Manx footballers racially abused.

[Gladys]

25 minutes ago, Roger Mexico said:

And your boss was completely wrong.  There's no evidence the phrase existed before the 20th century and ironically it appears to be an African-American coinage.

But even if the source was the slave trade, its usage and meaning is now quite specifically nothing to do with slavery, or even in reference to people of any description.  It is used in reference to situations or subjects. Who knew of that potential origin? 

Language is a living thing, it evolves as society and cultures do.  To stifle that evolution is to deny our own development. 

There are probably lots of common phrases that come from less than savoury historical circumstances, but they describe perfectly things that now bear no relation to the origin.  Are they to be excised from our vocabulary even if everyone knows exactly what they currently mean? 

[thommo2010]

Over the last few months I've seen celebs getting grief for the way they style their hair or the clothes they wear,  the girl from little mix was getting grief for essentially being to tanned. Cultural appropriation I think it's labelled as. 

[Numbnuts]

15 minutes ago, The Voice of Reason said:

What really makes me cross is the number of contributors on here who attribute, either expressly or by implication, those who voted (or would have voted) for Brexit with racist attitudes or motives.

As one who would have voted for Brexit I find that in itself extremely offensive.

You need to read my post again. Those with racist tendencies are also the same ones who were vermently in favour of Brexit. You do know that Brexit augument was as much about immigration as anything else . Draw your own conclusions from my statetment of truth in the people I know about. I'm just stating a fact in those who I have contact with at a local football club.  

[The Voice of Reason]

6 minutes ago, Numbnuts said:

You need to read my post again. Those with racist tendencies are also the same ones who were vermently in favour of Brexit. You do know that Brexit augument was as much about immigration as anything else . 

No I don’t know that.

Besides you can have genuine concerns about the levels  of immigration ( I don’t) without being racist.

Im afraid you have fallen into that trap.

[Roger Mexico]

4 minutes ago, The Voice of Reason said:

What really makes me cross is the number of contributors on here who attribute, either expressly or by implication, those who voted (or would have voted) for Brexit with racist attitudes or motives.

As one who would have voted for Brexit I find that in itself extremely offensive.

But your finding something offensive doesn't mean it's untrue.  (Some might argue the opposite based on past performance).

Actually I haven't seen many people arguing that those who voted for Brexit were all racist - just that much of the support was driven by racist attitudes.  There's polling to suggest this, Ashcroft's 'exit' polling on attitudes is quite revealing:

The biggest differences are on immigration and multiculturalism.

[pongo]

14 minutes ago, hissingsid said:

Remoaners are really sad people get over it.

But right about Brexit fucking up the economy and the north of Ireland + creating a massive labour shortage. All of which was previously dismissed as "Project Fear".

Now the grifters and spivs who pushed it through say that this is inevitable and transitional and will likely take decades to sort out. They could have warned us.

Still - it got Boris into No 10. And I suppose that we can all agree that he has been an absolutely brilliant PM so far.

[doc.fixit]

48 minutes ago, offshoremanxman said:

The point is that times change. Calling someone a “spastic” in 1981 is very different to calling someone a “spastic” in 2021. The same applies with many words. But there are people actively trawling back through peoples social media feeds just to find things to get outraged about in order to create problems for them. It’s wrong.

When I started teaching in special needs the official terminology was, 'idiot, imbecile and cretin',! Thank goodness that changed rapidly.

[The Voice of Reason]

4 minutes ago, offshoremanxman said:

I have to say most of the people I know who supported Brexit were in the large xenophobic Tory twats. 

Well I am none of those three. I can only speak for myself.

[Gladys]

9 minutes ago, thommo2010 said:

Over the last few months I've seen celebs getting grief for the way they style their hair or the clothes they wear,  the girl from little mix was getting grief for essentially being to tanned. Cultural appropriation I think it's labelled as. 

Someone will correct me, but a degree of "cultural appropropriation" has to be a good thing, doesn't it?  Imitation being the sincerest form of flattery and all that.  It also indicates a degree of blending of cultures which reduces the polarities, does it not?

To exaggerate to make a point, is it to be frowned on when, say, a Namibian wears a three piece suit to an event, or even everyday?

That is not to try to dilute cultures, but to absorb some aspects of other cultures as normal cultural evolution.  

[Numbnuts]

1 hour ago, The Voice of Reason said:

No I don’t know that.

Besides you can have genuine concerns about the levels  of immigration ( I don’t) without being racist.

Im afraid you have fallen into that trap.

You know nothing about me !! I havent fallen into your perceived imaginary trap. My late father was born in India , my ex Asia. Shall I go on. You still havent understood my post . I commented that a group of people were Racist and admit it . I then made the point that those same people were equally for Brexit. I was making the observation from a neutral point of view. You really are anything but a voice of reason !! 

Edited November 19, 2021 by Numbnuts

[Gladys]

1 minute ago, doc.fixit said:

When I started teaching in special needs the official terminology was, 'idiot, imbecile and cretin',! Thank goodness that changed rapidly.

Agreed.  But what came first, the pejorative connotation, or did that follow after the medical classification? 

[doc.fixit]

No idea , it was just such an eye opener and so bad, so, I would presume that at that time it was becoming recognised as being disgusting to use such terms.

[pongo]

People used to be defined as ESN - educationally subnormal. In reality they were probably dyslexic or forced to be right-handed.

The past was another country: A really horrible place.

Edited November 19, 2021 by pongo

[doc.fixit]

Yespongo, ESN then ESNS if I remember accurately. We had pupils who had spent the first 15 years of their lives locked in hospitals just because the were quadraplegics and there were no schools that would take them.

[wrighty]

14 minutes ago, doc.fixit said:

When I started teaching in special needs the official terminology was, 'idiot, imbecile and cretin',! Thank goodness that changed rapidly.

Another point of pedantry - it was moron, not cretin. Cretinism is (was) used to describe the specific syndrome associated with neonatal hypothyroidism. 
 

Whatever the medical term of the day it will be used as an insult until it gets changed. We’ve gone through those to retarded, subnormal, learning difficulties, special needs, neurodiverse…. Each one becomes a schoolyard slur until they think up a new one.