At 08:43 AM 2/06/99 -0400, Mike Lorrey wrote:
>Damien, you seem to repeatedly posess rather knee-jerk responses to mere
words.
Ah yes - words like... `gun'.
>I recall that you took offense once to my use of the term 'abo'.
Not quite. I recall pointing out that `abo' has much the same smell to it in Australia that `nigger' does in the USA. I wasn't offended by your use, because there's no way most Americans would be likely to know that. But having been alerted to this nuance (a matter of local historical contingency, but there it is), I'd certainly expect people to behave sensitively by avoiding its use thereafter.
>rather ludicrous that anyone could consider terms like 'negro' or
'colored' to
>be racist terms when the primary US organizations supporting African
Americans
>that are run by the same are called the Negro College Fund and the National
>Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Of course that was not my objection. I can read, I can understand exactly what he said and what he meant. But I don't intend to drag out and repost the more explicitly racist crap from den Otter's achived posts. The context is there for inspection. (You will recall that he agitated to have a special invitation-only list set up so such discussion - which he labelled `politically incorrect', thereby proving himself a brave rebel - could go on away from public scrutiny.)
Damien Broderick