"Git a Rope" is Racist?

[Jaecp]

I do not listen to rap, and I have no idea who Larry Wilmore is. I assume he is black. It is okay for blacks to use the word, but it is a horrible blunder for whites.

I am talking about using it in everyday language.

I remember a story about a young black man hitch hiking who was picked up by an older white man. The older man used the "N word" to the young man. He, the young guy, was uncomfortable with the word and finally said so. The old guy responded with surprise, "Why is that, you are one aren't you?"

In other words it was just a word to the old guy that applied to blacks. He had no negative attached to it. Why can we not use it like that today? All this pussy footing around just exacerbates the racial divide.

Well, if you want to understand black people a bit better you could do a lot worse than Wilmore's book I'd Rather We Got Casinos: And Other Black Thoughts. He also hosted this years correspondents dinner and he got in the news for absolutely savaging the media for being pathetic.

It's hardly pussy footing around to be cognizant of racial slurs. The old man in your story was using racist terminology --and I'm only granting for the sake of argument that he had no negative attached to it and, more importantly, that he was somehow unaware-- and should go with black. It's not hard. Slurs are words that carry an implicit, understood insult with their use. Me calling you a Nogra is in no way similar to me calling you a Nigger. Well, thats not true, of course as you know what Nigger means, and you didn't know that Nogra is something used in Southern Oregon as a substitute for Nigger because they can't say it anymore.

And exacerbates the racial divide? That's not how that works.

[Cow Poke]

Well, if you want to understand black people a bit better you could...

...just treat them like fellow human beings!

[mossrose]

The obsession with "correct" terminology seems a uniquely US phenomena.

It's here in Canada, as well. In fact, our national anthem was just changed a month or so ago to make it "more inclusive".

[Cow Poke]

It's here in Canada, as well. In fact, our national anthem was just changed a month or so ago to make it "more inclusive".

I saw a comedian on TV a few weeks ago mocking political correctness by attempting to tell a joke.

It went something like, "OK, there was this really fat guy - no, wait... I can't say fat... um... ok, a Baptist, a Catholic a Jew... no, no Jews... um... I was driving past a mental hospital... wow, no... um.... can't insult the mentally challenged... "

Meanwhile, when I first got out of school, I worked in a machine shop with a guy named Dago. That's how he introduced himself, apparently because he was proud of being Italian. One day, I got to work and found out he had had a heart attack and was taken to the hospital. After work, I stopped by the hospital, and walked up to the information desk. It suddenly occurred to me that the only name I knew him by was "Dago". We were good friends. I didn't work there long, but kept in touch with him. Years later, he told me he wasn't allowed to go by "Dago" anymore, because that was offensive and he had to be called by his real name. He laughed, and said, "that's tragic, cause I don't remember what my real name was!"

Just about everybody in that plant went by a nickname, and we all got along great. Some of those nicknames, today, would land you in PC prison.

[rogue06]

I saw a comedian on TV a few weeks ago mocking political correctness by attempting to tell a joke....

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[Cow Poke]

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Yeah!

[Jedidiah]

Same. I don't make a big deal of it. Honestly, when I see people tripping over themselves walking on egg shells, in my head, they're the ones that are making a distinction that I don't. I love people from all backgrounds and cultures. I was raised with the words,

"Jesus loves the little children
All the children of the world
Red, brown, yellow
Black and white
They are precious in His sight.
Jesus loves the little children
Of the world."

My parents came from family who was racist as all get out, and my parents willfully made the decision not to pass that on to me, and through the love of God eventually changed their own parent's thinking. My grandpa was an old time Midwestern racist. Used to yell at the TV whenever a black criminal was on the news. About 10 years ago, my grandpa was diagnosed with cancer. Black friends of my parents (who go to a largely black church) went to his hospital room and spent a day praying over him. It had a radical change on him. He became a big teddy bear, and it totally changed his impression of black people. Totally changed a man in his later years of life. Tell me that people are set in their ways, that people can't change, I'll show you a man who, through the grace, and love afforded us by Christ, did a 180.

My family was never openly racist and opposed racial bias and hate. However I came home from school one day and my parents were talking about selling the house and moving because a black family moved in down the street and property values were going to plummet. I came a little unglued and ranted at them. I don't know if it was my tirade or not, but my parents still live in that house and my baby brother lives next door.


The property values have plummeted. But that has been a result of the surge of population from the LA and San Bernardino areas moving into what were previously peripheral towns. It was not race related.

