Well, all for now, excuse me while I kiss this guy.

Just the pronunciation alone makes me not use it. That particular word has been used for so much hate, I do wish it would just disappear forever.

On topic, I like the guy who talked about the cards being old, and the sound systems poor. I think taken in context, the NAACP should have not publicly brought this up, but if they did hear whole/ho instead of hole, they should have contacted Hallmark, who in turn should have removed the cards if they did indeed have poor enough sound quality that the distinction wasn’t obvious.

lol, I also like the comment about the NAACP standing for colored people, it certianly seems to be “more wrong” to say colored people instead of saying black people. I generally don’t refer to them as anything but their name, and I never use the term African American unless I know the person has dual citizenship. I’ve never been referred to as a Swiss-American, because although my family name goes back to Illnau-Effretikon, I am not, and never have been, Swiss. I’ve also never even been to Switzerland! Being knowledgeable and proud of you’re heritage is great, using it to segregate yourselves or others is not.

The more we keep dividing ourselves, the farther apart we grow.

There are some people in this country who can’t call black people black and use ‘African American’…even if the person is say, Ethiopian. Funny, I don’t think I have ever heard people refer to those of Egyptian, Libyan or Moroccan descent referred to as African American.

BTW, regarding the meaning of NAACP; I don’t know about the US, but in the UK, most black people have no problem with being described as black, but many are actually offended when white people refer to them as “coloured”. They see it as a patronising euphemism to avoid saying “black”, as if it’s something which needs to be avoided.

NDT replied:
“Why, because only middle class Americans are capable of detecting nuances?”

Precisely the opposite (hint: I’m not a white, middle-class, American). From the evidence here middle class Americans appear to be incapable of stepping outside their experience and understanding what the issue is. Is that possibly the result of living in a racially divided and profoundly discriminatory society which blames those it oppresses. I think so.

That said there are issues with Israel’s policies too. That operation into Gaza the other year left hundreds of civilians dead. It caused much more damage than what it was trying to stop.

People will do very bad things when no-one is looking or there is no checks and balances to stop them. Same story whether it’s bankers, oil companies or governments.

Edit: Not to mention Turkey has blocked its border with Armenia since ’93 over the post soviet Armenian-Azerbaijani war. This war did not involve Turkey at all.

sounded fine to my ears…but who would, in this day and age, would care about ANYthing an archaic group like NAACP would say?

Remember, part of their acronym stands for

“Colored People”.

Huh?

Who the heck says “colored people” nowadays???

if i were black, i’d be a bit offended over THAT.

When is this old, self-righteous political action group going to modernize their name to a more appropriate

NAAAA (dropping the CP for a more political-correct “African-Americans” ) acronym.

or even

NA4 (for those with scientific ambitions).

What a bunch of knee-jerk racists.

Actually, that lawsuit did not end up favouring the complainants and Southwest Airlines was found not liable in that case and on appeal.

The rhyme is not racist at all. At least, it’s not racist at all in any of its ‘traditional’ versions. Apparently in America (I’m Canadian, myself) the rhyme was adapted to use the word ‘nigger’ rather than ‘tiger’ or a variant thereof sometime around the late 1800′s. I’ve never even heard the rhyme with any animal other than a tiger, let alone the replacement of it with the word ‘nigger’. I’ve never imagined such a thing either.

It’s interesting what people confronted by racism often will mistake as being racist and I’m not sure it’s entirely unreasonable that such people would hear (or see) racism where there is none intended. The experience is obviously largely subjective and that is problematic. If someone feels they’ve been victimized by racism, is it enough that they feel there has been racism and does the intent of the entity accused of racism have any bearing?

That lawsuit sets the precedent that both the intent of the accused and the etymology (in the case of things that have been said) count, not just the subjective experience of the complainant, at least in the United States. I’m sure that’s fair, but that doesn’t address the problem so much as it protects the accused from someone’s subjective experience.

The problem, again, or what is problematic about the experience of racism, is that it is largely a subjective experience. There’s no doubt that at least sometimes that experience is genuine, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that there was actually any racism. I suppose what needs to change is this peculiar culture of hyper political correctness, for lack of a better term, which seems to cause people to search out offence in everything. Then perhaps people who have been or may be victimized by racism can stop searching out racism in everything and let racism die out with the backward, ignorant and hateful people who really are racist. I don’t think racism will go away until people stop acknowledging it, not without, of course, remembering what it is.

#79 Messier:
“Can we have our language back, please?”
I couldn’t agree more! In the UK, we have a particularly ridiculous form of “political correctness” insanity, whereby it’s no longer “acceptable” to use all manner of common words and phrases, which contain the word “black”, such as “black coffee”, “blackboard”, “black spot”, etc. There are some councils, especially in parts of London – justfiably known as the “Loony Left” – whose employees are actually sacked for using such words!
The idiotic thing is, the objections to these phrases didn’t come from black people at all! These “rules” were made up by a handful of white people, who imagined that those phrases were offensive to black people, but didn’t have the sense to ask any black people what they thought!!!! I kid you not! ( I know this, because at the time it all started, I had a black friend who worked for one of those councils. ) And of course, 99% of black people find such stupidity more insulting than the non-existent racism which it’s supposed to prevent.
If those words are really offensive to black people, then how come:
a. The term “black spot” is still used on road signs in Kenya?
b. My girlfriend, who comes from Kenya, asks for a “black coffee”, and thinks nothing of it?
DUHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

In similar vein to the “black hole” and “niggardly” misunderstandings; just recently, a call centre operator, of an ethnic minority, accused me of using offensive language, and put the phone down on me, when I had done no such thing. I had asked her to put me through to her supervisor, and whe she refused for some reason, I said, “I want to speak to the organ grinder, not the monkey!”
For the benefit of US readers, that’s a traditional British saying, which simply means “I want to speak to the person in charge”. It goes back centuries, and has no offensive or racist meaning whatsoever; it derives from the fact that organ grinders, who used to play barrel organs at fairs, traditionally used performing monkeys as their “assistants”.
While I have no time at all for racists, nor do I have any for idiots who insist on finding racism where there isn’t any. And I really can’t see why we should abandon innocent, centuries-old sayings, just because a handful of people might misinterpret them.

But my biggest disappointment of all is the fact that this shows how pathetically we educate our students — black, white, or whatever. The context of the audio is obvious, and only somebody who hears obscenities from a Tickle Me Elmo would think otherwise — assuming the person has any idea what a black hole actually is, or that it would somehow relate to a card making jokes based on outer space.

Notably, we do not hear complaints like this from Neil deGrasse Tyson (who knows a hell of a lot about black holes, and consequently probably has auditory pareidolia the *other* way on this particular subject) or NASA administrator Charles Bolden, or any other well educated black man. It’s just the professional concern trolls whose minds are in the gutter and permanently offended.

Phil hits the nail on the head — by fussing over a non-issue like this, the NAACP dilutes itself. Then again, perhaps they are trending towards irrelevance, and are becoming like PETA — going after soft targets rather than the ones that would actually mean something, because that’s too much work and involves too much personal risk.