When is a word racist?

So here's the inspiration for this thread.

A friend of mine was informed that naming her black cat "Spook" was racist. Big flap on Facebook as a result of this from some people agreeing that since "Spook" was used as a racial slur for African-Americans vs the people who felt that it was bullcrap since "Spook" also has other, non-racist uses.

As for myself, I didn't know it was a racist slur. In almost 50 years of life, my only knowledge of the term "Spook" came either from decades of Scooby Doo or as another name for CIA operatives.

As an example, Harry Turtledove's "Case of the Toxic Spell Dump" has a character from the CIA who is a literal spook as he's a "Spectral Operative" for the CIA.

So here's where I'm inviting discussion. There are words that are purely racist slurs (The N-Word being the most notable) and there are words that have been used as racial slurs...but also have common usages that aren't racial slurs.

And here's the question for the panel. Should a word be allowed in common language for the established non-racist uses even though it's been used as a racial slur, or once a word is used as a slur should it be banned?

 

We have gone hog wild with calling everyone racist. Many times because they disapprove of them for something else.

I grew up where coon hunting was popular. Sometimes they would use real coons and sometimes they would drag a coon skin through the woods and let the dogs hunt them down. If they were using a live coon, the dogs would tree the coon and would bay at the base of the tree until someone saved the coon or pulled the dogs away.

 

Yeah, let's ban 'Cracker', then we'll have to come up with a new word for those things for soups and salads. Maybe we can call them 'Spooks'........


hell no, P.C. NEEDS TO DIE.

Stay the hell off Faceflap or tell them to kiss your ass. Jeez.

 

We crackers love coon hunting.

 

We have cars in Australia called SS. That's the model.

Is that racist?

Social security happens to have the initials SS. Is that racist?

 

I don't think common single words that have a lesser, secondary meaning as a slur such as "spook" are racist inherently unless the context of the particular usage intends racism. Combinations of words, hyphenated terms, etc. can be racist on their own in any context though. People reacting to naming a cat that are basic clownshoes IMO, would be a great test of people to "outsource" from one's life. People who are constantly referencing bogus "dog whistles" are dumbasses, and people who -profit- in discriminatory ways from that kind of idiocy are evil. Blessedly the net is dragging these particular vampires out of the crypt where they fester and burning them rather quickly in the light of day.

There is a massive backlash to excessive PC forming IMO such that young people just recently voting or approaching voting age (generation Z as an inaccurate media generalization), angry at being lectured on wrongspeak and indoctrinated into "diversity is our strength/multiculti" horseshit their whole young lives, will willfully use slurs rebelliously and frequently, and may even self-segregate to an even greater degree than ALL people generally do already. This is unfortunate, but a likely inevitable consequence of the ninny-nannyism of prevailing, corrupt identity-based grievance industries towards discrimination.

The weaponizing of identity politics in a way that guilds and trade unionists of centuries and even millennia past could never dream of will go down as the -only- lasting "contribution" of Marxism to humanity, an overwhelmingly -negative- one that we desperately need to outgrow.

 

According to the Democratic Party, everything is racist. But when "everything" is racist, nothing is racist. It becomes a joke.

 

You hold a random object in front of a Democrat and they can spin some way it is racist. I've had Democrats tell me black holes and rocking chairs are racist.

 

Depends on context.

 

Who gets to determine context?

Example, a person of color in Phoenix recently decided that a centuries old photo of coal miners covered in soot erred too close to blackface and therefore is racist.

The white store owner disagreed.

Is the view of context of the POC definitionally correct? Does race lend your opinion credibility even if your view is completely ridiculous?

 

The issue of context appears to have a direct correlation to objective.

It would seem within the insanity of the New Democratic Party is the objective to win support by frightening people into aligning themselves to the movement by increasingly outrageous claims and accusations, and the threat of personal destruction if you violate the protocols.

Appropriating common words and phrases, and declaring them racist is one way to do that.

If you name a cat Spook, its clear you're a racist, and you are in danger of being destroyed. Throw yourself to the mercy of the collective and perhaps you will receive absolution, only if you're contrite enough, and swear total allegiance.

Gee, when has history documented such efforts?

 

I don't buy that any word is racist or hateful. The context in which it said makes it so.

I often try to figure out the reason for why people try to ban words or declare things racist or hateful, and now is no exception.

I think all language policing is an effort to control thought. I actually ran across something similar.

I had a friend that worked at a horse stable years ago and the other guys all spoke Spanish so he began understanding and speaking Spanish. One of the horses was actually named the Spanish word for black which is negro. And my friend called that horse by his name and somebody took offense.

 

It's the name of a cat.

 

OP

If ever there was a good reason to not sign up to Facebook then mindless drivel like this must be it?

 

Ban cracker but I'll call my white friends cracka' means something different. And only white people can say it.

 

Who cares what she names her cat and she has the right to be a racist.

I personally would never use the word *****rdly in a sentence. And it is not even racist in origins, just sounds so.
Your choice of words, should always not cause offense to the person hearing them, but my mother tried to raise me to be an English gentlemen out of a Jane Austen novel.

Edit, It looks like the forum thinks so too!!!

 

The context of that photo in its setting is not racist.

Now if you used it as a joke at a party to denigrates blacks, then it is racist.

Or whites look like blacks: then it is racist.

 

The insanity of the New Racist Republican Party, Steve King is allowed to stay in office without criticism, while the Republican lackeys and running dogs want Northam out of office.

 

I don't believe in banning words. At all. People enjoy freedom of speech. And in using that freedom, if they choose to use words that are accepted by society as racist, they usefully inform those around them about the nature of their character.

If your friend knew that the word 'spook' had racist connotations, it speaks volumes about her. If she did not, but has since learned and chooses to continue using the name, it speaks volumes about her. People will show you who they are - you just have to pay attention.

 

Is the offense taken the significant part, or does it matter that the context is actually racist or not, irrespective of what the POC thinks?

 

they sit around relaxing much of the time, she coulda named her 'porch monkey'...

visit 'urban dictionary', you will find dozens of new meanings to a word or phrase. banning such would mean we'd all be mute...

 

I should have clarified. She's not racist nor did she have any racist plans when she named the cat. Like me, "Spook" to her was something heard on Scooby Doo or CIA Operatives. She named her cat Spook because it was a shelter rescue that was afraid of everything at first and easily "spooked". She didn't know Spook was racist until last week and after she's had the cat for a few years.

 

The business group that worked on top secret classified projects (couldn't even fill in their manager in many cases) under government contract were often called the spook group or tank.

 

she doesn't need to defend herself, just ignore the overtones of the 'do gooders', their only objective is to control us all... they are the racists by definition, they want everyone to think they are superior ergo allowing them to take control...

pc is bs... my parents are dead , they didnt pass away, they died. people are afraid of reality ergo resort to irrational phrasing. screw up and exclaim 'oh, fudge!' has same intent as 'oh, f*ck!'...

sugarcoating is coddling, aka phony...

 

Ok, she did rename the cat to "Skitty" after she learned that it was racist. But even if she didn't, why would that speak volumes about her? There are tons of racial slurs out there that have other, non-racist contexts to them.

Apple for one. It is often used to refer to a Native American who to others has lost their connections to their cultural identity. "Red on the outside, white on the inside". Even though I know it's a slur, I still to to the farmer's market and ask for a bushel of apples. I'm not asking for a bushel basket of culturally removed Native Americans, I'm asking for fruit that I intend to use in a pie.

So again...is the word now racist because someone used it as a slur, or is it only racist if it's used in a racist context?