"tar baby" in the news

[Wilson Gray]

On Thu, Aug 4, 2011 at 1:39 PM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com> wrote:
> the
> collective judgments tilts against those being offended

As should surely be the case, here.

But I often find myself behind the curve, non-distinct from the most
blatant racist. E.g., I've never been able to see how it could be the
case that it should have come to be the case that referring to people
of East-Asians descent as "Orientals" should suddenly be perceived as
a supposed insult, after dekkids of dekkids of ordinary use.

Of course, what such people should be called is of no real concern to
me. However, that I found having to make this very trivial semantic
shift to be a gigantic,
how-can-"Oriental"-possibly-be-construed-as-some-kind-of-insult-by-those-people?-why-I've-been-using-it-all-my-life-without-the-least-intent-to-insult-anyone!
pain in the ass puts me on the same level as any other casual
racist-in-the-broad-sense.

But, it wasn't *my* ox that was being gored.

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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