Funny you should mention that. When I was in high school a million years ago playing for Deerfield our big rival was naturally Highland Park. Our game vs them would always be sell outs. Our fans would throw cream cheese and bagels on the ice at the HP players because their school was more Jewish than our school. Deerfield was only like 50% Heeb whereas HP was around 80%.

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Add another person to the intent side of the argument

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Take your own advice, dolphin.

That is because it is being used as a term of endearment. Again, it is the intent that matters not the phonemic sound.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

It's not just his experience though - the slur developed in a particular time and place, and that context cannot be separated from the term. Here is just one example from back in the day regarding the interconnectedness of the term and its context (though this doesn't mean other terms do not invoke particular contexts, of course):

[i]

Quote:

The White House released a statement headed, "Booker T Washington of Tuskegee, Alabama, dined with the President last evening." The response from the southern press and politicians was immediate, sustained and vicious. For example, Senator James K. Vardaman (D) of Mississippi complained that the White House was now, "so saturated with the odor of [n] that the rats had taken refuge in the stable;" the Memphis Scimitar declared it "the most damnable outrage which has ever been perpetrated by any citizen of the United States"[7] and on 25 October the Missouri Sedalia Sentinel published on its front page a poem entitled "[N] in the White House", which ended suggesting that either the president's daughter should marry Washington or his son one of Washington's relatives. Senator Benjamin Tillman (D) of South Carolina said "we shall have to kill a thousand [n] to get them back in their places."

[/i]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booker_T. ... hite_House

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Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

I have plenty of experience.

You, on the other hand, said you never experienced the depths of ethnic slurs.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

They might think you're checking the inventory.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

I don't believe that it is. I think it has more to do with the environment he came of age in. If a black person said it in anger it wouldn't probably bother/annoy him the same way it would if you did. To that 95 year old black man he spoke of it didn't matter who said it or how they said it.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

it does when he says that he has never heard another derogatory term that looks to rip at the fabric of being and dehumanizes.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

He actually took a swing at me. Barely got his arms up but I thought damn it really offended him. Made me look at things a little differently. Didn't stop me from using the word but it made more cognizant of when to use it.

I definitely have never used it during a conversation with an elderly person since. It is something that guys in my environment have always used. It could be in casual conversation or during an argument. No one ever fought over it. You fight when someone called you a bitch. Not over the N word. Doesn't make it right but it was for that reason that I'd never get much offended when I white person uses it.

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I really don't have anything more to add and I shouldn't have rejoined. It's not that today's posts have not been enlightening but I'm either repeating or devolving. I'll answer if anyone really wants anything more but otherwise I'm going to disengage on this.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Coward!

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

I'm giving you breathing room to try to sway my opinion. Also, I have to prepare to culturally appropriate tonight. You have the floor

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Have a Blessed Day!

(I hope Rick isn't reading..sorry Rick)

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Where the hell is he anyway?

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Elections have consequences.

This post triggers me as they should've included lox if they were getting it right.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

Both teams stopped and picked them up for the next morning though, right?

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I kind of am in the age group that has the most mixed feelings about it. I distinctly remember my Alabama born grandparents (whose grandparents & one parent were actually born slaves) absolutely bristling over the word. IIRC, my grandfather (who would be 106 now) almost pulled a gun on a guy & it was the only time I ever heard him use the word. When my grandmother was in her 90's, she started using it & it was absolutely acidic. Although we had fairly liberal use of language in my family, it never would have dawned on me to say it. I didn't grow up with any of the recent conceptions about it, nor did I ever use it until the 1990's. Probably would have been hit in the mouth if I did.

When NWA & Eazy E came out I was first appalled and then conflicted, but I still never use the word about or to anyone close to my age. I've never allowed my sons to use the word in my presence...and I've had very few issues with appropriate or even purely reactionary language. If I use it, chances are that I'm furious.

And LTG, you're right, I probably AM familiar with that lounge on 75th And you got off lucky.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

Don Tiny mentioned that words only have the power we give them as well. While technically correct, it's also overly simplistic. If you, Nas, and I were sitting in a bar and someone walked up and called him the n-word, would we really expect him not to experience a physical reaction that includes a fight-or-flight response? Would you think lesser of him for not choosing to not give the word power? I agree that this has been a good thread with a lot of honest dialogue, but I also think there has been a lot of oversimplification and trying to look at things through lenses that aren't related.

I think you mentioned earlier the Julie DiCaro thread. I think that's a perfect example that actually refutes your argument regarding not knowing someone else's pain. In that thread, pretty much all of us, including you, dismiss her psychotic whining about every little slight. However, by your logic, we have no right to do that. We should treat it the same as if someone walked up and called ltg a coon. Intellectually, some of your take has merit, but practically speaking, there absolutely is a hierarchy of slurs that we have agreed upon as a society (generally), and historical context matters with those slurs.

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That's not what I said. I think much of Julie's persona and her actions deserve scorn and mockery. But making fun of her appearance is a different thing entirely.

Also, my first post on this topic explicitly agreed with your take on why "the n-word" is different. Nas chose to ignore that.

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Freedom is our Strength.

I agree, and I've called out the constant appearance jokes... I know you have as well.

I didn't see that you agreed with me, and frankly, I find it hard to believe, but I'll double check.

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At this point in my life it is unlikely that I would fight anyone for saying it to me. I would likely just smile because I understand what they're trying to accomplish.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Not on Shabbos though

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

You are so full of shit, dolphin. Please. You are as American as I am. The last thing you are is "ethnic" no matter how many threads you start about historical Polish figures and pastries.

My point is that there isn't a word I have heard. And you haven't been around much longer than I have. And people older than you and more ethnic than you would agree with me.

The one that used to have Jordan's picture on the wall Knew you'd know it. I got a pass because by that point I was a regular crazy as it sounds.

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The one that used to have Jordan's picture on the wall Knew you'd know it. I got a pass because by that point I was a regular crazy as it sounds.

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Since we're sharing poetry....many African American students I have had connected to this one, which surprised many non-African American students.

"Incident in Baltimore" by Countee Cullen (1926)

Once riding in old Baltimore,
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.

Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, "genius."

I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That's all that I remember.

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Pretty sure I have been there. Is it on the eastside?

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!