This is why trying to get to some sort of racist ground truth is a fool's errand.
If someone calls you out on it, just drop it from your vocabulary. This is basic human decency and costs literally nothing. On Tue, Mar 15, 2016 at 12:16 PM, Peter Olson <[email protected]> wrote: >> On March 15, 2016 at 7:52 AM "Edward Ned Harvey (blu)" <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >> Political correctness is synonymous with respect for other people. >> >> Anytime someone says they're sick of being politically correct, it means they >> want to be disrespectful of other people, without any backlash. >> >> The white man in the room doesn't get to tell us what's racist and what's not >> racist. If the majority of black people would feel that's a racist term, then >> by definition, it is. >> >> Cotton pickin isn't racist, just like the confederate flag isn't racist. >> Meaning - they both are. Because the majority of African Americans feel they >> are. > > To give another example, I heard someone yesterday refer to the paddy wagon. > She was in a belligerent mood, so I did not think to inform her. > > Dictionary.com has an entry for paddy wagon which claims > > 1. Informal. patrol wagon. > > 1925-30; probably paddy policeman, special use of paddy > > Much further down the page it says > > Slang definitions & phrases for paddy wagon > > [1930+; fr patrol wagon, perhaps influenced by the fact that many policemen > were of Irish extraction, hence paddies] > > The entry for paddy reveals > > Origin > familiar variant of Irish Padraig Patrick > Usage note > This term is used as a neutral nickname or term of address for an > Irishman, > though it may be perceived as insulting. > > Dictionaries are supposed to define the actual usage of a word, based on > citations of its use. But this can only do a limited depth into the origin. > > Is the paddy wagon the truck where the drunken Irishmen are loaded, or is it > the > the truck operated by the Irish police in America? I suspect the former, but > I > don't have any way to determine the truth. I think the term must have > originated in the police vernacular. > > Dictionary.com continues: > > Paddy > noun (pl) -dies > 1. (Brit, informal) a fit of temper > > Hmmmm, further down: > > An Irish person or person of Irish extraction (1780+) > > Now, guess what? If you look at these definitions you'll find lots of > arguments > that this was inoffensive. It might be true. The compilers of the dictionary > probably never got hauled off in a paddy wagon > > Peter Olson > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
