User Panel
Posted: 6/21/2016 6:26:54 AM EST
I use it all the time, so I want to know if I am racist or not.
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I prefer the term "calling a club a club" unless I am on a reservation I use "calling a diamond a diamond".
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Someone got all uppity in response at the beginning of "the devils rejects".
I personally happen to enjoy the term for select times. |
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An old associate of mine had to have sensitivity training because he used the phrase "I'm being blackballed."
I guess it's racist because it has the word black in it. |
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Oh this is a "I'm a white victim of politically correct oppression" thread?
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everything's racist nowadays, you're supposed to feel guilty. Don't be a slave to such PC foolishness
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Quoted:
http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/09/19/224183763/is-it-racist-to-call-a-spade-a-spade There you go View Quote Wait, so I should call figs, figs? U baiting us? |
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No... The saying is a card reference. Has nothing to do with race.
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Quoted:
I use it all the time, so I want to know if I am racist or not. View Quote Are you black or white? That makes a difference. |
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BLM will say it is, but here's the origin of the phrase:
The idiom originates in the classical Greek of Plutarch's Apophthegmata Laconica, and was introduced into the English language in 1542 in Nicolas Udall's translation of the Apophthegmes, where Erasmus had seemingly replaced Plutarch's images of "trough" and "fig" with the more familiar "spade." The idiom has appeared in many literary and popular works, including those of Oscar Wilde, Charles Dickens, and W. Somerset Maugham. The ultimate source of this idiom is a phrase Plutarch's Apophthegmata Laconica:'t?? s?af?? s?af?? ?e???ta? (ten skaphen skaphen legontas).[6] The word s?af? (skaphe) means "basin, or trough."[7] Lucian De Hist. Conscr. (41) has ta s??a s??a, t?? s?af?? de s?af?? ???µas?? (ta suka suka, ten skaphen de skaphen onomason), "calling a fig a fig, and a trough a trough". Erasmus translated Plutarch's s?af?? (skaphe), as if from sp??? (spáthe), as ligo "shovel" in his Apophthegmatum opus. Ghandi Lakshmi speculates that the introduction of the word "shovel" may have been a conscious, dramatic choice rather than a mistranslation.[9] The phrase was introduced to English in 1542 in Nicolas Udall's translation of Erasmus' work, Apophthegmes, that is to saie, prompte saiynges. First gathered by Erasmus, as follows:[9] Philippus aunswered, that the Macedonians wer feloes of no fyne witte in their termes but altogether grosse, clubbyshe, and rusticall, as they whiche had not the witte to calle a spade by any other name then a spade. In the expression, the word spade refers to the instrument used to move earth, a very common tool.[9] The same word was used in England, Denmark, and in the Netherlands,[10] Erasmus' country of origin.[11] View Quote Guess Plutarch and Udall were white supremacists. But they're really referring to a basin, a trough, or a shovel, depending on who you believe. |
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View Quote huh. It's crossed my mind to wonder about the origins from time to time, but I've never cared enough to look it up. Thanks for reducing the level of effort involved for me, I actually appreciated that. |
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View Quote So it dates back to 1900+ years in the original Greek and almost 500 years in English......... Why do black Americans get so butthurt over a phrase that isn't about them? |
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My experience here in the south, any sort of short handle shovel = sharpshooter. Calling it a spade will likely get you a grumpy workforce, and if you are employing any sort of workforce that requires the use of digging implements, you need them to not be grumpy.
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Quoted:
So it dates back to 1900+ years in the original Greek and almost 500 years in English......... Why do black Americans get so butthurt over a phrase that isn't about them? View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
So it dates back to 1900+ years in the original Greek and almost 500 years in English......... Why do black Americans get so butthurt over a phrase that isn't about them? Feelz bruh. |
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So, pretty much originated before blacks were even discovered?
