what the hell do I know. I have seen a black man be genuinely offended when another black man described his hair as nappy. I *think* it's a reference to race that is only ok if used by a member of the same race. Rather like "get your black ass over here." Or Irish jokes told by the Irish.
In the above incident, I think the intent was to say you are a nigger, which *can* mean an ignorant person uwhen used between blacks. I *think* that the reason the Imus comment is seen as offensive is that a) a white man called young black women hos when they were manifestly not whores - stereotype 1. White man number 2 says yeah, nappy-headed ho's, like the two words go together. Reasonable inference -- he thinks they are ho's because they are nappyheaded, ie black. This my best guess based on my exposure to the culture, which is some but does not make me an expert. Like Mary Jo I don't really have a lot of time to deconstruct this, spent too much time on it already. So..... over and out. Dana >So I'm reading an article from Reuters about this and it has the >following: > > >--- >Debates over racial expressions are a frequent feature of an American >culture still struggling to come to terms with a legacy of slavery and >discrimination. "Nappy" is a slur describing the tightly curled hair of >many African-Americans. "Ho" is slang for "whore," usage of which has >exploded in hip-hop music and popular culture. > >"Nappy" is deemed so offensive it has largely fallen out of modern >American usage. >--- > >WTF? I may not be old, but in all my years I've never heard it used as a >racial slur. I've never known the word to be offensive, and was >completely unaware that it had fallen out of modern American usage. > >I've used it to describe clothing, paint rollers, carpet, and plenty of >other things including the hair of people of many races. I've never >known the word to be directly offensive. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Create robust enterprise, web RIAs. Upgrade & integrate Adobe Coldfusion MX7 with Flex 2 http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=RVJP Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:232424 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
