on land" phase of that evolution. I have confidence that some day the fins will disappear when it is apparent that we no longer need them. I wouldn't count on it happening in my life time though.

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Niteshift

"Political correctness" is a bunch of feel good bullshit in my opinion.

Whtes are white. Blacks are black. Short people aren't vertically challanged, they're short. Handicapped people are in fact handicapped. Saying that those things are what they are isn't mean.

The real issue is how the words are used, not what the words actually are. 50 Cent can use the N word all day and get paid for it. Klansmen use it and are scorned by most people.

In fact, political correctness can, in it's own way, denegrate the cultures and histories of the very people they are allegedly protecting.

Example: While teaching a class, I made mention of Mexican drivers licenses. Afterwards, an official from the school told me their policy isn't to use terms like "Mexican", but "hispanic" instead. I explained that wouldn't work because there is no such thing as a hispanic drivers license and that I was referring specifically to licenses issued by the the government of Mexico, hence Mexican.

He didn't get it.

That took me to the next part of my little stand against political correctness. In our quest to "celebrate their heritage", we were in fact robbing them of it. Guatemalans are very different people than Colombians. Mexicans are different than Argentines. Lumping them all together as "hispanic" takes the unique histories and cultures of those places away.

Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese and Koreans have entirely different languages, different cultures and different customs, yet we lump them together as "asian-americans".

I think it's a case of good intentions run amok.

And I remember a monologue by John Wayne about hyphenated Americans. The hyphen serves to divide. That is its purpose. Having everyone, particularly minority groups, be hyphenated Americans, it serves to keep the divide there. Just be Americans.

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