[Ads-l] newly "offensive" term

[dave@wilton.net]

But "chain store" and "chain migration" are very different contexts.
 
The idea that we are a "country of immigrants" is already a fraught one for many African-Americans. And for someone who is already primed to consider immigration as involuntary, it's not much of stretch to associate "chain migration" with the slave trade. Even if one knows what the term literally means, the association is there.
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: "Jonathan Lighter" <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2018 1:52pm
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: [ADS-L] newly "offensive" term



https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/01/12/sen_durbin_chain_migration_is_offensive_to_those_whose_ancestors_came_to_us_in_chains.html

[Sen.] Durbin continued: "When it came to the issue of, quote, 'chain
migration,' I said to the president, do you realize how painful that term
is to so many people? African-Americans believe they migrated to America in
chains and when you talk about chain migration, it hurts them personally.
He said, 'Oh, that’s a good line.'

On CNN, Sen. Menendez has just forcefully called the phrase "obscene," for
much the same reason.

Since I now realize that "chain store" must really mean "a slave-dealing
establishment," I am dropping it from my idiolect.

JL

-- 
"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

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