catswilleatyou Wrote:
IMHO
really we need quickly move on past events like ku klux kramer and this school teacher
i've been thinking about this a lot lately
whenever i'm around any non-white stranger
whatever racial slur most used for "them"
pops into my head and just sits there
on repeat
the most inappropriate thing to say is there just waiting patiently for a Freudian
simply because it's the last thing i want to say
and probably because our culture has all these taboos
it goes beyond race too
anytime i meet an overweight or mentally-handicapped or blatant homosexual
the shit words just start to hang out in my head
and i think it is because people are taught these words and told never to say them
not because i want to say them
or even want to think them
...
and certainly not because i'm some kind of judgmental jackoff
i think our culture gives a little too much power to certain words
and to REALLY move forward
instead of putting a "never say _____, unless you are ____" rule on negative word - we have to use things like humor
and we have to kill the word's negative connotations
...
instead of continually jumping down the throat of everyone that slips up
shit words shouldn't weigh in the same as shit actions
every time we throw a fit because some person of authority or some celebrity says a taboo word - it just draws more attention to that word - and reteaches that word - and allows that word to have more power than it's even worth
does anyone else feel like they have that issue-of the shit words just hanging out upstairs whenever you don't want to say them?
IMO, best post of the thread.
I do think that sometimes you find those words coming to mind accidentally and spending energy to keep them from coming out. That doesn't happen a lot and I am not really sure what triggers it. However, I am appreciative of my friends of different races and such that can handle a serious discussion about race and can make and take racial comments in jest because at a certain point, with someone you know, a joke can be pretty damn funny even if it crosses a taboo because you have mutual respect and experience with the person.
If I randomly made racial jokes to some stranger on the street it would be completely inappropriate, but if my black friend, in jest, calls me whitey-honkey-cracker-etc, then at the very least they seem to be able to handle the converse, at least in my experience.
Either way, I don't, nor do I feel I should, make a habit of making racial slurs or jokes with my "ethnic" friends because ultimately they're just my friends not distinguished, in my mind, by their race.
