fag out

[Mark A. Mandel]

Alice mentioned

> NBC's attempts to excuse Don Imus' characterization of the Rutgers
> basketball team as "nappy-headed hos" as non-racist humor; the only
> difference is that Imus doesn't have an OED to stand on.

(Specifically, the Rutgers WOMEN'S basketball team.)

Arnold replied:
    >>>>>

          the imus case illustrates the
Comedy Defense ("it was just a joke") in a particularly lame form.
what astonishes me about this case (and others, going back many
years) is how flagrant the slur was.  what on *earth* could imus (and
his predecessors in slur-tossing) have been thinking of?
 <<<<<

Imus was thinking exactly what it sounds like, and smugly (and evidently
correctly) assuming that his regular listeners would applaud and his
employers would defend him. Whether or not he really is a racist, sexist,
homophobic SOB, he talks that way.

-- Mark A. Mandel
[This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org