Text 1256, 30 rader
Skriven 2004-10-25 14:44:02 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
   Kommentar till text 1205 av Robert Couture (1:229/2000)
Ärende: Names will never hurt me
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Robert Couture wrote to Dan Ceppa on Sunday October 24 2004 at 11:35:

DC>> About the only ones that I know that use the term 'nigger' are
DC>> Blacks.

RC> That and Klan members.

RC> I have yet to understand how such a hated term became mainstream for
RC> African Americans.

The same way whites may refer to themselves as "wasps" or "yuppies", I guess.
Anyway, one thing that's often (always?) overlooked nowadays is the fact that
this term, and of course the "polite" term "negro" with which I grew up in the
40s and 50s, are derived from the latin root for "black" and are thus hardly
misnomers.

But the meanings and "feel" of words change over time, and what's perfactly OK
today may be a blood insult tomorrow - or vice-versa. Like the way "pluck" and
"guts" have changed over the centuries. Or the way "chairman" became
"chairperson" and finally "chair", even though the people involved have legs of
flesh and not wood or metal.

I often wonder why people still use the term "woman", since it includes "man".
Maybe someday that, too, will be an insult and we will all refer to the other
sex as "wos" (pronounced "whoas"). Only time will tell.

Cheers, Bob

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