Oh yes, another thing for us to feel guilty about. I choose to only feel guilty about my intentional actions. I have too many of them to worry about, so I do not have time to worry about all the guilt trips people try to put on me because they feel worthless. If we called them "Superior People of African Decent" they would change the meaning in their minds to something utterly derogatory and guilt trip us for using such a term. I doubt many people of French decent resent being called a "frog eater" which is what "Frog" is short for, "nigger" is a corruption of "negra" which is of course Latin for "black".
A lot of it is intent. You use a word with contempt dripping from your voice it is insulting. Such as the innocent word "bigot" (literally "by god") from the keyboard of a certain well known Torontian Liberal. I have noticed that media, especially the liberal media, folks like to use uncommon words as if they had nasty connotations that they didn't have before the media adopted them. My favorite is "puerile" which actually means "childish". Of course if they said there should be a law against "childish interests" they would get laughed off the air. But since most of their listeners do not have that Latin word in their vocabulary they think it must mean something nasty which is exactly what the talking AH's want. Words do not have emotional content in themselves, it has to be added somehow. Notice how insultingly "Torontian Liberal" came across in my second paragraph. graywolf http://www.graywolfphoto.com http://webpages.charter.net/graywolf "Idiot Proof" <==> "Expert Proof" ----------------------------------- frank theriault wrote: > On 8/8/07, Bob Shell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> I have French friends who call themselves "froggies" when they call >> me, and some German friends who laughingly call themselves "krauts". >> I think it's OK when they do it, and when it's done with a smile. I >> don't use those appellations when talking to them, though. >> > > An oppressed group (or one that perceives itself as oppressed) will > often "take ownership" of offensive or bigoted language. It's a way > of defusing it, or throwing back in the face of the oppressor. > > Some African Americans may choose to call themselves or others > "niggers", but I don't think that it's advisable for a white person > such as myself to use such language (except towards someone that I'm > extremely intimate with. > > cheers, > frank > > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
