Text 10758, 72 rader
Skriven 2007-01-26 02:09:02 av Jeffrey MacHott (14195.babylon5)
  Kommentar till text 10748 av rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated (14185.babylon5)
Ärende: Re: Shades of offensive language WAS Re: Shades of "12 Angry Men (1957)
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mike@corestore.org wrote:
> On Jan 24, 4:37 pm, zof...@deepthot.org (Cheryl Martin) wrote:
>> In article <45b78ea7$0$27621$9b4e6...@newsspool2.arcor-online.net>,
>> Angelika Tobisch  <kam...@arcor.de> wrote:
>>
>>> Cheryl Martin schrieb:
>>>> Is "coloured" not an offensive term in the UK? (she says noting that
>>>> today is MLK day here in the US)
>>>> I'm all sorts of offended by it.  Please don't do it again.
>>> As a foreigner not out to offend anyone: what term is acceptable?Black is
okay.  It is silly since my skin color is actually coffee but
>> it doesn't have the connotations that colored picked up during the
>> days of segregation.
>>
>> I also don't like African-American.  But that's just me.  It is in
>> pretty widespread usage.
> 
> I don't like it at all - it's *illogical*. Go back far enough, we're
> all African-Americans (assuming you accept the 'out of Africa'
> hypothesis). Plus this particular term seems to be used exclusively to
> describe race; all other hyphenated Americans are race-neutral. A
> Scottish-American is a Scottish-American whatever colour their skin
> happens to be.

Yeah, what's even more fun is "Hispanic" which isn't even a race.  It's 
an ethnicity that exists in the US only for some vague statistical 
purpose.  You can be Black, Asian, White, Native American, Aleutian, 
etc., and on top of all of that, you can either be Hispanic or Not 
Hispanic.  IIRC, by default, all Mexican-Americans are considered to be 
White by default.

> As an immigrant to these shores I have to say two things: first, that I
> Just Don't Get the way race is treated as such a big deal by some
> people in America. Sure, I know the history - but it leaves me fairly
> cold, it doesn't resonate viscerally with me the way it evidently does
> with some/many Americans. Second, in around six months I'll be a US
> citizen: I'll be an *American*. Not some hyphenated monstrosity.
> Scottish is how I was born, and I'll always be proud of that - but
> American is what I've chosen to be, I don't see any reason to put
> something in front of that - and I'm somewhat suspicious of those who
> do.

Well, part of it might be the "Melting pot" culture of the US.  You mix 
so many cultures together, and many folks like to identify with where 
their ancestors came from in order to differentiate themselves from all 
of the several million OTHER Americans running around.  It never occured 
to me that folks in other countries didn't act this way, much like how 
it might never occur to someone living in England all their lives that 
many folks in the US don't find it the slightest bit weird to privately 
own firearms for self-defense.

> Hell, the whole thing is down to company and context - I've even used
> 'nigger' in polite company; it was justified and didn't cause offence.

Heh, there's a movie I like, "Poolhall Junkies", that starts off with a 
white guy playing pool with a black gangster, and they're discussing the 
difference between "Nigga" (As in a friend that you are very loyal to) 
and "Nigger" (a derrogatory term referring to a black person), with the 
white guy constantly mis-using and mis-pronouncing to much comic effect.

> Mike
> http://www.corestore.org
> 
> 


-- 
--Jeffrey MacHott

"Sola bona lingua est mortua lingua"
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