Quote:
Originally Posted by Diggles
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I demand we report every post with Holocaust in it, much like the word "******" (used academically)
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One is a horrible epithet, the other is not.
It is not offensive to speak about a holocaust or about slavery. In fact, any academic could make a good argument about why talking about holocausts and slavery is good in that it raises awareness about those issues, which goes a long way to help prevent recurrences.
However, there is no good use of the word ******, other than to speak of it's use, which accomplishes the above. Any other use of the term is meant to be offensive to all black people, de facto, by the very nature of the word, and the context which it has acquired. Ignorance is your only excuse, but that only works once, and only if you were a feral child - raised under a rock - by wolves - that was born yesterday.
The only other possible exception is the ironic of black people using the word, usually amongst themselves. This is an effort on the part of blacks to have some modicum of power over whites (who many perceive as having all or most of the control in this world), in that whites are not supposed to use the word.
Now there is another movement within the "subtly" racist internet generation that thinks it is OK to use the word ****** regardless of their race, justifying that use with the above questionable ironic use.
This is a misuse of logic. The justification is akin to "hey that guy over there stabbed his wife, that must make it ok for me to do it."
The fact is that the use is offensive to many blacks, even when used by other blacks. There is a very strong movement within the black community to discourage their own use of the word. This is always more prevalent with older blacks, with black youths making up the vast majority of the population which uses it. In that it is still an offensive term which conjures up images of ethnic slavery that has no other legitimate use in modern English, no matter who uses it, don't fucking use it.
If you use it here, I at least will send private messages to forum moderators, here and on IRC, and I will try to have it removed and have you banned. That is what I can do.
Use of the word Holocaust is completely different. I understand where Aruden is coming from, but whoever made the argument in that thread that the term is general had the right of it. No matter how much I believe that the assholes who made that guild are racist little bitchfucks who are thumbing their noses at me right now, Holocaust is a word with a legitimate use. Without some kind of solid proof that they have an anti-Semitic agenda, and in the absence of an outcry by the vast majority of the community, the GM's really have no reason to act.