Political Correctness

[Hobbezak]

Last night, I was astonished by the fact that someone got banned in #bushtarion for using the word "******" (and was called one of the most racist words in the english language by ViVi... :/). Now I've studied latin a few years back, and I know that the latin word for black is niger, just like there's a country called Niger, a river called the Niger and another called Nigeria.
So I'm wondering, what is becoming of this world, if political correctness is winning from normal common sense, and rational thinking? Say a muslim mother and her 5 year old child are sitting in the back of a bus, and the child is being very annoying (yelling etc), it's in the current climate not political correct anymore to go over and ask her to keep her chlid under control, because you'll probably be called a racist, whereas if you'd say that to a white woman, they can hardly say you're a racist :p (more likely they'll say you should mind your own business, but still. :()
So, what do you people think of political correctness and (positive) discrimination?

[tobapopalos]

It's a big smelly bag of ****.

[atsanjose]

It's a big smelly bag of smeg.

indeed, that smegging son of a smeg smegged it up real smeg. so all this smegging about smeg words is just smegging hilarious

/me feels like a smurf

[Darryl]

The etymology is irrelevant, as is the fact that it used to be more acceptable. I can't post a link to it, but i agree very much with stuart lee's views on political correctness - that on the whole, It's a good thing, but people seem a bit confused about what it actually is. The lies published by the likes of the daily mail encourage the they of most people, that all political correctness is bad, unfortunately. The stuart lee interview can be found on youtube, It's worth a listen.

[Azzer]

I'm not going to go in to the details of why somebody that tries to pawn off an actual racial slur as something that should be allowed touting "political correctness gone mad" looks extremely ignorant... but you do. I lost patience for arguing this with people a long time ago, because it is too frustrating facing up to a wall of ignorance born from the daily mail and sun readers of the world, so instead I just divide people off as "ignorant" in my head and try to avoid having any serious conversations with them and just try to act civil the rest of the time :P

In summary: I disagree with the OP entirely and there is a reason I have censored such words on the forums already, it's not simply so I can be politically correct, it's because I actually personally find the word offensive and know many many others that would too when it is used in any form except jokingly in the private company of people you know share your humour... but an IRC room or public forums does not provide such private company or private situations :P

Edit: Darryl, can you dig up a link for me? I did a quick YouTube search but couldn't see anything that might be what you're talking about, am interested in seeing/hearing it!

[anth]

I tried to post a link to wiki explaining why the term is derogatory but alas the link was changed to smeg-head. Believe it or not there is a wiki for smeg-head. The word in question is perhaps one of the most widely abused racial slurs around.

[Hobbezak]

I'm not going to go in to the details of why somebody that tries to pawn off an actual racial slur as something that should be allowed touting "political correctness gone mad" looks extremely ignorant... but you do. I lost patience for arguing this with people a long time ago, because it is too frustrating facing up to a wall of ignorance born from the daily mail and sun readers of the world, so instead I just divide people off as "ignorant" in my head and try to avoid having any serious conversations with them and just try to act civil the rest of the time :P

In summary: I disagree with the OP entirely and there is a reason I have censored such words on the forums already, it's not simply so I can be politically correct, it's because I actually personally find the word offensive and know many many others that would too when it is used in any form except jokingly in the private company of people you know share your humour... but an IRC room or public forums does not provide such private company or private situations :P

Edit: Darryl, can you dig up a link for me? I did a quick YouTube search but couldn't see anything that might be what you're talking about, am interested in seeing/hearing it!

Funny, instead of thinking "hmm, the man's mother tongue is dutch, second language is french, it might be possible that his knowledge of the english is insufficient to know that it's a racial slur (probably not even the language is the problem, more the cultural background), you just insult me. I think this says more about you than it says about me. But that's beside the point at hand ofcourse. :)

On the matter at hand: Do you think the word White is an insult? Or Black for that matter. I personally don't feel insulted in the slightest if a mate of mine, who's from Brazilian origine, calls me albino because I have blond hairs. But if someone uses the latin word for black, it's a racial slug? Now THAT is what I understand as ignorant.

