Sisters Suing Southwest Over 'Racist Rhyme'

Fox ^

[Sir Gawain]

KANSAS CITY, Kan.

[ladylib]

I'm sure people have lost their jobs over less.

Niger Innis probably realizes his name is problematic and maybe he gets a kick out of the reaction. More power to him.

[farmfriend]

I was born in '63, native Californian. I learned it with the N word. My kids have learned it at school as Tiger. I always thought the tiger thing was new. Of course that is just my opinion, I could be wrong. Wouldn't be the first time and won't be the last.

[albee]

"Plaintiffs' attorney Scott Wissel said the sisters also want Southwest to stop using the rhyme and provide employee training to prevent such incidents.

Follow the money!

I smell the stench of race baiting sensitivity-training pimps who, for a fee, will "train" you poor, ignorant, insensitive whities in the subtleties of hate speech. Payment of fees, travel, hotel and eating expenses in advance please.

[Old Professer]

And now they want to get PAID for all this stuff that happened entirely inside their own heads!

May I remind you that the "Hostile Environment" standard in sex-discrimination decisions is based on the

perception

of a "reasonable woman"?

[GovernmentShrinker]

I don't think anyone actually knows what the original is (as is the case with most children's rhymes), but the n***** version is not plausibly in the running. The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren (by Iona & Peter Opie, Oxford Univ. Press, 1959) gives only one version, which it says "is remembered now by three generations". This is it:

Eeny, meeny, miney, mo,
Put the baby on the po,
When he's done
Wipe his bum
Shove the paper up the lum.

(Lum is an old Scottish/Northern English word for chimney.)

[GovernmentShrinker]

Now, now, GovernmentShrinker is a reasonable woman.

[Howlin]

Let me see if I have this right: according to these two women, it now might be inappropriate for US to laugh at ANY jokes told in the presence of blacks IN CASE the joke might offend them for some reason?

[gingerky]

I'm 38 and grew up hearing both versions (and I won't stereotype who said what version)in rural Kentucky. My parents never said the "n" word and I always felt uncomfortable when other kids did say it. And some kids that said it suprised me because I wondered why they didn't know better. My best friend's dad was a preacher and he said it and that really worried me.

Now my 85 year old father-law calls black people "coloreds" but this doesn't really bother me because I believe he's calling them what he thinks is proper and right.

["Be not afraid!"]

I have lived in the South all my life and have eaten Brazil nuts for the same length of time. I never heard them called Brazil nuts until I went to college.

[billhilly]

You're pretty close to the truth, i'm sad to say. On the other hand, it is only the blacks who have a voice in these thing who get to decide. The other 88% or so don't get to play. It is very sad to see what has happened in our lifetimes. It seems that there are always folks around who get to decide how black americans can think, behave and conduct their lives.

I say to those 88%, kick their asses to the curb. Get on with it. Life is good for free people.

[GovernmentShrinker]

And who's to say he isn't? The "what you must call us or else" demands of the racial-divisiveness-mongers have gone from Negro, to Black (has to be with a capital B or else), to Afro-American, to African-American, to "people of color", all within his lifetime.

[tophat9000]

This is so silly

But when I little kid (1960) we did use the Eenie, meenie, minie, moe; catch a n----- by his toe." version

But then again I was the only white kid living Compton CA at the time ... and all my playmates were black

[tophat9000]

That "when I was a little kid"

[Old Professer]

Now, now, GovernmentShrinker is a reasonable woman.

The distinction was made by the plaintiff in the case based on the argument that it was only what the woman who claimed harrassment felt that could serve as a basis for harm.

IIRC, the court bought the argument based on my sensitivity training.

The case under discussion here is much different as it allows no defense; the judge will probably find in favor of the defendants and counsel the use of universal caution in the future for any non-professional speech.

Personally, I think that if these sisters were truly offended, they are far too fearful for this anxious age.

[In The Defense of Liberty]

..and I'm afraid - though I will be villified for it - I have to agree with you that a month devoted exclusively to Black (or any other race) history is inherently racist by definition. To wit (from the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary):

Main Entry: rac·ism
Function: noun
Date: 1936
1 : a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
2 : racial prejudice or discrimination

And it falls to that last word... discrimination. Let's define that word as well (same source):

Main Entry: dis·crim·i·na·tion
Function: noun
Date: 1648
1 a : the act of discriminating b : the process by which two stimuli differing in some aspect are responded to differently
2 : the quality or power of finely distinguishing
3 a : the act, practice, or an instance of discriminating categorically rather than individually b : prejudiced or prejudicial outlook, action, or treatment

So, by responding differently to the Black race, and in so doing treating them as categorically different as a unit (as opposed to independent individuals), it is indeed discrimination and therefore also racist by definition.

Sorry. It just is. And that is why it would be just as wrong to have an Asian history month, a Native American history month, a Caucasian history month or even a sodding Penguin history month.

[Denver Ditdat]

You've obviously clueless...Or a troll...

Well, if I were a stereotyping, bigoted, prejudicial Freeper I'd say that anyone who burst on the scene yesterday and got himself off to such a rousing start was a bit of a troll himself.

Not that I want to typecast, pigeonhole, or discriminate against newbies who make such a meteoric appearance on FR. ;-)

Feel free to respond with assumptions about the vehicles I drive, the length and cut of my hair, the pets I keep, and the state of my backyard. I wager you'll be wrong, but it will be amusing.

[billhilly]

When your grandfather was a younger man, colored was the preferred name by blacks. Why else would we have the NAACP?

Maybe he spent most of his life just making a living, raising a family, and not watching TV, reading newspapers, or going to movies.

Odds are, he has a very happy family, some financial well being, and a reasonable expectation that eternity will treat him well.

[Fifth Business]

Now my 85 year old father-law calls black people "coloreds" but this doesn't really bother me because I believe he's calling them what he thinks is proper and right.

That was the respectful term for the first forty years of his life, so I understand. In fact, I had to break my mother of the same habit. Imagine her puzzlement that she could call blacks "people of color" but not "colored people."

[It's me]

You've got to be KIDDING me!!!!

I hope she didn't tell them to find a seat at the back of the plane!

[gitmo]

If she used the "n" word then the company should pay, but from what it sounds like she said "tiger".

What about the 1st Amendment? It would be a stupid thing for anyone to say, but the courts shouldn't be involved even if they did use the n word. But in this case, she didn't even use the offensive word.