As a victim of violent crime, I find the positive spin put on thug, gangsta, gangster, etc. to be offensive and insensitive. I hope that my feelings will be taken into account.
How would you feel if the bankstas stole your house and tried to make the word fraudsta sound cool?
@Picktails, thank you for your post. Where have you been during this whole discussion?
“No, but I would expect pushback if I do, and any white person who uses the n word can expect the same.”
Well, of course. If someone were to use the n word in my house, for example, they’d be thrown out and never invited back. I wouldn’t stand for that. Similarly, when my kids were younger, they were invited over to a little friend’s home - I drove them there and there was a Confederate flag flying outside. That was the end of that friendship.
I don’t know why you don’t think most normal, civilized people wouldn’t be horrified / cringe at the n word or similar.
As for rap / hip hop music? I don’t have to like it. It’s not required. Some people don’t like jazz, some people don’t like country music, etc. So be it. It’s a free country - people can have their tastes.
I would take with a grain of salt, no, I take that back, a wheelbarrow of salt, for those provincial suburb dwellers, that anything past Dave Matthews, is a cry for the onset of anarchy and chaos. As to the talentless genre of hiphop, that’s curious as it’s been studied to be the most listened genre of music in the world:see–http://musicfeeds.com.au/news/turns-out-hip-hop-is-the-most-popular-genre-in-the-world/
Oh, well back to insulated world of cul de sacs and those ever so tasty piquant variety of wines…
@Pizzagirl It’s a free country, indeed. Which is why the kids at Missouri stood up and acted. Which in turn really bugs you, because you don’t believe their claims of harassment and you don’t like the way they made their point. But to quote you – you don’t have to like it. It’s not required. It’s a free country.
Maybe hold back a few grains of salt for use with data from Spotify.
Spotify aside, a friend did tell me recently that he’s heard rap done by locals in Mongolia and Slovenia. It may not be the dominant musical genre in the world, but it’s certainly worldwide.
I’ve got recordings of rap from Egypt.
@boolaHI, when you insult suburbanites on a message board, isn’t that a code for white people? Should I be offended and file a complaint? Or am I not entitled because I cannot be the object of racism, only the perpetrator? Or should you just come right out and say that white people don’t have a right to comment on these issues?
I don’t know, it was you who posted this:
In my previous neighborhood a (a suburb, Arcadia/Pasadena) there were far more Asians, Blacks and Hispanics than white people–you make a rather a large assumption. The inverse of your statement is then, people of color don’t live in suburbs–and that maybe I should feel slighted–which I do t. That said, if you feel it warrants a complaint, please feel free to follow your own conscious.
Stay static, like wool fabric. Nas
Thank you for clarifying your comment. It sounded like you were suggesting that anyone who lived in the suburbs was provincial and could not be expected to like anything except uber-white pseudo-indy music, or that dislike of hip hop was a mark of unsophistication that probably smacked of racism. That was the impression your patronizing comment gave me.
I can’t control your perceptions nor how you form the context of your observations, so I’ll leave it at that…
“…the suburbs have no charms to soothe the restless dreams of youth…”
OK. I only wish the live-and-let-live went both ways. Hypocritical usage hypersensitivity creates its own backlash.
@Ohiomomof2 I don’t often hurry, but when I do, I Rush…live well my friends.
I think we are missing the forest for the trees here. The issue isn’t whether people should be sensitive to the perceptions of others. The issue is whether a small minority of people can be permitted to remove certain words from our vocabulary, solely because they feel the word paints a persuasive and accurate picture of the less than credible actions of individuals they choose to support. This is nothing more than an effort to remove the ability of individuals to discuss the actions of others on their own merits, rather than through a racist or classist lens.
Personally, I am a typical pain in the butt middle aged white guy. I am a lawyer who works for the government and even lives on a cul de sac. So I will not pretend to be conversant on the language used in the more difficult neighborhoods in our country.
But, the first I ever heard of this supposed racial connotation of the word thug was after Richard Sherman up and said calling him a thug was the same as calling him the n word a couple super bowls ago. Some people tried to treat that seriously, because Sherman is a serious guy, although one given to bombast on occasion. But the controversy, such as it was, faded quickly. Then it popped up again when President Obama used the word to accurately describe the looting going on in Baltimore this spring. But at no point in time have I ever seen anyone provide evidence of this stealth and coded usage of the term. All I have seen are conclusory statements that the use of the term is out of bounds because it is racist. Forgive my skepticism, but absent some type of proof of the word’s usage to unfairly castigate and demean a category of individuals rather than to accurately describe the actions of individuals, I will not accept that there is anything wrong with using the term.
@katliamom, lol, been here all along. I just choose to read and rarely engage unless I find the discussion so prejudicial that I put in my 2 cents. Thanks for the kudos ;).
@Pizzagirl, no one has to “like” anything. It’s about respect and opening up to another point of view. You know, for the good of society, instead of digging in your heels and making disparaging comments.
Well said, picktails. Some like the sport of arguing more than the issues themselves…