What’s most amazing in that bit is his discussion of skyjacking, which in the '70s was happening 6x/year on average.
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You mean outside of Michael Jackson songs?
Personally, I’m more worried about the tropes than about the words. When Jesse Jackson said the “H” word it only bothered me a little, because I know he’s a friend of the community and doesn’t believe any of the more dangerous stereotypes. In contrast, someone who says that we control banks or media or are have more allegiance to Israel than to the US (or UK or wherever) has dangerous beliefs that makes them my enemy. The tropes have become commonplace, and people are oddly-not-oddly more willing to tolerate them from people on their side of the sociopolitical spectrum than from the other. (For anyone who missed it, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar – a genuine friend of the community – had an excellent essay on this last summer.)
MJ caught backlash for the ill-advised lines in They Don’t Really Care About Us, so that’s not exactly on topic.
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When I hear “Mick” it tells me that someone went out of their way to search for an insult. While the slur itself doesnt hit hard, as you say, its usage tells me all I need to know about the lengths the user went to to be cruel.
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I don’t buy the archaic argument. If I were to call someone that word on the BBS, I’d be flagged out of existence. So why if it’s not ok to use, why is it ok to spell out?
ETA just because you haven’t heard it used doesn’t mean I haven’t been called that slur a number of times. It’s hurtful, and it’s offensive to see it over and over again in the topic list.
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No, I’m including those. I don’t believe I’ve heard the song with that in the lyrics.
It’s being used right in this story. It gets plenty of usage among white supremacists assholes. Let’s not forget that there have been recent threats AND attacks on Synagogues on the rise here in the US.
Just because YOU don’t hear it used doesn’t mean it’s not being used by bigots as a slur. It very much is. And even if it wasn’t, that wouldn’t make it remotely acceptable!
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If you don’t hear someone using a slur, that doesn’t mean that the slur hasn’t been uttered.
MJ’s case is illustrative (and on topic). The reason he is problematic is not because of this use of this word – as much as many of us were jolted by it – but because of the other stuff he apparently did. Likewise, this school administrator’s use of the word is mainly bad because of the fact that it is part of a pattern of racism, which is bad enough in any politician but a clear disqualifier in someone who is in charge of education.
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Clearly. I doubt this person was using it here for the first time and that it isn’t a word used fairly frequently by his peer group, which only heightened my sense of having stumbled into a lost world of bigotry.
A problem with being in the privileged group (and trying to be an ally) is that it is too easy to think that some of most vicious racism went away a long time ago because such language isn’t ever spoken in your hearing.
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I grew up in a place and time where this word was used regularly, and absolutely as a taunt and a provocation. However, I’ve spent most of my life in places where the community is small to nonexistent, so for example where I live now when I hear stuff that is anti-Semitic I try listen more closely to see if it can be chalked up to nonmalicious ignorance. I know it is an unpopular opinion these days, but I think intent matters.
(Of course, just to be clear, I don’t think the school administrator in this thread has that excuse. I think he’s a hateful bigot who should not be in charge of education decisions.)
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I’m apparently old enough to know that it’s a racial slur, but not enough to know which group it was supposed to apply to. I had to read the article to discover that. Much like this school administrator, it’s thankfully on the way out.
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Sadly, the irrational, bigoted hatred behind that particular slur is just as rampant as ever, and that’s the real issue here.
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Sometimes I feel like Archie Bunker set the cause of improving shitty white men back 50 years. He gave them a somewhat lovable, relatable character who was (in their mind) obviously okay because he’s the star of this popular show. He says all the things they feel and that’s as far as the analysis goes. From then on, they could identify as “an Archie Bunker” and thus excuse every shitty thing they say and do. I’m amazed anyone is still using that excuse in 2021, but I remember men in the 1980s using it all the time. “I’m just an Archie Bunker- it’s how I am”.
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Even if it wasn’t specifically racism, nobody who is this far out of touch with their community and the four or five younger generations should be in charge of much of anything.
I remember there was a similar problem with Dennis Franz’s character on NYPD Blue twenty years later
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I hadn’t seen the slur in so long that I couldn’t remember against whom it was a slur either and had to look it up to realize I’d confused it with another slur starting with k against Germans. If the post and article had just said k-word, I wouldn’t have known which one. The n-word is unfortunately in no such danger of falling into imminent disuse in America.
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