Althouse: Mock funeral...

July 6, 2007

Mock funeral...

... for a word.

20 comments:

vet66 said...: About time the NAACP took a stand on the use of this word. The ultimate hypocrisy was when Imus was pilloried for it's use because he wasn't the right color!

Of course I don't believe we have heard the last of this descriptive word! Cultural outlaws will still use it to bring attention to themselves when their music is not good enough to stand on it's own merits.

Interesting point is why we, as a culture, hear so little from the feminists about the objectification and brutalization of women in the music industry.

N.O.W. Your turn!; 7/6/07, 7:49 AM
AllenS said...: NOW will be holding a candlelight vigil shortly.; 7/6/07, 7:55 AM
KCFleming said...: ...but words will never hurt me?

Like hell.
Given the instant and intense reactions to certain terms, sticks and stones are often far easier to bear.

Florence King has said that we don't have words we don't need. So the question remains, why is there still a need for these specific words?; 7/6/07, 8:10 AM
Anonymous said...: They’d have more impact on the community were they to retire the phrase “acting white.” After mentoring children in inner city schools, I found these two words held back would-be achievement oriented (poor, single-parent, little supervision) students worse than the N word ever did (and which they use on each other).

(To them, I was the "nice white cracker."); 7/6/07, 8:21 AM
KCFleming said...: jane,

ditto "oreo"; 7/6/07, 8:25 AM
Roger J. said...: Is the NAACP foolish enough to think that holding a funeral will eliminate the word from usage? vet66 provides a very plausible scenario above. The alternative approach, it seems to me, is to simply use it so frequently as to legitmate its use. Bring it into the sunshine.

What other words could we eliminate? cracker? redneck? Hymie? kike? gook? raghead? Canuck? Polack? Nip? Kraut? Nazi? brownshirt? (latter two seem to be favored by leftie moonbats as pejorative terms toward those with whom they disagree).

This is a silly exercise, IMO, and will accomplish nothing.; 7/6/07, 8:33 AM
Anonymous said...: Not at all surprising that idiocy sinks to new depths in Seattle.; 7/6/07, 8:45 AM
Anonymous said...: Yes, "oreo." It's sad to see a community act inordinately racially aware and in such self-destructive ways. School-learning, aspiration and manners get rudely racialized in poor urban areas (although I've seen surburban students who can make your hair stand on end), and many of those good kids who try to climb out of the self-loathing, dysfunctional abyss keep getting dragged back down with labels and other injury. More of these eager learners (of all races really) need to be tracked in different classes and schools for more supportive peer groups.

Racial and gender slurs shouldn't be tolerated at school, but, good lord, nobody seems to be able to stop the trash talking. The kids are worse off for it, too. No decorum, no self-respect.; 7/6/07, 8:46 AM
Tim said...: "Yes, "oreo." It's sad to see a community act inordinately racially aware and in such self-destructive ways. School-learning, aspiration and manners get rudely racialized in poor urban areas (although I've seen surburban students who can make your hair stand on end), and many of those good kids who try to climb out of the self-loathing, dysfunctional abyss keep getting dragged back down with labels and other injury."

It's very sad. If you ever get the chance, show them http://www.akeelahandthebee.com/main.html It won't reach most students, but those it does will will have made the effort worthwhile.; 7/6/07, 9:05 AM
Cedarford said...: The NAACP is about 1 year away from extinction due to financial mismanagement and declining enrollment because the 1950s 1960s "old guard" have kept a Stalinist grip on power and say in matters, alienating younger blacks from joining.

Worse, it has gone hard left and openly racist in many local branches.

Attempting to ban any word is dumb. And again, it pits the old guard against younger blacks. They divide their own racial peers, and worse, any banned word or phrase gains subversive power in the culture. Rebels are drawn to use it, just in spite. From Greek democats and "Z" - to feminists that now cannot talk enough about their cunts.; 7/6/07, 9:13 AM
Anonymous said...: That film looks good, Tim-- thanks for the rec. And, for the record and any little kids reading this thread, s-u-b-u-r-b-a-n.

