4 ms·

Genuine question, because I hear this sentiment a lot. Are they the only ones who tell you, a fellow white man, or are they the only ones who are offended? I s

Genuine question, because I hear this sentiment a lot. Are they the only ones who tell you, a fellow white man, or are they the only ones who are offended? I strongly suspect (this is not meant to be insulting) that you may not have a relationship with the people who this language impacts. It takes an emotional toll to confide with someone that something is upsetting to hear, even with coworkers or casual friends, especially if you don't think they'd understand. Also, language has the opportunity to shape and influence how we structure society, even unintentionally. Thats why there's a lot of emphasis on teaching children about what words are appropriate. Even if naming your git branch "master" won't realistically impact racism and the history of slavery, describing some bad event in your day a word that has an origin in describing people can lead to negative associations.

fallingknife 4y ago
Tons of black people where I come from, and I've talked to a lot. The idea that somehow that black people are afraid to tell white people what pisses them off is racist and incorrect. Again, comes only from upper class white people who don't actually talk to anyone other than other upper class white people. Here's a tip for you. Don't spout woke shit to minorities you meet IRL (as in outside of SV). It's cringe AF, and will make people dislike you. Just talk to them like normal people, which they are. I mean, you do realize that 99% of black people have no idea where "grandfathered in" comes from, right? You do realize that going into etymology to find offense is something only snobby linguistics cunts that you would find at elite universities would do, right?
yakshaving_jgt 4y ago
> I strongly suspect that you may not have a relationship with the people who this language impacts. In society we have come to a collective understanding that “I’m not racist; some of my best friends are black” is an invalid dismissal of a person’s potential for racism. Somehow, however, we have also decided that if someone does not have a sufficient quantity nor quality of relationships with black people, then that is a strong signal of racism. Damned if you do. Damned if you don’t.
d0100 4y ago
Brazil has started to try importing this US "harmful words" shenanigans, and most of the words they target are common vernacular among the supposedly harmed people Labeling a word as harmful actually harms more, since most new generations are so removed from the word's origin that it carries none of the supposed harm

fallingknife 4y ago

Tons of black people where I come from, and I've talked to a lot. The idea that somehow that black people are afraid to tell white people what pisses them off is racist and incorrect. Again, comes only from upper class white people who don't actually talk to anyone other than other upper class white people. Here's a tip for you. Don't spout woke shit to minorities you meet IRL (as in outside of SV). It's cringe AF, and will make people dislike you. Just talk to them like normal people, which they are. I mean, you do realize that 99% of black people have no idea where "grandfathered in" comes from, right? You do realize that going into etymology to find offense is something only snobby linguistics cunts that you would find at elite universities would do, right?

yakshaving_jgt 4y ago

> I strongly suspect that you may not have a relationship with the people who this language impacts. In society we have come to a collective understanding that “I’m not racist; some of my best friends are black” is an invalid dismissal of a person’s potential for racism. Somehow, however, we have also decided that if someone does not have a sufficient quantity nor quality of relationships with black people, then that is a strong signal of racism. Damned if you do. Damned if you don’t.

d0100 4y ago

Brazil has started to try importing this US "harmful words" shenanigans, and most of the words they target are common vernacular among the supposedly harmed people Labeling a word as harmful actually harms more, since most new generations are so removed from the word's origin that it carries none of the supposed harm