"Nigga" untrademarkable?

[Jonathan Lighter]

This "Democrat" party BS (my ad hoc abbrev. for "business") has been going on for so long that there are too many Googlits to investigate it. FWIW, I began noticing it at least two years ago and maybe as far back as the adtermath of the 2000 election.

  Mancow  calls 'em "Democraps" (about 70,000 Google hits, with a further 250 or so for "demicraps").

  One reason for "Democrat party" must be to separate the party from any hint of being "democratic."  Cf. how "elite media" is a frequent euphemism for "liberal media," which is a snarl-phrase for any zillionaire-owned news or entertainment source more liberal than Rupert Murdoch.

  Maybe Democraps should start calling Republicans the "Repo party."  You know, to elevate the dialogue just a little.  Next step: the "Craps" and the "Cans."

  JL



  Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Charles Doyle
Subject: Re: "Nigga" untrademarkable?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Right-wing politicians and hate-radio ranters seem to assume
that using "Democrat" as an adjective or attributive noun
("the Democrat scheme," "Democrat candidates," even "the
Democrat Party") will be deemed especially derogatory
(thence preferred to "Democratic"). The same, of course, is
the case with the word "Jew" ("Jew merchants," "the
international Jew conspiracy").

Is there a general Rule of Offensiveness that covers such a
process, I wonder?

Together with the offensive use of "Jew" as a verb, that
application of "Jew" might further occasion sensitivity
regarding the noun "Jew" as a personal or (to a lesser
degree) group designation.

To answer the question of a very early reponder to my
original observation/query: My student who found the
noun "Jew" offensive was, indeed, herself Jewish--having
grown up in a part of the country (the deep South) where
Jews constitute a tiny minority, although her hometown of
Savannah harbors a very old and active Jewish community.

--Charlie

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