View Full Version : Bad words.
Ultralight
7-24-19, 6:30pm
I took an HR seminar yesterday at work about the language we use regarding race, gender, ethnicity, etc.
I learned that "tribe," in some contexts is now very much out of favor.
So if you said: "I joined a softball league and I love it and all my teammates. I really found my tribe!"
That would be considered very offensive.
Also, using "crazy" or "insane" is now considered full-on offensive. Like: "That 3 point shot at the buzzer was insane!" or "That 55 yard field goal in the heavy snow was crazy!"
Those are offensive usages of those words.
The preferred term is "wild." Such as: "That walk-off grand slam was wild!"
That is okay.
Using crazy to describe an unexpected positive event is inappropriate? That’s crazy.
I suppose "it's the bomb" is out
What about ‘go back to where you came from’. I guess that’s back in fashion.
What about ‘go back to where you came from’. I guess that’s back in fashion.
Someone yelled that at my sister and her friend when they were three blocks from her house in a neighborhood she'd lived in all her life. I wish I could have confronted the ass...(He was probably from California...)
(We can pass for practically everything, I guess--I've been mistaken for everything from Italian, to Jewish, to Russian. Everything but what I am.) I digress...
Ultralight
7-24-19, 8:16pm
What about ‘go back to where you came from’. I guess that’s back in fashion.
Nope. That would get you immediately fired at my workplace.
(We can pass for practically everything, I guess--I've been mistaken for everything from Italian, to Jewish, to Russian. Everything but what I am.)
I know what you mean, I'm continuously mistaken for a bigot, a homophobe, a misogynist and a bit of an ass lacking in empathy, among other things.
I digress...
Sorry....me too.
What's wrong with "tribe", he asked innocently, reflecting on his own Germanic tribal roots...
https://compote.slate.com/images/6cc2ea66-8002-48d4-b8a5-034ec25aa4d5.jpg
Ultralight
7-24-19, 8:23pm
I know what you mean, I'm continuously mistaken for a bigot, a homophobe, a misogynist and a bit of an ass lacking in empathy, among other things.
Dude. Are you serious? Because if you are I sincerely know what you are going through.
I am often mistaken for the same things.
I have wondered why, but I think it is just because of how I look and dress.
Ultralight
7-24-19, 8:27pm
What's wrong with "tribe", he asked innocently, reflecting on his own Germanic tribal roots...
https://compote.slate.com/images/6cc2ea66-8002-48d4-b8a5-034ec25aa4d5.jpg
1. Cool pic!
2. I had the same question, but I knew if I asked I would be in professional peril. There were folks in the meeting referring to all the bad things "old white men" do.
While I don't necessarily agree with all the politically correct stuff -- the language policing and such -- I am just going to conform to it at work. I make my living working for universities and this is just how things are going. I have to adapt to keep my job and not become a pariah.
Fortunately I can still ask questions about these issues in other, more private contexts.
I have wondered why, but I think it is just because of how I look and dress.
People seem to assume I'm a right-wing oppressive cis-het male, and clearly opposed to All Things Progressive just from a glance at me.
1. Cool pic!
Check out:
http://www.charlesfreger.com/portfolio/wilder-mann/
There were folks in the meeting referring to all the bad things "old white men" do.
How "old" do I have to be to experience this ageist dismissal?
Ultralight
7-24-19, 8:33pm
People seem to assume I'm a right-wing oppressive cis-het male, and clearly opposed to All Things Progressive just from a glance at me.
I remember walking down a path to one of my favorite fishing holes, rod & reel in hand. When I came around the corner there was a 20 something gay male couple holding hands. They quickly spotted me and stopped laughing with each other. They let go of each others' hand. And then they stepped a little apart from each other.
We passed each other and I said: "How are y'all doing?"
"Good."
After they passed me a ways I looked back. They were holding hands again.
Ultralight
7-24-19, 8:34pm
How "old" do I have to be to experience this ageist dismissal?
I am not sure. But I had the exact same question. I held my tongue because I would likely have been out-grouped.
Ultralight
7-24-19, 8:35pm
Instead of saying crazy or insane the person giving the presentation said: "Use the term wild."
But I thought: "What about those uncontacted tribes in the Amazon? They are literally wild humans."
Ultralight
7-24-19, 8:37pm
Check out:
http://www.charlesfreger.com/portfolio/wilder-mann/
This is so bizarre but so cool!
But I thought: "What about those uncontacted tribes in the Amazon? They are literally wild humans."
But they aren't. They have culture and civilization.
Ultralight
7-24-19, 8:50pm
But they aren't. They have culture and civilization.
Here we get into definitions. I think those uncontacted tribes are wild -- and that is what I like about them -- they are wild.
