No no no, I didn't mean to quote it, or remove the weight of oppression. It was oppression. But during the time of oppression of women cunt wasn't being tossed around. So let's move on from the women discussion.
Iran. Stoning. Beating. Rape. Or are you going to keep pretending you didn't read that argument the first time?
But see, there you go doing it again. "During the time of oppression of women." That was five minutes ago, and, for that matter, five minutes from now. You're exhibiting the same thought process as white people who think they can say nigger in 2013 because the president is black and affirmative action and things are different now. There are types oppression more subtle and moderate than fire hoses.
I would just like to point out that a guy from, and who still lives in, South Carolina thinks some of ya'll are being way too liberal with that word.
For the life of me I can't communicate what I was trying to say, but as always on this board I have to spend half my time explaining what I'm not saying. I'm not snidely doing shit. You people need to quit it with this internet argument posturing and characterizations based on nothing. "Smugly" "Snidely" "Arrogantly" "Haughtily" what the fuck wrong with you people? Also why the fuck are you picking on the smallest goddamn part of what I posted? Holy shit you people..."Uh-oh, Parker is being serious and right about something, can't let him have that, must attack his examples that really have nothing to do with his main point because we can't actually engage with the meat of his argument." I'm not saying it wasn't oppression. That's not what I'm talking about but fuck it while we're here: If you're trying to tell me its the same shit, you're out of your fucking mind. You cannot equate slavery, random lynchings, getting hit with fire hoses, separate public facilities, and leaders getting shot with the not so obvious, but still very present, oppression of women. Susan B. Anthony died at the ripe old age of 86. Malcom X and MLK had no such luck. Let's ask black folk if they'd love to switch historical oppression with white women in America and see how fast they'd take it. Then let's see how many white women would take the type of oppression black people had back then and today? Any? As Bill Simmons says "Who says no to that trade first?" While you figure that one out, let me get to what I really was trying to say... I'm saying cunt to the oppression of women does not equal nigger to the oppression of black people. The whole "well if you think cunt is okay, I can think nigger is okay" is retarded and the flipside "If nigger is a bad word and no one should say it, cunt is the same thing." Not it is not. Holy fuck, internet people have me angry. Time to go.
I feel that way about mushrooms and raisins. They are the few food items that if they are hidden in a meal and I accidentally eat them, I will just open my mouth and spit them out. But, I'm classy like that. On focus: I picked nigger. I am not comfortable even typing it out. I also grew up in a small town with a graduating class of 119. Something that sticks out to me to this day is when I was in first grade we had a black family move to our town and went to my grade school. He was a classmate of mine and being that he was new and didn't know anyone, I would save a seat on the bus for him and his brother, who was in kindergarten. One day I'm waiting for them and another classmate of mine (I still remember his name) turns around in his seat and says to me, "What are doing? Saving a seat for those niggers again?" My very first exposure to racism and I had no idea what to say or do as I was a quiet, unassuming kid, so I just stared at him until he eventually turned around. The family moved away a short time later. Thirty-some odd years later, I still remember it in detail. I just remember them being fun kids and to be hated for basically being born would basically suck. So I can't use it, even lightly. My town was also an equal opportunity racist one as one of my brother's really really good friend was Asian. I found out years later the family moved because of racism and having problems with people giving them grief. I would like to think the town has moved forward in its thinking but who knows, as I haven't lived there in over 20 years. To me, cunt is a curse word. Nigger is a racist word. Cursing doesn't bother me. I know that's oversimplified, but it's the easiest way for me to describe it.
To me racial slurs top all others without a doubt. I hate hearing them regardless of context. In my part of the office, it's an all-male, all-white group and we are isolated from the rest of the place- so we can (and do) say pretty much whatever we want. "Cunt" is tossed around jokingly, like I haven't heard anyone direct it towards a particular person. I haven't heard any racial slurs and know they would not be appreciated. Alt-focus: Fuck is a favorite of mine, especially mixed in with other words like clusterfuck or fan-fucking-tastic. My all time favorite cursing was from the man that practically taught me how to swear: my grandpa. His favorite phrase was "son of a bitch" and in his semi-Southern accent it was all blended together like "suhbitch!". It was perfect.
