It may be because I follow @intelwire on Twitter, but in my experience the vast majority of people trying to insult other people by calling them kaffirs is Al Qaeda twitterers calling westerners and/or Christians kaffirs (though they often spell it kuffar or kufr). I have a kaffir lime tree (it still has its nursery label with that name on it attached) and I think I’ll go on calling it that unless I have South African guests.
In the context of a non-believer, that makes me Khufar and proud.
I may have missed it - what are they called in South Africa?
Would you rather buy Rapeseed oil? or Canola oil? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canola
Because rape.
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It always seemed weird when I was younger to hear people in my town talking about seeing the rape fields in spring.
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I don’t know what limes are called in South Africa, but “kaffir” is an insult to black people there. There’s a lot more information in this Slate article about kaffir limes.
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Faggots are also meatballs now? I knew about them being cigarettes and firewood.
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I’m feeling very talkative on this subject. Maybe because all the other news is terrible and I don’t want to look at it…
We bought a finch-feeder last week and the bags of seeds contain a type called niger seed. Presumably in a paroxysm of trying to stop people mispronouncing it, some of the manufacturers spell it Nyjer. Its other English name is thistle seed, but the marketing people must have decided that people hated the thought of thistle so much that they’d prefer a new version of niger.
The finches love it.
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Silly humanz, limz iz for defenses:
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Yes - so they are unlikely to be called kaffir limes there - however they do presumably exist and have a name.
So… “crackers”
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When I was a kid (70s), I heard that a lot – by my teens (80s) I don’t think that I ever heard it.
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Somehow other languages found it difficult not to be offensive when originally naming this snack, although most have changed to more harmless names since then. Meanwhile Wagon Wheels were known as ras el abd (slave’s head) in Lebanon:
Sorry, misunderstood you.
Couldn’t find a translation online. Slate rather peevishly demands we all call 'em makrut limes.
Fun makrut lime fact - you don’t use the limes for cooking; you use the leaves.
My garden is full of unbroken geodes that my wife’s family brought from Indiana when they moved here a couple generations ago. Guess what Nana and Pappy called them until the current generation. They look a lot like those limes, I notice.
Nowadays we call them geodes, but we taught our children what they used to be called, so that they would understand that times change and people change with them. Nana loved her African-American and Asian grandchildren, and by the time she died she’d changed her language to reflect that.
Similarly, my own mother learned to use the name “brazil nuts” in the 60s. Before that, she’d never heard an inoffensive name for them, so she hadn’t any other thing to call them.
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Wait, what? Brazil nuts is an offensive term? What are you meant to call them?
Edit: Never mind. Reading comprehension and research fail.
How about Mexican Waves? Completely innocuous term in the UK, but people look at you funny if you say it over here.
a while ago, there was a Blue Moon variant brewed with kaffir lime leaves. on the label, they used a ridiculous ‘variant’ spelling i haven’t seen before or since: “kieffer”.
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Louis CK is showing his ignorance here, however. I’m a big fan of his, but in this case he’s missing the point. The behaviors he associates with that word are ones stereotypically assigned to gay men. By using it, even if he doesn’t personally understand it, he is reinforcing the subjugation of a minority. This video might be old though, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s changed his position since. He’s well known for learning from his missteps, which I respect the hell out of him for. Using an offensive word because you personally don’t think it is a big deal and don’t mean any harm is textbook unexamined privilege. It’s up to the minority in question to decide if it’s okay or not. Removing a word from your daily usage is about the easiest thing you can do to help out an oppressed group, so why anyone would resist is a mystery to me.
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