What is the deal with you people and the whole "giving the word too much power" bullshit?

I mean, honestly, such a banal justification. Humor me everyone, when I accuse you all of being white supremacists. After all, it's just another word.

Except "white supremacist" actually has a meaning. I'm not a white supremacist, so don't call me one.

However, feel free to call me "cracker" or "white boy" or "kike," because I am certainly all three of those things, as supposedly offensive as those terms are.

edit: how do combine two posts

To me it is pretty simple. Bullshido represents a place where people go to to find out information about fake martial arts. If a newcomer comes in, is unaware of the 'culture' around the forums, and feels offended, I would say that has hurt Bullshido's ability to facilitate communication, which in turn hurts the ability to out frauds in the martial arts.

What is the deal with you people and the whole "giving the word too much power" bullshit?

I mean, honestly, such a banal justification. Humor me everyone, when I accuse you all of being white supremacists. After all, it's just another word.
try again with "Nazi"

The fact that so many get so wound up over such trivial **** like who uses what word when and in what context while wearing what color skin just shows what a large bunch of fucking oversensitive, immature panty-waists exist in this world. Where I work, I am almost always in the racial minority, and I don't cry or get offended when someone throws a little word my way to get under my skin, it's usually the most insecure people that do it. Words only have as power as you give to them, if you are going to let some jackass get you all worked up with a word or two, you should probably seek counseling. When someone is obviously trying to start **** with you by running their mouth, you need to decide when it's worth it to give them what they are asking for, but engaging in a verbal or in the internet case, written pissing contest is just asinine, and makes you look like a complete tool. Oh, and nice to meet everyone.
I'd bet dollars to donuts that you're younger than 30, probably younger than 25.

I see a pattern. Younger posters tend to have a, "What's the big deal? It's just a word." attitude. Older posters who remember the civil rights movement seem to believe that hate speech terms, specifically the "n" word, are racist and should not be tolerated.



You want to tell me that word has no power? Let me tell you a story about a 12 year old boy who wandered down an alley scrounging for "artifacts" one Sunday morning around 8:30 am in 1981. When he came out of the alley, he saw four drunken rednecks half walking, half staggering down the far side of the street. Shuffling toward them on the same side of the street was an old black bum who was talking to himself in a broken manner. The boy hid himself behind a dumpster to watch.

Once they noticed the old man, the rednecks began talking to each other loudly about how they hated black people. That's not the term they used of course. As they neared him, the hicks grew quiet. The lead one shoved the bum as they passed. The old man complained loudly. Another redneck exclaimed, "What'd you say "n"!" and they jumped him.

The old man went down. The boy watched as they kicked the bum unmercifully. All four wore cowboy boots. Two of them escalated the violence in a sort of horrendous competition.

Once the filthy sub humans had gone, the boy slowly crept across the street. The old man's face no longer looked human. His chest looked caved in and his breathing had a particular wheeze that the boy wouldn't hear again until his grandfather took a month to die six years later. "Death rattle" they called it.

Seeing the man there on the street, dying, was too much for a white suburban boy who had never seen true violence. He ran back from whence he came faster than he had ever run before.

Because he did nothing that day, the boy decided he would never tolerate overt racism again, regardless of the consequences. Nor would he ever use that specific racial epithet, in speech or in print.

To this day he can not tolerate the "n" word. If the word is overheard being spoken by a white person, he can chose to leave the room, or become physically violent.

or become physically violent.

You must see the tension between this and the rest of your post.

jnp,

that story is intense. way more intense than when i learned how much power the n word had.

i was in 2nd or 3rd grade, cant remember, and all i knew was the word and not it's implications. i called a black kid the name because he was messing with me on the bus and the ass beating i took from it cured me from ever using the word in any serious manner again.

your story kind of makes me not want to use it in satire or irony either.

wow.

You must see the tension between this and the rest of your post.
Ha, ha. Scarred human is not evolved human.

Ha, ha. Scarred human is not evolved human.

Maybe this is because I'm too young to know better, but when I read your anecdote of assault, murder and racially-charged language, it's not the racially-charged language that appalled me, it's the violence. As far as I'm concerned, what they did wouldn't have been one iota less abominable if they'd referred to the man as "garbage", "scum", or any other selection from the panoply of words that aren't (ahem) blacklisted. Hell, they could have been calling him "friend" the whole time, and the net effect would have been the same.

