We have been discussing the expanding number of terms and phrases deemed racist or, in the new lexicon, a form of “microagression” against minority groups. An example this week is found in the decision of the Port Authority in Pittsburgh stripping buses of its new ad campaign after complaints that “Ziggin Zaggin” is racially offensive because it reminds riders of the n-word when read backwards.
The Port Authority that “. . . due to recent complaints about how this message appears when read backward, we have decided to remove the message from our vehicles.” That will take days and added expense. In all honestly, I really did not get the slogan or why it was selected. However, the decision is being debated as to whether we are becoming too prone to injury or offense in our society.
This controversies raise the difficult question of where or how to draw the line when some object to an interpretation or reaction to particular words. I expect some would be surprised to see the word “Naggaz” or “Niggiz” in a reverse image in a car mirror and would take a second look. However, is that enough to deem the slogan offensive?
What do you think?
Source: CBS
“learning to read upside-down and backwards”
Ha!
One of my minor super powers appears to be less rare than I tghought.
Just when I think things in this country can’t get any stupider….
One guy on our radio station summed it up pretty well.
“We really are kidding ourselves about this ‘greatest country in the world’ thing” if this is what we care about.
Chip
If these “micro aggression” claims aren’t phony efforts to give cover to those who enjoy unearned perks…they might as well be.
The vast number of paid trolls also inspires amateur idiots who identify with their oppressors. Let’s not bother to give them the celebrity they’re looking for.
How is it fair to the numerous religions for which a symbol had a positive, peaceful meaning to have the Nazis steal it forevermore?
Multiple religions and cultures had that symbol for hundreds, some thousands of years, before the Nazis. If a symbol is used as a Swastika, then that is reprehensible. But if it is used as its intended purpose for any of those religions, then that is their right.
Most people will always have that initial, negative reaction to any symbol that looks like a Swastika at first. But it is unfair to demand that multiple cultures and religions abandon a symbol that was hijacked by maniacs.
I hate the Nazis and all they stood for. But that symbol is not hateful if it is used in the context of an ancient religion or culture.
Dang N_ggers!!! I don’t like being nagged over stupid stuff like this. PS watch South Park.
Isaac:
“This is in the grey area. I refuse to stop using the expression, ‘Let’s call a spade a spade’.” A spade is a shovel. This phrase refers to calling something by it’s proper name, and to be honest about an embarrassing or or upsetting topic. What’s the connection to a black person? I’ve never heard it used that way.
This raises a very serious public service announcement. Please play all music backward, and have anything banned that, if listened to backwards, makes you upset.
Let’s also raise our children to know that if anyone says or writes something that bothers them, even if they have to hold it up to a mirror and read it backwards, they should immediately get it removed from their site or their ears. We MUST remove all upsetting statements IMMEDIATELY, or our children might learn to regulate their own reactions and feelings, and become tolerant to any number of upsetting subliminal messages and micro aggressions. It does not matter AT ALL if someone actually intends to be aggressive on a blatant, or dare I say nano scale. All it matters is how we feel about it, not intent or the facts.
Karen – learning to read upside-down and backwards comes in handy when sitting across a desk from your supervisor. 😉
Absurd reasoning produces absurd conclusions.
Pogo
Yes, it goes without saying, my opinion is just one of many. One thing remains as a constant, however. The closer to the event the greater the difference of opinion. This recent argument on the rights of NSA to spy on Americans has changed substantially between the time of and following 9/11 and now. The recent uncovering of the extent of Chinese hacking of American computer systems will affect opinions, how?
When one watches a John Wayne western or Vietnam War movie one is educated as to the ‘right’ of which America was in sole possession. When one studies history, hanging a flag is not the first thing that comes to mind.
What’s done is done but to avoid doing it again one must not lose sight of the moment in time of the crime.
issac – what are you complaining about? I am in one of the cities that has the FBI planes overhead monitoring it?
Good Lord!!!… We truly are doomed as a freedom embracing society. Ignorance is totally overtaking us.
When people resort to reading words backwards in order to be offended… and when those in charge acquiesce to demands made by people reading words backwards… How much longer can true freedom endure?
I truly believe that the ideals of individual liberty, personal freedom, and the rights of private property are eschewed by more and more of our populace every day in favor of something exactly the opposite.
Offended by reading words backwards! What a crock of TIHS!
There was a problem back in Arkansas. These little bugs dig into your skin and itch for weeks. They called them “chiggers”. Some people got upset with that word so they started calling them “chegros”. That did not fly and they settled on “itchers”.
If you can read, thank a teacher. If you can be offended reading backwards, thank their union.
“The Confederate flag does not represent a just fight for freedom. ”
Your opinion is just one of many, and your conclusion here is no more the end of the discussion than Shelby Foote’s answer was, much as you’d prefer otherwise.
His argument is that being a Cabrini-Green slave to Democrats isn’t much of a change from the status quo ante.
