1. Apologizing for "slavery", something that no American alive today had anything to do with.

2. I believe the word "reparation" is a very popular concept, and keeps rearing it's head giving the idea that money will erase past sufferings. Sure do care about those ancestors, eh?

BTW. Dr. Webley, bododie's remarks are actually her remarks. LOL.

It sounds like you don't really listen to enough black comedians to actually know much about the nature of their material. If you did you'd know that most of them spend more time making jokes about their own race rather then whites unless their playing to a white audience where their more likely to make comparisons. White comedians do the same thing. You are just making up assumptions. And look, nobody has accused you of anything for your baseless generalizations either. So there you have it.

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Proof of media bias? A mistake by the major networks they don't want you to know about. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/media...als_04-24.html

I believe that racism against whites is now just being noticed in America and maybe elsewhere – mostly by younger generation. My parents’ generation feels sorry about what happened with slavery in America, but they do so without taking the context of history into consideration, and there are some things about the history of slavery that are poorly known. Lastly, how can one say a word like the “n” word is any worse than a “c” word that rhymes with hacker?
History is filled with slavery. Whites did enslave blacks, and others. It wasn’t good. Free, or cheap, labor still exists today, and it isn’t good. Blacks are just as guilty as any white man, for they enslaved and sold blacks to the white man. Whites and blacks were coconspirators.

It would be difficult, and even then it would be subjective, to say one derogatory word is worse than another. The “n” word actually comes from the word for black: in Latin black is “niger.” Still, it is fallacious to say whites are uniquely able to offend other races, and that whites' own mentality and womentality (had to put that in there) has led to white racism in rebound.

White racism has been creeping up with laws that give minorities advantages against a white person getting hired, and laws that punish one race more than another. I don’t see how a minority’s racism is somehow less than another’s.

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"Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes."

"It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment."

"Nothing in education is so astonishing as the amount of ignorance it accumulates in the form of inert facts."

Sorry about that. lol





Anyway, no Izzy, I am correct when I say you are furthering a straw man argument. You have altered bododie's remark (why is one word taken more offensively if said by a particular group), and turned it into your own (some words are more offensive than others).

You have then proceeded to attack your altered argument to disprove bododie's points, thus fulfilling the straw man definition.

The question is not, "Some words are worse than others?", that's a "duhh" in my book. Of course certain words are going to be more offensive than others.

Which is more offensive, "Hey kids, get the f*** off my lawn." or "Hey kids, get the heck off my lawn." Heck is less offensive than f***.

However, as said before, that is not the argument.


So, yes or no question, "Does a word become more offensive to society if said by a particular race?"

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High school Extempers are quite possibly the most brilliant people on Earth.

Racism is an act of Ignorance towards another race. Most of the time Racism comes from jeliousy, religion, or anger.

So it doesn't matter if you call me a cracker or if I go out and kill a million Negro's.

It is still wrong!

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"At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love." ~ Martin Luther King Jr

"Salute the smiling faces of the 21st Century." ~ Daisaku Ikeda

"An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind." ~ Mohandas Gandhi

Why won't you watch BET? I watch it sometimes and I'm not even fully black. Just because it is called "Black Entertainment Television" does not mean that whites are prohibited from watching it. If you did you would see some of the white comedians on there who say plenty about the stereotypical black people without being lynched on stage or being called a racist.

Expand your horizons. Black people watch syndicated television all of the time even though the vast majority of people on the television stations are white. Nothing wrong with watching BET even if you're not black.

You... didn't bold the other part of my statement. It's touchy because race relations are still a big issue. Because white people exercised control and discrimination against black people through laws as recently as 40 years ago. People act as if slavery ended 100 years ago and that was that so black people should get over it. No. The problem is still here because a LOT of black people who are still alive today can remember when they would be arrested for having relationships with white people (see Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court Decision from the late 1960s). My parents got married in 1975 or so. Ten years earlier they would have been ARRESTED. It's not ancient history. It's still fresh in peoples' minds.

However, you again made a generalized statement. I have seen plenty of white comedians who have made jokes about black people.

Well, unfortunately, it's going to take a bit of time before white people are not made to feel guilty anymore. As I previously mentioned... this would be because the generation who dealt with discrimination is still alive and well. My parents are only in their 50s. There are still people in their 40s who dealt with it (meaning people who are alive today who had to fight the LAW in relation to race discrimination). It's fresh in peoples' minds.

As time goes on and the generations age and the previous generations disappear then things will change. It's totally natural for there to still be guilt when the history of hatred is so recent.

