Posted on 10/21/2017 6:11:40 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
Democratic Rep. Frederica Wilson claimed Friday that White House Chief of Staff John Kelly used a “racist term” when he described her as an “empty barrel.”
Kelly made the remark during a press briefing Thursday while defending a phone call that President Donald Trump made to the widow of a fallen soldier.
Verdict: False
The Daily Caller News Foundation could not find any instances where “empty barrel” has been used as a racial epithet.
Fact Check:
During an interview Friday on CNN, Wilson claimed she had looked up the term “empty barrel” in the dictionary and found it to be a racist term.
“That’s a racist term,” said Wilson. “We looked it up in the dictionary because I had never heard of an empty barrel. And I don’t like to be dragged into something like that.”
But TheDCNF found no evidence that the term has racial connotations. The phrase originated from the proverb “empty vessels make most noise” that dates back to at least the 15th century.
According to the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, the proverb means that “foolish people are always the most talkative.” Similarly, the Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs defines it this way: “Shallow people with nothing valuable to say are the most talkative or noisy.”
TheDCNF also found no informal use of the term that would suggest a racial connotation. Even Urban Dictionary, a crowdsourcing website for slang terms, did not list any definitions of “empty barrel” or “empty vessel,” as of Friday morning.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
It’s not the least bit racist. It’s just an apt insult, plain and simple. Of course, if you insult a black elected official for cause, you’re a racist for doing such, in their all hat and no cattle mindset.
Simply confirming what we all already knew.
She is a beyotch.
Well Ms Wilson, perhaps if you were educated you would know that it goes back way before race was an issue.
I am very tired of hearing Frderica Wilson and her advocates. She is getting far too much air time and print space. When the subject comes up on TV, I now change stations and if it is the printed word, I refuse to read it. Ditto the NFL. That is my protest of one - me!!
Go for it, ugly woman in a stupid hat.
Au contraire, the more exposure she gets, the worse it is for the Rats.
What a lovely way to trap people into being tagged "racist" when they aren't.
Well then, Bilbo Baggins called himself a barrel rider. Another icon falls!
How about, ‘The Rusty wheel squeaks the loudest’?
>>According to the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, the proverb means that “foolish people are always the most talkative.” Similarly, the Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs defines it this way: “Shallow people with nothing valuable to say are the most talkative or noisy.”
Prog-Think: “foolish people” and “shallow people” are code words.
It would be interesting to know where to find a copy of this particular dictionary.
You may be tired of hearing about it, but she’s actually a gift to the deplorables. By comparison to Wilson, we deplorables look great and occupy the high ground.
Any term is racist to someone who is conditioned to find racism in everything.
How can we stave off these accusations?
Life in the Trump era:
<> covfefe
<> empty barrel
All these new words are so much better than redefining “is” or eliminating the use of gender-oriented pronouns.
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