The bolded is unfair. Please understand I do not at ALL disagree with you that the N bomb is a horrific thing, and I'm not by any means saying someone calling me a cunt is as awful a thing to do as to call you a nigger. The only point of my post is that the argument you're using is being argued in return because you're applying your argument to black people and failing to see that it it also applies to women. The historical oppression of black people was a horrific act. Of COURSE any black person should be upset with the implications of 'nigger'. But when you say 'white women in America', you are deliberately closing your eyes to the equally brutal things being done to women that are still being done today, just because it's not happening where you are. You were not a slave. Your parents were not slaves. Yet you are still offended by the term because, as you and other posters have pointed out, it encompasses your whole race. You are a victim of at least passive racism every day, from your own examples of the purses, etc. That sucks hard, and I sympathise as much as someone who isn't in your shoes can. 'Cunt' is a term that applies to my whole gender. Half the population of the planet. For a not-insignificant portion of which the brutality and oppression are still happening at this very moment. Was I raped at gun point? No. Was my clit hacked off with a machete on a dirty kitchen table for the sake of my virtue? No. Just as you were not a slave. Does the passive oppression of sexism still affect my life in little ways, just like racism with you? You bet it does. You are entitled and right to be offended by a racial slur that encompasses your entire people. As a woman, I am equally entitled to be offended by a term that encompasses my entire gender. TLDR; I understand your point. But you can't have the argument both ways. You can't say all black people are offended by the N word because it's about the historical oppression of all of you, without conceding that women should be offended by the C word because it's about the historical and still very real oppression of all of us. On focus, I voted for cunt, because to society, cunt is USED swear word. Nigger is not a swear word. It's on an offensive level all it's own, high above cuss words. Cunt should be on that level too.
No no, I'm the reverse oppressed white oppressive devil and I hate kittens too. I'm just going to agree with those who have said that racial slurs are on a different level than swear words and skip out on the argument, although there are some good thoughts buried in the "I'm butthurt" reactions that have actually caused me to think a little so there is that.
[/quote] This. So much. For the record - I don't say the N word. Ever. I don't hate anyone based on race, but to say 'cunt' isn't as offensive because it's not something you see or experience is ludicrous.
I don't think anyone has actually said that. I think the closest was dcc who said she personally would rather be called nigger because it would not literally apply to her, but that's a different sort of statement. As is "nigger is more offensive due to the greater weight of collective mistreatment." As far as I can tell, no one is suggesting one is less offensive than the other because they personally don't experience it or hear it personally. I guess really, the point here is that none of this actually matters. One person getting called faggot doesn't hurt any less because someone else across town got called nigger, and a girl next town over got called a cunt. These things don't really work on a relative basis like that, so it's slim condolences to think, "Well, it could be worse, I could have been called _______ instead."
How is it even close? Doesn't it come down to the (quality) comedian mantra of: "make fun of what people do, not what they are"? Being a cunt is something anyone, of any race/gender, can do. You call them that because they're doing something to piss you off. Nigger is something that a VERY specific group of people "are", and the word has never significantly changed to mean anything else (outside of that specific group using it as a term of, let's say...endearment). When it comes to "offensive words" of any kind, the thing that pisses me off is the PC Police actively trying to ban certain words, instead of letting it happen organically, like it has with nigger. Even the dumbest inbred redneck knows that's the worst of all the racial slurs. Take "faggot", for example. I've used it since before I knew what homosexual meant to describe other kids who were being little shits and ruining everyone else's nice time. It's an ever-evolving word that's changed meanings many times over the years, and if we all start using it in the South Park way, we can actually change its meaning and take some of its power away in the homosexual slur sense. Also never knew "Jesus Christ" and "Goddam" offended anyone under 40. To me the curse words are the best part of religion.
Oooh..ooh...can the next thread topic be: Rather get stabbed in the thigh or shot square in the face? Discuss.
Fuck South Park. You don't get to reclaim the word "faggot" just because you're an asshole who happens to be uncreative.
I think he just used South Park as an example of what the difference he sees in how the word is used. Words can have multiple meanings and uses. Not all of these uses have to be racist or hateful.
OK, but this one is. When someone calls someone else a faggot, they are saying, "Hey, you are a homosexual or are acting in a fashion similar to one, which I find worthy of mockery." At a bare minimum, you are suggesting that the person is acting in an unacceptable fashion, and the reason that we use the word faggot to describe acting like that is that we find or used to find homosexuality unacceptable. That is what the word means. Arguing that there is some other, cleansed version of the word in existence is similar to arguing that "nigger doesn't just mean black people anymore, it's just stupid people of any race." Yes, it does, and no, it doesn't. Faggot in 2013 is only an insult insofar as you draw an analogy to its more direct meaning. When the word is used in such a fashion, no one means, "Hey dude, stop acting like a bundle of sticks/cigarettes." Sure, it's meant those things somewhere at some time, but no using it as an insult in the United States is tracing their use back to that. Even if they didn't directly think of homosexuals when making the insult, the people they learned to use it from probably did. We can't change the meaning of it and neither can Trey Parker (or at least, can't do so morally), because we aren't the ones who have to deal with that scorn. What matters about words is less often what they are intended to mean, but what they mean to their audience. To suggest that straight guys are just going to willy-nilly use it until it's no longer a slur ignore the fact that in the interim, it still means what it means and a homosexual or otherwise queer person is still going to cringe every time they encounter a straight person using it. And we sure as hell have no place giving them marching orders about how they should feel about the word. Moreover, even well-intentioned use of the word creates an atmosphere where it is an acceptable thing to say more generally, and indirectly encourages tolerance of more directly homophobic use.