Is it now obligatory to use the euphemism “N-word” when talking about other people using a racial slur? I don’t think I’d ever even heard that euphemism until maybe 20 years ago, and it’s always struck me as tremendously childish. I don’t care enough to risk offending anyone about it, though.
(I say “childish”, but I don’t even use “F-word” or “S-word” or whatever when talking to children. Tell them that they shouldn’t say “the F-word” and they have a sense of being delightfully transgressive and powerful if they do so. It’s a word even adults dare not say! Dispassionately explaining why they shouldn’t say “fuck” is more effective in my experience. Boosting the power and impact of a much more offensive word by using “N-word” seems even more counterproductive than “F-word” and the like.)
(In case it wasn’t obvious, this is a completely separate issue to whether or not the Papa John’s founder is an asshat, which he obviously is.)
No, but many people do it because most sites online automatically recognize the word as hate speech, and moderate accordingly because it is a racial slur.
At the same time, I recognize that speaking bluntly has a cost; my comments may end up deleted or modded, and that’s okay - those are the terms that I agreed to by creating an account.
Living in Austin visiting local pizza joints is never a letdown, but often involves having to buy incredibly expensive pizza. As a rare treat i don’t mind, but for a casual cheap meal i’d rather buy from Domino’s or get a frozen pizza… if i go the frozen route i usually end up stir frying some veggies to throw on it and adding other ingredients before baking.
The sugar, or corn syrup, or whatever sweetener they add to their dough doesn’t help, either.
It doesn’t take much to make me want to boycott Papa John’s. Maybe I’m lucky to live near a university but there’s so much better pizza to be had around here. That the guy in charge is an asshole makes it even easier not to buy what they’re selling. It’s like someone warned me, “Hey! See this hot steaming mug of dog vomit sitting here on the curb? Better not drink it; the guy who prepared it is an asshole!”
We had a really bad experience with whoever was in charge of the store near us a few years ago. When it was apparent the person had been shitcanned we gave them another chance. When they’ve screwed up our order since then, they’ve at least given us both the wrong order and the correct one.
My gracious, frozen pizza has come a long way. I remember taking a Jeno’s or Celeste with me to lunch in jr. high. Even the school’s pizza was better (or at least, still warm). I quit taking them when I got physically ill one night and the Celeste “Abbondanza!” jingle kept playing in my head (though I hadn’t eaten one that day). Fast forward a couple of decades, and the frozen pizzas at Trader Joe’s and Safeway (pretty sure they’re the same pies) are pretty damn good (if too crispy).
Well, in the same playful spirit of pedantry, he did use the n-word because he brought it up–he didn’t have to bring it up at all. He may have used it in a different, more subtle, way than you inferred from the headline, but he did use it. No one else in the conversation did.
But I think a more interesting point is that he, unprovoked, was comparing his own comments about the NFL to Colonel Sanders using the n-word. He was literally equating his own behavior to Colonel Sanders using the n-word; he was just whining that he got called out on it and Sanders didn’t. So he knows that what he said was in the same spirit.
All this has developed rather quickly. His PR firm has dropped him as a client and he has resigned from the Univ of Louisville Board of Trustees (sounds a bit like they asked him to resign).
Chairman J. David Grissom: “After speaking with John, I’m confident that his comments, while inappropriate, do not reflect his personal beliefs or values.”
Whoa whoa. Are you telling me that a famous advocate for abolition and civil rights had a specific and well thought out reasoning behind his use of racial language in his satire of a highly racist society.
The outgoing links (aka ads) at the bottom of the Forbes story are textbook examples of why companies should be cautious about outsourcing ad selection to algorithms.
I don’t normally eat PPJs, but my company has a tradition of ordering it in snow-days. On every occasion I ate some, about an hour after eating it felt like someone had deposited a few bricks in my gut.
I hope you’re just driving trollies. Because the alternative is that you really don’t understand the difference between writing a story about racism and being racist. And my confidence in the intelligence of our species is fragile as it is.
