The "U" word

[Shizensky]

Twice now recently we've seen public officials being bashed upon for using the word "uppity" in their statements. While one of these men had my sides splitting open during his appearance on the Colbert Report, I'm still confused as to why they're getting so much beef for using this word.

I will call a white man stupid. Since this is often followed by cracker, is that a racist comment?

I will call Sarah Palin a mother. Since this can often be followed by a certain four letter "F" word, am I really insulting her?

Being American seems almost to have become too easy, in that we now worry about what people say and find our own meanings to their statements, rather than what might actually be important. Just because pigs wear lipstick, it doesn't mean these pigs are metaphorical representations of any particular people.

So to my point: Political Correctness, are they for real, and how far will it go before we're sick of the crap?

[Sinn Féin's Ireland]

It's an interesting argument.

About the pigs wearing lipstick, that wasn't offensive, because it wasn't aimed at a particular group (or individual), but could have been construed as such.

But everything can be construed in different ways, as you say, Shiz.

Political Correctness is important, but it shouldn't be abused. It's best considered a guideline, rather than a rule. I don't think it's ok to go around calling people cracker, nigger, spic, gook etc. It's racist. I don't believe in censoring those words either, but that's a different matter. I think people always have the power to make decisions. We should all be allowed to say stuff like the above, but we should choose not to, because it's highly offensive. If we know something to be considered offensive by a particular group of people, or even considered racist, then we just shouldn't say it. I don't think that infringes on my civil liberties of free speech. It's just common courtesy.

However, i don't really know what's wrong with the word 'uppity'. Not that people over here ever say it. lol.

[Estayland]

Political correctness has gone too far. For instance, in Dallas, a councilman called a certain function of the government was a "black hole" because nothing got done. A black councilman got offended by the term "black hole." That is too much.

Sinn: if you can't call someone black, can you call a caucasian person white? I guess Sinn and I have another disagreement. I don't see what's wrong with calling a black person black. That is a description of his looks.

[Sinn Féin's Ireland]

I am white. I have many black friends.

That is the correct term. At least where I live. Of course it's not entirely accurate (shades of pigment and whatnot) but it's a descriptive term.

A black hole is not an offensive term. Someone who takes offense at that term is clearly being stupid, because it's context dependent, and has no reference to race, and makes no value judgement in relation to race.

If black people are offended by being called black people then I wouldn't call them that anymore.
Sometimes it's pretty arbitrary, but to be honest it's not exactly difficult for me to refrain from using a term that is deemed offensive.

There are degrees of course. We just have to draw the line where society can best function with the least animosity and offense.

EDIT: To Estay, my previous post was censored by the forum, i wrote nig-ger, and it was corrected to 'black person'. That might explain it.

[Estayland]

Oh lol silly forum censors! lol

[Fleeb]

I find it is quite helpful to call people, on an individual one-by-one basis, what they like to be called. It does occasionally lead to complications. (You may call me "Your Extreme Holy Mightiness". Or just "HoMi" for short...)

This method does not work well for large groups, however, unless they take frequent widespread polls.

[Sinn Féin's Ireland]

True. But if I hear someone on the radio who is black, saying "actually, it's not 'coloured', the modern term is 'black'" then i'm likely to think that it's ok to call all black people black. If some want to be called coloured then there might be a bit of confusion, but i've never come across that problem before, and It's not too hard to keep up with the times. At worst, just an honest mistake.

[Anime Daisuki]

Sept 12, 2008 4:18:12 GMT -5 Sinn Féin's Ireland said:

It's an interesting argument.

About the pigs wearing lipstick, that wasn't offensive, because it wasn't aimed at a particular group (or individual), but could have been construed as such.

About the pig-lipstick comment, I saw on a news report online (forgot where) that McCain actually said that in reference to Hilliary Clinton in 2007.

When Obama used it back on them, they act all shocked and offended.

[Twobagger]

Sept 12, 2008 12:16:42 GMT -5 Fleeb said:

This method does not work well for large groups, however, unless they take frequent widespread polls.