[Jedidiah]

Well, if you want to understand black people a bit better you could do a lot worse than Wilmore's book I'd Rather We Got Casinos: And Other Black Thoughts. He also hosted this years correspondents dinner and he got in the news for absolutely savaging the media for being pathetic.

It's hardly pussy footing around to be cognizant of racial slurs. The old man in your story was using racist terminology --and I'm only granting for the sake of argument that he had no negative attached to it and, more importantly, that he was somehow unaware-- and should go with black. It's not hard. Slurs are words that carry an implicit, understood insult with their use. Me calling you a Nogra is in no way similar to me calling you a Nigger. Well, thats not true, of course as you know what Nigger means, and you didn't know that Nogra is something used in Southern Oregon as a substitute for Nigger because they can't say it anymore.

And exacerbates the racial divide? That's not how that works.

Just to clarify my story, it was the young black man, years later, relating this story with his understanding that the old white guy had been entirely polite in every other way. He just did not know it was offensive. Oh and this was many years before 'black' really came into use. That was the day when we were still moving to negro.

[Jaecp]

Still moving to Negro? How many hands did the story pass through?? That's a long time ago

[Cow Poke]

Still moving to Negro? How many hands did the story pass through?? That's a long time ago

Not really so long ago, J... when I was younger, a lot of the older folks still used the N word, but it wasn't in a hateful manner at all. It's what they were called, just like they're called blacks now. I know this is incredibly hard to fathom, given the horrendous and unthinkable horror of using the N word now, but it, in time, became more acceptable to use the term "negro". As a kid, I remember people actually changing to that. ALTHOUGH, some of the people I knew used "colored people", which was a preferred term, apparently, as even the NAACP was and association of "colored people". I also remember thinking "why can there be a United Negro College Fund", when "negro" is such a hated term.

I remember a common question from us (back then) younger folks was "well, what color ARE they?" (thinking this "colored people" thing was dumb)

We had an old guy - probably close to 100 - in our church who was one of the kindest, most loving old men I've ever known. He was always giving, helping, volunteering...

I remember visiting in his home with some of our RA's (the church version of cub scouts) and he said, "brother pastor, in that jar over there on the dresser is $500 - I want you to give it to that new nigger couple in Church". The kids gasped, and snickered wildly, but Brother Stanton obviously didn't mean anything ugly at all by it. They had just joined the Church, were just newly married, and they had just wrecked their car. He wanted to help.

It amazes me (though, I understand) that the N word used by older people is automatically associated with hatred and racism.

[Psychic Missile]

I have not seen it. We are still constrained as whites to say "the N word" instead of using it.

Hahaha! What would be the difference then?

I never considered it safer language. It is just that the society frowns upon such stuff. I still think that if everyone was 'allowed' to use "the N word" instead of using that absurd work around. It would be better for society. It does not hurt my feelings to be called a honkey or whitebread. Why do equivalent terms rattle some folks so badly?

ETA: Why can we not just stop playing the cry baby game?

You're crying your eyes out over not being able to call minorities racial slurs. And of course it doesn;t hurt your feelings. You are part of the group in power. You aren't part of a culture that has been subjugated.

[Cow Poke]

You're crying your eyes out over not being able to call minorities racial slurs.

I think you and JimL must be drinking the same water. That's almost as dumb as some of his responses. It's people like you who are the ultimate racists, and too stupid to even realize it.

[Psychic Missile]

Well, no. Your point made no sense, because it describes me (or any other conservative, AFAICS) in no way whatsoever. You whiffed. And then tried to double down.

Two guys see a noose and it reminds them of lynch mobs. Therefore, the sky is falling.

"what else would our stupid culture think of?"

"classic example of too much "racism" on the mind"

"Everything is offensive to someone these days. America is now in the age of the crybaby."

"what do you expect in a culture that coddles those who are so determined to be offended? "

[Psychic Missile]

I think you and JimL must be drinking the same water. That's almost as dumb as some of his responses. It's people like you who are the ultimate racists, and too stupid to even realize it.

Yes, the ultimate racists, the people against racial slurs. You should have competed in the Olympics in mental gymnastics.

[One Bad Pig]

Two guys see a noose and it reminds them of lynch mobs. Therefore, the sky is falling.

No, it's not. I appreciate that you're trying to minimize the importance of people tying nooses to lynch mobs. If only your compatriots would tend to the same reaction; then no one would have brought this up in the first place.

"what else would our stupid culture think of?"

"classic example of too much "racism" on the mind"

"Everything is offensive to someone these days. America is now in the age of the crybaby."

"what do you expect in a culture that coddles those who are so determined to be offended? "

Sweet, a list of non sequiturs in place of an argument.