If your point is that they weren't, that the kind of people who will beat a man to death for his skin colour or just for the **** of it also tend to use racially-charged language, you can ride that horse until it's glue. And if you want to draw a big thick red line between people who beat the **** out of other people because of their victims' skin colour and people who beat the **** out of other people because of their victims' word choice, have at it.

But don't expect idiots like me who aren't yet old enough to rent a car to buy it.

I was going to post something retarded, like something along the lines of "Ya'll niggas is ghey" etc... but...

Here's an actual question, since this is Bullshido and the site does have the whole "douche bags of internet" thing going about, does this "lingual clean up" apply to offensive slurs regarding sexual orientation/race/etc... or just general insults as well? Is insulting someones intelligence the same, worse, or lesser then insulting their culture?

But don't expect idiots like me who aren't yet old enough to rent a car to buy it.
Who told you to buy a car? I told you a story. A kid witnessed something that made him incapable of discerning between violence and the usage of the "n" word, and you think it's applicable to the rest of us?

I will say it again differently this time. Scarred person is not a model for humanity.

I was going to post something retarded, like something along the lines of "Ya'll niggas is ghey" etc... but...
White_Kimbo already did it. With much relish. Or whatever his people put on their burgers ;-)


Here's an actual question, since this is Bullshido and the site does have the whole "douche bags of internet" thing going about, does this "lingual clean up" apply to offensive slurs regarding sexual orientation/race/etc... or just general insults as well? Is insulting someones intelligence the same, worse, or lesser then insulting their culture?There is no sanctioned clean up. That was never the intent.
This article/thread is a slow-pitch to start a debate... or for people to post their views.
The onus is on the individual to effect the change in the way they post, should they feel that way.

Good article. The "its just a word" argument never holds up with me. Correct it is a word, but words have meanings, more over words have different meanings to different people. Cob to me is a bread roll, to other people its building material.

If you are happy to spout racial/sexist/homophobic words and take them as pure insults, we all do this from time to time. When you do though remember that these words mean things to people. They mean different things than they mean to you, and using them shows one of two things to me. Either you actually believe in that meaning of the word, in which case you are a racist/sexist/homophobe, or you are using them without taking into consideration other peoples opinions on the meaning of the word. In which case you are just an insensitive, arrogant prick.

Ok, whiteys. So I want to know what do you all think the word "******" means. Give me your definition.

Ok, whiteys. So I want to know what do you all think the word "******" means. Give me your definition.

Well, in the old days it was a word used to scare and demoralize and diminish black people, but now it just seems to make the black people upset and that's why some white people get all worked up about it because darnit, a tiny sliver of their surplus power is gone now. And sometimes non-white people get even more upset because sure they may be kikes or chinks but at least they could point to ******* and feel better, but now they can't!

And it's your fault!

*BURSTS into tears*

So I had this guy that worked for me. I wouldn't have chosen him... I kinda inherited him when I took over another department at work.
Glen, the guy, would liberally sprinkle conversations with stuff like ni**er, paki, raghead.
I pulled him to one side and explained that I couldn't let him use language like that at work, either in my presence, or in the presence of other staff. I explained that 1] he could be overheard by the public and 2] it wasn't 1950, and that **** just wasn't cool any more.
I told him that he'd have to keep that **** suppressed if he wanted to stay working for me.
The very next day, I went into his office and he starts whispering "come on ******. good boy, good boy ******" while staring at a Nintendo DS.
I asked him what the hell he was doing, and did he remember our conversation.
He acted innocent and said that he was playing Nintendogs on his break, and that his dog (a black lab) was called ******. He even had the Wikipedia page up ready, triumphantly displaying Wing Commander Guy Gibson's famous black labrador of the same name.
That's how I see people who have to use the word. They'll find any justification for it... any at all.

Except "white supremacist" actually has a meaning. I'm not a white supremacist, so don't call me one.

However, feel free to call me "cracker" or "white boy" or "kike," because I am certainly all three of those things, as supposedly offensive as those terms are.

edit: how do combine two posts

So the word "******" has no meaning?

I do enjoy how everyone immediately discredits me when I use the word "white supremacist". I will make sure to use that word at all times from now on since to me it is just another word and who the hell cares what you all think. Grow up, open your eyes, it only has as much power as you give it.