I believe so
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I was about to comment on that. It makes me wonder how director Peter Jackson will handle the history; he’s been promising for several years that he will remake 1955’s The Dam Busters (which on more than one occasion included use of the n-word) and that it would be the real story of what occurred. If “purists” are hoping for accuracy in the remake, then they may be in for a blast from both barrels: I fully anticipate no use of the n-word (plot-wise not critical… and fucking racist anyway) and purists having to learn of or be re-educated on just how successful the mission was: over a thousand non-combatants (civilians; prisoners-of-war; forced laborers) drowned.
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Sent.
A film that came out in check notes 1988 isn’t “archaic”… Also, doesn’t Randall uses it in Clerks 2 in his rant on racist terms? Which came out in 2006…
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I think gabe just meant the origin of the slur is old a/f; it comes from the antebellum days, as I know you already know.
I haven’t watched that one in a while, I forgot he did a whole rant of offensive slurs before trying to take back porch monkey.
(IMO he was lucky he didn’t catch an L from Wanda Sykes’ character.)
The point that some of us seem to be missing is this; it’s really rare for adults to “accidentally” use racist slurs without having any idea whatsoever that they are offensive and antisocial.
Hatred is taught, and excuses get made.
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Sure, but when I think of archaic, I think of like… bible times. But clearly, it was in usage in our lifetimes, so harder to make a case that it’s archaic…
Yeah… Of course, Randall is always the idiot asshole, which is the point of that whole scene (among others).
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Heard. Still you know how people do.
This is very true; IRL, I don’t have any “friends” like that because they usually end up being way more trouble than they are worth.
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Ignorance is bliss, unless you are worried that you are unwittingly using it yourself. And as others have posted, it’s pretty difficult to use it unwittingly.
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In my youth, 80s-90s, certain people I regretfully ran across would use it, specifically because it was not being ‘reclaimed’ and they could be sure their racism would not be misunderstood. (I feel I should mention my local at the time was Eastern Ontario, Canada). I know I’m old, but I hope that doesn’t count as archaic.
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Doesn’t the film Battle of Britain also have a black dog with an unfortunate name? If I’m not mistaken, didn’t some librarians ask the author of The Martian to remove the word ‘goddamn’? They wanted the book in the library, but knew that one word would keep it out. The author agreed and changed it. Why not call the dog ‘Buster’? Perfect for this movie. I don’t consider these small changes censorship- just eliminate a small detail. I know it’s a slippery slope. Now this cow….they knew. Period.
36 posts were split to a new topic: Racial Slurs and the Myth of Reverse Racism
If you remake the Dambusters or the Battle of Britain, removing the problematic name of the dog makes no material difference to the value of the piece as factual history. (Though to be fair, both films are rather propagandistic.) It’s not like you change the Lancaster bombers to Mosquitoes or something.
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Had zero idea what the "j’ word was.
Then saw it on the video and was zero more enlightened.
Maybe I don’t converse with racists frequently?
Or is that like mid-west specific racism?
I lived in Wisconsin for ten years, and the chances they didn’t know what that word meant are 0.0%.
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The thread goes over that in detail. Generally, just really dated, racist with no redeeming value, stupid term.
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Sure you aren’t thinking if “The Dam Busters” as described above?
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And that’s exactly why the family’s excuse that they didn’t know what it meant is bullshit. Even if racist grandpa suggested the name thinking he was being funny, why wouldn’t the kids and mom and dad take 5 seconds to google the word to find out what it meant. And even if they really didn’t know and didn’t google it, they still deserve what happened because you cannot go through life being that irresponsible without expecting consequences.
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Dambusters definitely has the unfortunately named dog. Battle of Britain has Michael Caine’s dog. In the film, the dog has no name. The script itself has a name. Not as bad as the ‘N’ word name in Dambusters, but still unfortunate. What was the deal with these squadron mascots back in the day. Jeesh.
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If my grandad was any indicator, the RAF was full of racist bastards.
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Means the same thing in Mexico as in the US. If you were told something else then I’m sorry but they were just messing with you. 
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