Race-baiting

gogglebok

There is a thread on AH at the moment that makes me queasy, and I'm wondering if anyone else feels the same. It turns on the similarity in sound between "niggard" and "******". It opens with the question "anyone else find black people niggards?" and develops much as you might imagine.

I'm not really interesed in the motives for this. It may be a swipe at PC. It may be something less creditable. At least one of the people on the thread is someone whose posts and politics I normally have great respect for. The point is that, whatever the motives, this thread would be extremely uncomfortable reading for many black people.

A sample post:

"I'm just aching to say that in front of a black person now. 'Jesus, I'm sick of these niggards'."

Is this really how we want to portray ourselves? I can't imagine people saying things like that if there was a black person in the room. If we say them so casually on boards we are painting ourselves as a white community, making jokes among ourselves. (Or something much, much worse.) Is that really kind?

In the short time I've been here I've become very fond of boards, and I appreciate that the moderators do a difficult job sensitively and well, and voluntarily. I've also been wrong about a few things. I may be wrong about this, and I would welcome disagreement.

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

typical AH. But does sound a bit over the top even for that forum.

monkeyfudge

It's a potentially an interesting thread.

But it should probably be in the English Language forum instead.

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

don't think it is really meant as a linguistics thread though

mike65

Its After Hours - the boards Bear pit!

That thread is about playing with language and probably seeing which use of niggardly will get Dudess to ban a poster.

Mike.

gogglebok

mike65 wrote: »

That thread is about playing with language and probably seeing which use of niggardly will get Dudess to ban a poster.

Regardless of the motives, are you happy with the content of the thread?

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

gogglebok

monkeyfudge wrote: »

It's a potentially an interesting thread.

But it should probably be in the English Language forum instead.

Sure, there are lots of interesting linguistic threads to be had about pejorative words, and about words that sounds like them. There are interesting issues of usage and context and etymology and a dozen other things.

But that's not the direction the thread took, and that's not what it seemed likely from the outset to elicit.

mike65

Its pretty mild - the way I view this sort of thing is being like the message board eqivilent of South Park, Harold and Kumar, Borat etc, its slapstick and easy to take offence at if you approach the thread with the "wrong" frame of mind.

Mike.

Esel

Fuppin' post a link! http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055314867&highlight=niggard

edit: Didn't bother reading the thread, looked up Wikipedia instead. A comment there about 'pinheads' probably picking up and using the term says it all. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niggard

gogglebok

mike65 wrote: »

Its pretty mild - the way I view this sort of thing is being like the message board eqivilent of South Park, Harold and Kumar, Borat etc, its slapstick and easy to take offence at if you approach the thread with the "wrong" frame of mind.

I have a lot of sympathy with that. The "****** Guy" episode of South park is a masterpiece, in my opinion. But if a white guy put it on in a crowd of strangers that was mainly but not exclusively white, I would feel very uneasy about it.

I also think the intent of that episode is easy to read as satiric, whereas it's hard not to see the AH thread as baiting. "Look, I can say '******' and get away with it!"

It feels wrong to me.

Tigger

its trollish if not deliberatly incitefull

"It was while giving a speech in Washington, to a very international audience, about the British theft of the Elgin marbles from the Parthenon. I described the attitude of the current British authorities as 'niggardly.' Nobody said anything, but I privately resolved—having felt the word hanging in the air a bit—to say 'parsimonious' from then on." [Christopher Hitchens, "The Pernicious Effects of Banning Words," Slate.com, Dec. 4, 2006]

_blank_

Tigger wrote: »

its trollish if not deliberatly incitefull

So is your usernamethen, only one letter different to the "n" word.

STOP OFFENDING ME WITH YORE USERNAME!!!

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

DesF wrote: »

So is your usernamethen, only one letter different to the "n" word.

STOP OFFENDING ME WITH YORE USERNAME!!!

is not amused:

Dudess

I think it's funny - I see it as kinda satirical and a piss-take of both racists and overly PC types. I think any black person who's offended by it would be quite silly really.
As for white people being afraid it's offensive: you can't constantly be tiptoe-ing around everything you deem somehow dodgy.

CuLT

I also think it is funny.

_blank_

Dudess wrote: »

I think any black person who's offended by it would be quite silly really.

Any black person who is offended by it is an absolute braindead moron tbh.

Like that American person ffs.

What if some group decided that "Babbage" was an offensive term, would we no longer be able to eat Cabbage?

That's ridiculous, isn't it? Well so is this "niggardly" thing.

The word is in no way etymologically related to the "n" word, no way at all.

If this is the way Boards is going, then we should start swear-filtering the work "Duck" because it sounds like fúck.

ffs.

Dudess wrote: »

As for white people being afraid it's offensive: you can't constantly be tiptoe-ing around everything you deem somehow dodgy.

Very true.

I'm sick to the back teeth of PC-do-gooders getting offended on behalf of others.

Get a fúcking life you numpty.

copacetic

It's not at all funny, personally I can't believe it was left open. A thread for everyone to try and see how close they can come to calling a black person the n word without actually doing it is just sad.

We aren't racist on boards BUT we do like to have a laught by trying to call black people by names close to the N word if possible.

Even if you allow the thread on its merits and ignore the fact it has an ulterior motive, its still racist as it tries to assign characteristics to all people based on the colour of their skin.

