You’re not wrong. I was about to fix that typo, but what the fork…
Also how white people show respect for one of the great figures in modern American history…
“We’re going backwards…”
Or we would be, if this was not the same state of affairs that’s existed for a very long time. So maybe it’s more that the more things change… the more they stay the same? None of us should really be surprised at this kind of thing, only saddened and committed to changing things for the better.
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One thing about the gaffe itself that does confuse me is that I learned from my time performing in front of people that certain things like the names of noteworthy civil rights activists were usually things I remembered as a whole phrase, often keeping a very similar cadence. Hence “Martin Luther King Junior” tends to be sort of stored automatically as its own thing. It’s incredibly hard to interrupt a phrase like that because the brain usually uses rhythm well. But then honestly comparing anything I say is pointless because I have a definite regional accent that he doesn’t. There’s literally no way for me to confuse those words in my accent. They drift in opposite directions. And frankly if nothing else I take note that these men are having some kind of nervous reaction to the mention of a very specific name. Yeah it’s odd, and I don’t get why people are so hot to keep some of us from talking about it? Do any of you sincerely think that having a conversation here is “hurting the cause” because that’s some toxic shit.
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On the one hand, I want to believe this represents the end phase of these disgusting racist habits. I want to believe that as awareness builds that this kind of thing is unacceptable, racists are pushing back as their “way of life” is getting trammaled.
On the other hand I hear black people who’ve come from the south to the north, comment how living in the south is easier in some ways because bigots are up-front about it. While northern white folk are just in denial.
On the gripping hand, what I want to believe has nothing to do with anything. Having a pale complexion doesn’t compel me to defend racism, but neither does it allow me much insight into the lives of people of color.
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So klose… you really wanted Kar Kleen Kanteen for this.
You are dead right. Coon and King are completely different vowel sounds. Like “moon” and “Ming”. And the way he said it…why was he almost hiding the word as it came out of his mouth?
Here’s a genuine non-sarcastic question that I don’t know the answer to because I don’t hang out with a bunch of white supremacist asshats:
Is Martin Luther C… (not even going to type it) something that white supremacists in their infinite cleverness call MLK? I mean like many people on the right called Barack Obama “Obummer”?
Because if they do, I’m betting these “slips” are probably a result of using the same phrase off the air.
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Yes, it is.
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Um… yes.
I’m kind flummoxed that this is even a question. Do you not live in america?
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Urgh, well then I know where my thoughts are on these “slips”…
I’ve never once said MLK’s name that way, and strangely have never had the same “slip” happen to me.
On the other hand, if you’re used to saying something some way, it wouldn’t be surprising to just have it slip out.
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As I said, I just don’t hang out with people who would ever say it.
And I suspect that my darker skin and slanty eyes generally have white folks keeping the overall racism level in check unless they’re specifically trying to be insulting/racist towards me/Asians.
Living in the USA, and knowing the kind of ingrained racism that happens here, I can easily imagine it. I just didn’t know if it was an actual “thing” (not calling a respected civil rights leader that, or any black person that, but specifically the common use in white supremacist circles of the exact phrase).
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I wish I could say otherwise, but it is a thing. Growing up white in rural America, I can confirm.
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To be fair to them, the first time this happened he was the Culture Secretary which makes that slip of the tongue significantly easier- although after that the name did start to stick…
I think what you’ll find is that every single one of them reads from A TelePrompTer and the broadcast runs through a tape-delay system to keep from running anything that’ll get them shut down. So the culprit is one of the following: 1) news reader, 2) TelePrompTer keyboardists, or 3) the network censor (bleeper)
I haven’t heard that phrase since the 1970’s.
I live in southern Oregon, which is very white, and where you can find some very enthusiastic racists. Disparaging Martin Luther King’s name in that manner is very much “a thing”. If you’re accustomed to saying something in a certain way, it’s hard to pronounce it differently if you’re in a hurry or not paying attention. It’s why, decades after learning how to pronounce peony correctly, I still tend to say “pee - OH - nee” instead of “pee - uh - nee” if I’m distracted.
So it’s not a stretch to think someone who “makes a mistake” on Martin Luther King’s name has routinely called him something else, and had a slip of the tongue. Because I have never heard “accidental” “mispronunciations” of…
Burger King, the King of England, Valley of the Kings, King Kong, king cobra, The King and I, We Three Kings…
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If you are sending out an invoice and you forget a 0 the most likely explanation is a simple typo. But if you get fired for doing it, you are just going to have to face the reality that your mistake was big enough to get fired for.
The problem is that a the only test that never returns a false positive is the one that never returns a positive at all.
I think there needs to be a rebalancing away from protecting white people who make honest mistakes and towards protecting non-white people who are systematically denied jobs, housing, education and their own lives. The exact same, “but we’ll never know what was in their heart” thinking is used to protect real dyed-in-the-wool racists causing intentional harm every day, including murderers.
People make mistakes and get fired for them. That’s a great reason to advocate for a robust social safety net, not a great reason to advocate for using an impossible-to-pass standard for identifying racism.
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I think you guys are talking past each other here. When quori says slip of the tongue, I think they’re talking about a hypothetical confirmed racist who, despite not meaning to, accidentally swaps King for coon. You’re talking about a context where that is not the case. I’ve definitely been in situations where I was so focussed on the need NOT to say something that I ended up blurting it out myself.
It seems like such a stupid and career-risking thing to say with no visible reward, it’s hard for me to imagine someone doing this deliberately.
Then again, it’s also hard to imagine making this stupid an unforced error when someone’s job is talking for a living.
But again, news readers aren’t necessarily the brightest people. Also, when on live TV and living in the moment maybe the unconscious comes out with what’s being held in?
smh
