re: #249 Soap_Man

Heh. Yes, intent matters a hell of a lot. However, common courtesy and common sense tell me that racism actually exists, and that some words really do take on negative connotations due to their use, and that it’s best to try to figure that out before talking about another person’s race or culture.

For example: Totally fine to call British people “Brits”, though a little dismissive. Totally uncool to call Japanese people “Japs”, as that was the common usage during WWII when they were our enemy.

So, if you’re a guy from Midwest Parakeet Bicycle Supply Inc., doing business for the first time with a Japanese guy, it behooves you to get a little informed about Japanese culture. Likewise, if your new neighbors are Hmong, it behooves you to learn a little bit about them. Included in this little bit would be racial slurs, since they’re sadly still all too common.

My favorite “intent matters” story:

One dude at UofC who I really adored came from a ten-person town in Appalachia. Leonard was his name. He was brilliant, and had an uncle who supplied him with an unending supply of textbooks and other stuff so that he actually was able to get into UofC. He’d never, ever met a black person before arriving in Chicago.

I was volutneering at orientation, and I invited him to a party at my house. He came that evening, and I introduced him to one of the co-hosts, my friend Diamon, a seven foot tall black dude. Leonard took his hand, shook it firmly, and said, in his incredible Appalachian accent “I just want you to know I never believed the things they said about you people”.

Diamon had to work really hard not to bust a guy laughing, and just thanked Leonard and offered to show him around campus later —and let him know why ‘you people’ was something he should excise from his vocabulary in the future.