There was a kerfuffle recently over a Colorado State U language guide that discouraged use of such offensive terms as “American”, “cakewalk”, “male or female”, “straight” or “depressed”. I heard the administration later walked back the “American” thing.
I think I'll just start speaking in Latin or German or something, English is too full of land mines.
Or maybe French, since they have a certain amount of institutional linguistic purity.
Ultralight
7-24-19, 9:26pm
I think I'll just start speaking in Latin or German or something, English is too full of land mines.
Or maybe French, since they have a certain amount of institutional linguistic purity.
Amen, brother!
Ultralight
7-25-19, 7:00am
When I was an activist in college -- "the campus radical" -- I carried around with me a little pocket copy of The Bill of Rights and Constitution.
I think today I would be scoffed at for doing such a thing.
When I was an activist in college -- "the campus radical" -- I carried around with me a little pocket copy of The Bill of Rights and Constitution.
I think today I would be scoffed at for doing such a thing.
Lots of bad words in there.
I wonder who the real nonconformists are on campus today. ROTC cadets? College Republicans? People with flip-phones?
Ultralight
7-25-19, 8:56am
Lots of bad words in there.
I wonder who the real nonconformists are on campus today. ROTC cadets? College Republicans? People with flip-phones?
LOL!
Yeah... I dunno. Maybe... maybe...
I have to conform for professional reasons.
rosarugosa
7-25-19, 8:56am
I thought this was going to be a thread about profanity. I love profanity!
Definitely people with flip phones!! Cuz beards are now in.
I don't care for this list, I think in context words like crazy are okay. I do get upset when people call me crazy, because I actually have a private diagnoses. I also have the experience of being assumed to be certain ways because of my appearance. I used to carry my drivers license in my pocket at work for the people who didn't believe I could be the manager. I got a lot of 'teen mom' looks when I had my first child at 24. And then there was the developing early enough to be considered a slut. Lots of times I was assumed I couldn't make financial or car decisions, ya know.
Here is the thing for me, we can share experiences of being assumed to be things we are not without getting into more 'us vs them'. One person being assumed to be conservative has a lot in common with what I have been assumed to be, which says humans often don't take the time to listen and get to know each other. It would be really easy for me to assume that it is men or women 15 years older that are the group judging me, or I can say that no matter how common it has been with these groups it does not mean I should automatically judge someone in these groups. Basically this is the hippy speech of peace and love across imagined boundaries and stereotypes (without John Lennon's Imagine cuz I hate that song)
iris lilies
7-25-19, 9:07am
I thought this was going to be a thread about profanity. I love profanity!
I am sure my ability to curb my sailor mouth had an effect on my career. I don’t care. I like the F word.
I thought this was going to be a thread about profanity. I love profanity!
The profane can only exist in relation to the sacred. Since we have done so much to drive the sacred outside the mainstream, all we are left with are ideological taboos and fashions in manners. People claim to be threatened or offended, but nobody seems shocked by speech anymore.
I am sure my ability to curb my sailor mouth had an effect on my career. I don’t care. I like the F word.
My Buddhist teachers swear when it is called for, I figure that is good enough to free up my mouth. However working with kids and families for so many years I am almost incapable of swearing anymore!
I am sure my ability to curb my sailor mouth had an effect on my career. I don’t care. I like the F word.
The 'f' word is used so often by people who I overhear who seemingly cannot complete a coherent sentence about any topic except adding an 'f' word and a "ya know" that I see the 'f' word as a sign of illiteracy. This happened this morning when I was attending to a small garden in front of city hall. Some young people were sitting at a nearby picnic table being quite pleasant and sociable but the rambling conversations were peppered with the 'f' word and 'ya know'.
Ultralight
7-25-19, 1:21pm
Bananas is offensive now too. Saying someone "went bananas" is apparently racist.
There's nothing wrong with any of those non-swear words. Don't make things worse by letting them convince you otherwise.
Bananas is offensive now too. Saying someone "went bananas" is apparently racist.
Oppression against other ape species?
Forgive me if I'm skeptical of all this. I've been subjected to plenty of sensitivity training in my day, most of which managed to insult my intelligence, my integrity, or more usually both. But I've yet to see anything as inane as what's being described here.
Ultralight
7-25-19, 4:52pm
The training was so popular that many people asked for it to be offered more times. I really think that this is the way things are going in higher education institutions. So I just need to adapt, whether I agree with all of it or not. I have to be a professional about this, and toe the line, so that I can keep my job and not put myself in professional peril.
The universities are truly the only benefactors I ever had. I need to keep in their good graces.
Ultralight
7-25-19, 4:53pm
Oppression against other ape species?
No, dig deeper.