Good thing many do:

A number of studies conducted in the United States have found that Black and African American are the preferred labels for ethnic/racial self-designation by Blacks. The purpose of this study was to assess which labels were preferred (and disliked) by a sample of Black Canadian students (N = 101), as well as to uncover the personal meanings of their preferred labels. In addition, the relationships between label preferences and measures of ethnic/racial identity developed in America (African Self-Consciousness Scale, Black Racial Identity Attitude Scale) and Canada (York Ethnic Identification Scale) were examined. Although Black was the most preferred label, the following four types of preferred labels were identified: Black, Africentric, Caribbean, and Canadian. Different label preferences were associated with different measures of social identity. Issues of social identity and ethnic/racial self-designation for Blacks in Canada are discussed.

jbp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/26/2/216

[Bad Infinitum]

I'm offended by political correctness.

Honestly, as ironic as it is, I'm personally offended when people PC things up when they're talking to me. How ignorant do they think I am, assuming I'm going to label them as a racist or an elitist just by the language that they use? This usually backfires on the person, as I then judge and label them as an uptight suburbian conservative...which could be worse. I know more than one disgusting racist pig who I would trust with my life, but I wouldn't trust a middle class white woman with a family pie recipe.

No offense to any middle class white American women reading this. Actually, no, I don't care if I offended you. That's the point.

[New Dracora]

Warning - contains offensive and politically incorrect language.

[Otupia]

I say [insert F word] because its verbally pleasing!

is that correct hell no its not! But because i am american i love to do it

[Shizensky]

Sept 12, 2008 19:55:20 GMT -5 Anime Daisuki said:

Sept 12, 2008 4:18:12 GMT -5 Sinn Féin's Ireland said:

It's an interesting argument.

About the pigs wearing lipstick, that wasn't offensive, because it wasn't aimed at a particular group (or individual), but could have been construed as such.

About the pig-lipstick comment, I saw on a news report online (forgot where) that McCain actually said that in reference to Hilliary Clinton in 2007.

When Obama used it back on them, they act all shocked and offended.

It was actually used in reference to one of her plans, the same way Obama used it. Neither of them in any way were referring to either woman as any sort of barnyard animal, or any non-human being for that matter.

[Estayland]

People
Offended by
Offended
People

[Boolari]

I like this thread.

Political correctness (to me) is just a way to evade all the critical issues that should be addressed but are being shoved under the carpet due to others being picky. Racism isn't going to disappear, appearance is a factor of in group and out group basis, stereotypes, etc, etc. Yeah, it's a nice thought and all but regardless of it, we're all humans. Take a widespread contagious virus that causes an epidemic and all those differences really shouldn't matter because disease doesn't care about religion, race, and all that. If aliens invaded the planet, we'd all bond together because we have more in common than some slimy green blob. Cliche as it is, a lot of the US bonded together after 9/11 but now we're all going our own ways as we did a lot of prior to it.

I would have to look back in my notes but I took Multicultural Psychology last semester and some black people are offended if a person calls them black whereas others prefer it. It all has to do with identification because some black people don't know which countries they have come from, etc.

The End

[Iwerddon]

From here on out I insist that everyone in this forum refer to me as Gaelic-American, or i'll get offended.

There are times where I go out of my way to offend people who insist on PC.

[Libertarian Freemen]

I guess I'm an anglo-germanic polish american of indeterminate gender.

Isn't it odd how our efforts to ignore race end up with more confusing classifications? In our efforts to be inclusive, we define people by class, race, and gender. It seems so... ironic.

[Hahiha / USSR]

Finswedeway, do you mind deleting your post. This isn't the place to spam, the place designated for spamming is the Taco Islands board.
Thank you.

[Finswedeway]

May 6, 2017 18:57:23 GMT -5 Hahiha / USSR said:

Finswedeway, do you mind deleting your post. This isn't the place to spam, the place designated for spamming is the Taco Islands board.
Thank you.

Wont happen again