@Darryl: Political correctness condones positive discrimination, so I really don't understand how that can be a good thing. To me, everyone should be dealt with the same way. It shouldn't matter to an employer if you're black, white, muslim... He should just pick the right man for the job. Now, if you pick the white man, and your muslim/black... is of the rebellious type, you're possibly going to have to defend yourself in court. And, even better, there's a legislation pending that would make invert the "Innocent until proven guilty" in the case of racism. So you're a racist, until you prove you're not.
Now that's political correctness for you. Yeah, sounds really great.

[Darryl]

Edit: Darryl, can you dig up a link for me? I did a quick YouTube search but couldn't see anything that might be what you're talking about, am interested in seeing/hearing it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IYx4Bc6_eE

Sorry, was using my phone so couldn't paste it earlier.

Warning: Some bad language, very much attacking the use of it, but if you're extremely easily offended, don't click it.

@Darryl: Political correctness condones positive discrimination, so I really don't understand how that can be a good thing. To me, everyone should be dealt with the same way. It shouldn't matter to an employer if you're black, white, muslim... He should just pick the right man for the job. Now, if you pick the white man, and your muslim/black... is of the rebellious type, you're possibly going to have to defend yourself in court. And, even better, there's a legislation pending that would make invert the "Innocent until proven guilty" in the case of racism. So you're a racist, until you prove you're not.
Now that's political correctness for you. Yeah, sounds really great.



You're making the mistake lots of people do; you're confusing Political Correctness with so called "positive discrimination", or just plain stupidity.

I agree very much with you, everyone should be treated the same; but that doesn't support your earlier point - We shouldn't use the word that the word filter won't let me use, but that doesn't mean we're treating black people and white people differently; if there was a demeaning word for white people that carried the baggage of centuries of slavery and oppression, I'd think it wrong to use that word to, but there isn't.

What you describe with the courts isn't Political Correctness, it is sheer idiocy.

[Hobbezak]

Your link really didn't convince me. Stuart Lee said that if someone said something that *might possibly could be interpreted as racist/homophobic/sexist*, he should be considered a racist/homophobic/sexist, because it's a small price to pay to stop others from using the word in a racist/homophobic/sexist context.
I'd say if you interprete a word linguistically related, and even being the etymological base of the word to describe your color, as racist, you have some issues with your color. Albino is derived from albus, being the latin for white, and is a disease, and still I'm not insulted if someone uses it against me (be it a friend, or someone I don't know).
And if it's politically correct to stop using words because they *might* be insulting, then I'll happily continue being politically incorrect, even though it means people sometimes don't fully understand what I say.

[Azzer]

Funny, instead of thinking "hmm, the man's mother tongue is dutch, second language is french, it might be possible that his knowledge of the english is insufficient to know that it's a racial slur (probably not even the language is the problem, more the cultural background), you just insult me. I think this says more about you than it says about me. But that's beside the point at hand ofcourse. :)


So while I should have to look up your country of origin before posting and do some personal research on you to find out what you do and do not know about the world before posting... you on the other hand can post an entire thread on the forums over an issue of a #bushtarion banning without bothering to do some minimal research on why a word is actually a racial slur and not simply a harmless latin word? Right... I'm going to leave this discussion now just wanted to make that last point. Good luck with your campaign. By the way, Clerks 2 is (genuinely) hilarious, he wants to bring back "Porch Monkey". It's well worth watching, I just mention it as I'm reminded slightly of it here :P

[wrath]

its funny in the uk most racial tolerance crap is brought up by white british people who are closet racist

oh and by the way its ****** not niger thats the racial slur, i think the extra "g" was added to give more strength to the hatred they had for them back in the day

in my actual belief everyones racist and sexist at times

trying to include everyone is all well and good but everyone has to give up something to gain something else

[ViVi]

