[Ads-l] thug

[Jonathan Lighter]

Professor Marc Lamont Hill tells CNN that while "thug" has had additional
meanings (including, he says, "the dark-skinned Other," as used by the
British in India,) "in the 21st century it's come to be used by white
people to mean black people who make them uncomfortable."

Dr. Hill thought it irrelevant that the President has used the word to
describe "Ukrainian rebels, ISIS," etc., because "thug" can have more than
one meaning.

It was part of a three-minute segment to answer the editorial question, "Is
'thug' the new n-word?"  A Google search shows that this very issue has
occasionally been discussed for more than year.

Meanwhile, _Fox & Friends_ asserts that while Mayor Rawlings-Blake has
"apologized for using the word 'thug,' she hasn't apologized for giving
them 'room to destroy.'"

The context (not to mention common sense) indicates that the notorious
"space to destroy" was an unforeseen side effect of a limited police
presence, which was decided upon in consultation with the PD. That means
nothing in certain quarters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqncWcpwmCs


JL


On Wed, Apr 29, 2015 at 9:51 PM, W Brewer <brewerwa at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       W Brewer <brewerwa at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: thug
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> WB:  Antlio-vinclotraction 'treadmill chain-pulling':  <thug>-avoidance
> translated into Latin.
> Another case of pulling (tract-) (s.o.'s) chain (vinc(u)lum) trapped on a
> euphemism treadmill (antlia).
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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