rolling "Is This Racist?" thread

lol totally

I've never called anyone either chap or dumpling but, sure, there were a million things I could have said at the time but I just froze and for some reason bastard was what I found coming out of my mouth before I could stop myself.

calling little kids "monkey" is totally within the remit of this thread because it's often intended to be cute and innocent but the whole "this is also a term used to denigrate black people" thing makes it fraught with peril

calling adults "monkey" is a lot less ambiguous IME; I've never heard anyone use "monkey", "ape", "gorilla" etc to mean anything positive about someone

Dude, I'm not saying that! I'm just surprised by eg Je55e describing himself for dumb for not knowing it beforehand. I have great respect for him not insisting on it in any way when called on it! Which I know shouldn't ideally be the sort of thing that gets you great respect, but if the internet has taught me anything it's that people = shit.

I think it's more when someone points out the horrible beginnings of these innocuous phrases, you feel dumb for not being more up on the history of things and coming off in a manner you didn't intend to portray at all. It's super difficult, too; thanks to the way humanity works, all sorts of seemingly innocent thingss have really horrible origins that someone will invariably take offense to (see: the unfortunate phase "eeny meeny miney moe" went through and defacing pictures by drawing horns on them having roots in anti-Semitism, to name a couple)

also E that story is amazing

I once told the parents of a new (adopted) child, that he was really wonderful, and if they got tired of him I'd be happy to take him. I was 12, though. They got really mad and never talked to me again.

ENBB, it is a Larry David moment!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9jERprj5x0

i once told my niece i was taking her to the baby changing room at tescos cos she wet herself and she had a huge freak attack

haha

I've called my son a "little bastard" in affection the other. I'm his adoptive parent and he's never met his biological one. I totally winced about it right afterward. Like, he knows the word but not its actual meaning.

Beeps and I have off-and-on been working on her very public acknowledgment of people we see and what color they are.

BEEPS: Look, Daddy. That brown boy has a balloon!
ME: You know, you can just say 'that boy has a balloon.'
BEEPS: But I'm talking about the brown boy with the balloon, not the other one.
ME: You mean the white boy without a balloon?

She also once pointed to Barack Obama on television and said, "Why does the president always have brown skin?" I guess when your memory begins in early 2009, it may in fact seem that way.

other day.

LBI - lol. I don't think I've ever seen that episode.

She also once pointed to Barack Obama on television and said, "Why does the president always have brown skin?" I guess when your memory begins in early 2009, it may in fact seem that way.

haha that is great

She also once pointed to Barack Obama on television and said, "Why does the president always have brown skin?"

... Ms. Palin then announced her intention to run for the presidency of the United States

I was unaware of the origin of the word "gyp" until high school. I thought it was just some old English word.

Aw, beeps. Kids noticing difference between people but not having any filters is one of the funniest things but must be really tough/embarrassing at time to manage.

When I was a kid and we were living in Key West we went out to dinner and were sat next to a table of very flamboyant and effeminate gay men. During dinner I loudly asked my parents why "those men over there" were "talking like ladies". They heard but luckily they thought it was hysterical.

differenceS

People still misuse "gypsy" all the time in North America, probably due to a lack of Romani people or knowledge of that culture. I've read apologies saying it's OK, but... we live in a pretty culturally diverse society and you never know when the website you're commenting on is more international or cross-regional than it appears.

People definitely need to drop "he gypped me on a deal" out of their language, and I know my friend who posted she wanted to be a gypsy really meant she wanted somewhat of a nomadic lifestyle, but...

Then there's the case I mentioned on ilx of the dude who I knew in college who said "He jewed me out of $5!" and I instinctively punched him. He claimed that he never thought about the phrase?!?

last time i fought with nv was about gypsy/romany stuff iirv

"Gyp" over here means a pain or ache, never heard the other definition, though I imagine it's probably British

tbh I never even associated the term 'jipped' (which I think is the more common spelling?) with gypsies!

bit of a debate as i recall back in the heady days before My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding put an end to discrimination here in the UK

"gyp" is a weird one. I also didn't know where that came from until maybe five years ago or so? Also, we don't really have gypsies the here the way they do in Europe so we're a bit more removed from it which maybe makes it seem less offensive somehow? Not saying it's not a bad term - it obv is. Oh Lord this show and the comments on YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HAUmII_hcg

iatee, that is kind of why people don't realize it! And yeah, I always saw it as "jipped" in North America. It's divorced from the origin enough that people don't realize it, but it's definitely descended from an ethnic slur.

lol NV

HAVE YOU WATCHED THIS SHOW? I COULDN'T STOP.

