It's always the gun's fault

[Strings]

>If you use the word boy while referencing both a black man and the ghetto it is pretty obvious what the intention is by the context.<

Bullscat

The statement is a colloquialism, paraphrased for many different circumstances (You can take the boy/girl out of the <insert term>, but you can't take the <insert term> out of the boy/girl), none of which have anything to do with race.

Yes, the term "boy", aimed at black males, can have certain racial connotations ("Boy, you are about a stupid thing"). To take "boy", and claim it as an always racial term, is disingenuous

[longeyes]

And what if I'm sitting in a coffee shop with four or five co-workers, all dressed in biz casual, a couple of them are black, and I let loose with a quip that "you can take a boy out of the South (where *I* used to live) but you can't take the South out of the boy."

I'm white.  And if every other person at the table is white (or even just non-black), nobody gets offended.  But with a couple of black personnel at the table, I now have to discreetly discover whether either has ever lived in the South, lest I offend.

There's not a ghetto within miles, and every one of these guys is employed in the tech sector, but I still have to self censor.

Why the hell can't our education system -- which has managed to indoctrinate whole generations into a "deserving" mind set -- eradicate the stigma from a word that was abused fifty or a hundred years ago?

Why is it that *I* was raised to know that I own the knobs that control my emotions, and the rest of society still believes "offended" is caused by "the other guy?"

What the hell?

Someone calls me a "geek" or a "nerd" and I just roll with it.  Someone calls me "stupid" or some other denigration, and I check to see if there's some justification for it or whether this is simply his way of disagreeing.  They're my emotions, and I get to calibrate where my "anger threshold" is, and what the triggers are.  I don't have to like it, but I need to know who owns how I feel.

And yet, for some reason, we continue to conduct ourselves as though we have some genetic connection to Pavlov's dogs, unable to marshal our feelings, emotions, and responses, and always at the whim of some careless word or phrase.

Humanity needs to friggin' grow up.  Or at least achieve some small measure of enlightenment.

After thousands of friggin' years, isn't it about time?

Because some groups are supposed to master their emotions, some are not.  That's the way it rolls these days.

[Ron]

Do any of you guys live near large urban populations?

I've run a lot of HVAC service in bad neighborhoods, the ghettos of Chicago, west side, south side.

Folks are sensitive to the use of the word boy and other terms they've been sensitized to by their "leaders" and the media. Not bad folks, good folks, folks living in the bad neighborhoods looking to escape.

If you want to continue on in your myopia about the issue then carry on.

[Ron]

Because some groups are supposed to master their emotions, some are not.  That's the way it rolls these days.

Some of us prefer to deal with reality. The reality being some folks take offense.

We don't need to use offensive language.

If you are going to offend, let the truth of your words do the offending.

Not infantile name calling and "they do it why can't we" goofyness.

[makattak]

Some of us prefer to deal with reality.

We don't need to use offensive language.

If you are going to offend let the truth of your words do the offending.

Not infantile name calling and "they do it why can't we" goofyness.

The point is not that it's ok to offend them because they are offense.

The point is he is merely using common idioms, ones he grew up with, and it is taken as purposeful offense.

Again, how come there's only one culture that is supposed to be sensitive to the upbringing and sensibilities of all other cultures?

[Ron]

The point is not that it's ok to offend them because they are offense.

The point is he is merely using common idioms, ones he grew up with, and it is taken as purposeful offense.

Again, how come there's only one culture that is supposed to be sensitive to the upbringing and sensibilities of all other cultures?

We don't have to behave correctly because others don't?

We don't have to strive to be better because others don't?

Life is not fair, maybe there should be a law or something.

[Strings]

Ron, if he had used a different word, one that ONLY has a racial connotation, I could see your point.

"Boy" is still a VERY commonly used term, without the racial issues. And I seriously doubt such connotations were in any way intended

[Hawkmoon]

Where I live, I can travel a few miles in three different directions and pick which of several ghettos I wish to risk my life in. Only one of them is black. I can also choose a Latino ghetto, a Vietnamese ghetto, a Russian ghetto, an Italian ghetto, a Pakistani ghetto, or a Portuguese ghetto.

And when I was in high school there was a Jewish neighborhood that was referred to (by both Jews and non-Jews alike) as "the golden ghetto."

As has been pointed out, it's an idiomatic expression. Nothing more.

[makattak]

We don't have to behave correctly because others don't?

We don't have to strive to be better because others don't?

It ISN'T "behaving correctly." It's walking on eggshells for fear that someone, somewhere may be offended by an innocuous statement.

"Boy" isn't a word like (and I'm about to test the swear filter) Chink, Spic, Wop, Dego, Kraut, Nip, Mick, Pollock or any other myriad of racial slurs (and, yes, I left out the "big" one on purpose.) It's a very common word that is (anymore) only rarely used as a racial derisive.

To me it's like "you people". It's another favorite of the grievance-mongering crowd LOOKING to be offended. 

[Strings]

And the professional victim crowd has proven that they will see ANY word used as racist, at their whim.

[makattak]

And the professional victim crowd has proven that they will see ANY word used as racist, at their whim.

Exactly. Until this year, I had no idea I was being racist when I tell people I'd hate to live there, but I love to visit Chicago.


Because, according to MSNBC, whenever you say Chicago, you actually mean black.

[Hawkmoon]

Because, according to MSNBC, whenever you say Chicago, you actually mean black.

YOU SAID THE 'C' WORD!

[Hawkmoon]

Back to the gun question, if we may ...

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2012/12/06/jovan-belcher-kansas-city-chief-nfl-guns/1752195/

How's this for "logic"?

Major League Baseball has long been associated with a hunting culture. This week, Chicago Cubs manager Dale Sveum revealed that former teammate Robin Yount accidentally shot him in the right ear on a recent quail hunt. And San Diego Padres general manager Josh Byrnes spoke out on guns after one of his pitchers, Andrew Cashner, lacerated a tendon in his right thumb with a knife after a deer hunt this offseason.

So a player cuts his thumb with a knife while hunting ... and it's the gun's fault. Why did Byrnes speak out about guns when it wasn't a gun that injured his player? To me that's like if you drop a wrench on your foot while changing a flat tire, somebody should speak out about racing fast cars. Non sequitur

[lupinus]

Well because of course, if he hadn't had a gun he wouldn't be hunting. And if he wasn't hunting, boy wouldn't have cut his finger.