Date:  Mon, 24 Oct 1994 13:55:18 -0700

From:  Roger Vanderveen <rvander[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ICHIPS.INTEL.COM>

Subject: Re: offending idiot



  Date:     Sat, 22 Oct 1994 10:34:50 CST

  From: salikoko mufwene <mufw[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU>



  In Message Thu, 20 Oct 1994 08:56:23 -0700, Roger Vanderveen

    <rvander[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ichips.intel.com> writes about frivolous changing of

    "acceptable" names for non-whites.





   I am afraid you have trivialized the offense in Chuck's note. As well

  stated in David Muschell's reply, the offense derives in part from Chuck's

  grandparents naming their dog a racial/racist epithet. Once posted on the

  dam, not everybody new "Nigger" was used for a dog.



Granted.



                           Besides at the time the

  dog was named "Nigger," this term was not an accepted designation for Blacks

  or African Americans. Do you recall any time in the history of the USA when

  "Nigger" was an acceptable term for African Americans?



Sure. It's an acceptable term now, in many quarters. For myself, I do not and

would never use it, and cringe when I do hear it used. I will admit that it's

not acceptable now among the media and universities, but I know that if many

of the readers of this list went off-campus, they would find lots of people

using it, especially in the South. For some, there is a negative element, and

for others, it's simply the term they've used all they're lives. Who has the

right to sit in judgment?



                            I do not know that

  African Americans would be offended today if you described them as "black"

  (with or without a cap).



I don't get the "cap" reference. And how about negro?



                While we might find it amusing that names for a

  particular ethnic group keep changing (and I take no offense at this), the

  particular incident at issue here is not so amusing (except perhaps in the

  privacy of our homes).



So I can laugh at home, but not in public? Don't ask, don't tell?



            I doubt that the reason the sign was removed had to

  do with being politically correct. There is more to the act than some may

  want to recognize.



  Chuck has been wise enough to apologize. I, among the people who were

  offended, accept the apology. But I find your trivialization of the issue

  ridiculous.



All right, then let me use another example having nothing to do with race:

idiot, moron, half-wit, mentally retarded, developmentally disabled, special,

mentally challenged. Nothing trivial, only individual words. See the

connection?



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Roger Vanderveen                       Intel Corporation

(503) 696-4331                          Hillsboro, OR

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