Cedarford, their use may be difficult to stop culture-wide, but in school shouldn't certain words, at least officially, be sanctioned? Forget hate speech/ hate thought laws which are PC totalitarian, but nasty mean, crude terms shouldn't be tolerated at (public) school, should they?; 7/6/07, 10:07 AM
Anonymous said...: I honestly anticipated that this link would be about the avoidance of the word "Islam" in relation to the foiled terror plots in London.

What is it with the left and the idea that you can change a concrete, existing thing by changing the words you use for the concrete, existing thing? It's a serious problem. Also a problem is trying to change the word for something bad, somehow hoping people will think it's good. We saw this with a perfectly good word, "welfare."

An entire edifice of continental philosophy has been built on this terrifically dumb idea that words matter and things themselves don't. Possibly, if the left can free itself from this semantic morass, it can be a vital force in ideas again.; 7/6/07, 10:29 AM
Cedarford said...: Jane - Cedarford, their use may be difficult to stop culture-wide, but in school shouldn't certain words, at least officially, be sanctioned? Forget hate speech/ hate thought laws which are PC totalitarian, but nasty mean, crude terms shouldn't be tolerated at (public) school, should they?

Problem is, what are you going to do if you enact a "zero tolerance policy" on cuss words, use of nigger, bitch, 'ho and black youth persist in using them regularly?

Expell all the black kids that won't toe the "New PC" line the old, and growingly irrelevant "old black civil rights guard" insist they obey? Yeah, that will teach them! You can't "unteach" kids in school the culture and expression they get from their family and friends.

The best you can do is discourage "bad words".

A far more productive use of public schools time and resources is getting our largest minority - Hispanics, as well as the Asian immigrants, not to embrace black underclass values they encounter - but to work hard and succeed in academic or vocational education.; 7/6/07, 10:58 AM
Fen said...: NAACP chapters are urging people to wear black ribbons Monday to show solidarity with the campaign to "bury" the word. The campaign also urges people to stop using the terms "bitch" and "ho" to refer to women.

Long overdue. Good for them.

Although I initially thought the post was about the Euro's not allowing the word "muslim" to be broadcast alongside "terrorist".; 7/6/07, 11:01 AM
Fen said...: Ah. Seven beat me to it.; 7/6/07, 11:02 AM
Bender R said...: Better that we have a funeral to bury offense at the use of words. If more people simply ignored or laughed at those who use such words, if they merely refused to empower such people, the words would lose their ability to sting and hurt.

With his bits on the "Niggar family," who happen to be white, and Clayton Bigsby, the blind white supremacist who didn't know that he was himself black, Dave Chappelle has done more to destroy the harm of that word than silly marches and funerals and faux outrage could ever do.; 7/6/07, 11:04 AM
Dewave said...: It is not words themselves that hurt, but the intentions behind the word.

Banning specific words is thus at best useless, and at worst counter productive. There's always a secret thrill in using a 'banned word'.

People will simply invent new words to be used in cruel ways if the old words are banned.; 7/6/07, 11:17 AM
Kev said...: "...but words will never hurt me?"

Pogo, that little pearl of wisdom (a literal "momily" during my childhood) got tossed on its ear with the advent of political correctness. Now it's more like "If you hurt me with words, I'll break your bones with sticks and stones."

I'm not in favor of the actual banning of words. I am in favor of raising children to treat others respectfully but know when to ignore (not fight, not censor) those who haven't been raised quite so well.; 7/6/07, 2:55 PM
Daryl said...: The campaign also urges people to stop using the terms "bitch" and "ho" to refer to women.

Feminists are funny. They get all hot and bothered about women being called bitches (which I understand), but then their idea of a solution is that only men can be called bitches.; 7/7/07, 3:43 AM
Anonymous said...: Have a trackback (more a response to some of the points made in the comment than the Seattle incident).; 7/7/07, 8:33 AM