Sherifu

Tigger

DesF wrote: »

So is your usernamethen, only one letter different to the "n" word.

STOP OFFENDING ME WITH YORE USERNAME!!!

i'm not askling if we acn call black peoples tiggers
no need for caps lock i'm sure the nurse will be back soon

Xavi6

That South Park episode is a classic

Tigger

abso-fucking-lutley

Karoma

The Scientist wrote: »

I would have locked it. Bad taste imo...

We don't lock for "bad taste" unless it oversteps an imaginary line.
Where's the line? Buggered if I know; in a case like this, I let the users decide. I've only see two or three reported posts about the thread, all from the same user.
In this instance, I see no malice - insensitivty by the truck load, but no malice. Report posts that cross the line and we'll keep looking.

esel wrote: »

Fuppin' post a link! http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055314867&highlight=niggard

Can we ban esel? He used a naughty-sound-a-like word thing! BAN HEEEEM!

Dinter

The first post is this:

"anybody else find black people niggards? i mean, im from cavan and apparantly we are the most niggardly people according to irish slagging legend. i just happened . . . round of drinks... was it just him or are all black people niggards ?(without wanting to tar an entire race with the same brush!)?"

I would have thought it was pretty obvious it's not a serious or racist thread when in his first post the op puts his own county down.

If you think it sounds familiar to the other "N" word I'd say that unless it's actually mentioned I don't think people should take it upon themselves to think that they somehow know what another posters intentions are.

Also if Dudess is ok with it that's usually a pretty good sign that it's not a pejorative thread!!

Cuddlesworth

DesF wrote: »

If this is the way Boards is going, then we should start swear-filtering the work "Duck" because it sounds like fúck.

Holy Duck!
I'd duck that!
Duck you and your ducking attitude!
Two words, duck off!
You want to duck baby?
I could do with a duck.
Duck that, where the duck am I going to put the ducking thing in?


It could work...

TerrorFirmer

mike65 wrote: »

Its pretty mild - the way I view this sort of thing is being like the message board eqivilent of South Park, Harold and Kumar, Borat etc, its slapstick and easy to take offence at if you approach the thread with the "wrong" frame of mind.

Mike.

Very well said.

gogglebok

Dudess wrote: »

I think it's funny - I see it as kinda satirical and a piss-take of both racists and overly PC types. I think any black person who's offended by it would be quite silly really.

Do you think a black person would be silly to be uncomfortable at the "tar-brush" joke? Or the thread tags "fried chicken, nigggga, spades, and watermelon"?

biko

AH is the forum that brought you "I really hate Roma" about hating a certain spaghetti sauce. Along with the threads entitled "I hate travellers!" (about back-packers), "Too many poles in Dublin" (as in the solid phallic structures), "Send those monkeys back to the jungle" (about actual monkeys and the issue of animals in captivity).
Threads collected by Dudess

justsomebloke

Dinter wrote: »

The first post is this:

"anybody else find black people niggards? i mean, im from cavan and apparantly we are the most niggardly people according to irish slagging legend. i just happened . . . round of drinks... was it just him or are all black people niggards ?(without wanting to tar an entire race with the same brush!)?"

I would have thought it was pretty obvious it's not a serious or racist thread when in his first post the op puts his own county down.

I actually thought it was quite a good play on the PC brigade.

However that said I can't see a difference between this thread and any of the threads where the Roma gypsies are sterotyped as the OP in this thread is asking are all black people stingy feckers

TerrorFirmer

gogglebok wrote: »

Do you think a black person would be silly to be uncomfortable at the "tar-brush" joke? Or the thread tags "fried chicken, nigggga, spades, and watermelon"?

All in all, it's generally OK to poke fun at these stereotypes. In a lot of ways, it's no different to the drunken, red haired Irishman - it never actually offends, even if it can get very tiresome seeing those stereotypes in a lot of American productions. It's just light hearted. If you look at a lot of black comedians, some of their best materials are based around having a laugh at stereotypes. (Chris Rock - how not to get beat up by the police )

Recently enough we were watching Diary of the Dead on a large screen, and there was a bunch of us - in the scene where all the characters ask the black guys for supples one of my friends shouts "Take the guns, just leave the fried chicken and watermelon!"

Stereotypes can be amusing, and playing on such in good humor is not an indication of being racist.

gogglebok

DesF wrote: »

Any black person who is offended by it is an absolute braindead moron tbh.

Like that American person ffs.

What if some group decided that "Babbage" was an offensive term, would we no longer be able to eat Cabbage?

That's ridiculous, isn't it? Well so is this "niggardly" thing.

The word is in no way etymologically related to the "n" word, no way at all.

If this is the way Boards is going, then we should start swear-filtering the work "Duck" because it sounds like fúck.

ffs.

Very true.

I'm sick to the back teeth of PC-do-gooders getting offended on behalf of others.

Get a fúcking life you numpty.

I certainly don't have a problem with swearing, and this is not "the way boards is going". This is one boards user expressing unease, giving reasons, and asking whether others agree or disagree. I had hoped we could talk about this without anger or abuse, and I find your response disheartening.

Your "babbage/cabbage" analogy is faulty. The fact that "******" is an offensive word was not a capricious decision by a group of people. The AH thread is not a discussion of the word "niggard", except insofar as it sounds like ******.