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You've got to be kidding me... nig·gard·ly 'nig?rdle/ adjective adjective: niggardly 1. not generous; stingy. "serving out the rations with a niggardly hand" synonyms:cheap, mean, miserly, parsimonious, close-fisted, penny-pinching, cheeseparing, grasping, ungenerous, illiberal; More informalstingy, tight, tightfisted "a niggardly person" antonyms:generous meager; scanty. "their share is a niggardly 2.7 percent" synonyms:meager, inadequate, scanty, scant, skimpy, paltry, sparse, insufficient, deficient, short, lean, small, slender, poor, miserable, pitiful, puny; More informal measly, stingy, pathetic, piddling "niggardly rations" antonyms:lavish, abundant adverb archaic adverb: niggardly 1. in a stingy or meager manner. I can't believe people are so freakin scared of being called a racist that they won't use a word that "sounds" like it "might be" or "could be" considered racist, when in fact it has been an accepted word for hundreds of years. |
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Don't be niggardly in your usage of idioms. View Quote Don't laugh! There was a gay libtard DC politician who said the then-mayor, Anthony Gray, was being "niggardly" with funding for welfare programs and the motherfucking city went berserk!!! The guy actually had to resign his position even with Gray supporting him and calling the denizens of DC "idiots." ETA: Well, something like that! Read the article below. Gray did go on TV though, and called people who were whining "idiots". |
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Quoted:
http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/09/19/224183763/is-it-racist-to-call-a-spade-a-spade There you go View Quote Ah....thank god....an NPR link on the subject. |
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Don't be niggardly in your usage of idioms. View Quote Careful, that could get you fired . . . (if your employer is illiterate) http://www.cnn.com/US/9902/04/dc.word.flap/ |
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You've got to be kidding me... nig·gard·ly 'nig?rdle/ adjective adjective: niggardly 1. not generous; stingy. "serving out the rations with a niggardly hand" synonyms:cheap, mean, miserly, parsimonious, close-fisted, penny-pinching, cheeseparing, grasping, ungenerous, illiberal; More informalstingy, tight, tightfisted "a niggardly person" antonyms:generous meager; scanty. "their share is a niggardly 2.7 percent" synonyms:meager, inadequate, scanty, scant, skimpy, paltry, sparse, insufficient, deficient, short, lean, small, slender, poor, miserable, pitiful, puny; More informal measly, stingy, pathetic, piddling "niggardly rations" antonyms:lavish, abundant adverb archaic adverb: niggardly 1. in a stingy or meager manner. I can't believe people are so freakin scared of being called a racist that they won't use a word that "sounds" like it "might be" or "could be" considered racist, when in fact it has been an accepted word for hundreds of years. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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Ibtl You've got to be kidding me... nig·gard·ly 'nig?rdle/ adjective adjective: niggardly 1. not generous; stingy. "serving out the rations with a niggardly hand" synonyms:cheap, mean, miserly, parsimonious, close-fisted, penny-pinching, cheeseparing, grasping, ungenerous, illiberal; More informalstingy, tight, tightfisted "a niggardly person" antonyms:generous meager; scanty. "their share is a niggardly 2.7 percent" synonyms:meager, inadequate, scanty, scant, skimpy, paltry, sparse, insufficient, deficient, short, lean, small, slender, poor, miserable, pitiful, puny; More informal measly, stingy, pathetic, piddling "niggardly rations" antonyms:lavish, abundant adverb archaic adverb: niggardly 1. in a stingy or meager manner. I can't believe people are so freakin scared of being called a racist that they won't use a word that "sounds" like it "might be" or "could be" considered racist, when in fact it has been an accepted word for hundreds of years. You forgot the word is derived from some ancient Swedish word, like before blacks were invented. |
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Like many words or phrases in common usage (in our culture), sub groups looking to be offended co-opted the word.
There are many words that by themselves were quite innocuous but have been taken away from us due to political correctness and sometimes cruelty of the users... This is why we can't have nice things anymore. |
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Quoted:
Like many words or phrases in common usage (in our culture), sub groups looking to be offended co-opted the word. There are many words that by themselves were quite innocuous but have taken away from us due to political correctness and sometimes cruelty of the users... This is why we can't have nice things anymore. View Quote In the Navy, I was once told I couldn't refer to the large pad of paper on an easel as a "flip chart". What that had to do with Filipinos I have no idea. |
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