What? Of course someone of the same race would be able to get away with it! White people also get away with making fun of their own race all of the time and other white people do NOT get upset about it. Now you're talking about something completely different, really. Jews can make fun of Jews without the majority of Jews making a fuss. Christians can make fun of Christians without the majority of Christians getting upset. Japanese can make fun of Japanese without the majority of Japanese getting upset. Big deal! Groups of people relate to each other.

When you cross the line it is then up to the group of people you are making fun of to decide whether or not what you are doing is offensive! If you are not part of the group of people then you can not relate and therefore have no say in whether what you are saying is appropriate or not. It's up to the group you are saying it about. If a person with Downs Syndrome gets up on stage and starts making fun of other people with Downs Syndrome but they are all okay with it, who are you to say anything as someone without it? This is a totally different issue.

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They are both completely related to each other. Why one word is taken more offensively if said by a particular group is COMPLETELY related to why some words are more offensive than others. So, no. You are not correct. It has to do with the history of the word, the context, and more. All of which I have addressed.

Here.. I'll lay it out like this:

Some words are taken more offensively if said by a particular group BECAUSE of the history surrounding that word WHICH makes some words more offensive than others in general AND more offensive if said by a particular group.

Depending on the context and history of the word, YES. This is really quite simple, honestly.

The word "nigger" is more offensive if said by white people because the word "nigger" is meant to denote inferiority and was established by white people towards black people ONLY during a time when white people exercised complete control over the race through violence and coercion (see, "Niger"... I guess people couldn't read 'good' so said "nigger" instead of "niger"). The word "nigger" has no positivity at all and especially not when said by a white person to a black person. The word "nigger" means "slave" and "worthless" and "less than white".

Black people tried and failed to adopt the word "nigger" to make it their own and less offensive. While black people use this word in some situations, you don't hear black professionals calling each other it because the word is offensive. The word "nigga" or "nigger" is still associated with low class and negative connotations. When people hear the word come out of a black person's mouth they assume that the person is of low social stature or uneducated or "comes from the ghetto" or whatever. It is not a positive word.

The word "cracker" is offensive if said by a black person to a white person because the word has become a generalization of white people. However, looking at the history tells you something quite different than the word "nigger". "Cracker" came from the sound the whip made when black people were being whipped by white people. (e.g. "Cracka's a'comin'"). Later, white people began to wear the word as a badge of pride, calling themselves "cracker".. they were the ones with the whips, afterall. Why not be proud of it? White people (mostly in the south) started calling themselves "cracker" and soon the word spread and began to be used by blacks and whites to refer to southern whites. Then the word spread more and became used to describe whites in general. Whites most likely stopped referring to themselves as "cracker" because whipping slaves stopped being something to be proud of and they did not want to be associated with it. "Cracker" was not established as a way of denoting inferiority on the white race by the blacks. It was not a way of saying "less than black". It was ... an onomatopoeia nick-name.

The word "honky" came from the "honky-tonk" taverns that white people used to go to all the time back in the day (that black people were most likely not allowed into).

Neither side should be calling the other side any of these names. I don't. I'm mixed and I wouldn't call my white family "honkys" or "crackers" and I wouldn't call my black family "niggers". However, when I hear the word "nigger" come out of a white person's mouth I [b]cringe[/c] a lot more than if I hear the word "cracker" or "honky" come out of a black person's mouth (which is really not that often, by the way). I get disappointed when I hear the word "nigger" come out of a black person's mouth and I really feel nothing at all when I hear "cracker" or "honky" come out of a white person's mouth. The words are counter productive and they make you look shallow and kind of stupid, in my opinion.

But my opinion aside.... what I have just said is WHY some words are more offensive when said by one group than said by another group. If I choose to call myself an "oreo" or a "zebra" or a "halfrican", who are you to tell me I can't? You can't relate to me at all. If I say it to another mixed person and they get offended then that is their decision and maybe I will get a punch in the face. If I stand up in front of a crowd of mixed people and say it in a comedy routine and they laugh then I have just connected with a group of people similar to me, they think I'm funny, they relate and they have decided it's okay. If a white person does it then it could go either way... but you take that risk. Just like Lisa Lampanelli takes a risk when she stands up in front of a crowd and starts talking about "retards". She's not mentally or physically handicapped so it's not up to her to say whether or not what she is saying is offensive. People think she's funny. So great! But if handicapped people didn't think she was funny and started boycotting her shows... it would be pretty fcking ridiculous for her to stand up and say "Well, why is it only offensive if a non-handicapped person calls them "retards" or "r-tards" or "gimps"! That's not fair!" ESPECIALLY with the history of how handicapped people have been treated and are still treated in this country.

Anyway.... TLDR.

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