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Caution: Anything You Say Will Be Racist Somehow
American Thinker.com ^ | July 2, 2020 | Eileen F. Toplansky

Posted on 07/02/2020 11:43:52 AM PDT by Kaslin

I first learned of John Leo in 1999 when he penned the clever and prescient piece titled "A Waspish, Niggardly Slur," wherein he exposed the dangerous trend in language manipulation that is now so wildly prevalent. It was an equal-opportunity poke at the absurd lengths to which people will go to accuse someone of racism.

Leo explained that a Washington, D.C. white mayoral aide, David Howard, had used the term "niggardly." A black official took offense because he felt that it was a racist term. In fact, niggardly means miserly or cheap and has nothing whatsoever to do with race. Nonetheless, Howard offered his resignation, and then Mayor Anthony Williams accepted the resignation, explaining that "although Howard didn't say anything that was in itself racist" (emphasis mine), "using a word that could be misunderstood was like 'getting caught smoking in a refinery with a resulting explosion.'"

Thus began the onslaught of alleged coded insults that has now metastasized so that everyone is afraid of calling a spade a spade. The "expression 'to call a spade a spade' entered the English language when Nicholas Udall translated Erasmus in 1542. To be clear, 'the 'spade' in the Erasmus translation has nothing to do with a deck of cards, but rather the gardening tool. The early usages of the word 'spade' did not refer to either race or skin color. The Oxford English Dictionary says the first appearance of the word spade as a reference to blackness was in Claude McKay's 1928 novel Home to Harlem, which was notable for its depictions of street life in Harlem in the 1920s. 'Jake is such a fool spade,' wrote McKay. 'Don't know how to handle the womens [sic].'

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: ignorantdemonrats
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To: Sacajaweau

I hope he bought it anyway.

Aunt Jemima was portrayed on the label as just a normal black woman. There wasn’t anything racist about it. Same with Uncle Ben. And there was no outrage and no demand to get rid of them either


41 posted on 07/02/2020 12:54:01 PM PDT by longsufferingjetsfan
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To: Phillyred

They did so with these white giraffes as well...


42 posted on 07/02/2020 12:54:29 PM PDT by caww
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To: All

Wait till someone finds out I don’t like black jelly beans or black licorice. I’ll have hordes of protestors hovering around my property.

JK. I like both.


43 posted on 07/02/2020 1:01:42 PM PDT by John Milner (Marching for Peace is like breathing for food.)
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To: spintreebob
No, you're not fat.

Sometimes, even that lie can cause trouble if you say it like: "No, those jeans don't make you look fat"

44 posted on 07/02/2020 1:03:01 PM PDT by Sans-Culotte (With every passing day, I am a little bit gladder that Romney lost in 2012.)
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To: dragnet2

Paypal her for what, exactly? Just another gibsmedat.


45 posted on 07/02/2020 1:04:13 PM PDT by CodeToad (Arm Up! They Have!)
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To: Boogieman

My late wife was named Karen. She died from stomach cancer two years ago. It wasn’t fun to watch.


46 posted on 07/02/2020 1:19:33 PM PDT by henkster ("We can always fool the foreigner" - Chinese Proverb)
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To: Kaslin

“ . .. everyone is afraid of calling a spade a spade.”

I see what you did there . . .


47 posted on 07/02/2020 1:29:12 PM PDT by BusterDog
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To: Kaslin

If the demoncrats get in, everything you or anyone
who had posted to FR for the last twenty years will
be scrutinized and held against them. Just watch.


48 posted on 07/02/2020 1:32:46 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: right way right

I just got to that point last year!
Nice to know someone else is taking the destruction of our country seriously.
My goal is at least five.


49 posted on 07/02/2020 1:44:06 PM PDT by GranTorino (Bloody Lips Save Ships.)
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To: Kaslin

They have made speaking a trap. Every word except “the” is now subject to being called racist (if you’re White). blacks can use them with impunity. Whites lose their jobs for words that aren’t racist but that someone thinks are.


50 posted on 07/02/2020 1:51:21 PM PDT by I want the USA back (THERE ABSOLUTELY NEEDS TO BE A DEBATE TRUMP VS BIDEN! It will be the best show ever!)
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To: Kaslin

Also “silence is violence”, so not saying anything is out.


51 posted on 07/02/2020 2:00:32 PM PDT by Salman (A faction of the ruling class is trying to cancel America.)
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To: Kaslin

Not gonna change how I talk. Not a CHINAMAN’S CHANCE!


52 posted on 07/02/2020 2:03:55 PM PDT by Impala64ssa (Virtue signalling is no virtue)
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To: caww

All cultures are equal.


53 posted on 07/02/2020 3:26:16 PM PDT by Phillyred
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To: longsufferingjetsfan

Aunt Jemima was a real person who was paid very well for being the model after being a great cook. So now it is not racist to tear her down.


54 posted on 07/02/2020 3:27:24 PM PDT by Phillyred
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To: xp38

You left out the other half which should say no with an arrow pointing to the block which says, it’s racist anyway.


55 posted on 07/02/2020 4:53:03 PM PDT by RipSawyer
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To: Kaslin; All

A few years ago in Dallas TX, at a meeting of the County Commissioners, someone was complaining about the fact that funds allocated to a specific use were missing. The term used was that the funds had just “gone into a black hole”.

Commissioner John W. Price, a well-known black activist, immediately reacted and was irate that the term was RACIST! He made a big deal of it and grabbed headlines.


56 posted on 07/02/2020 6:36:45 PM PDT by octex
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To: octex

But the OTHER four...

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2017/04/28/john-wiley-price-not-guilty-on-7-of-11-charges/


57 posted on 07/03/2020 3:45:18 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Kaslin

Don’t say anything and you are racist ...

Silence is Violence.

No matter what, your white skin makes you privileged and therefore racist.


58 posted on 07/03/2020 4:18:00 AM PDT by EBH
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Bump


59 posted on 07/03/2020 5:25:25 AM PDT by foreverfree
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To: Kaslin

Caution: Anything You Say Will Be Racist Somehow


Not saying things is also racist.

As is not being racist.


60 posted on 07/03/2020 7:15:51 PM PDT by lepton ("It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"--Jonathan Swift)
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