Ultralight
7-25-19, 4:53pm
There's nothing wrong with any of those non-swear words. Don't make things worse by letting them convince you otherwise.
I am not convinced. But I need to make a living and be a professional at work.
iris lilies
7-25-19, 5:08pm
Forgive me if I'm skeptical of all this. I've been subjected to plenty of sensitivity training in my day, most of which managed to insult my intelligence, my integrity, or more usually both. But I've yet to see anything as inane as what's being described here.
Do you mean just “bananas.” Or some of the other examples?
We were politely schooled here on this very site that the term “adopt” should be used exclusively for humans. To say “i adopted a 4 year old bulldog last week” is hurtful to the “adoption community,” and wrong.
If someone is hurt by a word, must we stop using it in that context? Always? Sometimes? When it has reached a critical mass of hurt people?
This is why we can't have nice things.
iris lilies
7-25-19, 5:12pm
No, dig deeper.
Look, I live in the epicenter of African-American language outrage, and I haven't heard this one if that is what you are implying.This smells like a college-campus -concocted, University led Ivory tower kind of faux outrage. In other words, is is your people! Haha.
Look, I live in the epicenter of African-American language outrage, and I haven't heard this one if that is what you are implying.This smells like a college-campus -concocted, University led Ivory tower kind of faux outrage. In other words, is is your people! Haha.
It sounds like an odd inversion, in truth.
The origin of the phrase involves the whole monkey/banana business, a favored trope in cartoons and movies in the 30s, 40s, and 50s.
To make the unsupported leap to "racism" betrays much about the mind of the person making that leap.
Are we not allowed to talk about primate behaviour, because it might offend someone who is worried the discussion is somehow coded discussion of various humans?
Curious George wants to know....
https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/0874-1/788/0C1/4A/%7B7880C14A-F13F-4B63-AFE7-AA26FEC58EF9%7DImg400.jpg
Teacher Terry
7-25-19, 5:52pm
I use the word adopt referring to my animals all the time. I love the old polish saying “Not my circus. Not my monkeys.” Luckily the state never made us take ridiculous trainings.
We were politely schooled here on this very site that the term “adopt” should be used exclusively for humans. To say “i adopted a 4 year old bulldog last week” is hurtful to the “adoption community,” and wrong.
That's just silly. In both contexts it's a positive meaning, people taking in another living being to give them love and take care of them.
This thread reminds me of when the big mega-corp I was employed by until recently rolled out a sexual harassment online training module to all US employees several years ago after an expensive sexual harassment suit against the company hadn't gone well. It was the most fun training module I'd ever done. It had a great storyline about a new college graduate who had just started working at a roller coaster design firm. Almost every single person at the firm was a sexual harasser or was at least behaving in ways that made others uncomfortable and the new employee had to decide how to respond every time it happened. It was so amusing, in fact, that for a month after we'd all done the training people were quoting the best harassment lines to each other at the water cooler and such.
It sounds like an odd inversion, in truth.
The origin of the phrase involves the whole monkey/banana business, a favored trope in cartoons and movies in the 30s, 40s, and 50s.
To make the unsupported leap to "racism" betrays much about the mind of the person making that leap.
Are we not allowed to talk about primate behaviour, because it might offend someone who is worried the discussion is somehow coded discussion of various humans?
Curious George wants to know....
https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/0874-1/788/0C1/4A/%7B7880C14A-F13F-4B63-AFE7-AA26FEC58EF9%7DImg400.jpg
Curious George is emblematic of colonialism and Western imperialism. You have triggered countless innocents by your thoughtless or deliberately cruel post.
Curious George is emblematic of colonialism and Western imperialism. You have triggered countless innocents by your thoughtless or deliberately cruel post.
Darn, I was just getting warmed up :-)
https://www.bu.edu/writingprogram/journal/past-issues/issue-7/terhune/
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0950236X.2016.1267038?journalCode=rtpr20
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/51066466.pdf
Darn, I was just getting warmed up :-)
https://www.bu.edu/writingprogram/journal/past-issues/issue-7/terhune/
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0950236X.2016.1267038?journalCode=rtpr20
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/51066466.pdf
And what of Thomas the tank engine, laboring for the greed of predatory capitalists like Sir Topham Hat? Or Bob the Builder, raping the Earth with his godless machines? Clearly PBS is a tool of the Oligarchs.
Look, I live in the epicenter of African-American language outrage, and I haven't heard this one if that is what you are implying.This smells like a college-campus -concocted, University led Ivory tower kind of faux outrage. In other words, is is your people! Haha.
The degree and category of offense taken will depend on your position in the intersectional matrix. Campus culture generally trends toward the gender-victim white savior quadrant, but as a practical matter no two snowflakes are alike.
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