But it is stupid of the commentator. Trying to be cute blew up in his face
I called this black guy a Negro one time. I have no idea why he got so pissed. It may be an outdated term, but whatever, dude just needs to grow some thicker skin.
Ummmmm Don't you mean "dry cleaning specialists whose place of birth lies within the borders of the country called China", and "infrastructure erection specialists." How could you be so insensitive to their culture and occupation?
Geez, some people are just ignorant.
Suns broadcasters used to call Diaw "Frenchman" ... they did such with every player from any country that doesn't lend itself to a nationality descriptive noun like Canadian or American or Spaniard.
Intent, man... How is Chinaman or Frenchman any different int this particular usage than man from China or France? It's simply more direct descriptive usage.
Remember Rik Smits? The Dunking Dutchman?
Political correctness run amok!
sheesh...so now the commentator and spurstalk knows that "chinaman" is offensive....commentator wont use it again and we'll put it in our PC list. We shouldnt justify it...he made a mistake and its done.
/thread
yeah just like Stewardess is now politically incorrect and they all want to be called Flight Attendents. Personally I fail to see why Stewardess is not PC.
It's a movement towards gender-neutral language in this instance.
+1
Probably the best post I've seen in quite some time.
what's wrong with chinaman? He is a man, and is from China. People need to stop being so upset about these days. If he called him a er or slant eyes I could see, but chinaman?
get that sand outta ur vagina. there. now i bring sex/gender into this.
Who is that in your sig boss?
*fap* *fap* *fap*
its the history behind the word thats offensive.
The US right now is too sensitive...we're getting insulted by people giving compliments?
WTF is this soft ?
The broadcaster was clearly giving a compliment to the man from China. But somehow in our comfortable lives we have found a way to take offense to it.
In less significant news, un-employment rates are almost reaching Great Depression proportions, North Korea wants to make some Nukes and poverty levels in some states might rival 3rd world countries.
I bet half the people in this thread who think his comment is okay were sensitive and crying when LeBron didn't shake hands last season.
Exactly. Those are some "real" insults...even a 10 year old knows it.
You have to look up and quote a friggin' history lesson from when Railroads were the next "big thing" to find out why "Chinaman" should be offensive to some people.
I don't think you have a Chinaman's chance of convincing him.
Fair point. I won't try to either...
I'm sure some other overly sensitive asian man will bite.
I really don't care, one way or the other, for the ad hominem remarks, especially in the form of elementary schools playground insults. Admittedly, they seed in my mind the doubt of your mental age and therefore if I'm wasting my time engaging in a conversation with a kid, but I'm going to assume that it was just a bad moment for such a civil person like yourself.
Which cultural zeitgeist are you referring to? Yours? Why are you so presumptuous to the point of wanting everybody to share it? Are those rules set in stone somewhere? Do you believe everybody should talk, act and behave accordingly to your cultural zeitgeist? Or do you believe it's universal? That's an incredibly extreme form of vanity. Do you know that in certain cultures, the "thumbs up" gesture is considered extremely rude? Like the "middle finger" one, but way worse? Are you ready to stop using it because in the cultural zeitgeist of others is such a bad thing to do?
Do you think booze is an evil thing? That's fine. Do you think sexual sex is disgusting and unacceptable? That's also fine. Do you think the opposite? Equally fine. Just don't pretend you're riding an higher horse that those that have different cultural perspectives. It's useless and bizarre to start insulting people just because they have a different worldview and cultural zeitgeist than yours.
I'll never understand the necessity to impose behavioural patterns to orders in the name of one's self pattern of acceptable behaviours.
I, for one, will never allow people I never met to dictate what are the "acceptable" and "tabu" words of my vocabulary. Don't like it, just don't listen to me. It's in no way, shape or form an attack on your freedom. You don't like the vocabulary of the TV guy? Don't watch that channel, it's not for you. You think pornography is gross? Don't access porno sites. Nobody is forcing you to. I'd apologize if I use any word with pejorative intents. If I'm using a word that doesn't have any pejorative intent, I'm certainly not apologizing. The problem is: where to stop? The choose of those words or acts is completely arbitrary and depends mostly on local cultures. There are so many local cultures in the world that we'd never know what could we use without offending some. It's on the people who feel offended to act and not engage with the others that, from their perspective, are offending their behavioural creeds. Heck, that's exactly what the Amishes did. I respect the Amishes, but not those who want the rest of the world to behave accordingly to their "culture".
he should have said 'chinaperson'
Go to your nearest chinatown and call some triads chinamen.
Bet you'll find out real quick if the term is racist or not.
People love to re-write history. Chinaman was the common term used to describe Chineses till the later XX century. It was never seen as a derrogative term till a Seinfeld episode and some of those "white/black/brown/yellow supremacist" organizations started complaining about it. It's mostly an American phenomenon, you go to New Zealand or Australia or Ireland and the term has no negative association.
I wonder why the rest of the world should adapt their vocabulary to fit the views of a few millions of over-sensitive Americans, living in a country, and a culture, where racial sensitivity just has an abnormal role and importance when compared to the rest of the world. Especially when "unacceptable" words or behaviours pop out pretty much every day.
You don't go up to some Crips and call them black men either. You'd find out real quick if that was racist.
You don't go up to a white man and say white man. Nor would you go up to a french man and call him a french man.
It's a description used to make a distinction, not something you would normally use.
Like if you were to describe me to somebody else you would say "He's a Black man." Nothing offensive about it.
But you don't walk up to me and say "Hey Black man."
Last edited by Allanon; 11-03-2009 at 06:17 PM.
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