Now at least I know the diff between Gypsies and Travelers. I didn't know that before.

yeah learning where "jipped" came from was a real "oh shit what have I been saying????" moment for me

another one was the term "Indian giver" once we got to studying more American history in 6th grade

tbh I never even associated the term 'jipped' (which I think is the more common spelling?) with gypsies!

― iatee, Thursday, January 19, 2012 11:09 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Yeah it comes from being short changed or tricked/fooled by gypsies. Right?

i've seen little chunks of it E but it's not really my kind of show plus i don't really think it helped cross-community relations tbh

well, I learned something today

i accidentally once drank a friend's beer at a bar and he accused me of "irishing" him out of a pint.

Dan - I had the same moment with Indian giver although I don't think I made that connection until much later (embarrassingly).

Are you Irish, omar?

i've seen little chunks of it E but it's not really my kind of show plus i don't really think it helped cross-community relations tbh

― the smell of Whiney's cheap perfume (Noodle Vague), Thursday, January 19, 2012 11:12 AM (47 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it obviously didn't. I had basically no knowledge that travelers/gypsies still existed so it was fascinating for me even though I realize it's total trash tv. Also, THE DRESSES omg.

Then there's the case I mentioned on ilx of the dude who I knew in college who said "He jewed me out of $5!" and I instinctively punched him. He claimed that he never thought about the phrase?!?

― mh, Thursday, January 19, 2012 11:05 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

wait, did you punch him him in the shoulder like "oh you dick" or did you cold-cock him?

i accidentally once drank a friend's beer at a bar and he accused me of "irishing" him out of a pint.

wtf?

TBH I'd never heard of the racist connotations of "uppity" before this thread
Never used the word
Get called it sometimes

Never really thought about it before but I do say things like "my foot's giving me jip". Hmm.

This page seems to think it's not from gypsy:

We’re not certain where it comes from, but the English Dialect Dictionary gives one sense of the word as “to arouse to greater exertions by means of some sudden, unexpected action”. That fits with the suggestion in the Oxford English Dictionary that it’s a contracted form of gee-up, a conventionalised version of the cry one utters to get a horse to move. Presumably the pain sense evolved through the excessive use of that unexpected action in persuading a person or animal to do one’s bidding.

xposts iatee's usage OTOH is almost certainly derived from gypsy...

don't call it iatee's usage!

irished, tbf, is on-point because i would totally steal ur pint given a chance

Wait I still don't understand how/why "uppity" has facist connotations. Can someone explain?

i tried to do some sort of comeback about him being german but i couldn't think of anything that didn't involve accusing him of mass murder and also the point that he made was a fair one.

"uppity" has historical associations w/ blacks who 'didn't know their place'

tbh, there's a part of me that's always a little :/ at American ppl who get pissed at like irish/italian/french/german slurs because like, "there, there, white people still run the world, its ok"

Beeps calls sitting cross-legged "criss-cross, applesauce". Back in my day, it was "Indian style".

And I still can't believe that some bars server "Irish Car Bombs" on St. Patrick's Day.

wait, did you punch him him in the shoulder like "oh you dick" or did you cold-cock him?

Light punch to the gut

irished, tbf, is on-point because i would totally steal ur pint given a chance

Oh, now I understand, thought it meant the Irish were mean when that's obv. the Scots

That's "mean" in UK/Irish sense, not the US sense, which always sounds silly to me

Beeps calls sitting cross-legged "criss-cross, applesauce". Back in my day, it was "Indian style".

haha my day too, which was like the 90s

"uppity" has historical associations w/ blacks who 'didn't know their place'

― iatee, Thursday, January 19, 2012 11:18 AM (53 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ARE YOU SHITTING ME?

I didn't know people used "jew" as a verb until my sophomore year of college, when I was on a choir tour and our host's mother in Tupelo was telling us about how her daughter went up to NYC and argued with her landlord to get her rent reduced. I have never seen someone change the topic of conversation faster than our host did. (As a horrifying aside, two out of the four of us being hosted were Jewish.)

xp: he is not shitting you, E