Last night, I was astonished by the fact that someone got banned in #bushtarion for using the word "smeg-head" (and was called one of the most racist words in the english language by ViVi... :/). Now I've studied latin a few years back, and I know that the latin word for black is niger, just like there's a country called Niger, a river called the Niger and another called Nigeria.
So I'm wondering, what is becoming of this world, if political correctness is winning from normal common sense, and rational thinking? Say a muslim mother and her 5 year old child are sitting in the back of a bus, and the child is being very annoying (yelling etc), it's in the current climate not political correct anymore to go over and ask her to keep her chlid under control, because you'll probably be called a racist, whereas if you'd say that to a white woman, they can hardly say you're a racist :p (more likely they'll say you should mind your own business, but still. :()
So, what do you people think of political correctness and (positive) discrimination?


If you're going to quote my name in a post, use it correctly. I didn't call them the racist name. I told them that "it was" one of the most racist words in our language when they continually made a point of using it and saying that "it is not offensive, it is just a word". A small, but at least on my part, rather important correction.

Political Correctness and Positive Discrimination are entirely different things. It's not really a topic that I want to discuss on the forums, however, because by the large, I don't think most people genuinely have any true care on the subject and would just derail the topic. I'm on IRC if you want me.

[willymchilybily]

i dont know if this has been covered. but i find it annoying trying to be politically correct. for example when a black board is clearly black and the combination of the word black and the word board make for good illiteration. why change it to chalk board.

yet allow white board to be called a white board. surely this is more rascist than leaving it how it was. your not even allowed to say black. if an object is black!

barbar black sheep is now barbar wolley sheep. that doesnt work!. the sheep is black. you do get them. ive seen them. ive chased them(thats for another topic). so why cant i describe them as black.

how can it be dergoatory to call a black person black. just like you call a white person white (or cocasian..w/e) like saying dont call a jewish person a jew he might get offended. how how the hell would he be offended.

saying something derogatory about that classification. for example. every white boy smells like sour milk. derogatory. because its abusing a clasification.

and to be honest. have these political correct people been to birmingham. the kids grow up together. get along. have kids of thier own. mixed races. so to call some one coloured isnt very helpful description. thats if anything more rascist than saying black. your not describing what some one is. your describign what some one isnt.

oh hes coloured. aka he's not white. how ****ing rascist is that. political correctness can suck my man dangle. its a ****ing black board. until you call the white board a felt pen board, im sticking to labeling stuff by colour

you have a fat white guy and a fat yellow guy and a thin i dunno green guy. there are 2 fat people and one thin person. so describe them by weight could be hard to clarify who you are talking about

the next thing you should do i clarrify them by the next most obvious trait. in my example colour. and dont just call them coloured. if thier green thier green, yellow yellow.

if some one is pasty white and ginger, then thats what they are. they know what they are. i know im a slightly tanned big nosed whitish guy. i wouldnt take offence if some one described me as that. its not like your going to go and describe some one as black. and thier going to go. really i never knew that. im black. theres a turn out for the books. all this time and i never knew.
using a non rascist term correctly cant be offensive. surely?

[Jimbo2189]

In Sumary i blame the whole bloody political corectness and other rubbish like that on Brussels and the EU, with Buracrats who are simply coming up with all this tosh just so it seems like they are doing something.
But i suppose that a whole other topic.............

[Dark_Angel]

This is too diverse a topic to discuss as there are a million variables and ultimately nobody is right or wrong. Just be nice :)

[Charlie_B]

Dark_Angel is a fool!

In Sumary i blame the whole bloody political corectness and other rubbish like that on Brussels and the EU, with Buracrats who are simply coming up with all this tosh just so it seems like they are doing something.
But i suppose that a whole other topic.............

As you seem to be the expert, can you (properly) cite me a single piece of European legislation?

[Dark_Angel]

Be nice charlie :(

I think he's probably referring to those MPs who want to make headlines by saying "this is wrong" - I doubt you'll be as fast for me to quote a government official from any country coming up with some political correctness crap :P

[tomtree]

screw being PC!

i mean im not racist or anything, i just hate having to be so bloody PC all the time!!!