Topic: Seattle officials call for ban on 'potentially offensive' language Read more: h

[Pandora]

... said language being "citizen" and "brown bag" ...

... In an interview with Seattle's KIRO Radio, Bronstein said the term "brown bag" has been used historically as a way to judge skin color.

"For a lot of particularly African-American community members, the phrase brown bag does bring up associations with the past when a brown bag was actually used, I understand, to determine if people's skin color was light enough to allow admission to an event or to come into a party that was being held in a private home," Bronstein said.

IIRC, it was negroes themselves who tacked up the bags, not Whites.  And, whatthehell does that have to do with anything -- at all -- today?!

Bronstein told KIRO Radio the word "citizen" should be avoided because many people who live in Seattle are residents, not citizens.

"They are legal residents of the United States and they are residents of Seattle. They pay taxes and if we use a term like citizens in common use, then it doesn't include a lot of folks," Bronstein said.

Tough, it doesn't include a lot of folks.  TOUGH.

Apparently, NY got in on the act last year ....

The New York Post reported in March 2012 that the city’s Department of Education avoids references to words like “dinosaurs,” “birthdays,” “Halloween” and dozens of other topics on city-issued tests because they could evoke “unpleasant emotions” among the students.

Dinosaurs, for example, conjures the topic of evolution, which could rile fundamentalists and birthdays are not celebrated by Jehovah’s Witnesses. Halloween, meanwhile, suggests an affiliation to Paganism.

Officials said such exclusions are normal procedure, insisting it’s not censorship.

No, it's not censorship.  And we're not as stupid as they think we are.

Jayzus.

[IronDioPriest]

I can't understand the need to control language other than for the sake of control itself, or for the sake of agitation. More and more it seems like the latter - as if they just want people to be on unsure ground in the basic act of communicating. 

I reject that, obviously. That is a great deal of the reason for the existence of this place - as a hearty "f**k you" to the very idea. I won't give credence to the notion that words suddenly become offensive, or that words once universally offensive are now OK for some and not for others.

Thus, allow me to take a moment to say hello to all the brown bagger citizens who may pop in. Black people are welcome, but no niggers allowed.

[LadyVirginia]

 

My daughter finds the word "white" offensive.  She takes after her dad's southern Italian side and is a lovely olive-brown skinned lady. She says she's not going to check the "white" box any more. And she's certainly not from Caucasus. So no Caucasian for her!  Seriously, she's been called Asian, Hispanic, whatever. I told her if she wanted to pimp herself out to the entertainment world she'd get cast as all sorts of minorities.



I told her "white" means "not a minority that gets stuff".

[Weisshaupt]

Thus, allow me to take a moment to say hello to all the brown bagger citizens who may pop in. Black people are welcome, but no niggers allowed.

No White Niggers either. And since you know what that means, then obviously Nigger doesn't just mean "black"
The Need to control language runs deep in the left. Its Intensional Orientation.  S I Hayakawa's "Language in Thought and Reason" explains it well, and its a quick read. It explains the left's need for Orwellian Newspeak, their inability to distinguish between their words and reality ( reality based community indeed)  and their need for the "social" communication of baa'ing to each other incessantly.

[Weisshaupt]

She says she's not going to check the "white" box any more.

I won't anymore either. My race is "Browncoat"  and will be from now on.  My tribe knows no color.  I am not American. Not in the sense its understood now, certainly. Browncoats share the values of Independence, self-sufficiency, and freedom bolstered by limited government bound by the rule of law and the consent of the governed.  Like the American Indian, our lands were conquered and our culture supplanted by greedy, self-righteous outsiders. I want my benefits  now. Lets start by creating a reservation  that  covers Idaho, Montana, North/South Dakota, Wyoming, and Colorado, and will border on the Mormon Reservation of Desseret ( formerly Utah) - To oppose this means you are a racist who doesn't value the diversity of other cultures.

[BigAlSouth]

I told her "white" means "not a minority that gets stuff".

Pretty much dead on accurate. Or "White: the class of producers who make it possible for the less fortunate to continue generations of parasitic behavior."

[ChrstnHsbndFthr]

I have trouble with this "brown bag" thing. I have used the phrase: "I am brown bagging it today," all of my life and never ONCE thought of it as offensive....and still don't. 

Now "citizen?" yes, I can see how that is offensive.  It is only used sarcasticly in our society to point up how much we have lost, how far we have fallen, and that does create pain. Perhaps we SHOULD stop using that word until it actually has meaning once again. We might well be regarded as "residents" for a short time yet, but only so long as the government allows it.

[Libertas]

I saw this, was going to post on it, then decided I really don't care what these morons want or don't want.  They don't matter to me.  If they want to carry their illogic to its natural end, fine, bring it, I'll deal with them then.  Until then they can go bugger themselves.