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usnamom · #40 (**permalink**) 10-27-2008, 09:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marilynk

*sigh* I don't continue to use any offensive terms--Nor am I "defending" their use. What I'm saying is, and apparently doing a crappy job of it, the pendulum of political correctness has swung too far the opposite the direction. EVERY word can have negative connotations or meanings. Boy is the perfect example! Good Grief! I have seen black parents get offended when asked "is that your boy over there?" from another parent on the playground. No hidden meaning, no negative implication--just wanted to know which child belonged to which parent. KWIM?

You say you can remember no being able to stop at certain places because of the color of your skin--I'm probably a good 10-15 years younger than you, and I can remember not being able to drive through certain areas because I was white, and the predominately black communities didn't like whites. No, they wouldn't serve us in "their" restaraunts. On the occasions that we played certain teams in basketball tournaments we had to have police escorts to our team bus and out of town. One night we had to leave the game in the middle of the game because of the unrest in the stands--we were in Oklahoma at a predominately Indian school. Racism, bigotry, and hate swing both ways. Blacks don't have the market cornered. No race, religion, creed, sex, etc. has market cornered.

oh and FWIW--none of the 6 or so recognized tribes in Montana care if you call them Indians or Native Americans. They would just like to be seen as equals. Isn't that what we all would want? To be equal?

I guess the succinct version of all my posts: I don't see colored as overtly racist or bigotted. Just like I don't see terms like Redneck or Hick as overtly offensive. I tend to look more in the context of the whole.

Okay, Marilyn.

I am telling you that colored is considered by anyone who is of color as a negative word. Period. What will you do with this information? Continue to use it knowing that it is a racist term from someone who is on the recieving end of the racism. It really doesn't matter whether you feel or think the word colored is a bad word only in context. All words are used in context. If I say I colored my hair it isn't negative (unless it is a wierd color) but use that word while describing a Black person it is. Simple.

The PC you talk about is what makes people polite and not offensive. I seriously doubt that someone wuold get upset if you said which one is your boy but sillier things have happened.

Now, if you called the father a boy as in "Nice to meet you, Boy" or "get off that bench, boy" that is the context that is hurtful. The word colored as used in the post above is in a context that is negative. Period.

So, you keep posting about how the American Indians have been treated. I believe they have been on the recieving end of a raw deal but it still doesn't mean that the experience that black people have had in this country for the past 200 years is marginalized.