Paul
Free speech comes, as do all freedoms, with the responsibility of relevancy. Yelling fire in a crowded theatre is free speech but relevant to the context it is simple mischief. There is something insidious about offending in order to represent free speech when there is no local context or reason. If, at the court house, free speech was seen by some to have been threatened then statements made against those threats, relevant to those threats, visibly connected to those threats would be pure free speech. Hanging a Swastika in the place the student hung it was a provocation far removed from the concept of free speech and obviously closer to pure mischief. Supported and defended by society would see that same advocate of free speech visit the local Synagogue next. After all if Jews were offended at seeing this symbol of peace plastered on their walls wouldn’t that make them not only hypocrites but racists?
Regarding he Confederate flag, the economy of the South depended on slavery to such an extent the fact that many Southerners didn’t own slaves, the North returned slaves to their owners, and other contradictions to the simple and pure ‘free the slaves’ label represent not much more than the banners or flags that one associates with to avoid the ugly truth. Most lost causes carry with them much of this.
The argument that the South was fighting for freedom is ludicrous. The South was fighting to retain the wealth and way of life that was made off of the backs of slaves. Those that engineered it, the oligarchs were the slave owners. Those that fought were those that believed that the North were nothing more than invaders. The formula is not unique to the moment or place in time. Read up on your history of mankind and you will see the same paradigms.
A German soldier after WW2 might have been proud of his service but ashamed of what it supported. The two go together but one is the greater, the crime is greater than the soldier’s bravery. Crimes were committed by the Allies during WW2 but the fight was just and that is greater.
Perhaps the issue with the Confederate flag is not the right to fly it but where it should be flown. For Billy Bob to hang it in the back of his pick up truck is one thing but to have it flying over the place of government is another. The Confederate flag does not represent a just fight for freedom. It represents a fight to keep the freedoms and wealth of a minority by enslaving a majority. One can keep a flag as a connection to a family member that exhibited bravery, helped a wounded Northern soldier, or even helped a black man protect his family. Within the contexts of evil one will always find good and vice versa. However, the flag represented the status quo that included slavery. It does not represent a glorious segment of American history. Try drifting back to those glorious days of yesteryear when things were better and a ni**er knew his place.
issac – if you are going to knock the Confederate flag, you have to take down the US flag. Slavery was legal in northern states and continued during the Civil War. The Emancipation Proclamation only covered the slaves in the South, not the North.
Shhhhhh … nobody tell the christian right what god is backwards.
It’s been noted that if you play an old Donny and Marie Osmond record backwards it says Be nice to your sister..
What do you think?
I think the world has gone crazy. In the West we are too comfortable and able to focus on imaginary hurts and insults. These fragile flowers should try living in someplace where the living is really hard.
It would probably do us good to have a big disaster that would cull out the deadwood from society and get us to focus on reality instead of ridiculous things like this. I think that ISIS is working on this while the US is high centered on Bruce Jenner’s genitals (or lack of) and whether words read backwards can damage your feelings.
If reading words backwards is the worst thing you can imagine, you don’t have much of an imagination.
Isaac, you stated that the “only one point to flying [the Confederate flag was] provocation by ‘being nasty’. The rest is BS.”
My response was not to defend its use, but to show there are reasons beyond BS and nastiness for doing so, even if you disagree with their conclusions.
That is, flying it is free speech.
It appears that anyone who tries to be offended with sufficient vigor will succeed.
Joe Rio – I don’t think you have to try that hard to be offended.
Paul
It was the seventies and one was dammed if they did and dammed if they didn’t.
Regarding the Confederate battle flag and the Swastika, you missed my point. In this world no one flies a Swastika to promote peace. The design, even in India is recognized for its more abhorrent associations. The student that displayed it in the multi religious meditation center or wherever was performing mischief, not free speech.
There are venues to express the usurpation of symbols once meant to mean one thing by others with no respect whatsoever, such as the Nazis. Art has long been a forum where one expects this sort of ‘questioning’ and introspection. Our world is a work in progress and the Swastika issue is ‘too soon’.
The Confederate battle flag is a perfect example of ‘close to home’. Grandfathers fought for the freedom and right to enslave others. The question is not that some one had a grandfather but the commingling of rights, freedoms, and slavery. Should this be referred. Remember, those valiant defenders of ‘their way of life’ strung up runaway slaves during their glorious ‘fight’.
Hitler loved his dog and little blond haired, blue eyed, children. Lots of German soldiers were compassionate, brave, and all that they could be.
issac – the student had a particular point and made it well. It feel apart when he left and left the swastika up.
The Confederate flag honors the dead of those who fought in the War of Northern Aggression. Very few Southerners owned slaves. And remember, at the beginning of the war, Union troops would return captured slaves to their owners. And when the Union Army decided not to return them, they as much as enslaved them, too.